On a nearly moonless night in late May, as I stumbled down a wide, smooth path near a large campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it suddenly occurred to me that I can’t see in the dark anymore. I’m not sure when I lost this ability, since I hardly ever get to test it these days; most of my life has…
Every so often, you come across a comic that throws you for the sort of loop that makes you pause a few pages in and think, “I wasn’t at all prepared for how damned good this is.” Atari and Dynamite’s new Centipede series, based on the classic 1980s video game, is definitely one of those comics.
In the age of Siri, we take for granted how far speech recognition technology has come. But a quick glance back at 1986, when IBM introduced its voice recognition software, shows that we’ve travelled light years since the earliest version of this game-changing software. And it’s even more fun in satire form.
After releasing a stand that turned the Apple Watch into a miniature Macintosh computer to sit on your bedside table while it charges, Elago has now essentially done the same thing for your iPhone with its M4 stand, which lets your phone cosplay as a vintage Apple computer that’s woefully underpowered in comparison.
Kim Kardashian has been consumed by 1989. Not the actual year but the look of the year or, perhaps more accurately, an idea of what the year should look like in photographs. The actual year is arbitrary, merely a point to describe Kardashian’s new photographic aesthetic. Her newest obsession, the stylized…
It’s not the fault of Hollywood or Netflix or even the internet. Or, well, it’s not all their fault. We’re to blame for encouraging all these nostalgic re-releases and poorly re-hashed versions of things from our childhood, too. 8-Bit Philosophy delves into our need for nostalgia and cites philosopher Svetlana Boyn,…
It feels like every beloved action, comedy, or action-comedy franchise is getting rebooted with new series and sequels. Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, and, of course, Independence Day. In a way, it makes sense. As Will Smith has pointed out, we love nostalgia. But it turns out, that’s exactly why he stayed away.
What are you doing? Where are you going? Where is your life headed? I’ll tell you: to Super Van City.
Our friends at The A.V. Club just published an insanely awesome oral history of the obstacle course from Nickelodeon’s classic game show Double Dare, and it’s chock-full of icky, messy fun. This look behind-the-scenes comes is timed right: Nickelodeon is airing a one-night only Double Dare special on Wednesday to…
Nintendo of America will be releasing an absolutely adorable mini NES in November, so it just makes sense that Japan is getting its own baby Famicom.
When there’s nothing on TV, and it’s raining outside, and you’re bored of your toys, every kid always has one reliable way to entertain themselves: pretend the floor is lava and do anything you can to cross a room without stepping on it. It used to require a healthy imagination, until someone turned the idea into a…
The glory days of Nintendo consoles will forever be tied to endlessly blowing in plastic game cartridges. With its upcoming convertible system, Nintendo will try to recapture that magic, a source told The Wall Street Journal.
The week is half over so it’s about time to start getting loose for a summer weekend and watching this 80's movie mashup of people dancing by Robert Jones is just how you want to do it. If you’re old enough to remember watching these movies, awesome, because it’ll encourage you to bathe in nostalgia and watch them all…
YouTuber BreaksBricks has created a delightful stop-motion Lego animation featuring a couple of retro ‘80s toy robots having a break-dancing competition—which eventually gets a little over-competitive.
Nostalgia videos, smashed together amalgamations of our childhood entertainment, are almost as numerous cat videos and head-scratching Donald Trump tweets. But you’ve probably never seen one quite like this—an 80-minute “mixtape” that traipses through the pulpy, dark, and psychedelic moods of 80s and 90s entertainment.
The Nerdwriter has a really interesting breakdown on intertextuality in movies, or the idea of how something seen in a movie is shaped by something previously seen in something else. A call back, of sorts. A cultural or genre nod, even. But what’s really interesting is how intertextuality is now used in a world of…
Instead of rebuilding cities like New York, Boston, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. like a CG dinosaur, Alexey Zakharov used a technique where he sliced up antique photos and then carefully animated the various elements, like people, cars, and buildings, to give the appearance of actual moving footage.
Tom Kartsotis made a fortune by tapping into a sense of nostalgia with Fossil watches, and has now created a new company, Shinola, which has grounded its sense of manufactured nostalgia in Detroit. Inc. has an in-depth profile of the company.
Now that the kids of the ‘80s are grown up with jobs, disposable income, and fond memories of their childhood, toy companies are capitalizing on the nostalgia with throwback lines enticing them to re-buy all the toys they grew up with. Next up is Hot Wheels, with a new retro line reviving some truly classic cars and…
3D TVs may have gone the way of the Dodo, but as the Oculus Rift has proven, a third dimension can make video games far more immersive. That even goes for the 2D Nintendo classics you grew up playing, thanks to a new emulator with a intelligent algorithm that automatically converts those games to 3D.
