[M3talhead] takes us through a very informative repair of an old tube radio. In this case, his radio was from the late 30s. He was able to find the original data from Radiomuseum.org. He painstakingly dismantles the radio components and the cabinet. Instead of completely modernizing the internals, he replaces the bad parts and brings it back to functionality. He wanted to do an MP3 upgrade, but rather than wire directly into the radio, he built an AM transmitter for his mp3 player.
retro282 Articles
Hacking TVs In 1954
This gem was published in Mechanix Illustrated magazine in may of 1954. AT that time, a remote control was the stuff of science fiction. This article shows the modern man how to modify his television to include a fancy button to stop all noise. This button, affectionately labelled the “SHADDAP” was marketed as a way to relieve the pain of long winded commercials. Basically, it cut the connection to the speaker, nothing super fancy. Is that an altoids tin as an enclosure?
[via BoingBoing]
Lee Hart’s “Memebership Card”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbsPddZsmVI]
In an act of retro revival, [Lee Hart] has created this “Membership Card“, an altoid tin sized tribute to the 1802 CMOS chip. Made popular in the late 70s in the RCA COSMAC ELF computer, the 1802 stole many a hackers heart. There’s tons of information available if you explore the site, from history to kit building experiences.
[via Retro Thing)
Modded C64 Eye Candy
“Everyone needs a hobby,” they tell us. For the blogger mysteriously identified only as “R,” that hobby would be an almost fanatical nostalgia for the Commodore 64 computer.
At first we thought this was a fan community site, but apparently it’s all the work of a single person. [R] has tweaked, extended, repackaged and resurfaced this 1980’s icon in nearly every imaginable way. They tend to gloss over the technical aspects of these mods, but that’s okay – the C64 is such an exhaustively documented system now that the site dwells mainly on the aesthetics and meaning of these reborn devices.
The 64 has made an indelible impression on electronic music, and the machines are still sought after by collectors, composers and circuit-benders. [R] pays homage by housing these vintage systems in styles reminiscent of even vintage-er synthesizers. Any one of these would warrant a post here, yet there’s a whole collection to browse. Check it out!
[via Retro Thing]
C64 Emulator For IPhone Approved — Minus BASIC
After a lengthy process that had previously met with rejection, Manomio’s Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch has finally been accepted by Apple. This marks the first time a multi-purpose emulation title has been approved by the App Store. The $4.99 C64 app comes bundled with five fully-licensed classic games, and additional titles can be purchased and downloaded directly within the application.
App Store policies prohibit software that could run downloadable code, which barred most emulation attempts in the past. A couple of Sega titles worked around this by nature of being single-purpose emulators. The condition by which the C64 title was finally approved was the removal of the BASIC programming language (though ironically it’s still shown in screen shots, even on the App Store). Since only sanctioned programs can be installed and run from within the application, no user-alterable code is present.
The C64 emulator is neat enough in itself, but the really encouraging news here is that a precedent has been set; the business model may open the floodgates for developers to bring more classic gaming titles to the iPhone platform. So download that SDK and get hacking!
[via TouchArcade]
Update: The iPhone Blog has a simple work-around for accessing BASIC!
Update 2: App pulled, no surprise. If you jumped on the opportunity while it was available, [George’s] comment might be of interest.
DENCON
Defcon, the world’s largest hacker convention, is this coming weekend in Las Vegas. While the convention generally focuses on breaking new technology, digital archivist [Jason Scott] has an interesting surprise for attendees this year. With some help from VintageTech, he’ll be assembling a massive den of retro computing machinery. They’ll have fully functional systems like the PDP-11/70 for people to play with. It sure to be one of the more unique things to see at the con.
Atari 2600 Slim
[Chris-Koopa] sent in this sweet little throwback to the good ol days of Atari 2600. He had been playing his old unit, lamenting the poor visual quality on his new TV when he had an idea. He picked up an Atari flashback2 and began modding. He added a cartridge slot and made some case modifications to make it look more like the 2600. The final result is that he can switch between the built in games, or play strait off of the cartridges with crisp clean video. There are other methods of doing this, like modding the Atari itself or building a whole new console, but this is pretty sweet too.
