Retro Thing

SUPABOY Pocket SNES Console

I have a love-hate relationship with console emulators. On one hand, my classic consoles tend to end up in storage because they're bulky and somewhat glitchy. On the other, a modern emulator rarely captures the heart and soul of the original machine.

That said, I'm strangely drawn to the Hyperkin SUPABOY. This ungainly handheld mimics the shape of the original SNES controller, except with a 3.5" LCD screen and an SNES cartridge port in the back. The need for a massive cartridge ensures that it'll be heavy and awkward while attracting countless bewildered stares and stifled giggles.

However, a pair of SNES controller ports and a composite video out jack turns it into a teeny, tiny home console that feels like the real thing (if you can scrounge up a pair of genuine SNES controllers). The unit carries a list of $79.99, which hopefully translates into a street price of around $50 by the time it hits Amazon. That's almost reasonable.

The 11.5 oz SUPABOY measures 8.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches and includes stereo AV out, a headphone jack and a bizarrely guesstimated 5.5 hour battery life (tested once, without sound...). The manufacturer tested it with a handful of popular SNES and Japanese Famicom titles, but they jury is still out on real world compatibility. Available sometime late this summer from an online retailer near you.

SUPABOY Portable Pocket SNES Console

The Final Touchdown

This morning's landing of Atlantis, the last shuttle, caused me to get a bit misty-eyed. It also felt a bit like saying goodbye to the family's rusty old Chevrolet Impala station wagon. She served us faithfully, but it's time to move on.

The Space Transportation System was envisioned as an affordable, reusable launch vehicle for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operation. NASA estimated that the shuttle would cost about $41 billion dollars (2011 dollars, adjusted for inflation) to design, and an additional $54 million dollars per flight. It didn't quite work out that way. By the time the exhaust plumes had settled, $196 billion had been invested in the STS program -- more than $1.45 billion per launch.

I listened to several brief news clips throughout the day as a flock of confused reporters lamented the loss of the shuttle and the end of America's manned space program. It was emotional, moving and entirely unnecessary because the American space industry is entering a new golden age. It promises to be a hell of a lot cheaper, safer and more interesting than the ghastly tedium of the shuttle's LEO resupply trips.

While it's true that NASA's expensive and risky Constellation heavy lifter program has been shelved, a squadron of eager young space technology companies are beginning to attract attention around the world. Young whippersnappers such as Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) are bringing the mindset of low-cost software startup companies to the space industry, with impressive early results.

In 2006, NASA awarded SpaceX a $278 million contract to develop the Falcon 9 rocket. Several successful years later, the relationship was extended with the announcement of a $1.6 billion agreement to provide 12 supply missions to the ISS.

If SpaceX can pull things off on budget and on schedule, it'll work out to a total cost of $1.878 billion -- about $157 million per launch. Of course, the Falcon 9 can only lift about 40% of the shuttle's payload into low earth orbit and a few years more extremely hard work will be required before SpaceX's Dragon capsule is cleared to transport a live crew. 

Even with its current limitations, the cost of resupplying the ISS using the SpaceX launch system is about 1/4 that of the shuttle. The company is already working on the Falcon Heavy launch system, which will offer over four times the Falcon 9's LEO payload capability.

Perhaps more important: The Falcon Heavy will be capable of hefting a sizeable cargo into a geostationary transfer orbit or translunar trajectory, should that be deemed politically desirable. The first launch should take place under three years from now -- a mere blink of an eye by the timelines of the commercial space industry.

SpaceX isn't the only startup eager to usher in an era of more affordable and adaptable space travel. Companies such as Orbital Sciences, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin (funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) and even old-guard heavyweights such as Boeing & Lockheed Martin (United Launch Alliance) are battling for their slice of the pie.

I can hardly wait to see what lies ahead. One thing's for sure --  the American space program is only just reaching the launchpad. To infinity and beyond!

SpaceX - Space Exploration Technologies

Reproducing the Trimphone

The British General Post Office released the Trimphone as a luxury handset in 1964. This was back in the day when telephones were mysterious, hulking beasts that had to be installed by mysterious, hulking unionized workers. 

Instead of a paint-peeling bell, the Trimphone used an electronic warbler that gradually increased the volume as the phone rang. The luminous dial in early models was lit by a tube of tritium gas which gave off a ghostly (and mildly radioactive) glow. The original rotary dial version was replaced by a slightly taller model with a keypad in the late 1970s.

A gazillon years later, Wild & Wolf has introduced a reasonably priced £35 reproduction. It includes push button dialing arranged to look somewhat like a rotary dial, along with a frighteningly futuristic redial button and a ringer volume switch. It also comes in an array of shades that would have been utterly shocking in the early 1960s -- purple, turquoise, orange, and even a shade of green that would earn Kermit the frog's instant approval.

I'd love one, but the idea of having a phone permanently tethered to the wall is a bit too quaint even for my tastes. Besides, I'm not sure my addled brain could handle having to memorize everyone's phone number.

Wild & Wolf Trimphone

Kickstart A Unique Computer History Book

David Greelish writes, "I once published a zine from 1993 to 1997 called Historically Brewed. It grew to a small, but very respectful 500+ subscribers and was even sold at the Smithsonian and the Computer History Museum in Boston, MA (now in Mountain View, CA). I published nine issues, with a tenth never completed (changing the name to 'Classic Computing'). I want to take all of these and publish them into a compilation book."

He's running a Kickstarter project to fund the release of a 195 page book with color inserts. A donation of $25 will get you a signed copy, although you can certainly pledge as little as $1. For a taste of the content, check out an online copy of the first issue of Historically Brewed along with cover images from the other issues.

David was the Founder and President of the original Historical Computer Society and is currently President of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society, so he knows his stuff. As I write this, the project is about 65% funded, and a few generous donations from Retro Thing readers could help to push it over the top.

Support the Historically Brewed Kickstarter Project

Insanely Good Deals on Seiko 5 Automatic Watches

I just discovered that summer is a great time to go watch shopping -- there are a few dozen Seiko 5 models on Amazon selling for around $60, shipping included. That's an absolute bargain for a brand name watch with automatic 21 jewel movement and day/date display.

Keep in mind that a mechanical watch won't be as accurate as an electronic quartz model and you'll find yourself resetting the time every now and then to stay in sync with the rest of the world. However, the precision movement will provide years of battery-free timekeeping and can be surprisingly accurate if you're willing to take the time (hah!) to properly adjust the regulation.

Affordable Seiko 5 watches on Amazon

The Return of Instant Photography

My family and I spent the last three weeks wandering the wilds of Europe, visiting with family and splashing around at the seaside. The whole thing went exceptionally well until I lost our digital camera filled with over 1000 irreplaceable images of kids, grandparents, childhood haunts and countless friends.

Back in the old days, the loss of a camera would be disheartening but not the end of the world -- I'd still have a small heap of exposed film canisters. But I'd chosen to store everything on a single massive memory card. I felt like a dolt. And my wife informed me that I should feel like a dolt.

Which got me thinking (in part because it was 3 am and I couldn't sleep). On the trip, I had a chance to flip through family photo albums containing photos spanning the last century. Digital photos, on the other hand, are often at the whim of online services like Flickr and Facebook, not to mention the vagaries of electromagnetic storage media.

There's a more serious problem with digital images, though. Cameras (or camera phones) are cheap and plentiful, and it no longer costs an arm and a leg to snap hundreds of images. We tend to underestimate the importance of the snapshots we take these days. Most are deleted within weeks and only a precious few survive more than a year or two.

That's why I think the Fujifilm Instax Mini 50s might not be as insane as it seems at first glance.

It's a surprisingly small instant camera that uses miniature 10 exposure packs of film about the size of a credit card. The thing is extremely simple to use, with a built-in flash offering several modes (fill and intelligent). It comes with a tiny macro lens that allows you to snap images from as little as 30 cm away. There are two shutter release buttons to make it equally easy to shoot in portrait or landscape, effectively solving a problem I never knew existed.

The images it shoots are tiny - only 2.4 x 1.8" (62 x 46mm). So what's the point? Well, it turns out there's something indescribably satisfying about being handed a physical snapshot while still out and about. It doesn't matter that the image is minuscule, or that it's impossible to email or copy it. What matters is that it incorporates a tiny little white border that allows you to scribble something meaningful (assuming you still own a pen, that is).

The Mini 50s is receiving rave reviews everywhere because it's different. Yes, it's old fashioned and each snapshot costs almost a dollar. There is no digital viewfinder, and it most certainly doesn't shoot video or incorporate a zoom lens. What it does, however, is provide irrefutable proof that images on paper are still magical.

The Instax Mini 50s is available from Amazon for just over $100 and I've recently seen it in several department stores. I never thought I'd be able to write that about an instant camera again. 

As for my lost digital camera, we retraced our steps and found it late the next morning. Next time I travel, I'll take along several smaller memory cards and make backups whenever I can.

Fujifilm Instax Mini 50s instant camera [via Photojojo]

Lo-Fi 3D Photos With New Holga Camera

The Holga camera refuses to die. These low spec plastic cameras were once shunned by photo fans due to their low quality construction and inevitable light leaks. Those very flaws kept interest in the Holga alive to the present day, yielding interesting arty results in the hands of experimental photographers and hipsters alike.

There are many contemporary takes on the Holga camera, a creative response to the clinical precision of even the simplest digital camera. The new TIM camera may be the most playful of them all, and best of all shoots in 3D!

You can choose between several shutter options by manipulating the controls on TIM's grinning face. You can use the double lenses to shoot two frames for a 3D effect. You can also shoot half frame 3D (both images on a single print), long exposure, multi-color flash fx, and more. TIM is a pretty versatile camera, especially for $60, but seriously… it's all about that little plastic smile on the front, isn't it?

I've always been fond of 3D photography and motion pictures. The rest of the world seems to be joining me in a renewed interest in 3D thanks to action movies and LCD televisions. It seems like we're in a boom time for imagery that reaches out to viewers in a new way (though that begs the question why View-Master isn't going like gangbusters these days). You have to have some imagination and faith in what you might get with the TIM camera since there's no LCD preview - but isn't that part of the fun?

Nice thing about this camera is that it uses good old 35mm negative film, which you can still find pretty easily (though at my local big box store the 35mm film selection has shrunken from an entire aisle to a little spinning countertop display). I haven't shot "real" film in a good long time, but the promise of shooting quirky and unpredictable 3D is hard for me to resist.

link:
Holga TIM 3D camera for $60 from Photojojo