Awesome Retro

You can play The Oregon Trail on your phone and even in your browser. But Basic Fun’s port adds a fair amount of nostalgia with its chiptune music, retro case and large buttons. It’s officially a Target exclusive, but you can also order it from Amazon.

For their latest episode of “Wonders of the World Wide Web,” Squirrel Monkey envisions what it might have been like to used Netflix to stream movies and other videos back in the days of dial-up modems, HotBot, and Excite!

A surprisingly well-priced nixie tube clock, with a bright, easy-to-read display made from vintage soviet front-facing tubes. Each one is handmade with a solid wood case, and features a 7-day alarm capability. Available with or without RGB LED backlighting.

Along with Don Bluth, game designer Rick Dyer created 1980s classics like Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. He would later design a radical (and expensive) game system called “Halcyon.” Polygon explores the tale of the failed console that foretold today’s voice-based AI systems.

Kevin Lieber of Vsauce2 got his hands on a vintage 1980s Telcon Zorba, an early “portable” CP/M-based PC, and demonstrates just how far we’ve come in the last 30 years, along with a little round of ZORK, still considered to be one of the greatest adventure games of all time.

The Fine Brothers panel of youngsters goes hands-on with another technological dinosaur – a “portable” turntable. While they’re clearly fascinated with the mechanical music player, there’s no doubt they’re all going back to streaming digital tunes as soon as they’re done.

Back in 1958, Disney envisioned the future of America’s highways and automotive tech. While we still don’t have flying ambulances or self-building roads, backup cameras and traffic apps are everyday items, and autonomy is closer than ever. Watch the full movie here.

Techmoan takes a look at another fascinating bit of retro technology, an alternative approach to portable audio tapes that was being developed by Sanyo at the same time that Philips was working on the cassette tape. We love the heft of that old player.

For his latest archeotechnological dig, Techmoan rewinds back to 2004 to show off the Bandai 8-ban – a collectible from Japan which plays tiny 3″ vinyl records. Unfortunately, the one-sided recordings only could hold 4 minutes of lo-fi monophonic sound.

A handheld gaming system packed with hundreds of classic arcade games from the now defunct Data East, including Bad Dudes, Karate Champ, B-Wings, BurgerTime, Joe & Mac, and more. Available in landscape and GameBoy style designs.

The Royal Institution shares a 1985 lecture by professor David Pye as he shows off a vintage analog device which allowed a skilled player to synthesize sounds that approximated a human voice. He then showed off what was then state-of-the-art electronic speech synthesis.

We’re guessing not much has changed about the way candles are made since this film was made over 50 years ago, showcasing the assembly line at Price’s Patent Candle Co. and waxing philosophical (pun intended) about the ways in which candles play a part in our lives.

Etsy store BasementArcades makes the Wallcade Classic, a wall-mounted arcade machine. It protrudes only 16″ from the wall and weighs only 45 lb. It has a 2-player setup, a 22″ LCD display, customizable cabinet graphics, and a link to 3300 curated games you can install.

New Wave Toys’ RepliCade is an upcoming line of fully-functional sixth scale (i.e. 12″ tall) arcade machine scale models. The series is kicking off with Centipede. It has a wood cabinet, LED backlighting, laminated overlays and coin return buttons that work as controls.

A rare performance from a one-shot supergroup comprised of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell, as they rock out a rough-hewn track that’s as good as any garage blues we’ve ever heard. Bonus points for the silly chat between Lennon and Mick Jagger.

Jason Fernandez takes retro hard-sided briefcases and kits them out with a Raspberry Pi-powered arcade emulator, an LCD screen, a removable arcade joystick, light-up buttons, and a lithium ion battery pack for portability. Now you can pack your Pac-Man anywhere!

Techmoan looks at another strange and wonderful bit of retro technology. This time, he unboxes a 40-year-old gadget from Japan that does something we’ve never seen before. We won’t spoil the surprise, and will let you discover it for yourself.

These days, millions of cars are equipped with dashcams to record incidents on the road. But check out this black and white film footage from a camera mounted first on the front, then on the rear of a car as it drives through Manhattan more than 70 years ago.

Go back to 1933 with this thoroughly creepy Walt Disney cartoon, starring Mickey Mouse as he attempts to rescue his dog Pluto from an evil doctor. Beyond its Halloween-appropriate plot, it’s a great reminder how good animation can be when every single frame is hand-drawn.

The classic 8-bit computer jumps on the mini bandwagon with a 50% scale version. It comes with dozens of games, a joystick, and has HDMI output with CRT and scanline emulation. The mini keyboard isn’t functional, but you can connect your own via USB. Drops early 2018.

The latest from gadget wizard Love Hulten. The Zette System looks like a toy boombox, but it’s actually a portable retro video game console. The tape deck splits into two controllers, and one of the speakers has a 480p projector. There’s also a variant that has an arcade stick.

It might be 50 years old, but this E-Type is anything but antique. This Series 1.5 roadster has been beautifully restomodded with a pure-electric drivetrain that cranks out nearly 300 hp, launching it from 0-to-62 mph in 5.5s – about a second quicker than its original V6 gas engine.

Retrobright is a homebrew solution for restoring yellowed ABS plastic, which is usually what the cases of old computers and other gadgets were made of. The 8-Bit Guy tried out variants of the solution for science. TL;DW? Go with salon developer cream, water, and sunlight.