Retro Thing

Listening In On The Apollo 11 Astronauts... From Home

2009-11-07T11:11:37-07:00

Back in July 1969, amateur radio buff Larry Baysinger managed the impossible by listening in on transmissions from the Apollo 11 astronauts during their historic lunar landing.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported, "Thanks to some homemade electronic equipment, including a rebuilt 20-year-old radio receiver from an Army tank and an antenna made of spare pieces of aluminum, nylon cord and chicken wire, a small band of Louisvillians was able to 'eavesdrop' Sunday night on the American astonauts' conversation directly from the moon.

The odds and ends of equipment recorded only 35 minutes of conversation between astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the lunar surface and their orbiting companion Michael Collins. But the signals were received directly from the moon, over a quarter of a million miles away, not through Houston Space Center."

Brilliant stuff. I wish we could recapture the excitement of the space race instead of squandering trillions of dollars irradiating vast swathes of desert with depleted uranium.

Read: Lunar Eavesdropping in Louisville, Kentucky [via Make]

Vintage Synth Trump Cards

2009-11-07T10:46:36-07:00

Just spotted on Matrixsynth: Vintage Synth trump cards, the perfect xmas gift for fanatic synthgeeks. £6.99 including postage.

"Can you use your skill and judgment to become the undisputed champion of vintage synth wisdom? Playing is easy. Simply divide the cards between the number of players before taking it in turns to read aloud a statistic from your card. The highest scoring instrument in that category wins that round. The person who gains all the cards wins."

GForce Vintage Synth Trumps

Telehelper 1600 - Let Your Fingers Do Less Walking

2009-11-06T00:47:15-07:00

I've been using Google Voice for a week or so now, and I love it. It's one of those things that delivers on the promise of the computer... to make life easier. Of course, free phone calls aren't bad either. The system has an interesting approach to working with your existing telephone. You type out the phone number you want to call via Google Voice, the system calls your telephone, and after you pick up it rings through to your party. Very slick, and I didn't have to do anything at all to change my conventional phone service.

I imagine that people would prefer to dial directly, but I sort of like the delay. It reminds me of big bosses behind massive desks in old movies smashing down the intercom button to bark out, "get the Prime Minister on the line for me!". That idea is from a time when your job could actually include looking up and dialing a number for your boss - so he doesn't have to.

Somewhere between cigar chomping chiefs of old and Google Voice came devices like the Telehelper 1600. It's a desktop device that "records" phone numbers so that you can speed dial one at the push of a button. Of course this facility is built into many desktop phones and even cell phones today, but back in 1983 you'd have to plunk down about $65 to get the sophistication and convenience of one touch dialing.

Such high prices were the norm in those early days of phone service deregulation in the US (an answering machine from the same product line fetched more than $200), but it wasn't long before speed dial buttons on phones lightened the load on harried secretaries everywhere.

"RPG Quest - Minimæ" Ultima Style Adventure For iPhone

2009-11-06T00:19:12-07:00

I have to admit that I've never participated in a role playing game. In the 80's, a group of my friends wanted me to join their... I dunno what to call it... coven? This was the time of D&D's popularity, and also heightened fear of the occult being invoked by 20 sided dice. That's not what kept me away, but I saw the appeal in RPG's. The vast adventures and the lengthy campaigns all made for an intriguing and flexible game. Now as an adult, I sadly don't have the time to devote to such a thing, not even the computer variants that have cropped up in all the years since.

Ultima was the biggie in the 80's on North American computers (the rest of the world mostly did battle via Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy). Ultima captured the sprawl of the RPG world, but also included "feelies" in the box. These were props and souvenirs that appeared somewhere in the game. These coins and cloth maps inspired other publishers to do the same. One only has to look at the madness of Infocom packages to get a feeling of how extensive & massive these game packages got. These "feelies" also formed part of the copy protection of the game - you needed these physical props to complete the adventure.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is my very clever friend Robin Harbron. A few years ago he created a Commodore 64 Ultima styled adventure game, and managed to fit it into an astonishingly tiny 2K (later bloating the game up to 4K adding, among other things, joystick support)! The game has been very popular, even making it as a hidden game onto the famous C64 plug & play joystick.

Now you can join in the fun without digging out your old Commodore. Robin and his P1XL partner Sam Washburn bring us appealing new retro-inspired graphics, and an all-new chiptune score that's both authentic and appealing. Minimæ's interface is simple--just swipe and tap to move your brave adventurer. The rules are simple but the gameplay is surprisingly deep, with a variety of pixellated nasties, puzzles to solve, and secrets to reveal. It's everything you'd expect from an old-school RPG in the shiny black modern trappings of the iPhone.

Robin is one of my favorite Canadians, and that's not just because he brings Coke sweetened with sugar (instead of corn syrup) to the Chicago Commodore 64 expo every year. His games are super clever, and you'd be lucky to meet a kinder soul. This first release from P1XL is only $2.99 from the App Store, so let's try to make it a hit, eh? Don't worry about the medieval "æ" character confusing your search. A search for "Minimae" or "Minima" will still turn up the game... and that's only your first search along the way to greater treasure, adventurer.

links:

Minimæ homepage
Start your adventure by visiting iTunes

Remembering The Sega Master System

2009-11-05T11:05:01-07:00

The Nintendo Entertainment System gets a lot of praise from gamers. And why not? It had great games, introduced a bunch of classic franchises, and revived the video game industry after Atari went ahead and screwed it up. It deserves to be celebrated. We may be on a budget, but don't worry, we're going to have confetti. Just remember - clerks want you to buy the candy first before you take the wrappers.

But back in 1992, all I knew was that we owned a Sega Master System, and it was awesome.

Yeah, the NES kicked its butt in North America. Yeah, by that year the Sega Genesis was already out. So what? So many people talk about how good the NES was, but not enough gamers realize that the Sega Master System was a fine console as well. (Some of these gamers wouldn't realize being caught in a time warp, but I digress.)

That being said, I can see why people may have been turned off by it. The console is long and boxy - very utilitarian, just like its controller. It was cast in straight black and red colors, which looked grim compared to the dull tones of the NES. The cartridges matched this color scheme too, but they came in these strange, white boxes with grid lines all over them. Why would they go with a design choice like that? The only thing I can imagine it's good for is to separate a Fruit Loop from its peers. Then the Frosted Flakes will rescue the surviving Fruit Loops, who will then go on to tell their stories. (Of course, the Cocoa Puffs will deny it ever happened.)

But the labels on the game boxes confounded me the most. For some reason, the title of the game was always followed by a label that read "The Mega Cartridge". Not A Mega Cartridge - THE Mega Cartridge. What's the point of that? Did labeling a game "The Mega Cartridge" make it more awesome? And if it did, don't you think the effectiveness of this label would be decreased if you called every game THE Mega Cartridge? I mean, you don't hand out a medal to everyone who flies over to the Olympics. What event would that be for? "Synchronized airlining"?

Okay, I'm nitpicking here. In the end, the games are the thing. We never bothered to pick up any new games, but by the time my young mind first noticed the Master System, we already had a bunch of games to go with it. Most of them were pretty fun. And, well, difficult to play. What did you expect? I was six. I still thought carrots tasted like Cheetos because they were orange.

So, yeah. These games were, to use an ironic trope, Nintendo Hard. Maybe it's because my reflexes sucked as a kid, but we also didn't have the instructions for these games, so good luck figuring them out when you're six years old. Let's take Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, for example. It's probably one of my first role-playing games, but all I remember is that I moved along a grid, fought monsters, and always got killed. I didn't have the kind of mindset you need to appreciate a game like that. That didn't happen until a guy in a club spiked my drink, tied me down to a bed, and made me roll up a paladin.

I had more fun with other games, mind you. I really liked games like Aztec Adventure, where you went around mazes and bribed enemies to fight for you. I was also a huge fan of the Double Dragon port, but since it was also balls hard, I hated playing it alone. I still remember begging my sister to play two-player with me. (By the way, I went back some time ago and played it because I figured I could handle it now. Then I watched someone else beat the game on YouTube, so I pretended that I made the video while undercover.)

Of course, some games were just plain hard to control. After Burner painfully comes to mind. It was hard enough to steer - try shooting down enemy planes at the same time while you're at it. The Rocky game was also tough because of its wonky mechanics. You see, if you're getting pounded on, you can't control Rocky until you block a punch and start swinging back. This will definitely go well in the hands of a second-grader. "I don't know what to do! They never showed it in the montage!"

I think the only Master System game I beat was Monopoly. And I don't even know how I did. I just picked the car and hoped for the best. It's safe to assume the AI got itself bankrupt. AIs can get pretty stupid like that. I guess that's what happens when you get programmed at DeVry.

But despite all the frustrations, I loved that Master System to death. Ironically, I wasn't the one who caused its demise. That honor goes to my sister, who accidentally knocked it off a counter with the grace of a tuba. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised - she had a penchant for ruining things I had as a child. That's why Mom started putting mothballs in my closet.

Still, even though fate tore us apart, I still respect the Sega Master System to this date. It may not be NES-quality, but I'm glad I developed my early gaming skills on that magnificent beast. If you haven't played any Sega Master System games, I really recommend you give it a try. How you do it is up to you. Buy a console. Emulate the hardware. Heck, go back in time and steal mine.

...I remember you.

And what happened to me afterwards, you probably didn't ask (but I'm going to tell you anyway)? Well, after the Master System passed on, I continued gaming on old computers around the house. That is, until Dad brought home a little console called the Sega Genesis. Hey, what can I say? Sega did what Nintendidn't. Plus it was big and black, and our hockey team wasn't that picky.

When not trying to make a suit of armor that can fight Decepticons, Matt Willard makes fun of nostalgic games, books, and TV shows at Giant Robot Invasion.

Another Unfortunate Font Cliché

2009-11-05T02:14:19-07:00

Fonts have been much on my mind lately thanks to a project I'm working on. There are certain font cliches out there that I'm sure we all suffer through every day. My friend Tony pointed out the overuse of "Curlz", "Fiesta" pollutes every retirement party invite and daily specials at Mexican restaurants, and let's not even consider the unspeakable horrors visited upon us by users of "Comic Sans" (the 2004 Canada Day collector coin, for one...).

Who knew that "Trajan" has commited crimes on an even larger scale in just the last few years? According to this video, a surprisingly large number of movies use Trajan as their title font, trailer font, or as part of the DVD packaging. There must be some Trajan-friendly focus group somewhere that made this happen. If you've seen the brilliant documentary film "Helvetica" (created for the font's 50th anniversary), you know how easily a font can become so ubiquitous that it can lose some of its power.

Why do certain fonts hold our fascination more than the many other varieties out there? I guess because they still work. "Verdana" still looks great, "Times New Roman" will live forever, and "Georgia" is a classic that we even use around here on Retro Thing. Just please make it so I don't ever have to see "Magnetic" or "Chicago" again.

Pick up the documentary "Helvetica" on DVD from Amazon

RotorWay Unveils "Affordable" New Turbine Helicopter

2009-11-03T14:13:32-07:00

RotorWay has been manufacturing recreational kit-built helicopters for almost 50 years. The company has produced several thousand kits over the years. The only problem is that it takes a minimum of 350 to 400 hours to build a kit, not including the time required to properly balance the blades, get it FAA certified and perform flight testing.

Enter the RotorWay Eagle 300T, the company's first certified (ready to fly) production helicopter. It incorporates a Rolls Royce RR300 turbine engine designed for low-cost operation and high reliability (the turbine also doesn't require 100 LL fuel, which is becoming increasingly rare outside the USA).

Eagle 300T Preliminary Specs

Powerplant	RR300-B1
Seats	2
MAUW	2050lbs (930 kg)
Empty Weight	950 lbs. (431 kg)
Cargo Sling Max	500 lbs. (226 kg)
Useful Load	1100 lbs. (499 kg)
Fuel	80 US gal. (302 L)
Duration	2hrs +30 min res
Cruise	110kts/127mph
Service Ceiling	13000ft (3962 m)

The company is currently accepting deposits for the new craft, although the final price is still to be decided. All they're saying for now is that it'll cost more than a Robinson R22, which retails for $243,000.

RotorWay Eagle 300T Helicopter

A Nifty Portable Radio

2009-11-03T13:38:35-07:00

This is the $59 Sangean PR-D7. It seems strange to write about an old fashioned AM/FM radio in the iPod Age, but there's something incredibly convenient about a good old terrestrial wireless receiver.

For starters, there are no monthly subscription bills and you'll never complain about paying 99 cents for a single song. Local radio also offers a sense of community that you don't get from a sanitized iPod playlist - listening to NPR / CBC / BBC can be an unpredictable and enjoyable experience.

The PR-D7 measures 8.5 x 1.5 x 4.5 inches and weighs about 2 lbs. It requires 6 x AA batteries for portable use, but don't despair - there's a nifty little "alkaline / rechargeable" switch on the back that lets you use NiMH cells and recharge them with the included AC wall wart.

Apart from that, there isn't too much worth special mention. The radio features digital PLL tuning and 10 station memories, along with a backlit LCD display and alarm. There's also a stereo headphone jack.

The set has been on the market since 2008 and receives excellent reviews, so it's a safe buy. Best of all, this little portable should still be alive and kicking in 10 years. I doubt I'll be able to say the same about my iPod.

Sangean PR-D7 AM/FM Digital Rechargeable Portable Radio [Amazon]

Sangean's official PR-D7 product page

The Loneliest Space Shuttle

2009-11-02T16:50:38-07:00

I was looking through some photos of Baikonur Cosmodrome the other day when I came across this shot from 2003. A gigantic ISS-bound Soyuz TMA-3 dominates the foreground, while a forlorn Buran shuttle mock-up sits forgotten in a field, lamenting the time when it was the future of the Soviet manned space program.

Technik Museum Speyer rescued a similar shuttle in 2008 and installed it as a permanent exhibit.

Baikonur Cosmodrome [The Big Picture]

Sega & Cigarettes: Passions That Can Finally Burn Together

2009-11-02T02:00:39-07:00

In the US, Sega made their mark with the Genesis video game console. To use the vernacular of the era, their ads were "badass", painting the aging Nintendo Entertainment System as sissy and childish. It was effective, and gave Sega their brightest moment in their long history. This all came before a series of disastrous decisions about the future of video gaming hardware:

Sega CD - barely any good games
The 32X - hacky 32 bit adapter obsoleted with frustrating speed by next gen hardware
Saturn - expensive and doomed in the shadow of the then-new Playstation
Dreamcast - A system I continue to adore, and scratch my head at what went wrong

Imagine how much more badass those original Genesis ads would have been if they used one of these Sega lighters to set the competition on fire. I hope that Mario and Bonk wore their asbestos underwear. These are new lighters from Banpresto's promising "Sega Memorial Hardware Zippo Lighter" series. Even though I don't smoke, I was ready to plunk down a few bucks to pick these up. I like to imagine that I have my own anti-social badass moments that could only be aided through pyromania.
The problem? The lighters are priced in the neighborhood of $155 each, which is WAY outside what I was expecting. The honest-to-goodness Zippo lighters are very good representations of those original consoles, and I've always been fond of Sega's technology at play, but who is prepared to spend that kind of coin for such a novelty? I'll have to find other ways to express my badass/pyromaniac side. I suspect that few of us these days have that kind of money to burn.

Order your lighter from Net You in Japan

Get Retro Thing By Email

2009-10-30T14:45:00-06:00

Did you know you could subscribe to Retro Thing by email? You'll receive a weekly update to ensure you're always in touch with the past. You can subscribe to our newfangled RSS feed, too.

1901: Porsche Builds The World's First Hybrid

2009-10-30T12:33:18-06:00

Yes, we're talking about that Porsche. At the tender age of 26, Ferdinand Porsche built a four wheel drive gasoline-electric hybrid car.

Although famous for his conventional automobiles, Porsche got his start at the Béla Egger Electrical company in Vienna, Austria, where he designed an electric hub motor. Fatefully, he joined coach builder Jakob Lohner & Co. in 1898.

Porsche incorporated a pair of hub motors in the first Lohner-Porsche design, which resembled a carriage with electrically powered rear wheels. It was easy enough to create a four wheel drive version simply by adding two more motors to drive the front wheels, and that's exactly what Porsche did to create the Toujours-Contente, intended as a record-setting racer. The vehicle required almost 2 tonnes of lead acid batteries to run, severely hampering performance and practicality.

To solve the car's weight problem, Porsche added a gasoline engine that ran a generator to power the electric drivetrain; the world's first series electric hybrid. He even raced such a vehicle, which was capable of hitting speeds of up to 60 km/h. The constant quest to improve performance ultimately proved to be the downfall of his electric designs, as he concluded that internal combustion combustion engines were far better suited to automotive use.

Dr. Porsche joined Austro-Daimler in 1906 and eventual rose to become the company's managing director. By the late 1920s, Porsche found himself as a technical director at Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. His vision of a compact, lightweight Mercedes-Benz vehicle wasn't popular, and he departed. Porsche formed his own design firm in 1931, eager to revisit his small car concept during the depression that gripped Germany.

Here's a look at his second attempt, the NSU Typ 32, built in 1934. After a few more iterations, the concept eventually became Hitler's "people's car" - the Volkswagen.

WWII intervened, and - ironically - the Beetle was reborn after the war in a ruined car factory under British control. Ownership of the Volkswagen company was eventually transferred to the West German government, and production increased from a mere 9,000 cars in 1947 to a stunning 575,000 cars by 1959. The people's car had finally arrived.