Retro Thing

DIY Soda, Root Beer and Pop

You experiment with gadgets and gizmos, so why not create your own soft drinks and root beer? Not only are home brews usually healthier and cheaper than anything you'll find in stores, a DIY soft drink offers the opportunity to create something completely different -- at least by today's corn syrupy standards.

Stephen Cresswell is a history professor and avid homebrewer of beer and soft drinks. His 128 page guide, Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop offers dozens of easy to follow recipes that will unlock the secrets of old-fashioned root beer, cream soda, ginger beer, sarsaparilla soda and dozens of other almost-forgotten drinks.

He starts by tracing the history of root beers in American history, before walking you through the equipment you'll need to produce batches of your favorites. The first recipes in the book are classics -- root beer and ginger ale. These are followed by some more modern concoctions. There's even an entire chapter dedicated to devising your own unique beverages.

Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop is only $10 at Amazon

DIY: The Terminalscope

Matt Sarnoff's Terminalscope is a VT100 compatible bidirectional serial terminal that displays a 54x24 character raster display on your workbench oscilloscope. Apart from the lack of an 80-column mode, the display is strikingly similar to the old VT100s I once wrangled. It features a flicker-free 60Hz screen update, 7-bit ASCII character set, reverse video and selectable bit rate from 2400-38400 bps.

Sarnoff explains what makes his design special: "A great thing about the Terminalscope is its simplicity. Other scope projects require an expensive DAC or an inaccurate R-2R ladder. Rather than draw each character with individual strokes, op-amps are used to generate a raster scan across the screen (like a TV) and the Z axis (beam intensity) is modulated directly by the microcontroller."

Full source code and a schematic diagram are available on his site, and you're encouraged to build upon this project to create something even cooler.

Terminalscope Serial Console [via Hack A Day]

Monchron Clock Plays An Endless Game Of Pong

Limor Fried is the engineer/artist/mad inventor behind Adafruit Industries. Her latest DIY gadget is the $80 Monochron pong clock kit.

Based around a custom white-on-black 128x64 pixel LCD, this unique timepiece plays an endless game of Pong, advancing the time when one of the sides loses a point. It includes battery backup, switchable 12/24 hour display and even a snooze alarm. Best of all, the design is completely open source -- you're free to muck with the software and hardware as much as you wish.

Monochron Pong Clock

Foto Friendly Florida Classic "Cypress Gardens" Closed

I'm going to be visiting Florida in a few weeks, that marvelous year-round playland. Here in Chicago, we're used to hunkering down for six months out of the year, so it's downright strange to think of being able to take a swim in these winter months. I'm excited to be visiting Disney World. Last time I was there I was 4, so I'll be really interested to see what has changed and what hasn't.

That part of Florida is so geared to tourists, I'm sure there will bo no shortage of things to do, but as you might guess I'm interested in undiscovered treasures. Those out-of-the-way attractions that seem unchanged by the passage of time. Cypress Gardens was one such attraction. They opened the in 1936 with their famous water skiing shows & other attractions. It was the site of many TV and movie shoots (portions of the famous "This Is Cinerama" lensed here), and of course miles of home movie film unspooled here.

In the accompanying photo you can see the photographer's pier - a special area reserved for shooters to get a great vantage point of the spectacular water shows. Note that there are even a pair of large exposure meters hanging out over the water - one for black and white, one for color.

I was really loking forward to seeing such a timeless classic in the coming weeks, but they closed in September '09 and the site is being developed into the world's fifth Legoland park. I was dismayed since replacing the magnificence I'd seen only in photos with a lot of plastic struck me as a bit of an affront, though the developers promise that they will maintain the gardens as they've always been. We'll just have to see.

So do you dear readers have any recommendations for must-see things in the Orlando area? Classics on the brink of disappearing? Anything that a retro-minded writer should be bringing to you in future editions of Retro Thing?

The Shoes That Should Have Been: 80's 8-bit Sneaker Style

I don't know why it took me until my adult life to discover just how great sneakers are for day to day wear. These days you'll seldom find my feet outside of my Chuck Taylor high tops. Back in the 80's I would never have worn "gym shoes" anywhere outside of playing in the dirt. Had these new kicks from Nike and Adidas been around, I may have felt differently.

 
Nike is clearly taking a page from the mid 80's Nintendo design book, by copping the look of a U.S. NES system. Not only do they share a dark grey body with black and red trim, there is also the cross shaped d-pad controller represented on the upper sole of the shoe. Unfortunately it does not actually plug into an NES to become a second controller. The Nike Classic BW in this style is only available at a few choice outlets, though I did find a pair or two on Ebay.

Adidas comes close to being interactive footwear by including a retro-inspired video game with their ZX 500 shoes. These rainbow-heeled sneakers look like they're right out of the 80's. You also get a gel bracelet with a USB drive tucked away inside. Plug it in and you get ZX Runner, a game that looks like it could be at home running (hah!) on your Spectrum computer. The good news is that Amazon is stocking these, so it's a bit easier to find these shoes and their bundled-in game bracelet. Sure beats getting a Buster Brown comic book...

links:

Search for "Nintendo Nike" on Ebay
Adidas ZX 500's on Amazon (no size 13's... damn...) 

Say Goodbye To The Urinal Puck In Your Dining Room

 
Stinky homeowners have always had options. Potpouri, emptying lemon scent aerosol sprays into the air, or maybe one of those urinal cake shaped "stick-ups" you can still get today. Or you can just chase the dog out of the room, blaming him for something we both know he didn't do. These days, de-stenchifying technology is even more advanced. There are plug-in products that heat scented oils, potions to sprinkle into the carpet, even an automated spritzing system activated by motion.  It's amazing to think that for a few dollars you can have what amounts to a little robot who's sole job it is to make you reek somewhat less.

Throughout the 70's I remember a lot of plastic doo-dads with a scent-soaked pad inside. There was a vaguely metronome shaped one that I saw at endless grandma's houses. It had a performarted white plastic front, a colored back, and peeling a sticker off of the face of it set loose a forward attack of freshness. These were always a bit strange. You were basically admitting to having a stinky house by displaying this upright butter-tray thing right where everyone could see it. Pretty much every retro and modern room deodorizer (sorry - "air freshener") had the problem of being a bit conspicuous.

Enter the Wizard Decorative Air Freshener. Designed to look like collectible figurines, each wax figure is atop a foam pad that releases the sweet, sweet smells of herbs and citrus for 90 days. I remember commerials for these in the late 70's, proclaiming them to be the only air freshener you don't have to hide. The company created far more designs than I'd ever realized, even creating colorful ones themed for holidays.

Inevitably, you can find collectors buying and selling these on Ebay. I should know better than to doubt that every kind of object, deodorant or not, has a collector community around it - in this case, a collector community with sweet smelling houses. I must admit that I appreciate the effort to disguise these air fresheners, so I think that I may take a tip from a homemaker's magazine on how to recharge the pads in an fresheher. Maybe I can start using my 30 year old room-deodorizing owl. In the interest of going with an authentic scent, do any of you know what owl pellets smell like?

Putting A Price On A Hideous Pig

We get a lot of emails asking us to price retro objects for people. It's nice that folks think so much of our opinion, but it's not really a service we offer - and now I know why. One of my favorite pocast interviewers, Jesse Thorn, found a clip from PBS hit "Antiques Roadshow" discussing the value of a toy that is just so much nightmare fuel. I would have been way off with my guess as to the value, mostly because I'd have been running the other way.

link:

"Antiques Roadshow" hideous pig clip on YouTube

'New' Polaroid Image 1200si Cameras

PolaPremium has a small supply of new old stock Polaroid Image 1200si instant cameras available for € 98 each. The 1200si uses Spectra instant film packs (starting at € 15 for 10 shots) made using warehoused Polaroid film by a group of former Polaroid employees in the Netherlands who call themselves The Impossible Project.

The camera is compatible with all Image, Spectra and 1200 films. It features a 3-element 125mm, f/10 glass coated lens, sonar autofocus, built-in electronic flash and a self-timer that allows ghostly multiple exposures.

Polaroid Image 1200si Instant Cameras

Only A Few Dozen Clear Classic USB Joysticks Left!

If you've been thinking about picking up one of our limited edition USB Joysticks, act fast. There are only a few dozen left. Huge thanks to everyone who has already ordered one -- your enthusiasm made us grin from ear to ear.

Feedback from the AtariAge forums:

"I got mine. Even when not in use, it makes an awesome nightlight"

"I received mine today. Very kick ass."

"Got mine today as well. Looks pretty awesome and works perfectly right out of the box."

Visit the Clear Classic USB Joystick page to order yours

Japan TV Classic 'Ultraman' On DVD For Under Ten Bucks

Channel 44 was a struggling Chicago UHF station. There was little on the channel that interested me as a youth in the 70's, until they became the headquarters for exciting live-action Japanese kid's shows. I loved all of these frenetic series, but the one that stands out as the earliest I saw was "Ultraman". Made in the late 60's, it's an early entry into the Japanese TV genre where a regular-sized person transforms into a mega-sized hero to fight monsters.

Ultraman takes place in the far-flung future year of 1993 (ahem). The earth, Japan specifically, is constantly beset by large-scale monsters. The only organization geared up to protect to take on this threat is The Science Patrol. On one such mission, our protagonist Hyata collides with the ship carrying an extra-terrestrial good guy called Ultraman. Ultraman is so stricken with guilt over killing a human that he merges his essence with Hayata to save them both. Hayata goes back to work, but when monster-sized trouble strikes, he uses the Beta Capsule to transform into the giant Ultraman to take on the rubber menace.

Heady and exciting stuff for a kid, even on a black and white television. Once you hear that groovy surf-guitar opening theme and the loopy lyrics, you're never the same afterward.

The highlight of every show is of course when Ultraman fights the monster of the week. In early episodes, the skirmishes were in a wrestling style, but that changed later to being based on a more martial arts battle. A flashing light on Ultraman's chest blinks when he runs low on juice, while a grave voice-over warns that if the light goes out "Ultraman will never rise again".

In true Japanese style, there have been endless sequel series, and of course many other shows continue to be influenced by the original Ultraman. The series has always been difficult to find domestically, especially at a reasonable price. Mill Creek, a label specializing in retro movies and television, has released the entire Ultraman series in one DVD collection for an already reasonable $14.95, but if you click below you can get the whole set on Amazon for $6.99!

I'm thrilled that the series has finally made it to DVD at such a monster-killing price. The DVD transfers of the original film elements look great - all 39 episodes are spaced out across four discs. You can choose between the original Japanese audio with newly created English subtitles, or the original English dub from the 1960's (my favorite). As a bonus you get an interview with the US voice cast - the same team who did Speed Racer! If you've never seen the series, you owe it to yourself to see the origin of so many ideas that still shape Japanese live-action hero TV. Click on the link below to pick up your copy/ You'll get a great deal on the DVD set, and you'll be supporting Retro Thing in an Ultra way!

Pick up the Ultraman DVD box set on Amazon

Build Your Own 1977 35mm LogiKit Camera

If you're lucky, you'll never outgrow building with Lego and plastic model kits. It's fun to construct miniature versions of real-life cars and airplanes and tanks (and blowing them up with firecrackers, but that's another story). It's possibly even more fun to build something that you can use in real-life, at 1:1 scale. The LogiKit Camera kit assembles into a fully working 35mm camera.

Building something from the inside out helps you learn all about it, and the LogiKit is no exception. By following along in the thorough manual, Kids from 1977 could learn how lenses work, how film is exposed, and the sophisticated mechanism inside - even in this simplified version pf a 35mm still camera. The LogiKit assembles into a scaled down model of the real thing, rather than looking like a kid-ified version (which I always remembered disliking as a youth).

You could still offer something like the LogiKit today, though kids would question the value of what they learn about film photography. Why go through the challenges of building your own camera to coax images out of an antiquated medium, when their cellphones take pictures easily and for free? Are there kits out there to build a digital camera? What would a child learn by dropping an assembled circuit board into a plastic case? It's interesting to consider that by putting photography within the reach of so many, it is also out of reach in other ways.

Though I haven't found anyone yet, I wonder if there are any artists out there using the LogiKit to take pictures now? Having the camera come to you in pieces begs for adding cool modifications while building the camera from the ground up. There's got to be somebody, right?

We have covered many low-end cameras here on Retro Thing, such as the Diana. Some photographers embrace toy cameras and the imperfect images they create. Because toy & kit cameras are so tempermental, the photographer invites the camera to be part of the process - an all-plastic collaborator.

Since relative perfection is easy to achieve with a digital camera, I think that those who want to take a more experimental approach to photography will keep discovering old toy cameras. I have a couple of ideas of my own for such low-grade cameras, but building one from the ground up might be a little more than my little brain can stand.

related:

Sony's Transistor Radio Kit
Heathkit's Woodgrain Pong Kit
Gakken's 8mm Movie Camera Kit

How Not To Get Worms

I've had to answer the question of why I like old educational films more than a few times. It's not just to thumb my nose at them (and after watching this film, I'm not putting my thumb anywhere near my nose!), it's also to see a true glimpse of the time. These sorts of movies fall into the category of "ephemeral films" as they weren't high budget affairs made to be seen by a large audience. Films like this were intended as a tool to meet some local need.

Thanks to being made on the cheap, there aren't any elaborate production values to get in the way of this snapshot of an important moment in that locale's history. We city folk don't necessarily think about people in some rural areas still using an outdoor privy in the 1970's (or now for that matter). It's easy to laugh at the ineptitude of the puppetry, and to get all squirmy about the subject matter, but it all adds up to a fascinating six minutes from 1971. Take special note of the background music choices.

Any of our readers out there know more about this? Are there other films in the Ro-Revus canon?

Fisher Price 110 Camera For The Pint-Sized Pretend Paparazzi

 
Styled after the sleek 110 format cameras of the time, 1974's Pocket Camera from Fisher Price is a gem that I remember from my childhood. The chunky design was good for little hands, and each press of the button twirls the flashcube a quarter turn - just like the disposable Magicube flash on the real thing. You can even look through the viewfinder and pretend you're taking pictures. The carry strap encourages toting along the camera on real trips to snap pretend pics on the go.

There's another opening you can look through, and you view a series of real photos (which have faded with the years, sad to say...). This camera has a selection called "A Day At The Zoo", with each press of the pretend shutter button advancing the photos through the menagerie of animals. The photos inside have faded to red in the past 35 years, but you still get a fine selection of creatures, along with subtitles that your little shutterbugs can read out loud.

I suppose that a lot of us had our fascination with photography start with toys like this one. Just manipulating a camera shaped viewer like this was enough to get the pretending started. The Pocket Camera requires neither batteries nor film, so the fun never has to end. Of course today many kid cams take actual digital pictures while still remaining as durable as a toy needs to be. Digital photography is very suited to kid-sized patience. No week-long wait for photos to come back from the drug store, not even the excruciating minutes while a Polaroid resolves itself. Real digtial photos from a real digital camera. I must admit to being a tiny bit envious of today's pint-sized paparazzi, but there's no camera anywhere that can match the pretend photos a child imagined snapping with this old plastic toy.

Exposed: BLIP, The Not-Really-Digital Game

I owned Tomy's BLIP as a kid and always wondered how the buzzy little pseudo-pong game worked. Thankfully, the braniacs at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories recently snagged one on eBay and photographed (and videographed) a teardown, just for inquisitive ex-kids like us.

From the original box: "BLIP is the TV type game that you can take with you anywhere. It's player against player when you BLIP it with a friend. Or player versus machine if you play BLIP against itself.

Activate the mechanical power source, by winding BLIP's timer. Now, press the serve button and watch the LED come at you. But don't watch it too long. To win, your hand must be quicker than the BLIP. Quickly press one of the numbered BLIP buttons to send the LED back where it came from. If your opponent misses, it's score one for you on the automatic digital scoreboard.

Take BLIP anywhere. On boats, trains, cars, rocketships and planes. When you play with BLIP, you get carried away. And so does BLIP. Requires 2 "AA" batteries, not included."

Read What Makes Blip Tick? for more photos and a nifty demo video.

Brand New Music Synth -- For the Apple II?!

Although it pains me to write this, it is possible to go overboard with vintage gear. The Apple II Digital Music Synthesizer might be a case in point. It's a brand new $19.95 piece of software for the Apple II, released on 5-1/4 inch floppy. Needless to say, it's guaranteed to be a niche seller.

That said, it's pretty cool by early eighties standards. MJ Mahon & 8 Bit Weapon declare, "The DMS is the only wavetable synthesizer for the Apple //e, IIc, and IIc+ computers that is suitable for performance use. It supports up to 8 voices, which can be selected from the 10 on disk, and played (monophonically) from the Apple II keyboard. It can be used to “record” a performance for later playback as well. Also, the DMS doesn’t require a monitor! Just turn on your Apple II and when the drive light goes off. Then hit the space bar you’re ready to play live!"

There's even an mp3 demo. I can hardly wait to subject you all to my next Apple II-inspired vibraphone / sine wave / banjo opus. Bring earplugs.

Apple II DMS Music Software [via CDM, Technabob & Matrixsynth]