Retro Bytes
By James Grahame
Some cool things that flickered across our monitors over the past few days:
sammichSID by Wilba: A low-cost DIY synthesizer module built around the Commodore 64's SID sound chip. $219 for the complete kit with 2 6582 SIDs.
Gizmodo's brilliant Video Game Timeline covers a random assortment of home consoles and arcade legends from 1972 through 2009. It'd make a great poster.
Kayla Kromer's ultra-geeky Millennium Falcon bed. I sense a dating nightmare in the making. Just remember that good guys shoot last.
More than you might ever want to know about the 555 timer chip. Tens of billions of these little ICs have appeared in zillions of toys, gadgets and gizmos since 1970. Bonus marks: Inventor Hans Camenzind drew the original chip mask by hand.
Wooden building blocks. With magnets. Sadly, they're ridiculously expensive.
Nifty portable Dreamcasts are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork everywhere. Weird. Must be their mating season or something.