Tag: RETRO

If there is one thing that we've learned here at Switched over the years it's that, while video games may be fun, moving the mechanics of console fun into the physical realm is often far cooler. That's why we're so taken with this electromechanical 'Running of the Bulls' table-top game, inspired by the pre-console games of the mid-20th century . Using a small motor, a timing belt and a ...

As you probably know, computers were once solely the purview of nerds. Those with pocket protectors, glasses, and very few friends spent the '80s sitting in front of bulky beige boxes named PC Jr. or Apple II. 'How I Met Your Motherboard' celebrates those heady days by collecting stories and photos of people's earliest computing memories. The tales collected speak of love affairs started with now ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/04/27/geocities-izer-revives-dead-web-host-in-all-its-animated-gif-glo/'; For 15 years, GeoCities allowed everyday folks to easily create and design their own personal Web pages, but the service was officially laid to rest last October. While the 'Cities may be gone, it is certainly not forgotten. With a little guidance from the Internet mediums at ...

Share Every bride and groom wants their wedding to be unique and memorable. For gamers and nerds the world over, a soon-to-be married couple just might have set a new bar that will never be risen above. According to Offbeat Bride, Darina and her groom Niko ditched traditional paper wedding invitations, instead opting for a playable video game called "Darina and Niko's Incredible Adventure." ...

After reading about the $13K goldmine a mother found while cleaning the basement, a man known only as Dave from Kansas embarked upon his own 8-bit treasure hunt. According to Yahoo! Games, Dave found what he was looking for: 'Stadium Events,' a simple track-and-field game from Bandai that Nintendo recalled in 1988. Collectors suspect only about 20 copies remain today, and Dave posted his copy of ...

When video games first emerged from the primordial tech stew, the initial creators experimented with a variety of different codes, formats, and cartridges. Many of those styles and early evolutionary techniques have been rendered obsolete, though, and are now rapidly progressing toward complete irrelevance. The '70s and '80s witnessed the release of a huge assortment of quality games, but some ...

Share When Gary "What You Talkin' 'Bout" Coleman pawned his Nintendo Gamecube gear on eBay, many folks expressed dismay when someone actually purchased the pile of obsolescence for the shocking price of $510. That sum pales in comparison, though, to a recent bid that will undoubtedly send 30-somethings scrambling to their attics and basements in search of forgotten gaming loot. According to ...

Remember back when you got your first dial-up connection and the thrill of exploring the new and wild online jungle? It's okay, we can't either. But a new site, ChatRoulette, manages to revive that greenhorn spirit... at the expense of some seriously creepy voyeurism. In a fascinating article for New York Magazine, Sam Anderson documents his own ride through ChatRoulette, a site straight out of ...

Share digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/01/13/classic-pc-games-that-should-get-a-next-gen-makeover/'; Perhaps Hollywood writers are somehow still hungover from that 2008 strike, but lazy and lame remakes of '70s and '80s productions have become increasingly commonplace. While that wearisome and troubling lack of creativity is a plague within the music, movie, and television industries, ...

While 'Final Fantasy XIII' just can't come soon enough, we still get nostalgic for the simple trappings of old school gaming: power ups aplenty, nigh-impossible end-of-stage bosses, and the occasional cheap death. With the 2-D action platformer 'Mega Man 10', due out next year for Xbox LIVE, Wii Ware, and PlayStation Store, the Capcom developers promise those features and touts the classic 8-bit ...

For today's frugal travelers, it might be hard to imagine a time when commercial flights were luxurious. But that's just what Pan Am offered back in the day. Anthony Toth, a global sales director at United Airlines, fell in love with this high-altitude decadence at an early age while flying to visit family in Europe. Now, Toth has taken his love to new heights. According to The Wall Street ...

No one really uses screensavers these days. But if you grow bored with staring at a blank screen all day, there are actually some pretty cool ways to liven up your monitor. Screensavers aren't just meant for your viewing pleasure, either. The Nintendo Screensaver not only displays up to 60 classic Nintendo games on your screen, but according to OhGizmo!, with a simple keystroke you can jump into ...

Okay, this is our last post from that Vintage Computer Festival, we promise, but we thought there was something kind of beautiful about all those retro keyboards we saw, especially after seeing them through the lens of Matthew McMullen Smith's camera. Take a look at the gallery below and let us know if you agree. (We call first dibs on the all-turquoise and PET computer keyboards!) ...

Last week, we showed you the biggest exhibitions we saw at the Vintage Computer Festival East 2009. Still, we also became mildly obsessed with all the logos we saw on those retro PCs. So, we asked our photographer, Matthew McMullen Smith, to shoot some close-ups of as many retro logos (and vintage fonts) as he could find on the various restored computers that were on display. If you're a ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/09/24/vintage-computers-get-the-classic-car-treatment-at-vcf-east-6/'; We trekked down to the New Jersey shore a couple of weeks ago to attend the Vintage Computer Festival East 6.0, an annual gathering of serious computer enthusiasts who prepare and exhibit working, restored computers from '50s, '60s, '70s and very early '80s ("essentially nothing later ...