Awesome Retro

Christopher Riley collaborated with the ESA and the ISS to recreate and trace the path of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering journey into space 50 years ago, on April 12, 1961. Download it here.

This incredibly-preserved archive footage of San Francisco’s Market Street was filmed shortly before the great quake and fire of 1906. Makes you think how far we’ve come in 100 years.

Among the incredible autos for sale at RM Auction’s invitation-only Villa d’Este car auction are six exotic, one-of-a-kind Bertone concept cars for Lamborghini, Lancia, and Chevrolet.

Boing Boing’s Rob Beschizza compiled this video of classic arcade game character deaths, set to Tears for Fears’ Mad World, chiptune-style. It’s not as comprehensive as 500+ Fatalities, but more fun.

Blödes Orchester (Stupid Orchestra) was composed for this 200 piece vintage home appliance orchestra by Michael Petermann; he gathered the motley ensemble through eBay purchases.

Hipopotam Studios’ Pica Pic is a free online gallery and emulator of the handheld games that were a hit from the 80s to the early 90s. The look and graphics of the games are perfectly recreated.

Did you know that “a lot of brown bread is just white bread colored brown”? Watch and learn how bread was made in the ’80s in this amusing vid, hair and ripped shirts included. (Thanks Sean!)

Not only does this awesome cotton hoodie combine argyle with Space Invaders, it’s currently on sale for 50% off of regular price. Grab it before they increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction.

This incredible mod for the old Duke Nukem’ 3D – Atomic Edition turns your PC into a virtual version of Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel, complete with an axe-wielding Jack Nicholson, and the garden maze.

It may look lie a classic 70s or 80s Porsche 911, but the Singer 911 takes an early 90s 911, wraps it in carbon fiber body parts, spices it up with a max. 3.9L, 425hp engine, and many more upgrades.

The Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 has a carbon fiber monocoque, 700hp 6.5L V12 engine and speedy ISR transmission. 0-62 in 2.9s, top speed 217mph. Will go on sale for about $380K this year.

YouTube user FunToTheHead connected a few floppy drives to a PIC18f14k50 microcontroller to create an engaging musical piece. Bonus: special appearance by the talent at 2:30. (Thanks Alex!)

The Man in Black’s essential, gritty prison albums are back on vinyl – the way they were meant to be heard. Get locked up in Folsom or San Quentin. No turntable? Nab the CDs – but you won’t be as cool.

Designed by Roger Tallon for Lip in the 70’s, the Mach 2000 Chronograph is a classic vintage watch with distinct multi-colored balls that function as the crown and stopwatch pushers. (Thanks Alan!)

It could be the best worst movie ever made – loaded with epic bar brawls, cheesy dialog and all the Swayze you can handle. We can’t decide if the Double Deuce would look better on VHS, though.

Think you’ve got upper-body strength? Clearly you never saw Joel Fletcher’s 1981 short film, The Wanderer, featuring Mark Daniel and his unreal ability to walk (everywhere) on his hands.

Back in 1964, the White House recorded all of its phone calls. We can’t decide if this chat between President Lyndon Johnson and the guys at Haggar to order custom pants is bizarre, hysterical or both.

Many classic video games were relatively easy once you figured out the patterns. This German clip shows us what those games might have been like if they had a slightly higher difficulty mode.

With its stainless-steel counters and museum-style installations, Ralph Lauren’s D.A.D. Garage is filled with dozens of the world’s rarest cars, all in ideal condition and all driven by the designer himself.

Researcher Jean-Christophe Laurence took a bunch of vintage gadgets and tech stuff from the 1980s and 1990s and showed them to today’s kids, then asked them to figure them out.

This gorgeous 1955 Ford Thunderbird concept car is from industrial designer Bo Zolland. The car features classic curves on the exterior, and will be built on a 2009 Ford Mustang platform.

Are you a bit of a hothead? Need to keep your temper under control? Watch this instructional video from Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk to find out the best way to deal with your angst. Or not.

Back in 1985, Weird Al Yankovic left a series of messages on his drummer’s answering machine. He recently dug up the tape. We can’t believe he never recorded “I Want a New Dog.”