Retro Thing

Listening In On The Apollo 11 Astronauts... From Home

Back in July 1969, amateur radio buff Larry Baysinger managed the impossible by listening in on transmissions from the Apollo 11 astronauts during their historic lunar landing. 

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported, "Thanks to some homemade electronic equipment, including a rebuilt 20-year-old radio receiver from an Army tank and an antenna made of spare pieces of aluminum, nylon cord and chicken wire, a small band of Louisvillians was able to 'eavesdrop' Sunday night on the American astonauts' conversation directly from the moon.

The odds and ends of equipment recorded only 35 minutes of conversation between astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the lunar surface and their orbiting companion Michael Collins. But the signals were received directly from the moon, over a quarter of a million miles away, not through Houston Space Center."

Brilliant stuff. I wish we could recapture the excitement of the space race instead of squandering trillions of dollars irradiating vast swathes of desert with depleted uranium.

Read: Lunar Eavesdropping in Louisville, Kentucky [via Make]

Vintage Synth Trump Cards

Just spotted on Matrixsynth: Vintage Synth trump cards, the perfect xmas gift for fanatic synthgeeks. £6.99 including postage.

"Can you use your skill and judgment to become the undisputed champion of vintage synth wisdom? Playing is easy. Simply divide the cards between the number of players before taking it in turns to read aloud a statistic from your card. The highest scoring instrument in that category wins that round. The person who gains all the cards wins."

GForce Vintage Synth Trumps

Telehelper 1600 - Let Your Fingers Do Less Walking

 
I've been using Google Voice for a week or so now, and I love it. It's one of those things that delivers on the promise of the computer... to make life easier. Of course, free phone calls aren't bad either. The system has an interesting approach to working with your existing telephone. You type out the phone number you want to call via Google Voice, the system calls your telephone, and after you pick up it rings through to your party. Very slick, and I didn't have to do anything at all to change my conventional phone service.

I imagine that people would prefer to dial directly, but I sort of like the delay. It reminds me of big bosses behind massive desks in old movies smashing down the intercom button to bark out, "get the Prime Minister on the line for me!". That idea is from a time when your job could actually include looking up and dialing a number for your boss - so he doesn't have to.

Somewhere between cigar chomping chiefs of old and Google Voice came devices like the Telehelper 1600. It's a desktop device that "records" phone numbers so that you can speed dial one at the push of a button. Of course this facility is built into many desktop phones and even cell phones today, but back in 1983 you'd have to plunk down about $65 to get the sophistication and convenience of one touch dialing.

Such high prices were the norm in those early days of phone service deregulation in the US (an answering machine from the same product line fetched more than $200), but it wasn't long before speed dial buttons on phones lightened the load on harried secretaries everywhere.

related:

PhoneMate Model 500 - voicemail in the early 1970s
TeleQuest Fiero Plus Phone
Another Sparkfun rotary mobile phone

"RPG Quest - Minimæ" Ultima Style Adventure For iPhone

I have to admit that I've never participated in a role playing game. In the 80's, a group of my friends wanted me to join their... I dunno what to call it... coven? This was the time of D&D's popularity, and also heightened fear of the occult being invoked by 20 sided dice. That's not what kept me away, but I saw the appeal in RPG's. The vast adventures and the lengthy campaigns all made for an intriguing and flexible game. Now as an adult, I sadly don't have the time to devote to such a thing, not even the computer variants that have cropped up in all the years since.

Ultima was the biggie in the 80's on North American computers (the rest of the world mostly did battle via Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy). Ultima captured the sprawl of the RPG world, but also included "feelies" in the box. These were props and souvenirs that appeared somewhere in the game. These coins and cloth maps inspired other publishers to do the same. One only has to look at the madness of Infocom packages to get a feeling of how extensive & massive these game packages got. These "feelies" also formed part of the copy protection of the game - you needed these physical props to complete the adventure.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is my very clever friend Robin Harbron. A few years ago he created a Commodore 64 Ultima styled adventure game, and managed to fit it into an astonishingly tiny 2K (later bloating the game up to 4K adding, among other things, joystick support)! The game has been very popular, even making it as a hidden game onto the famous C64 plug & play joystick.

Now you can join in the fun without digging out your old Commodore. Robin and his P1XL partner Sam Washburn bring us appealing new retro-inspired graphics, and an all-new chiptune score that's both authentic and appealing. Minimæ's interface is simple--just swipe and tap to move your brave adventurer. The rules are simple but the gameplay is surprisingly deep, with a variety of pixellated nasties, puzzles to solve, and secrets to reveal. It's everything you'd expect from an old-school RPG in the shiny black modern trappings of the iPhone.

Robin is one of my favorite Canadians, and that's not just because he brings Coke sweetened with sugar (instead of corn syrup) to the Chicago Commodore 64 expo every year. His games are super clever, and you'd be lucky to meet a kinder soul. This first release from P1XL is only $2.99 from the App Store, so let's try to make it a hit, eh?  Don't worry about the medieval "æ" character confusing your search. A search for "Minimae" or "Minima" will still turn up the game... and that's only your first search along the way to greater treasure, adventurer.

links:

Minimæ homepage
Start your adventure by visiting iTunes

related:

New hombrew RPG for Sega Genesis
Myst comes to iPhone
The iPhone even has LED Football

Remembering The Sega Master System

The Nintendo Entertainment System gets a lot of praise from gamers. And why not? It had great games, introduced a bunch of classic franchises, and revived the video game industry after Atari went ahead and screwed it up. It deserves to be celebrated. We may be on a budget, but don't worry, we're going to have confetti. Just remember - clerks want you to buy the candy first before you take the wrappers.

But back in 1992, all I knew was that we owned a Sega Master System, and it was awesome.

Another Unfortunate Font Cliché

Fonts have been much on my mind lately thanks to a project I'm working on. There are certain font cliches out there that I'm sure we all suffer through every day. My friend Tony pointed out the overuse of "Curlz", "Fiesta" pollutes every retirement party invite and daily specials at Mexican restaurants, and let's not even consider the unspeakable horrors visited upon us by users of "Comic Sans" (the 2004 Canada Day collector coin, for one...).

Who knew that "Trajan" has commited crimes on an even larger scale in just the last few years? According to this video, a surprisingly large number of movies use Trajan as their title font, trailer font, or as part of the DVD packaging. There must be some Trajan-friendly focus group somewhere that made this happen. If you've seen the brilliant documentary film "Helvetica" (created for the font's 50th anniversary), you know how easily a font can become so ubiquitous that it can lose some of its power.

Why do certain fonts hold our fascination more than the many other varieties out there? I guess because they still work. "Verdana" still looks great, "Times New Roman" will live forever, and "Georgia" is a classic that we even use around here on Retro Thing. Just please make it so I don't ever have to see "Magnetic" or "Chicago" again.

Pick up the documentary "Helvetica" on DVD from Amazon

related:

Typewriter parable - How far have we come?
Tippa S portable typewriter by Grundig-Adler
Terrific typewriter titillation

RotorWay Unveils "Affordable" New Turbine Helicopter

RotorWay has been manufacturing recreational kit-built helicopters for almost 50 years. The company has produced several thousand kits over the years. The only problem is that it takes a minimum of 350 to 400 hours to build a kit, not including the time required to properly balance the blades, get it FAA certified and perform flight testing. 

Enter the RotorWay Eagle 300T, the company's first certified (ready to fly) production helicopter. It incorporates a Rolls Royce RR300 turbine engine designed for low-cost operation and high reliability (the turbine also doesn't require 100 LL fuel, which is becoming increasingly rare outside the USA).

Eagle 300T Preliminary Specs

Powerplant	RR300-B1
Seats	2
MAUW	2050lbs (930 kg)
Empty Weight	950 lbs. (431 kg)
Cargo Sling Max	500 lbs. (226 kg)
Useful Load	1100 lbs. (499 kg)
Fuel	80 US gal. (302 L)
Duration	2hrs +30 min res
Cruise	110kts/127mph
Service Ceiling	13000ft (3962 m)

The company is currently accepting deposits for the new craft, although the final price is still to be decided. All they're saying for now is that it'll cost more than a Robinson R22, which retails for $243,000.

RotorWay Eagle 300T Helicopter