Retro Thing

Twenty Vintage Synths On One CD

Twenty Systems is a clever CD + Book compilation that showcases 20 different synthesizers, one from each year between 1968-1988. The CD of original compositions by Ben Edwards (Benge) is accompanied by a full color 60 page book filled with photos and diagrams of the equipment, along with a history of synthesis during the period.

This is a clever way to get a feel for the personality of each machine, since the tracks are recorded using nothing but the pure output of each instrument with no additional processing, sequencing or effects. Available for £14.99 from Smallfish Records.

Benge: Twenty Systems CD + Book

8-bit Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

On his site, Brad Smith asks "Have you ever wondered what Dark Side of the Moon would sound like if Pink Floyd had written it for NES, instead of for a rock band?"

Absolutely brilliant. You can download [zip] the entire album as one long, trippy 8-bit experience or enjoy each track on YouTube.

MOON8 - 8-Bit Pink Floyd [thanks, DC Hillier!]

Polaroid Instant Film Available Again

The Impossible Project was formed by a group of former Polaroid employees following the end of instant film production. Their goal was simple: to create and market a portfolio of unique instant films for the millions of Polaroid Land cameras that still exist around the world.

The first new film to see the light of day is the brand new PX Silver Shade Instant Film. They describe it as an "Astonishing monochrome material in a limited First Flush Edition. Optimized for use in traditional Polaroid SX 70 cameras. First Flush Film is an experimental material that will produce changing results depending on light conditions and temperature." Each 8 exposure pack costs $21.

Let's hope this is the first of many quirky and original film types from the team.

Learn More About The Impossible Project [thanks, Paul!]

Help Bohus Win A $1000 Video Contest!

 
Here's a question we get all the time at Retro Thing; "What do you do with all that retro junk?"  I can only speak for myself when I say "Well, I use retro junk to enter online video contests..." My lady and I whipped up a quick video extolling the virtues of Dollar Tree, a shop where everything costs one U.S. dollar. The video stars the educational puppets I wrote about a while back, and the little gumdrop shaped puppets will show you a few of the things you can pick up for a buck at the store.

Here's where you can help. Anyone can vote for the video (you don't have to register or leave any identifying information) by visiting the contest page HERE. Mine is the ready-to-play video called "at the movies" all the way to the right, and you can vote by just clicking the green button below it. You can vote multiple times (kind of like in Chicago </rimshot>), once a day until April 2nd. There's a really good first prize, and I'd appreciate your help! If the video wins, I'm sure I can convince those puppets to make a special visit right here on Retro Thing.

 
Thanks for checking out the video, and for adding your votes. Every vote is important over the next few days, and don't forget you can vote every day up until April 2nd. I'll let you know if it turns out to be a success. Now get voting!

link:

Help out Bohus by voting for his "At The Movies" video

Glasses Case Celebrates Ruining Your Eyes Watching TV

 
I'm so lost. Have you noticed how the meaning of the word "irony" has been eroding lately? People are labeing countless situations "ironic", whether it's someone getting their just desserts, or witnessing something I'd simply call humorously apropos. So it is with some trepidation at this amateur expansion of the definition, I ask you to help me decide whether this eyeglass case is ironic or not?

From the printed-on art, I think we can guess that this is from the early 60's, but it might be slightly older. Actually, there's something almost timeless about it. Children have their butts firmly rooted to the flooor, fascinated before the glassy gods of television - as they still do. Tilting the glasses case brings the TV to life via 5 frames of an animated lenticular cartoon; a little man on a unicycle. The kids are immobile, while the television unspools hour after hour of cyclic fascination of dubious value - as it still does. 

Certainly at some point mom leaned out of the kitchen warning the kids about their proximity to the TV. "You'll ruin your eyes! You don't want to wear glasses for the rest of your life, do you?". There, my friends, is where I think the sweet irony lay. The kids are commuted to a life sentence of wearing glasses, every night slipping them into the cruel glasses case that's a constant reminder of what they did in the name of TV.

Ironic, isn't it?

SYM Classic 150 Emulates An Early Seventies Honda

The SYM Classic 150 is a modern motorcycle styled like a vintage Honda CB125S. That's not particularly surprising, since San Yang Motorcycle (SYM) of Taiwan used to manufacture motorcycles for Honda. They're now an independent company with 2,400 employees that sells about 1 million scooters, motorcycles and automobiles each year.

The Classic 150 is powered by a 149.4 cc 4-stroke air cooled carbureted motor. Despite having only 12.5 hp on tap, it's capable of hitting more than 75 mph and gets as much as 118 mpg at more moderate speeds. The bike has a light curb weight of 266.2 lbs and features a front disc brake to handle heavy stopping with ease, along with a rear-mounted drum.

Assuming that SYM doesn't attempt to cut corners on quality, the $2995 Classic 150 looks like a great beginner and urban bike.

The 2010 SYM Classic 150 [thanks, Stephen!]

Replace Your Commodore 64 Disk Drive With Flash Memory

The 1541-Ultimate II is a modern replacement for the Commodore 64's famed 1541 floppy disk drive. The original was slow and prone to misalignment, while the modern version uses removable flash memory and emulates various popular Commodore 64 cartridges such as the Action Replay, Super Snapshot and Retro Replay.

The 1541 Ultimate-II reads D64 and G64 formatted files from standard Micro SD cards and can emulate various drive versions including the 1541, 1541C and 1541 II.

While not for everyone, this device is definitely much easier to use in the modern world than an elderly electromechanical drive that requires a steady diet of aging 5.25" floppies. The 1541 Ultimate-II is in the final stages of development. As soon as the plastic case meets the designer's quality requirements, the product will be available for 129 Euros.

The 1541 Ultimate Official Website

Where Nintendo 64s Go To Die

If you're an avid thrift store shopper, you may have noticed that Nintendo 64s are cheap and plentiful these days. They're usually incomplete and with busted controllers, but that's not surprising from a thrift store console that's more that ten years old. I figured the only place I'd see an N64 (besides my closet) would be thrift stores and collector's shops. I never expected to see one in a hotel room in Florida last week.

In my modest little hotel room, perched atop the TV was that unmistakable shape of an N64 controller. Atop the controller was a disinfecting wet-nap - which is just all kinds of weird. Ignoring that, I recalled that I'd seen these specially branded LodgeNet controllers before at hotels. You can used the wired controller to dial up channels, order movies, or pay an exorbitant $7 an hour to play decade-old games in your room.

I like classic games (even recent classics), and they picked some honeys for the N64 experience according to the on-screen interactive menu, but it felt weird to have this system still in play today. Any kid who might be interested in playing some games would likely turn up their nose at a system that's two generations behind. Besides, they would have packed their portable DS or PSP for the trip. Add to that the high cost, and I can see a scenario where perhaps barely anyone has ordered a game in their room in months or years.

In doing a bit of homework, LodgeNet has been doing this a long time. They had a special SNES setup for hotel rooms as well as more recent Game Cube titles. The special controller is only designed to work with their system, so there's no point in stealing it - though many collectors seem to have braved the $29.95 room charge for the chance to add an unusual, and unusually outmoded, game controller to their collection.

I guess that even Nintendo 64s dream of going to Florida to retire.

link:

More about the special controller
Discussion page exploring LodgeNet video game delivery

Korg Unveils Tiny Analog Synth

Synthtopia just broke news of Korg's new Monotron synthesizer. Powered by 2 x AAA batteries, this little music machine incorporates the same filter circuit found in their classic MS-20 semi-modular synthesizer from the 1970s.

The front panel includes just five knobs and a single switch, along with a monophonic ribbon keyboard. There's an audio input jack on the back panel, along with an internal speaker and headphone jack to jack your little musical bleep box into the outside world.

This strikes me as an absolutely brilliant gadget for the 21st century - a cheap and cheery all-analog synthesizer to introduce legions of younglings to the wonders of real hardware. Available within a couple of months at a music store near you. I wouldn't be surprised to see a street price of under $50.

Musikmesse Scoop – The Korg Monotron Analog Synthesizer!

Break The TV Habit By Watching A TV/Waterfall/Clock

 
TV kitsch is no stranger to the pages of Retro Thing. Even after TV had been around for a while, lots of TV-shaped things celebrated the ol' boob tube for those who wanted to spend even more time thinking about the miracle of television. This TV/Waterfall/clock is an amusing collision of ideas that probably had just as many people scratching their heads back then as it does now.

About the size of a 1960's portable TV, this clock hangs several inches off of the wall, the woodgrain sides giving the fake TV a realistic depth. The clock is ordinary enough, but it's the "broadcast" that's of interest. This now faded waterfall picture is not only backlit, but using polarization effects actually has an animated waterfall! It's like those old bar signs, where you can see alternating stripes of light and dark animate behind a backlit picture (also used to great effect in Star Trek: The Next Generation for their control panel displays).

I haven't been brave enough to hang this up yet. Having a prop TV hanging off the wall just looks a bit odd. Similar animated light "paintings" are still available today, and are much thinner than this one. Is there any chance anyone will make one soon that looks like a flat panel HD television?

related:

TV coin bank, salt & pepper shakers
Classic Westinghouse portable TV
GE's enormous widescreen TV from 1978

Vince Clarke's Incredible 'Home Studio'

Matt Musick writes, "The new episode of Electric Independence documents a visit to Vince Clarke's incredible home studio that features more analog gear than, well, probably anyone we've ever encountered. The founding member of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure is enjoying the country life in Maine but still cranks out the jams, or as he likes to put it 'making something from nothing.' "

Watch Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

Vimeo Videos Rendered In ASCII

Asciimeo generates ASCII art versions of your favorite Vimeo flicks on the fly. I cannot think of a better way to squander a Friday afternoon.

Watch Vimeo in ASCII [thanks, Eric Brodeur!]

UMG Aggressively Drops CD Pricing

Universal Music Group has announced new retail pricing for compact discs that ranges from $6 to $10 in the hopes that reduced prices will rejuvenate sales. The new "frontline pricing structure" underscores the damage that downloadable singles have done to UMG's bottom line. Modern consumers are ruthless (and smart), preferring to lay down $1.29 for a hit single while avoiding the filler that often pads out an album.

It's amazing it took UMG this long to make this shift -- the move made strategic sense a decade ago. Back then, CD sales totalled 706.3 million units annually in the USA. By 2008, that number had slid to 360.6 million. And physical media sales continue to decline at over 15% each year.

Will it make a difference? Perhaps for a short while, but this will only slow the format's inevitable decline. From a purely analytical perspective, I might be inclined to spend $10 on a CD just to have nice artwork and a high quality backup on hand. But purchasing that disc would require me to jump into my car and then brave the throngs at Walmart (just about the only place that sells CDs around here lately). And that's assuming Walmart actually stocks the disc I'm after. Realistically, I'm far more likely to mash the iTunes button on my iPod for immediate gratification.

Wholesaler reaction has been mixed. The new pricing model carries a 25% profit margin, which has some specialty retailers concerned about evaporating profit. Walmart, on the other hand, has been pushing for lower prices and the return of shorter "EP" discs for a while.

UMG To Launch U.S. Pricing Test

Shogun Warriors Are Back In Stormtrooper Style

In the late 70's, Mattel imported toys from the Japanese "Machinder" line. There were some lovely diecast spaceships and robots, but towering above them were the 2 foot tall Jumbo Machinders, sold here in the US as "Shogun Warriors". In addition to their impressive size, the large robots (and Godzilla!) were equipped with shooting fists and many, many firing missiles.

Super7 Magazine is devoted to Japanese figure collecting, and for years has offered their own line of limited edition collectible vinyl figures, but this is their most ambitious project yet. This officially licensed Star Wars Stormtrooper manufactured in the same style as the original Shogun Warriors, the first Jumbo Shogun type toy to be made in 25 years. There never was a Stormtrooper back then, but there certainly could have been. The Stormtrooper features an articulated head & neck, wheels on the feet, the signature "firing fist" as well as a highly detailed version of the BlasTech blaster from the movies. Super7 is even using the same blow molding process for the Stormtrooper as they did for the original toys, to have an authentic feel throughout.

This is our favorite type of project, when determined fans are able to create something new in the spirit of an older idea. However this isn't being marketed as a toy, but rather as a limited edition collectible. Super7 are taking preorders right now for their May 29th release date. Pre-orders will get free shipping as well as a special certificate. The trooper is $299, and will only be available as a limited issue. These are going to go fast because in this single product you have a collectible that's of interest to robot collectors, toy collectors, anime enthusiasts, and Star Wars fans. I predict that once these Stormtroopers are available in select stores, fists will be flying - literally!

link:

Preorder a Shogun Warrior Stormtrooper

related:

Behind the scenes home movies while making Star Wars
Star Wars: prehistoric computer graphics
Star Wars movie viewer

Peek Handheld: Mobile Email Done Right

We usually don't cover modern gadgets, but the Peek is good enough that I'll make an exception. It's a little handheld wireless device that supports unlimited email and (optionally) text messaging. It doesn't include a web browser, calculator, whack-a-mole app or even voice capabilities. It just does email, and the hardware costs only $17.95 without a long-term contract. Keep reading to find out why I love mine and how you can score a free month of service.