Retro Thing

$14 MP3 Player With Built In NES Emulator, But...

2013-05-21T11:30:19-06:00

I still don't have an expensive mp3 player. I listen to music & podcasts all the time, so an MP3 player in my employ is likely to get crammed into a pocket and get knocked around a bit. Since there is such a wealth of perfectly serviceable sub $25 models around, it really doesn't pay for me to splash out for a fancy music player (though I'd still like to get an early iPod one of these days).

I usually end up with an off-brand or non-brand unit from some online surplus outfit. The one I'm using right now is amazingly feature-packed. It plays music that sounds good (not always the case with a cheapie), videos, even e-books... all of this for the amazing price of $14.

So what makes this interesting to the retro crowd (besides the fact that I keep it loaded up with old time radio shows and old Sammy Davis Jr. records...)? It packs a surprise function. This $14 no-name has an extra on-screen menu for "Games". I highlighted the joystick icon to be greeted by what is clearly a not-at-all legal NES emulator. The included game ROM? A game starring a certain plumber in his adventure-ready coveralls. Ahem.

That signature music came on, so I was looking forward to playing NES games on a $14 cheapie that I could recommend to all of you, but there's a significant problem. There aren't enough buttons to actually play the games. You use the fast-forward and rewind buttons to move left and right (the buttons are on top of each other to make gameplay even more disorienting). No buttons on the player make Mario jump or do anything other than move left and right. As you can imagine, this does curtail one's game selection quite a bit. I can't even think of one game that would be fun this way... Arkanoid maybe?

My guess is that my player is reusing firmware from another (possibly less cheap?) MP3 player that hopefully has more buttons built in. I guess that an NES emulator doesn't pose much of a challenge to modern processors - even the sorts of processor chips they can afford to slap into a cheap MP3 player. Let's remain vigilant, retro readers, for any other cheap electronics harboring an illegitimate 8 bit secret.

Pee Wee Harmonica: A Mini Mouth Harp For Big Wheezes

2013-05-20T00:47:41-06:00

I love miniatures, especially when they still have all the functions of their big brothers (within reason, of course). We've written articles about the tiny film camera that was the top lure of my local grocer's gumball machine, and also an impossibly small AM radio from the 60s. Here's a mini gadget that's even older; the Pee Wee Harmonica. The box tells us that this was manufactured in occupied Japan, so this little mouth harp and its box go way back. My guess is that the Pee Wee was "inspired" by Hohner Instruments' similar mini harmonica "the Little Lady".

Hohner is a harmonica brand that goes back 150 years, though I don't know how long they've been producing keychain-sized harmonicas like the Pee Wee (which I should add was small enough to be the first musical instrument to go into space), but it's definitely been around long enough for mouth harp fans to learn how to get the most of its little eight note range. Here are a couple videos - one from some 70s TV show (that I really want to see now) that features the Harmonitones (a band comprised entirely of guys described as "my one weird uncle") doing a version of "the Can Can" with the teeny tiny harmonica taking the lead.

The second video is much more modern - a slightly uncomfortable closeup of a man's lips whoofing into his webcam with a mini harmonica. He offers online lessons so that you too can play Star Wars, The Cock O' The North (I don't make this stuff up...), and Old Suzanna on the tiny harmonica that you will be keeping in your pocket at all times from now on.

Help Out Retro Thing When You Pick Up A "Little Lady" Harmonica on Amazon

Tiny 1979 Article About "The Empire Strikes Back"

2013-05-15T01:14:39-06:00

One great thing about looking through old magazines is reading about something we now know to be a big deal, before anyone knew it was going to be a big deal. I was thumbing through the spring 1979 issue of Cinefantastique - one of the most consistently outstanding sci fi film and tv magazines until it ceased publication in 2006. I bought the issue because of the lengthy cover story about Forbidden Planet (a film that I occasionally become obsessed with to this day).

The Forbidden Planet article was fascinating, but also fascinating were the tiny little blind items sprinkled through the magazine about upcoming genre films. In one of the margins was this modest little tidbit...

The Empire Strikes Back in 1980

Shooting title of the Star Wars sequel is "The Empire Strikes Back" which began filming on March 5 in Finse, Norway, on locations which will double as for an ice-covered planet. Directing is Irvin Kershner from a script by Larry Kasdan and the late Leigh Brackett. The recent casting a black actor Billy Dee Williams is a revealing move, executive producer George Lucas' token gesture to those who objected to Star Wars' lily-white universe.

Makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, assisted by his wife and son, is creating a mechanically-operated puppet, described as a 3 1/2 foot tall alien who looks like a "wizened old man, human-like, very ancient and wrinkled. Motivated via a series of offstage wires, this creature is important in teaching Luke Skywalker about the mysteries of "The Force".

A miniature land vehicle to be used with animated people inside it is part of the stop motion effects to be supplied by John Berg and Phil Tippett. The film will be released by 20th Century Fox in 1980.

Not exactly breathless with excitement, are they? This may seem a timid description of the sequel to "Star Wars", but audiences really didn't know what to expect. This issue is from 1979, only 2 years after the release of "Star Wars". After the success of the first film, Lucas opened up a bit about Star Wars being just one chapter in a "saga"... but in the movie biz that's just called a "sequel", and sequels didn't traditionally perform as well as the original. For this reason, even after the dramatic worldwide success of Star Wars, Lucas had difficulty raising the money he wanted for Empire. Few wanted to bank on a sequel to what they saw as a fluke hit (releasing blockbuster films in the summer wasn't even popularized yet), especially when the sequel was going to be so expensive.

We all know what happened. "Empire" turned out to be the best film in the series (remember how innocent we all were when we thought that "Return of the Jedi" was the suckiest Star Wars movie?), and Lucas could go on to make any movie he wanted. Like "Howard The Duck", but that's another story.

Confirmation of Star Wars' staying power was still a year away from that issue of Cinefantastique. Before modern-day spoiler alerts, internet script leaks, and trailers that ruin any sense of surprise or suspense, back then we had to rely on genre magazines to report on even the tiniest morsels of info about these films that would go on to change the movie business forever.

Amiga Forever Brings Classic Computing Power To Android

2013-05-06T10:53:38-06:00

I've got an iPad, and it's a lovely device. Elegant and otherworldly (I can push icons around with my finger!) it's a great way to do a lot of things... as long as what you want to do is exactly what Apple wants you to do. I must have been naive, but when I got the thing, I was surprised at how limited my access is to this very expensive thing I bought. I can't just copy files onto the iPad without getting iTunes' okay, and I can't really run any of my favorite classic game & computer emulators even though the hardware is more than powerful enough.

You can get some classic game pre-packs for iPad, but nothing with the freedom that makes emulation fun. it goes without saying that there are no Nintendo emulators for iPad, and all of the other ones just feel like me paying again for the same games I've owned for 20 years. So if you're a retro gamer on the go, and in the know, you go Android. Plenty of emulators there, and no "walled garden" attitude about what you can put on your Android hardware.

I'm excited about the new release of Amiga Forever Essentials for Android from Cloanto. Cloanto are the creators of the justifiably famous "Amiga Forever" and "C64 Forever" emulation suites that make running these retro platforms on modern computers very easy. Now they bring their Amiga knowhow to the Android market. While there have been a couple of Amiga emulators for Android, Amiga Forever Essentials provides the crucial (and legal!) ROM files that emulators need in order to work. So for a measly 99 cents you can ensure that your Amiga emus have the proper ROM files to get the best emulated performance of my favorite computer from the 80s and 90s. Cloanto worked with the creators of popular Amiga emulators like UAE4Droid and AnUAE4All to ensure that they will auto-detect Amiga Forever's ROM install.

Amiga Forever Essentials includes ROMs for every major revision of the Amiga OS up to version 3.1, and also includes a virtual demo disk with some of the Amiga's famous graphical demos that dazzled us all back in those colorless days of the early mac and MS Windows (shiver). Below is a link to the Android store so that you can become a legal Amiga fan for just 99 cents.

links:

Amiga Forever Essentials at the Android Market
Cloanto homepage for Amiga Forever Essentials

1960s Calrad DM-12 Microphone Got Back

2013-04-14T23:56:26-06:00

In my line of work, I end up using a lot of microphones. Overwhelmingly these days, a mic is a fairly utilitarian cylinder (with occasional exceptions, of course). However when you cast an ear over microphones of the past, not only do you experience microphones with many different aural characteristics, you also get a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

We all recognize the Shure "Elvis" microphone, the classic RCA capsule shaped mic (and its innumerable knockoffs), and I still get email from people wanting to buy the "Bob Barker" microphone I wrote about years ago. I do remember seeing the curvy Calrad DM-12 around years ago, probably at the local Czech polka hall. The mic is unusually... um... sensual for a microphone. I imagine that the DM-12 was designed to be seen as well as heard - though I don't have the proper cord to tell you whether it sounds as good as it looks.

In poking around online, I couldn't find anyone speaking too much about the actual sound of the microphone, just its looks. Several studios I found will rent these mics to you to capture that "vintage sound", but it doesn't take long to figure out that just because a mic is old, that doesn't mean you're going to get any special results out of it. Several of the vintage mics I have around my office look awesome, but make it sound like I've been gargling chain-saws.

When I record a voice-over, I'm usually alone in a room recording into a stubby gun-metal condenser mic. It does a great job, but there's little pizazz. Maybe a swingin' design like the DM-12 is what I need to give those long recording session a little kick. or maybe I should remember that I just referred to a microphone as "sensual", and call it a day.

Classic Buck Rogers Rocket Sculptures

2013-04-14T23:16:37-06:00

In the early days of Retro Thing, we wrote about Cool Rockets, model maker Jeff Brewer's series of superlative rocket powered sculptures. Originally inspired by the 50s, Jeff has gone back further in the past to bring us farther into the future. His newest models are from the world of Buck Rogers, that wild 1920s comic strip that helped give birth to science fiction.

I got to see the Buck Rogers battle cruiser and the Asterite craft recently, and they continue the tradition of high quality coming from Brewer's spacedock. Hand-finished and poised for liftoff, each ship is fueled up and ready to go on those post-depression adventures of the funny pages. While his prior Cool Rockets were imbued with a spark of attitude (several of the designs looked ready to flex and spring into action), the Buck Rogers ships play it straight, serving as a tribute to those designs that launched so many imaginations so long ago.These Buck Rogers rocket sculptures are limited to a thousand pieces, so they won't be in our orbit for long. You can click below to find one on Amazon, and you'll be helping out Retro Thing along the way.

Add Buck Rogers' Battle Cruiser to your fleet

Rare Commodore 65 Hits eBay, Bidding Mayhem Ensues. Again.

2013-04-09T09:33:43-06:00

Selling to a good (and wealthy) home: One fairly rare working prototype Commodore home computer.

It's not even fully functional because the company never finished the software, deeming the machine too expensive to sell well in the early 1990s. The price? Already an astounding € 5,686 with five days to go in the auction. This will be a fun one to watch.

Retro Thing's Bohus had a chance to play with a C-65 several years ago, here's what he had to say:

After the spectacular success of the Commodore 64, the company barely knew what to do with themselves. They created the Commodore 128 that combined C64 functionality with unique high powered modes of its own, but it didn't really work out. Of course there was the mighty series of Amiga computers from the mid 80's onwards, but Commodore was convinced they could still make good use of the popular C64 technology.

Enter the Commodore 65; in many ways like a C64 that went to "11". It featured a sleek new design, two SID audio chips, a built in 3.5" floppy drive, better graphics abilities, expansion to 8 megs of RAM, and a flat bit to rest your coffee on. Some working prototypes were made in 1990-91, and when Commodore was liquidated after their bankruptcy in '94, some of these machines got out. No one knows exactly how many are out there; estimates range from 50 to several hundred.

This particular unit is owned by Jason Compton, well known Amiga fan, editor of Amiga Report (a hyperlinked online magazine pre-HTML... wow!), and all around super talent. After speaking with Jason about the C65 it seems clear that while the machine had a lot of things going for it, it was simply too late to market. By 1991 Nintendo & the PC were leading gaming and computing away from the standards that the original C64 had set.

With millions of Commodore 64's sold in the world, it seems like there could have been interest in an improved version like the 65. The C65 went unreleased not because ol' "chicken lips" (the unfortunate nickname for Commodore's logo) was too chicken to offer new products, but because the C65 simply would not have sold in the early 90's. Especially not at the $300-400 projected price. Sadly the evolutionary C65 will go down in computing history as another unfortunate casualty of Commodore's legendary lack of insight.

Want to find out how much it sells for? You can watch the auction here [eBay].

Roland SH-101: A Keytar Ready To Hit The Slopes

2013-04-01T23:52:45-06:00

I got my first keytar a while back, and pretty much everyone thought (thinks) I was (am) the biggest dork. Even other keyboard guys. I'm not saying that I haven't earned that title many times over (this existence of Retro Thing is testimony of that!), but over a keytar? When I got mine, it was a decidedly out thing... and it didn't help my case any that the instrument was large (full size keys, go figure.), blazing white, and had "Casio" written on it in a huge font.

We seem to be in a place now where there are new models of keytar every week. So when I wanted to hot dog on some blazin' keyboard solos I was weird, but when some smug ironic hipster straps into a keytar he's "totally meta"? Sorry dude - you're just a dork with moustache wax.

Maybe it's the wanna-be guitar shape of most keytars that cemented their role in the annals of music history as a peculiarity. Except for showboating, there's little real need for a keytar. You can only play one handed with your left mitt just swinging around whatever passes for a guitar-style neck. I'll bet the synth history books would tell a different story if we were all rocking the Roland SH-101.

First of all, you're talking about an excellent analog synth. Monophonic, I grant you... but that's perfect for soloing. All the knobs and tweaks are right there. It's small and square, so no phallic posturing here. An SH-101 player is clearly comfortable with himself as a person. Available in cheerful read, blue and silver. You can even bolt on a tiny guitar-ish handle for pitch & mod wheels, or just to more fully bring the rock. And of course it's the 80s you can be dressed like you're ready to go skiing at pretty much any time.

The first time I saw one of these in action was on a TV interview with John Tesh. The internet was there and remembered to put a tape in the VCR.

Tesh was struggling to get out from under the stone of his mid-afternoon Hollywood gossip show to prove that he was a serious musician too. True, his albums were mostly of the New Age variety, but on an appearance with Dweezil & Ahmet Zappa he produced his SH-101 and wowed the crowd with Black Sabbath's rock classic "The Wizard" (the harmonica sure can get kinda dark). Ahmet did his incomprehensible dance, Tesh nearly lost his specs (right at 1:42), and I was out of my chair! I was dancing along with John Tesh! I was jammin' along with Ahmet Zappa! And the Roland SH-101!

Oh wait. I'm a dork again.

Your Future Wife #2

2013-03-21T09:46:39-06:00

We're all looking for love, that mysterious and vexing connection between two people. When you don't know what you're looking for, maybe your best bet is to follow the guidance of a 1935 Exhibit Card vending machine. If the wife we predicted for you last time didn't pan out, how about this one?

"Your future wife will be an heiress, one of society's spoiled and pampered daughters and disgustingly rich. She will be the life of every party, but she knows nothing about darning your socks or sewing on buttons. Your toes will stick through the holes in your socks, and you will wear nails in your supporters to keep your trousers up, and she will make you love it. One little society socialite will grace your home."

It looks like they had Paris Hiltons 80 years ago too, eh?

Cee Lo Green + Rock-afire Explosion Live In Las Vegas

2013-02-22T16:22:02-07:00

Two retro-fueled YouTube phenomena take the stage in a series of live shows in Las Vegas on February 27th. A couple years back, Cee Lo Green's Motown inspired grooves hit the net with a song who's name we're reluctant to say on a family website. You can hear a bowdlerized version on the radio called "Forget You", but it lacks the juice of the fiery original. It's a hysterical tune that namechecks Atari among other things, and the accompanying music video is a retro delight (you can spot a Casio SK-1 on the counter top in the diner). Love that song, and it went huge on the internet.

Another massive phenom on the net also goes back a few years with the Rock-afire explosion. This all mechanical group was the house band at kiddie pizzerias in the 80s. The robots don't really play the instruments, but their animated automaton antics won the hearts of many a joyous face covered in birthday cake. When Showbiz Pizza transformed into Chuck E. Cheese, some determined fans bought the old Rock-A-Fire robot "show" and reprogrammed them to sing new songs. It's both amazing and unsettling to see these cherished children's characters grinding ouut some sexy R&B beats. The internet went crazy, and there was even a fine documentary (watch it HERE for free) produced about the phenomenon.

Aaron Fechter, inventor of the Rock-afire Explosion, has been at the helm of this reprogramming scene. We've seen the RF band appear in music videos and feature films, and today the band takes up residency as part of Cee Lo Green's live Vegas show at Planet Hollywood opening the show with a rousing Rock-afire rendition of "F*** You".

"Cee Lo grew up having his childhood birthday parties at Showbiz Pizza Place in Atlanta," says Fechter, "and now, he's bringing his childhood's first live band, musical influence with him!" This is a seven week engagement, with a hint of possible further performances after that.

If I were in Vegas, I'd grab a couple slices of cheap pizza and join the party. Any of our readers local and able to go?

A Shockingly Decent $50 Stereo System

2013-02-21T12:03:54-07:00

I've used a pair of Logitech computer speakers with a powered subwoofer in my office for years. I've never been particularly happy with the quality; yes, they can make the floor joists vibrate and sever the auditory hair cells from my cochlear nerve. Just not in a nice way.

So I set out to find a replacement.

I realized in a hurry that mainstream big box stores weren't going to be much help; they've been overrun by plasticy iDocks and a smattering of component systems – replacing my sound system with something that sounded better was looking to be an expensive proposition.

Then I remembered a product that I wrote about in 2009 – a tiny bargain-priced amplifier that used a digital amplifier chip manufactured by Tripath. It offered surprisingly clean sound for the money. Sure enough, Parts Express still offers a range of Tripath-based amplifiers and the price has come down considerably. Figuring that they'd all sound much the same, I opted for the no-frills Lepai LP-2020A+, a $20 unit based on a Tripath TA2020 chip. It's capable of outputting 20W + 20W into 4 Ohms at full power and includes a 12V, 2A power supply.

This minuscule amp is just about as bare-bones as they come, with defeatable treble and bass controls and a volume knob on the front panel. The back offers a 3.5mm jack for an MP3 player, alongside stereo RCA jacks. The inputs are tied together, so you can only use a single source.

Of course, finding the right amplifier was only half of the battle.

Luckily, I stumbed across a review in Stereophile that praised a $29.98 pair of Dayton B652 bookshelf speakers, also from Parts Express. The review concluded, "Keep a pair in your dorm room, a pair on your desktop, a pair in your office. As long as your expectations are realistic and you're willing to have fun, the Daytons are sure to please." That was good enough for me.

These moderately sized speakers measure 11-13/16" H x 7-1/16" W x 6-7/16" and can be placed almost anywhere because they don't have a rear bass port that needs to be kept open. You shouldn't expect great beauty at this price; the B652s are basic black vinyl-covered rectangles with cheesy plastic spring clip connectors on the back. There's a wall mounting hook (these would be perfect in a reception area or small restaurant), and the removable cloth grilles are mounted on fiberboard, but they do the job.

Inside, you'll find a 6 1/2" polypropylene cone and a 5/8" ferrofluid-cooled polycarbonate dome tweeter. Each speaker is rated to handle 40W RMS (70W maximum) into 8 Ohms, with a 70-20,000 Hz frequency response and a sensitivity of 87 dB 1W/1m. They're well suited to the little Tripath amplifier.

All in all, this combination offers amazing bang for the buck. As long as you keep the volume at a reasonable level and defeat the tone controls, you're rewarded with clean, uncolored sound. Don't expect floor-shaking bass from this setup, but this minor shortcoming is shared by other inexpensive bookshelf speakers that tend to bottom out well above 50 Hz.

Pricewise, there's nothing to complain about. You're looking at a total of $49.98 plus around $10 for UPS ground shipping, a fraction of the cost of an MP3 player dock. In return, you'll receive a system that should offer years of faithful service in an office, garage or workshop.

Check out the Dayton B652 Bookshelf speakers and Lepai LP02020A+ amp at Parts Express.

A First Look At KORG's MS-20 Synthesizer Reissue

2013-02-20T12:55:07-07:00

We first mentioned KORG's new mini version of the classic MS-20 synthesizer last month. Here's a hands-on look by Peter Kirn at Create Digital Music.

Peter comes away impressed; KORG has managed to cram the essence of the 1978 original into a somewhat modernized package. It still only plays one note at a time, there are no patch memories and you can only control notes via MIDI -- don't expect to tweak knob settings from the comfort of your computer desktop.

That said, this little synth is a great value for $599, although public response has been polarized. Some electronic musicians absolutely love it, while others question the need for yet another standalone analog monosynth with limited MIDI capability. Personally, I'm sold.

Explore the MS-20 in more depth at Create Digital Music