Awesome Retro

Love the look of mid-century modern design? Spring River Studio makes 1950s-inspired light switch and outlet plates. The plates come in boomerang and blobby trapezoid shapes, with colorful and kitschy patterns sure to take you back in time. The interchangeable patterns are sandwiched between two layers of acrylic.

This exquisite hand-stitched leather bag from Bexar Goods Co. is embellished with a tri-color stripe with a cool 1970s vibe. Each one is crafted from 9 oz. harness leather with solid brass hardware. Harkening to a simpler time, it has a single main compartment that holds a laptop, a change of clothes, and everyday essentials.

The Language Master and similar devices used magnetic cards to help students learn to speak other languages. The vintage machines have become a favorite among musicians for making lo-fi sounds by adjusting their speed and direction, and even making loops. Hainbach shows off some of their beat-making abilities.

On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was devastated by a horrific 7.9 magnitude earthquake. This fascinating footage of Market Street gives us a glimpse of what it looked like just four days before the quake hit and leveled much of the city. NASS used AI tech to enhance and colorize the film, and added ambient sound effects.

Beamdog’s 1st-person roguelite dungeon-crawler MythForce sends up to four players on missions to clear the world of villainous creatures. What makes it stand out from the crowd is its art style, which is borrowed straight from 1980s Saturday morning cartoons. An early-access version drops on 4.20.22.

Long for the startup sound of your old Macintosh? Or perhaps the squeal of a dial-up modem? Save the Sounds’ Museum of Endangered Sounds offers an online soundboard where you can enjoy the sounds of retro technology any time you’re feeling nostalgic. Try playing them all at the same time for fun.

Today’s movie VFX rely on green screen and CGI, but in silent movie times, neither of those existed. Pedro Cinemaxunga created this fascinating analysis of vintage moviemaking techniques that shows how in-camera effects managed to fake out audiences. We always thought Harold Lloyd was really hanging from that building.

We dig the trapezoidal 1950s styling of this retro record player. Like other Crosley turntables, it’s portable and has built-in speakers, but we think it looks best parked on its matching legs. It also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker and has an AUX input for connecting external audio sources.

Go back to the atomic age with this 1950s-inspired table clock from Pendulux. Weighing in at a hefty 5.75 pounds, it’s made with a solid cast aluminum body and a thick convex glass lens that sits atop its green gradient face, held in place with brass clips. Measures 8″ H x 8″ W x 5″ D.

In the early days of Netflix, they shipped movies on DVD through the mail. Before that, movies came on VHS tapes from places like Blockbuster. Modder Marina Fujiwara was feeling nostalgic, so she decided to rig up an old VHS tape player to stream Netflix shows when a cassette is inserted into its mechanism.

We always thought that drum machines came along sometime in the 1970s, but it turns out that there was one model you could buy as early as 1959. Look Mum No Computer opens the doors to his personal museum for a look at the Wurlitzer Side Man to see how the ingenious way it made rhythms with electromechanical systems.

For some reason, music from 8-bit and 16-bit games seems more memorable than most modern games. It probably has something to do with retro synthesizers drilling the sounds deeper into our brains. If you love retro game music too, hit play and listen up as BearKeys performs on a Roland Jupiter-6 synth. Part two here.

Dig the look of objects from the early days of the Nuclear Age? UK-based Martin Metal Art creates unique lamps with an Atompunk aesthetic, incorporating objects like 1960s battery chargers, perforated metal, and glass for a great retrofuturist vibe. The Davenset Atomic Reactor is our favorite, but it’s also the most expensive.

Celebrate your love for all things PlayStation with this official messenger bag that looks just like Sony’s first-gen PS1 video game console. It won’t play games, but it’s great for carrying them and anything else you can fit inside of its roomy main compartment or zippered side pocket. Measures 14.6″ x 10.6″ x 3.14″.

Techmoan shows off another strange bit of 1980s tech. The Magic Message was a cassette tape player attached to a remote transducer and designed to play audio descriptions of products when a salesperson wasn’t available. It had suction cups and was designed to be installed inside of a window.

With locations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines is filled with vintage arcade machines that date back to the Soviet era. Incredibly, the machines have all been restored and are playable. Baklykov. Live takes us on a tour of the museum, its machines, and other artifacts.

French watchmaker YEMA takes us on a trip back to the 1970s with its retro-futuristic LED watches. They feature a boxy steel case with a segmented red display which tells the time only with the push of a button. Available in brushed stainless steel or goldplate finishes.

Muzen’s tabletop sound system has the look of a vintage Bakelite radio out of the 1940s but has modern technology inside. In addition to its AM/FM radio, it works as a Bluetooth speaker and has an auxiliary input for other sound sources. It cranks out 20 watts of power for room-filling sound. Gotta love that old-school tuning dial.

This teensy replica of the Atari 2600 comes with a miniature TV cabinet. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and is loaded with nine 8-bit video games, including Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Combat, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong Tempest, Warlords, and Pac-Man. They’re not the original 2600 versions though.

UK shop ReadyPlayerTwo creates these nifty 3-dimensional logo signs inspired by classic video game and computer systems. Each one is 3D printed from PLA plastic to accurately replicate the original color scheme, and has neodymium magnets securely mounted inside.

Apple released its first Macintosh computer back in 1984, running one of the earliest graphical user interfaces for personal computers. The guys at Nobel Tech put together a retrospective of every version of the Macintosh operating system, from its first public release, System 0.97 to the latest version of macOS 12, Monterrey.

macOS X and its successors have been around since 2001, but those of us who used Apple’s computers in the 20th century remember even earlier versions of the operating system. Designer Michael Feeney imagines what it might have been like if today’s apps ran on the more primitive user interface of macOS 9.

The Commodore Amiga was one of the more powerful PCs of the 1980s. Known for its graphical prowess, it offered some of the best games of its era. This mini version looks like the A500 but supports A1200 graphics. It comes with 25 games and the ability to load more. Comes with a 2-button mouse and a gamepad. Drops early 2022.