Retro Thing

Classic Retro Thing: Modern Movie Cameras

Believe it or not, there are some fantastic and (almost) affordable 16 mm motion picture cameras on the market. Here's a look at four drool-worthy models that have been featured on Retro Thing. They range in price from about $7,000 to more than $40,000, so you might want to consider renting.

Ikonoskop A-Cam: Swedish newcomers Ikonoskop decided to produce the smallest, lightest, least expensive Super 16 camera possible. They did away with luxuries such as a through-the-lens reflex viewfinder and built-in video tap.

Aatom A-Minima: The Aaton A-Minima is a brilliant little movie making device. It weighs a mere 5lbs, somehow appears classic and bleeding-edge at the same time, and shoots top-notch Super 16 images.

Bolex H-16: Most modern H-16's are electrically-powered EL units, but it's still possible to buy a brand new spring-operated SBM model -- expect to get around 20 seconds of shooting time from each wind.

ARRI 416: The king of the hill. The sleek little 416 Super 16 camera is Arnold & Richter's first all-new 16 mm design since 1976. It weighs a mere 5.5 kg, including camera, loaded magazine, viewfinder and video assist.

Classic Retro Thing: Russian Motorcycles

[Yes, I know the riding season is coming to an end for many motorcycle enthusiasts, but one can always dream for next season. Here's a rebroadcast of a classic Retro Thing post from 2005 for your two-wheeled enjoyment.]

Even back in the late 1930s, BMW made great motorcycles. They were decidedly better than those the Soviets had to suffer with. In a moment of strategic stupidity, the Germans gave blueprints and casting molds for BMW's out-dated R71 motorcycle to the Russians. Over the course of WWII, thousands of these bikes were manufactured for the Red Army.

By the 1950s, the Irbit Motorcycle Works was producing Ural motorbikes for civilian use. They survived the breakup of the Soviet Union, and now operate as a privately held company. You can buy them new in North America or Europe quite easily, starting at around $10,000.

The vast majority of their bikes feature sidecars, like the Troyka shown here. Powered by a 745cc twin engine, it offers sumptuous (by motorcycle standards, anyway) sidecar seating for your passenger. [more & another pic after the jump]

234 classic DOS games

I wish I had time to play even a handful of the 234 free vintage games and playable demos available from the DOS Games Archive. "It's amazing how far computer games have progressed. But have you ever felt the urge to take a trip back in time and relive the games of the eighties and nineties? Well now you can."

DOS Games Archive

Virtual Tour: The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum

The Microcar Museum in Madison, Georgia is a unique tribute to the wonderful variety of microcars that were created in Europe and Japan following the devastation of WW2. Most of these tiny vehicles featured motorcycle-size engines and offered room for only a couple of occupants. Those of us who don't live in Georgia can experience the museum through a wonderful virtual tour that includes excellent photos and background on well over 100 of these strange vehicles.

World War II came to an end in 1945 and Europe lay in ruins. A shell-shocked population came out of the bomb shelters and faced an unimaginable scene of devastation and ruin. As if the seemingly endless task of clearing away the rubble wasn't enough, there were crippling shortages of food, raw materials, electricity and gas. Value and worth were measured in Chesterfield cigarettes.

The population collectively rolled up its sleeves and went to work... The microcar or "bubble car" came to symbolize this period of renewed energy and pulling together. The bubble car boom lasted only a decade, but the period left a lasting impression even on those who abandoned their Kabinenroller for a 'real' car. [thanks, Rob!]

Enjoy a Virtual tour of the Microcar Museum

A stunningly cheap 8-bit Konami handheld

It's been 25 years since Frogger first ventured across a crowded freeway at an arcade near you. To celebrate, Konami recently licensed our favorite amphibian to Performance Design Products (PDP). They're planning to introduce this title and others in a ridiculously inexpensive $29.99 handheld that features a mysterious mix of "25 classic 8-bit games."

The VG Pocket Tablet offers a 2-inch backlit TFT LCD screen and accepts an optional $10 A/V cable that lets you enjoy some vintage 8-bit gaming on your big screen TV. Alas, there's no word what the other bundled titles might be, but this device could be a bargain. Available at megaretailers across North America on October 16, 2006.

Read the VG Pocket Tablet press release

Retrofone wristwatch - Neo-Retro on the move

The 7800 Yen ($67) Retrofone is a clever design riff reminiscent of an old rotary dial telephone. Instead of hands, it offers a couple of rotating discs with circular cutouts that highlight the hours and minutes. Alas, there's no disc for seconds and -- unforgivably -- the band is made from icky-sweaty-smelly Polyurethane rubber with a SkinPincher 1000 metal clasp. It weighs a mere 50g, the face measures 32 mm and the warranty lasts 365.25 days.

Unique wristwatches at Tokyoflash Japan
 

Nintendo Game Boy Color emulator

GBCemu lets you play Game Boy color games on a PC. Just remember that downloading ROM images is illegal, OK?

Apparently, "TGB is the first and only Gameboy Color emulator that supports / simulates / emulates gb link cable that enables you to connect 2 roms on one PC or over the IP network and trade pokemons from one emulator game to another or play gb and gbc multiplayer roms."

GBC emu - GameBoy Color Roms Emulator

Ronald McDonald's debut commercial

Check out this disturbing 1963 commercial featuring TV weatherman Willard Scott as the first incarnation of Ronald McDonald. He looks like something out of a campy horror movie. I much prefer the incredibly cute female version [wmv video] that Japanese viewers get to adore with their shakes n' fries.

Ronald McDonald's terrifying debut [via Digggg]

Vintage analog computer kits

The Heath company (of Heathkit radio, robot and computer fame) began offering "inexpensive electronic analog computer" kits in 1956. Prices ranged from $495 to $945 - an enormous sum in those days. The computer was "programmed" using a bank of 30 high-precision potentiometer knobs and a visually impressive patch panel covered with plug points and switches - there was no digital circuitry at all.

Odd as it may seem, an analog electronic computer has a few advantages over its digital counterparts. Analog electronic calculations are performed almost instantaneously using a network of operational amplifiers that modify continuously variable current. And - in the not-so-distant past - purpose-built analog computing circuits could be built less expensively than comparable digital systems. One classic example of an analog computer in action is the Magnavox Odyssey video game console from 1971, which plays mind-numbingly simple Pong-like games without a microprocessor.

Alas, analog electronic computers work best as single-purpose circuits. They're cumbersome and complicated to re-patch and can't match the level of precision offered by even a simple digital calculator (it's hard to get more than 3 or 4 digits of precision).  Still, I suspect that the recent arrival of programmable analog chips may signal the rebirth of interest in analog computing.

"This is a highly flexible and accurate analog computer, designed to fill requirements not presently met by any commercial computer. Ideal for solving practical problems in industry, and equally valuable for research, or instructional demonstration, in colleges or universities. Because it is a kit, and the labor and overhead costs found in present day computers are eliminated, the Heath Computer can be obtained for use in situations where a computer was ruled out in the past because of cost."

Heath electronic analog computer brochure [pdf at computerhistory.org]

5" Records - Old & New

I have a thing for novelty records.  Lots of folks have seen colored vinyl, picture discs, even flexible "sound sheets." These are pretty unusual, and as you might notice this group of records, these are all from different times.

The record in the top right corner is by a contemporary band and the record is the same size as a CD (it even fits in a CD's slipcase).  Below it is a musical shortie on a novelty music label (this one most resembles a regular record, but in miniature).  The lower left shows a cardboard record with a marching song by TV's Captain Kangaroo.  In my hand is a home recorded 78 rpm (imagine how short that recording is!) record with a gorgeous copper sheen.

The reason why you don't see many records this size is simple; they don't hold very much music.  On top of that, some automatic turntables have trouble playing records this small.  In the end, these mini records are exactly what they appear to be - cute!

Pac-Man's emotional side

CBC Arts is running a thoughtful editorial that explains why it's so hard to emulate Pac-Man's runaway success:

Pac-Man provided an entirely new way of interfacing with technology: an emotional one. The little guy had character, but not in a way that was analogous to any cultural icon that preceded him. He was pixels with personality. Maybe it was his dogged tenacity or the fact that he always seemed to be smiling, but he was the first digital creature conferred any measure of celebrity. With Pac-Man,  gaming became a two-way interaction — between the gamer and the little yella  fella. It fully sucked when Pac-Man died.

The Beautiful Game [cbc.ca]

One million and counting

I'm horrible at remembering birthdays and special occasions. It should therefore come as no surprise that the one millionth Retro Thing visitor snuck onto our homepage this morning without so much as a handful of confetti or a piece of free cake.

It's definitely time to send out a big thanks to all of our regular readers, especially those who take the time to write comments and send thought provoking suggestions. We've got a few top secret plans in the pipeline that we'll be unleashing over the next few months. Thankfully, none of them involve gerbils.

Gamepark GP2X update: Available in the good ol' US of A

Update: The GP2X is now available in the USA directly from Dynamism, and we're looking forward to serving up a review sometime in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, here's a rebroadcast of our introductory post from last February:

The $179 $199 Gamepark GP2X is a cool little handheld game console from Korea. What makes it cool? Well, it's an open-source platform based on Linux, designed to encourage homebrew game creation and world domination by cute but lethal cartoon penguins. Someone's already ported a version of the MAME arcade emulator which supports over 1000 vintage games. Other noteable hacks include Commodore 64 / SNES / SEGA Genesis / Atari ST emulators and a credible port of Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe (an open-source SimCity).

An S-Video TV output cable costs $10 and lets you play games on your big screen at resolutions up to 720 x 480. The handheld itself features dual ARM processors (one core, the other for graphics), 64MB RAM, 64MB flash memory, an SD card slot, USB 2.0, and a 320 x 240 color LCD. It's also capable of playing video in a multitude of formats: MPEG, MPEG4, AVI, DivX, XVid.

Gamepark GP2X Game System now in the US [Dynamism]
Overview of Homebrew Releases

SEGA Genesis collection for Sony PSP and PS2

SEGA has released a list of the titles included in their upcoming Genesis Collection for the Sony PlayStation 2 and PSP handheld. This compilation looks like a great way to enjoy the essence of the classic Genesis console in one affordable and legal package. The great news is that they've thoughtfully included a few classic sequels, so you get to enjoy blockbuster series like Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 and the Ecco the Dolphin trilogy.

Here's a full list: 

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Altered Beast, Bonanza Bros., Columns, Comix Zone, Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco II: The Tides of Time, Ecco Jr.,  Kid Chameleon, Flicky, Gain Ground, Golden Axe, Golden Axe II, Golden Axe III, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millenium, Ristar, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Super Thunder Blade, Sword of Vermilion, Vectorman, Vectorman 2 and Virtua Fighter 2

Genesis Collection [gamespot.com]

Convergence VII: Radio Shack TV Boom Box

It's been a while since I've ridiculed "convergence", but it's always on my mind.  I've been wondering for a while whether to include boom boxes with TV's built in.  There were quite a few models of portable radio (or "portavision" as the above unit is imaginatively labelled) impregnated with a little television and I've been haggling whether to call it convergence or not because:

A. I really like these boomboxes for some reason
B. Putting a TV in a boombox doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

It's still convergence though unless you want to say that there's a precedent of combining TV's and radio's in those giant old console cabinets... but I digress.

Since a boombox was often used as a dorm or bedroom stereo (this is before those crummy bookshelf systems, of course) putting in a television seems smart.  The screen is small so you have to be pretty close, but that'll let the stereo TV sound envelop you (I guess). 

While people think that the Sony PSP and the iPod Video are innovations in watching TV on the go, I hasten to point out that all you need is $30 worth of D cells and you're ready to take this guy on the road.  So you can't watch Rocketboom on it, I grant you, but it's probably the least grating way to watch American Idol.

It's my favorite horror host on the TV - wrote him up in Retro Thing a while back