Tag: Retro

Back in the 1980s, I was a serious Atari kid. I had an Atari 2600, an Atari 800, an Atari 7800, an Atari Lynx, and an Atari 520ST along the way. I was even president of an Atari Users Group.

Microsoft, probably known for always being at the forefront of fashion, is releasing another small series of ugly holiday sweaters to commemorate some of its products of yesteryear. Obviously, these will be my go-to tops for Zoom meetings this winter.

These days, lots of people are replacing their bedside clocks with smartphones or other mobile gadgets which keep time. But there’s something about being able to just open an eyeball in the middle of the night and glance at the time that makes me still prefer a standalone clock.

Back in the 1980s, computers were largely shades of beige or grey plastic. While this look might seem dated by today’s standards of slim, glass and metal devices, there’s no question that these retro color schemes immediately bring back fond memories of the early days of personal computing.

Something is appealing to me about the aesthetics of old personal computers from the ’80s and ’90s. I know they’re not streamlined or sleek like the stuff that Apple is churning out these days, but I liked that those old machines felt more purposeful in their design.

I always loved playing Atari’s vector-based arcade games back in the 1980s. Games like Tempest, BattleZone, and Quantum were some of my favorites. And then there was Star Wars. I loved shooting down TIE fighters, zapping radar towers, and zooming into the belly of the Death Star to take aim at its exhaust port in hopes of blowing the thing to smithereens.

The Vocoder was wildly popular in the disco era, and was given a new lease on life by Daft Punk and other electronic bands. But it turns out that there was a similar device that was used all the way back in the 1940s, called the Sonovox.

Gamers, here’s a sweet accent light for your gameroom, living room, bedroom, or any other room that could use a splash of color. This LED cube lantern is covered with images of classic video games, and is sure to be a great addition to any space.

Boy, it’s been a really long time since I saw or heard an 8-track tape. These technological antiquities were insanely popular back in the 1960s and 1970s, but gradually went the way of the dinosaurs as they were replaced by more compact and longer-playing cassette tapes.

Looking for a truly unique piece of videogame art to hang on your wall? Artist Enriqve Aranacci has got you covered with these awesome handmade lights which incorporate traditional lighted signmaking techniques. While he makes all kinds of awesome designs, these two Pac-Man inspired ones are my personal favorites.

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and later Trek productions know that computer graphics were used extensively, meaning there generally aren’t models of the Enterprise from Picard’s reign on. In the original series, the Enterprise was an 11-foot long model that had lights inside.

Twitter is probably the most up-to-date source of both the most useless as well as the important issues of the day; it’s like a thousand free radio stations where some broadcast nothing but ads while the rest have schizophrenic DJs and reporters.

I can remember years ago standing in the game store in the mall playing the demo NeoGeo machine and wanting one so bad I could hardly stand it. I remember that original NeoGeo arcade system console being insanely expensive for the time.

I remember when everybody had a boombox. Sales of D batteries have never been so good and these beasts really made sure that you worked out your muscles since they were so huge and heavy. This boombox pillow set from Meninos is light as a feather compared to the real deal and much more comfy to lay your head on.

There have been numerous handhelds out there which can play games from the old 8-bit and 16-bit era consoles. Personally, I have the Dingoo A-320, which handles the job nicely. But there’s a new player in town which looks like it could be good, and it’s also cheap.

While Apple is known for their industrial design and packaging, their early branding elements weren’t exactly the sleek, modern, minimal ones of the 21st century. That said, I still love the time capsule that is the 1983 Apple Gift Catalog.