Retro

Retro gaming rap: Mario gets hard-core hip-hop makeover

I don't know how much crossover there is between fans of old-school Mario games and fans of East Coast hard-core rap duo Mobb Deep, but there's at least one guy who qualifies. Teddy Faley has so much love for each, he created an entire mashup album of the two.

"Mario Deep" (fair warning: adult language in the lyrics) consists of vocals from Mobb Deep playing over a soundtrack culled entirely of samples from the first few Mario games. At first, you might think the combination would be pretty jarring, but after a few seconds, you can really get into the groove of it.… Read more

Buy your ticket for the new Titanic (no iPads, thanks)

Tempting fate is a very human pastime. We know it will all end badly sooner or later, so why not see whether we can skirt the edge of disaster and experience how it feels?

Such an impulse will surely drive many to book an early ticket on Titanic II.

No, this is not another Donald Trump project. It is, instead, the idea of Clive Palmer, an Australian mining tycoon known for his dreamy qualities.… Read more

Commodore 65 prototype sells for $7,625

Did you adore your 64? Well, wanna buy a 65? That'll cost you.

Earlier this month we saw how fans of vintage home computers can get a little crazy on eBay, bidding up the price of a 1983 10MHz Texas Instruments TI-99/8 to $3,240.

Well that's nothing compared with the enthusiasm that Commodore commands. A prototype Commodore 65 more than doubled the winning TI bid when it sold on eBay recently for a whopping $7,625. … Read more

Turn your iPhone into a Peter Frampton-style talkbox

Long before autotune was popularized in pop music, there was a phenomenon known as the talkbox. The talkbox helped guitar god Peter Frampton come alive. With the Wee-Wow for iPhone, you don't have to be Frampton to get the same effect with your iPhone.

A talkbox is a unit consisting of a tube that goes into an effects box. You hold the tube between your lips and shape the sound with your mouth. It gives off a strange sound that is part robot, part alien. It's pre-autotune at its finest.… Read more

Buy Griff's 'Back to the Future' hoverboard for $13,000

Griff Tannen was a prototypical bully, he just happened to be in the future so he had advanced bullying tools at his disposal. Those implements included bionic implants and a "Pit Bull" hoverboard, which you can now buy on eBay.

In "Back to the Future Part II," Marty McFly rocked a good-guy hoverboard done up in friendly pink, green, and yellow colors. Griff's hoverboard, though, was the Darth Vader to McFly's Luke Skywalker. It was black and red and spiky all over with what looked like two little booster rockets below.… Read more

Pulp-O-Mizer: Build your own pulp magazine cover

Delve into startling mysteries of underground kingdoms ruled by worm-people! Uncover the shocking tale of aliens from the planet Gortha! Follow the rise of the robots as they conquer the remnants of a rebellious humanity! Pulp books and magazines are easy to love for their sensational titles and enticing imagery.

You don't have to be an accomplished illustrator to turn out a pulp cover of your very own. Head over to the Pulp-O-Mizer and customize a cover to your heart's content. The Pulp-O-Mizer lets you get deep into the details of building your own awe-inspiring headlines.… Read more

This lovely 10MHz home computer, yours for only $3,240

Nostalgia for vintage PCs knows no bounds. I still have my Apple IIc in storage, and God knows why. But I don't think I'd spend thousands on a 30-year-old machine like one eBay buyer did.

A bidding war for the rare Texas Instruments TI-99/8 has turned heads among fans of these early PCs. The winning bid of $3,240 was also unusually high for a computer of that era that's sold on eBay.

The machine is an engineering prototype designed to bolster TI's precarious position in the brutal home computer wars of the early 1980s. … Read more

Google-Asteroids: Blast your way through search terms

If you think searching the Internet is way too fast and easy, I have the perfect online game for you. Google-Asteroids makes you slow down and really savor the search experience, one laser blast at a time.

Created by Masswerk.at, Google-Asteroids is labeled as an "info-shooter." You have to blast your way through the alphabet letter by letter to set your search term. Launch the search and you find yourself in an old-school-gaming asteroid field. Blast away at the asteroids floating by and you slowly reveal the search results in your score list.… Read more

Weatherman's computer goes down, he goes old school

Some would have stormed out.

They would have called their agents and stammered that they couldn't possibly work under these conditions.

But not hardy weatherman Andrew Kozak. The sunny front man from Tulsa, Okla., quickly realized that computers are a mere crutch, there to make us believe we don't have to think or imagine. … Read more

Tape runs out for Sony's portable cassette recorders

Did one or two of your childhood crushes ever make you a treacly mix tape? Chances are good you listened to it -- over and over and over again -- on your Sony portable cassette player.

If so, it's time to get sentimental. Last week, a nondescript announcement out of Sony's Japanese division sounded a death knell for the portable cassette recorder/player -- a product category that helped the company rise to prominence decades ago.

The consumer electronics giant detailed how its current line of portable cassette recorders -- including the TCM-400, TCM-410, and TCM-450 -- stand as the company's last and will be discontinued by January. In a side announcement, a Sony representative noted that the company plans to continue selling blank cassette tapes, tape decks, and boomboxes with cassette support -- for now. … Read more