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Awesome Retro

Animation vs. Arcade Games

Animation vs. Arcade Games

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 History of Music Trackers

The History of Music Trackers

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.

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Boston Dynamics in the ’90s

Boston Dynamics in the ’90s

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.

Noyce Joyce Nixie Radio

Noyce Joyce Nixie Radio

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.

Money Tape Wallet

Money Tape Wallet
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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 70s and 80s T-Shirts

Cup Noodles 70s and 80s T-Shirts
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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 Remix: Monsters, Inc.

Pixar Remix: Monsters, Inc.

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.

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Motherboard Chopping Board

Motherboard Chopping Board
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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.

Hyperkin Duke 20th Anniversary Controllers

Hyperkin Duke 20th Anniversary Controllers
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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.

Tanoshibe Arcade Cabinet

Tanoshibe Arcade Cabinet

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 Blazer Mid ’77 Dark Chocolate

Nike Blazer Mid ’77 Dark Chocolate
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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.

Peanuts Sing Roundabout

Peanuts Sing Roundabout

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.

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Being the Ricardos (Trailer)

Being the Ricardos (Trailer)

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.

Where Is My Mind? Roy Orbison Style

Where Is My Mind? Roy Orbison Style

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.

Hell Comes to Frogtown Trailer

Hell Comes to Frogtown Trailer

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.

Timex T80 x Space Invaders Watches

Timex T80 x Space Invaders Watches
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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.

Retro Tech: Cassette-Changing Boombox

Retro Tech: Cassette-Changing Boombox

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.

Arcade1up TRON Arcade Machine

Arcade1up TRON Arcade Machine

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 + Joy Division Orchestrated

Peter Hook + Joy Division Orchestrated

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.

Welcome! Sweatshirt

Welcome! Sweatshirt
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’90s kids, remember the squeal of your modem as it connected to America Online? Vapor95 pays tribute to the once-massive online service with a vibrant polyester micro-fleece sweatshirt, embellished with the AOL logo on its chest, a colorful community of people on its sleeves, and the familiar cry of “¿A/S/L?” on its back.

Igloo x Star Wars Can Tumblers

Igloo x Star Wars Can Tumblers
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Celebrate your love for classic Star Wars with these travel tumblers from Igloo. Each one is decked out in retro graphics printed on a tall 16 oz. can. Double-wall stainless steel construction keep drinks cold or hot, and they have spill-proof lids. Igloo also makes some sweet Star Wars coolers.

Thumby Keychain Game System

Thumby Keychain Game System

Developed by TinyCircuits, the Thumby is basically the world’s smallest Game Boy. It measures just 1.2″ x 0.7″ x 0.3″, and packs a Raspberry Pi RP2040 processor and a tiny 72×40 OLED screen. The system comes pre-loaded with five retro games, and players can upload their own custom games. Launches on Kickstarter 9.28.2021 for $19.

VHS Sneakers

VHS Sneakers
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MoonLambo asks us to be kind and rewind with its tribute to the bold and colorful graphical style of 1980s VHS tape boxes. While the chunky hi-top look of the Classic Collector’s Edition is our fave, they also make a less expensive canvas VHS sneaker.

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