Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m all for incorporating retro trends into a pair of sneakers, but I’m afraid these Tetris print Pumas just don’t do it for me. The shoes are custom variations of the Disc Blaze model which first came out in 1994 and besides the Tetris pattern print, they also feature some early ’90s color schemes. Remember when we couldn’t get enough neon? Yeah, I’ve forced myself to forget those times too. The ‘disc’ in Disc Blaze refers to the large dial on top of the tongue which is used to tighten the shoes instead of traditional laces. The system has since been copied by other shoe manufacturers with relative levels of success, so I’m wondering if Puma is hoping the Disc Blaze shoes will become more popular this time around.

Like a lot of cool stuff the shoes were first available in Japan, but should be hitting the US in the coming weeks. Not surprisingly you won’t be able to find them at your local Foot Locker since they’re only being released to selected Puma ’boutiques’.

[ Puma Disc Blaze 1990s Tetris Pack ] VIA [ Albotas ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the post dates back to October of last year, on the Kodak ‘PluggedIn‘ blog Steve Sasson took a walk down memory lane regarding the company’s first portable electronic still camera. And who better to do so than Steve Sasson who is actually credited with inventing the digital camera and was one of the guys who created the prototype pictured above. The camera is really a Frankenstein of technologies from 1975 built from various components including a Super 8 movie camera lens, a portable digital cassette instrumentation recorder, 16 nickel cadmium batteries, a new type of CCD imaging array and a collection of digital and analog circuits all wired together. All in all, the first prototype doesn’t look half bad.

Instead of memory cards, the camera relied on the aforementioned cassette deck to capture still images which took about 23 seconds to record the digitized image to tape. Viewing the image required you to put the tape in a custom built playback device which featured a frame store that would interpolate the 100 captured lines of data from the CCD to 400 lines so that it could then be viewed on an NTSC TV.

This reminds me of the electronic camera I invented as a child, but my version was actually capable of producing full color images. Unfortunately when I tried to apply for a patent the government informed me that my ‘camera’ was actually a Lite Brite that my parents had bought me for Christmas. But they were impressed with the photos of Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner I had ‘taken’… Or maybe they were just trying to let me down easy now that I think of it… Those jerks!

[ PluggedIn - We Had No Idea ] VIA [ Retro Thing ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Javier Segovia is a graphic designer working in Spain who occasionally turns his attention to concept designs for actual products. The reNESED is his take on the NES gaming console from yesteryear, and is hands down a big improvement over Nintendo’s original design. Of course it’s a bit easier to design shiny, curvy hardware these days thanks to 3D software and advanced manufacturing techniques (see the PS3) but the reNESED is still a nice piece of eye candy. Of course if I was redesigning the NES console I would have to incorporate some kind of automatic blowing mechanism to minimize the risk of me getting light-headed while playing. That, or actually fix the problem that caused games not to load correctly.

[ reNESED ] VIA [ Kotaku ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Got a stack of NES carts at home that you’ve been dying to play while traveling? I didn’t think so. Given the capabilities of the PSP and even the DS, I’m kind of surprised anyone would even want a portable way to play old NES carts when they can be so easily emulated. But the FC Mobile portable system does just that. It looks like a slightly fat, overly curvaceous version of the Game Boy Micro, but that’s mostly because of the slot on the back designed to accommodate NES cartridges.

You can either play the games using the FC Mobile’s 2.4 inch LCD color screen, or use the included AV adapter cable to hook it up to a television and enjoy all that 8-bit goodness on your hi-def display. It’s powered by 3 AA batteries, comes in a red & white or silver & black color schemes and appears to only play North American NES games.

Unfortunately the only place to pick one up right now is on eBay, where they range in price from around $30 to $60.

[ FC Mobile NES Game Portable LCD System ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Luke Anderson

It always fascinates me that you can take something, make it look old and it’s suddenly cool because it’s “retro.” Aside from the ability to create mix tapes, there wasn’t anything cool about the cassette tape that I ever saw. This Cassette MP3 player would probably be the closest thing to cool that the cassette tape will ever get.

What makes this device cool is that it can act as both a stand-alone MP3 player and as a cassette tape. If you actually still have a stereo that takes the old tapes, you can put this in and it will play just the same. It’ll set you back $40, which is a bit steep considering the fact that you’ll need to supply your own SD card to store the music.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Argh! What I wouldn’t give for Nintendo to bring their Japan-only (soon to include Australia) Club Nintendo to North America. For one, I would have been able to order one of these exclusive Wii compatible versions of the original Super Famicom controller. Like the Wii’s ‘Classic Controller’ this one connects to the Wiimote giving it a wireless connection to the console itself. Inside Games has posted an unboxing gallery of their Wii Famicom controller, which makes me hate them even though we’ve never met and I’m sure they’re all nice people.

So… Are there any OhGizmo! readers in Japan who want to help out a gadget blogger weasel his way into a Club Nintendo membership?

[ Wii Super Famicom Classic Controller ] VIA [ Nintendo Wii Fanboy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I have no problem with kids playing video games, as long as they spend part of their days doing something more creative so their imaginations don’t atrophy. Besides building toys and stuff like Lite Brite, I also remember having a Muppets themed Colorforms set when I was a kid. While I don’t think the Muppets are as popular as they were in the 80’s, I do think today’s kids would still enjoy Colorforms, even though they seem pretty hard to come by these days.

Thankfully as part of MoMA’s Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today exhibition, the MoMA Store is now selling an exact replica of the original Colorforms set from 1951. The kit includes 350 brightly colored vinyl shapes that will stick to any glossy surface, or as I recall, to each other. At $35 this replica Colorforms set isn’t exactly cheap, but finding all the little pieces strewn across your house? Priceless.

[ MoMA - The Original Colorforms Set ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I have fond memories of my childhood (minus the noodle incident) and for a gamer, nothing says the early 80’s like Atari. So if you’ve got a few minutes to spare and fancy a trip down memory lane, check out these scans of a 1981 Atari Catalog on HuguesJohnson.com. The catalog was actually found by a friend of his while moving, and Mr. Johnson was kind enough to put it online for the rest of us to enjoy. While a lot of the games in the catalog have become classics, the fun part is looking through the lavish illustrations that barely resemble what the actual gameplay was like.

And if Atari was never your thing, you might want to check out the ‘Scans’ under the ‘Video Game Features’ section of HuguesJohnson.com where you’ll find copies of old Sears, Intellivision and even Coleco catalogs and flyers.

[ 1981 Atari Catalog Scans ] VIA [ Fazed ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Whether you agree with analog audiophiles or not, there’s no denying they’ll go to great lengths and spend mountains of cash to recreate what they feel is the ‘perfect sound.’ Case in point, a company called The Tape Project is now selling albums on 1/4-inch reel-to-reel tape that they claim is as close to listening to the original analog masters as you can get. (Without buying a recording studio.) Here’s a description of their process:

Master tapes are created on the Stubb-U-Sonic analog system in the Camellia mastering studio at the 1340 Mission studio complex. The mastering monitor system uses custom designed Magico loudspeakers and Bottlehead tube electronics.

Running masters are made directly from session or mix tapes, mastered on an ATR Services 1″ two track ATR 100 with custom de Paravicini electronics, by Grammy Award winning mastering engineer Paul Stubblebine.

These 1″ running masters are played on a 1″ Ampex MM1200 master tape machine conversion by ATR Services, using the legendary Ampex MR-70 tube reproduction electronics custom modified by Tim de Paravicini.

Your master duplicate is recorded in real time at 15 ips in two track format on 1/4″ tape, on one of four tightly matched Ampex ATR 100s. During the duplicating process the tapes are constantly being monitored by an engineer, assuring that every tape is a perfect copy of the master.

Each completed 10.5-inch reel is engraved with a catalog number indicating the A and B sides and is given a unique serial number. It’s then packaged and delivered in a leather grained setup box with gold foil embellishment and if you think all that attention to detail doesn’t come cheap, you’d be right. A subscription which includes all 10 albums currently in their catalog will set you back $2,000. There’s also a selective option that will get you any six albums for just $1,200. And don’t forget about picking up a reel-to-reel machine and a decent set of speakers in order to actually enjoy them.

[ The Tape Project ] VIA [ Retro Thing ]