Awesome Retro

1980s technology had a certain futuristic vibe to it. Maker MarcioT shows off a sweet ’80s-inspired clock he made using an old CRT television and a digital clock he programmed onto an ESP32 microcontroller. The build instructions are available on Instructables with the source code for the Dali Clock on Github.

There’s no question that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the best movie of the entire franchise. But back in 1991, movie trailers weren’t quite as slick as they are today. Michael Edwards edited together an awesome new trailer for James Cameron’s classic action flick, which also avoids the spoilers of the original trailer.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original LED Pulsar, this remarkable watch has a green dot matrix display as a nod to The Matrix Resurrections. It has an all-black PVD-coated steel case and link bracelet, with a Matrix digital rain pattern inscribed on its case back and on its packaging. It’s limited to 1999 pieces.

Are you an ’80s or ’90s kid? Then you’ll want to hit play on Estuera’s two-part video series about the synthesizers and presets that defined the sounds of two decades. Along the way, he performs excerpts from more than 40 tracks and makes them sound just like the originals, thanks in part to Arturia’s synth emulation tech.

Alan Becker revisits his Animation vs. series yet again. This time, his stick figure characters attempt to play classic arcade games on a MAME cabinet. As they fight over the joystick, things go off the rails and they crawl inside the machine in an attempt to debug the system.

The 1980s brought the first 16-bit PCs, and advances in hardware brought better graphics and sound. Programmers went on to create music synthesizers and sequencers called trackers, which became a demo and hacker scene staple. Ahoy looks back at the history of trackers and the ear-pleasing chiptunes they produced.

Boston Dynamics has made a name for themselves with their humanoid and animal-inspired robots. We’ve previously met Spot, their robo-dog that can handle all kinds of terrain and carry small payloads. Future Punk made this fun video that imagines what Spot might have been like had he come out in the 1990s.

We’ve seen several cool Nixie tube clocks, but this is the first radio we’ve seen that incorporates the vintage numeric displays. Sold in kit form, the radio packs four IN-17 Nixie tubes, an AM/FM tuner, an alarm clock, and a rechargeable battery. It also has Bluetooth/Aux inputs and an SD slot for MP3s. Starts shipping 12.2021.

DOIY Design and Haniboi’s playful wallet is a throwback to the good old cassette tape. While it won’t play you a mix, it will hold your spare change, bills and cards. It’s made from pliable silicone, and comes in grey, teal, neon yellow, and coral. And yes, it has both an “A” side and a “B” side.

Cup Noodles (aka Cup O’ Noodles) have been filling bellies on a budget for 50 years. To celebrate, Nissin has released a series of limited-edition retro t-shirts celebrating the early years of instant ramen. There’s a classic Japanese 1971 tee, a psychedelic ’70s tee, and a neon ’80s tee.

Pixar reimagines the characters from Monsters, Inc. in a 1930s black-and-white cartoon style. Sit back, grab a bucket of popcorn, and enjoy as Mike and Sully once again save their new friend Boo from the slimy Randall Boggs and come up with a better source of energy than screams.

This circuit board-inspired glass cutting board is a great kitchen accessory for tech geeks. Unlike an actual motherboard, it’s perfectly smooth, so you don’t have to worry about getting bits of onion stuck in the electronics. If the circuit looks familiar to you, that’s because it’s based on the board inside the classic Sinclair ZX81 PC.

To celebrate 20 years of Xbox, Hyperkin is offering these limited edition “Duke” controllers for today’s Microsoft consoles and Windows PCs. The wired controller has vibration feedback, a headset jack, and a display that plays the original Xbox startup animation inside the Xbox button. Available in black, white, or purple Cortana variants.

Unlike most arcade cabinets, Tanoshibe works with your existing gaming systems. Available in 10″ or 24″ sizes, these tabletop cabinets feature arcade joysticks and buttons and work with Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, PC, and even smartphones. An optional emulator board and base upgrade it to a standalone arcade machine.

Nike takes its classic Blazer Mid shoe and gives it the warm-and-fuzzies. We love the shaggy suede chocolate upper and leather Swoosh, which give these comfy retro basketball sneakers an appropriately inviting look. Available 11.3.2021.

One of the more popular things to do with footage from the classic Peanuts cartoons is to edit them dancing and singing to make them look like they’re performing a different song. Garren Lazar’s latest edit has the gang tackling the 1971 Yes track Roundabout, and it’s quite perfectly synced up with the prog-rock masterpiece.

Nicole Kidman stars as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin’s drama about the often tumultuous life of the Hollywood power couple. It plays out during one week of the production of their hit series I Love Lucy. In theaters 12.10.21 and on Prime Video 12.21.21.

We’re suckers for The Pixies song Where Is My Mind? and always love hearing fresh interpretations of the track. Vocalist Allison Young teamed up with Postmodern Jukebox to deliver a great cover version with a melodramatic style inspired by the late Roy Orbison, who gave us such great songs like Crying and Only the Lonely.

In 1988, pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Conan the Barbarian’s Sandahl Bergman starred in a campy sci-fi action movie called Hell Comes to Frogtown. Perhaps the producers thought people would take it more seriously with the voiceover in this trailer. The second trailer is equally entertaining.

8-bit gaming fans will dig these retro-style Timex watches with pixel artwork and sound effects from the arcade classic Space Invaders. They have an old-school green-gray LCD screen with Indiglo lighting and 24-hour chronograph, alarm, and month/day/date functions. Available in black, silver, or gold finishes.

Techmoan takes a look at one of the stranger boomboxes ever made, the Mitsubishi TX-L50. At first glance, it’s a perfectly ordinary-looking boombox, but this one has a mechanism that lets it play both sides of up to five cassettes for up to 10 hours of continuous music when used with 120-minute tapes.

The 1982 TRON arcade machine known as much for its awesome glowing blue joystick as it is for its gameplay. Now, Arcade1up has replicated the machine in a 3/4-scale version for home arcade enthusiasts, complete with a black light and reactive cabinet art. It also plays Discs of TRON. Pre-orders start 10.19.2021.

Peter Hook, musical director Tim Crooks, and an ensemble of musicians perform Love Will Tear Us Apart from their Dreams EP, which features four classic Joy Division tracks reimagined with an orchestra. Tracks include Atmosphere, New Dawn Fades, and A Means to an End, plus two alternative versions.