Retro Thing

Nintendo Light Telephone - Their Craziest Product Ever?

Erik Voskuil writes, "Before Nintendo became a global household name, it already had a rich history producing fun and, in some cases, downright wacky toys and games. The Light Telephone must be one of their most unorthodox ideas to make it into production. The sound picked up by the microphone is coded into the transmitted light, decoded again by the receiving party’s Light Telephone using a solar cell, and played over the headphone. This creates, in effect, a two-way walkie talkie without the use of radio waves."

The Nintendo Light Telephone was released in 1971 to capitalize on the walkie talkie and CB radio craze. each 1.3 kg handset included a telescope to allow precise aiming of the light beam at the solar cell receiver on the other handset, although a tripod would be needed at long range.

Because it's sensitive to bright sunlight, this is one toy that would work best in the dark. That said, it would have been impossible for a pair of kids to have a clandestine conversation at night with a pair of giant flashlights giving away their every move.

The Light Telephone was priced at 9,800 Yen (approximately $27 at the 1971 exchange rate), a hefty price tag that probably limited its popularity. That's a pity, because this has to be one of the craziest, coolest and most collectible Nintendo products ever.

Nintendo Light Telephone [beforemario.com]

World's Oldest Running Car Expected To Sell For $2 Million

One of the world's first horseless carriages will be auctioned next week by RM Auctions in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout (dubbed La Marquise, after the owner's mother) is expected to sell for between $2 and $2.5 million.

While there are older self-propelled vehicles sitting in museums around the world, the 9 foot long Runabout quadricycle is certified as the oldest running car in existence. Its boiler required only 45 minutes to reach a head of steam, and the vehicle can be safely operated by a single person. The 2,100 lb contraption seats four and features front wheel steering.

Powered by twin compound steam engines, it is capable of a bone-jarring 40 mph on the straights, and subsequent versions of the Runabout sold for around $850 in 1887.

RM Auctions reports, "Comte de Dion’s little quadricycle can claim to be the first family car, despite its arcane power source. What makes it different from road-going locomotives dating back to Cugnot’s 1770 tractor is its sophisticated boiler, which can be steamed in 45 minutes. It is also compact at only nine feet long and relatively light at 2,100 pounds. But, it has four wheels, seats four, and can be driven by one person – like a modern car.

Writer David Burgess-Wise examined 'La Marquise' closely for Automobile Quarterly in 1995. He pointed out that it is both de Dion’s prototype quadricycle and the oldest running real car in private hands, so its credentials are unmatched."

If you get your hands on this one-of-a-kind classic, please don't break it -- I'm sure a formerly-running steam runabout is significantly less valuable.

[Update: it sold for $4.6 million. That's one heck of an expensive steam machine. - JG]

1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout

Mega Giveaway: AutoValve Tape & Vinyl Effects For iPod

The isupr8 film emulator guys have a new app that adds the warmth of analog to your iPod Touch or iPhone music library. AutoValve adds real-time vinyl, reel-to-reel tape and even 8-track effects to your music. You can add needle drops, pops and crackle using three different vinyl samples, or select reel-to-reel to add a bit of tape noise. To complete the illusion, you can select a 60s or 70s skin and enjoy bouncing VU meters and vintage knobs and switches.

I know it's not the same as the real thing, but there's something exciting about the silence between the needle hitting the track and the first few seconds of a well-loved song. Besides, dragging a Revox A77 reel-to-reel deck along in the car is dangerously impractical, even for a vintage gear nut like me.

If you'd like to take AutoValve for a spin on your iPod Touch or iPhone, leave a comment on this post. We've got a couple of dozen free copies to give away to randomly selected commenters. The contest closes at midnight GMT on Friday, Sept 30, 2011, winners will be notified by email.

AutoValve: Retro Analog Audio Processor

Charming Canadian Clairtones

Sleek industrial design and cutting-edge electronics have always gone hand in hand. A case in point: Clairtone, founded in 1958 by serial entrepreneur Peter Munk and designer David Gilmour.

From the bachelor pad cool Clairtone Model G to the futuristic colour G-TV, Clairtone put Canadian technology on the world stage for a decade until the company faltered and vanished overnight in the late 1960s.

Here's a look at some outstanding equipment from the Clairtone Facebook group.

Clairtone.ca explains: "In the sixties, Clairtone’s Project G stereo was the epitome of bachelor pad cool. It transformed the traditional console box by cantilevering its speakers outside the Scandinavian-style modern cabinet. It won a silver medal at the 1964 Milan Triennale, the international design industry’s most prestigious exhibition, and was adopted by progressives within the arts and entertainment community.

Frank Sinatra endorsed it, and G series models appeared in films such as The Graduate with Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman and A Fine Madness with Sean Connery. Hugh Hefner bought a unit for the Playboy Mansion and jazz legend Oscar Peterson claimed that his music sounded as good on a Project G as it did live."

Join the Clairtone Facebook group and help build an online Clairtone community!

Win A Solder:Time LED Watch

Want to win the Spikenzie Labs LED watch we reviewed several months ago? All you have to do is submit a Retro Thing story idea on our submission page before midnight GMT this Sunday (Sept 25, 2011).

We'll randomly select a single winner. You can send more than one submission, but duplicates will be deleted. The contest is open worldwide (you'll be asked to pay actual postage costs).

[Update: The watch was won by John Kittelsrud, who suggested a post about homemade mechanical computers. Thanks to everyone who entered -- we received dozens of great story ideas.]

Good luck!

Taito InvaderCade iPad Arcade Cabinet

Woah. It looks like the iPad arcade cabinet thing is gaining momentum.

Taito is poised to release a Space Invaders iPad cab in October. It's designed to work with their Space Invaders HD app, naturally. The 31 cm tall cabinet includes built-in stereo speakers and a charging dock. There's also a headphone jack, in case you want to try out your new toy in your cubicle without the boss knowing. Or something

Unlike ThinkGeek's well-endowed iCade, the Taito cabinet features only a single button and the joystick. It remains to be seen whether other titles will be released to take advantage of the InvaderCade, but a Japanese list price of 15,800 Yen (over $200) may sharply curb its appeal.

Space Invaders InvaderCade For iPad [via TUAW]

Super Mario Bros. in 64 Pixels

Super Pixel Bros., the brainchild of Brad Slattery, is a reduction of the classic Nintendo game into its pure blocky essence. A reimagining of the original "Super Mario Bros.," Super Pixel Bros. boils down all the characters, blocks and other bits of the scrolling Mushroom Kingdom world into an 8-pixel-by-8-pixel handheld. Mario is a single pixel, as are the enemies and the projectiles you can fire.

"The game shares some similarities with the original, you just need to use your imagination since all the characters are represented by a single pixel," Brad writes. His version has 20 levels, based on the originals, and even includes boss fights. (Your single-pixel hero has to jump on his single-pixel nemesis a certain number of times before hitting the ground.)

He is working on plans to sell the PCB boards, which combined with off-the-shelf parts and his open source code would be enough to build the game. (A custom case might be fun to design yourself.) He also is working on a possible full-kit version. Either way, this is probably less of a beginner DIY electronic project, since it relies on tiny surface-mount components.

Still, with the challenging gameplay and the ability to make new levels, anyone willing to take it on could be in for some long-term fun.

[via Hack a Day]

The Best Atari Games of 1981

I first stumbled across the Atari Video Computer System at Sears in 1978. I was amazed, but my parents regarded it with deep scepticism -- the console was expensive and the games looked like simple novelties that would be quickly forgotten. Annoyingly, they were absolutely right.

Atari managed to change their opinion in time for the 1980 holidays with the introduction of Space Invaders -- a surprisingly fun port of the arcade hit -- and a new lower price of $144.95 at JC Penny. They weren't the only ones to finally pull the trigger; Atari console sales quadrupled that year.

My parents' timing couldn't have been better, because that holiday season marked the beginning of the Atari VCS golden age. Here are my favorite Atari titles to hit store shelves three decades ago, in 1981. Interestingly, all were arcade ports.

Asteroids (1981, Brad Stewart)

Originally released in 1979, Asteroids was a challenging game to port to the 2600 because of the original's distinctive B&W vector line graphics. It turned out to be a tricky game to code and became the first VCS title to use a bank switched cartridge that allowed 8K of program code. The 2600's low resolution display gave the game a dramatically different look and feel than the arcade original, but the game play was close enough that it didn't matter -- it was a smash hit.

Missile Command (1981, Rob Fulop)

The best thing about the arcade version of Missile Command was the trackball used to aim missiles. The 2600 version had to make do with joystick control, and I'm sure many joystick shafts were broken as players subconsciously twisted their controllers harder and harder in an attempt to make the targeting cross-hairs move a bit faster across the screen. This was another VCS title that paled in comparison to the arcade original, but still offered game play that was fun enough to keep things entertaining.

Video Pinball (1981, Bob Smith)

Atari got surprising mileage from Video Pinball. It was originally released in 1978 as a coin-op, followed soon after by a standalone home console and finally the VCS port. The trick to beating the game is to stop paying attention while you play -- a good background conversation will help you to reach a high score every time (the same approach works brilliantly with Atari's Night Driver). Video Pinball looks nothing like a real pinball machine, of course, but Smith managed to simulate the physics of a real ball and the essence of the game. The biggest challenge for players was learning to use the joystick to control the flippers and plunger without nudging the table too aggressively.

Warlords (1981, Carla Meninsky)

Despite the heroic name, Warlords is actually a Breakout derivative. The playing field features four castles with protective shields under the command of a paddle controller or the computer. The cramped, fast-paced gameplay made it one of the most popular titles of the year and the ability for up to four players to join in made it great as a party game.

As good as these 1981 titles were, the best was still to come. 1982 saw the birth of Activision -- the world's first third party console developer, and perhaps Atari's biggest strategic miscalculation -- and the release of dozens of outstanding 2600 titles. But let's save those games for next year. 

Where Are All The Compact Trucks?

The pickup truck has been a fixture in North America ever since the days of the Ford Model T. Back in the early 1980s, skyrocketing interest rates and a dodgy economy led to massive popularity of compact trucks such as the Ford Ranger and Chevy S-10. They were inexpensive, fuel efficient and big enough to haul bikes, tools and construction material. Their low box height and reasonably compact frames made them easy to load and ensured that they fit standard garages.

Jump forward three decades, and Ford has announced that 2011 is the last year for the Ranger in North America, while General Motors hasn't offered the S-10 compact since 2004. Even former compact car giants like Toyota and Nissan are pushing bewilderingly massive trucks in the USA.

The dearth of small trucks is especially strange when you consider that all of the major auto manufacturers have recently introduced affordable and very fuel efficient sub-compacts in North America -- the Ford Fiesta, Mazda 2 and Toyota Yaris, to name a few. They seem to recognize that small and affordable vehicles will be the cornerstone of their product lines in years to come. So why hasn't that thinking impacted the truck segment?

My guess is that the marketing teams at Chevrolet, GM and Chrysler crunched the numbers and concluded that full-sized pickups are far more profitable in the short-to medium term than spending billions on new compact platforms.

After all, a new compact truck would be priced lower, offering a reduced profit margin. New compacts might even trigger a costly price war as the manufacturers jockey for market share. And there's a very real risk that a good compact truck lineup would decimate full-size truck sales.

However, this is a woefully short-sighted strategy. If fuel prices continue to rise and disposable income continues to fall, many tradespeople and truck enthusiasts are going to find themselves unable to afford a massive 6.7 L-equipped 4x4 stump-puller. The only option will be something smaller and more efficient -- a product that no longer exists.

An empty market segment offers a massive opportunity, and I fear that foreign manufacturers may be the ones to fill the gap. Back in 2007, Kia Motors president Cho Nam-Hong remarked, "Isn't it time for Kia Motors to make inroads into the pickup truck market?" As the photo above attests, it probably is.

Cho Nam-hong. "Isn't it time for Kia Motors to make inroads into the (U.S.) pickup truck market?"

Selling Star Trek

Star Trek first hit the airwaves on September 8, 1966 -- exactly 45 years ago today. While the original series lasted only 79 episodes, it went on to spawn five spin-off shows and eleven feature films (with another in the works). Here's a peek at the original NBC pilot sell sheet, used to introduce the show to advertisers and affiliates.

The booklet introduces us to the series and the characters who were soon to become household names, along with a few -- like Chief Medical Officer Piper and Communications Officer Alden -- who didn't get the chance to become series regulars.

And then there's poor Yeoman Smith: "A capable secretary and efficient dispenser of instant coffee, she also provides a welcome change of scenery for eyes that have spent long hours scanning the vast reaches of space."

Click for High-Rez scans of the entire Star Trek NBC Pilot Sell Sheet [The Invisible Agent, via DC @ clairtone.ca]

Related:
Get The Original Star Trek Series On DVD For Only $60
Star Trek: Phase II - 1977's Forgotten Trek
Star Trek Theme On Theremin

Amazing Jonny Quest Stop Motion Fan Film

Roger Evans has been an enthusiastic low-budget filmmaker for decades, but I know him as the founder of Moviestuff, a company that produces a range of 8mm and 16mm film scanners.

When he's not busy making film capture equipment, Roger relaxes by making movies. His latest work is a stop-motion recreation of the opening title sequence from the classic Jonny Quest (1964) cartoon series.

Above, one of the original shots. Below, Roger's careful recreation:

Best of all, Roger has painstakingly documented the entire process.

He explains: "In 1964, a cartoon show premiered during prime time that would forever change my view of the future. Jonny Quest represented everything a 6 year old boy could possibly imagine. It had action, adventure and exotic locations, all tied together with some of the MOST awesome Hoyt Curtin jazz music ever broadcast on television. As a wide-eyed youth, I looked forward to the day when flying on jet belts would be as casual as riding my bike. But an odd thing happened to this wonderful show. It was canceled after only one season. It was simply too expensive to produce.

But there was another loss, obvious only to kids like me that spent the long, LONG seven days between broadcasts reinacting every scene in every episode using the nearest G.I Joe or Caption Action as a pitiful substitute for Race, Jonny or the others. Sometimes, necessity would require Major Matt Mason to stand-in, despite his puny, sub-1/6th scale stature. Why? Because despite its huge popularity, Jonny Quest was not on the air long enough to spawn a line of action figures. And if you were a kid of the 60's, you HAD to have an action figure from your favorite show.

It always seemed to me that a stop motion version of the opening titles would be killer and that, IF there had been a line of action figures, then that would be the obvious thing to use to live out my childhood dream.

So..... Almost 50 years later, that's exactly what I've done."

Roger Evans' Totally Bitchin' Jonny Quest Pages

In 1964, a cartoon show premiered during prime time that would forever change my view of the future. Jonny Quest represented everything a 6 year old boy could possibly imagine. It had action, adventure and exotic locations, all tied together with some of the MOST awesome Hoyt Curtin jazz music ever broadcast on television. As a wide-eyed youth, I looked forward to the day when flying on jet belts would be as casual as riding my bike. But an odd thing happened to this wonderful show. It was canceled after only one season. It was simply too expensive to produce. The Hanna-Barbera artists were accustomed to producing rubbery, squash and stretch animals and goofy humans. The hyper-realistic pen and ink character designs of series creator Doug Wildey proved to be too much of a task to maintain on a weekly basis.

Fujifilm's Affordable X10 Retro Rangefinder

It looks like Fujifilm is trying to carve out a stylish new market niche. The retro-styled X10 is a somewhat more practical follow-up to their X100 digital rangefinder.

I was utterly stunned when Fuji rolled out the X100 earlier this year. Selling for $1200, the X100 absolutely nailed the look and feel of a vintage camera, except with a large-format digital sensor and state-of-the-art 23mm F2.0 lens. It captures fantastic images, but the fixed focal length lens and high price were turn-offs for many.

Enter the X10. This high-end 12MP point-and-shoot features a respectable 2/3" EXR CMOS sensor coupled with a fast 28-112 mm lens capable of F2.0 (wide) to F2.8 (telephoto) at full aperture. Unlike many modern cameras, it includes an optical viewfinder with diopter adjustment.

The lens features manual zoom adjustment but there's no manual focus ring. That shouldn't be much of a restriction, thanks to the camera's advanced 49-point high-precision auto focusing. More importantly, the shutter lag is a mere 0.01 seconds so you won't miss action shots.

Accessories will include a retro leather case, precision milled metal lens hood and TTL flash. The X10 is slated to ship in October 2011 with an estimated price of around $700.

Fujifilm X10 Retro Digital Rangefinder

Isaac Asimov Marvels At Miniaturization

I can't be the only one who wishes there were some way to connect a TRS-80 pocket computer from 1982 to the cellular network. It'd be the coolest texting device in the galaxy.

The first generation TRS-80 Pocket Computer was actually a re-badged Sharp PC-1211. It included the BASIC programming language in ROM, along with a 24 character LCD display and 1.5K of memory. The $29.95 cassette interface was required to make permanent backups of your programs, or you could choose the deluxe $127.95 printer/cassette interface. The tiny thermal printer could print only 16 characters per line and included a built-in Ni-Cad battery so you could work off the grid -- something that today's printer manufacturers still struggle with.

An Atari Joystick For The iPad

I suspect I'm one of millions of iPad owners who occasionally wishes for physical controls. Apple's touchscreen UI is brilliant, but it's bloody awful for playing arcade games. Think Geek's iCade case is an expensive and somewhat bulky solution to the problem -- it integrates a Bluetooth transmitter into a miniature arcade console that uses the iPad as its screen and brains. The only problem is that it costs $100.

Enter the Atari Arcade Duo Joystick, a compact iPad stand that offers an 8-way joystick and four buttons. It's not particularly pretty, but should be significantly cheaper than Think Geek's offering. Besides, liberating the internal controller board might be an excellent way to create an arcade-quality gaming surface for the iPad with genuine Happ components.

Of course, Apple could also wake up and provide their own wireless gamepad for the iPad / iPod / Apple TV instead. It would sell like hot cakes.

Atari Arcade Duo Joystick [via Technabob]

Naming The Transistor

Once, not that long ago, there were no transistors. Even the word didn't exist. Johngineer at Adafruit Industries dug up this Bell Labs memo from May 1948 that discusses naming their revolutionary semiconductor switching device.

My favorite contender is Crystal Triode, because it sounds like something Spock would install in his tricorder to save a doomed planet (oops - might have given away the plot of the next movie).

If you're in need of a sudden nap, here's the full text of the memo in all its Dilbertesque glory.

How The Transistor Got Its Name [adafruit.com]