Nintendo has definitely had its fair share of amazing consoles. Particularly the handhelds have always been remarkable. Not because they would have necessarily sported the latest and greatest, read Gameboy vs. Atari Lynx or DS vs. Sony PSP. One could say that technically and design wise they have been the “underdog”. But for some reason they have always come up on top.
One of the success factors for Nintendo is attributable to them bringing some new novelty into the market, like the touch screen on the DS. That alone though is not enough. The true insight is that they have also made their own titles, which have taken full advantage of the new technology. I think a brilliant DS example is Nintedogs. On the console side the Wii’s controller and Wii Sports is another great example. Simple ideas, simple games, simple graphics and intuitive controls. Not an obvious direction in the games business, which always aims for more complexity, but a true visionary statement.
I’ve picked a couple of less obvious products to talk more about in this post. My favorites, the Donkey Kong Game&Watch from 1982 and the Gameboy Micro. Why do I like these two in particular? First and foremost DK was pretty much my first experience with digital technology and “computers”. It’s a sentimental classic for myself. The Micro I like, because from the Nintendo handhelds, I feel it is the only one that has outstanding design (the DS lite and DSi come close). Additionally, they have squeeze it into such a nice package and made a significant improvement on the display quality.
Ironically, I never owned these two. So, I recently decided to buy them both. I had to fork out about 70EUR to score both, which is not too bad, I guess. The Micro was unused, which is still quite common. The DK is used, naturally. Depending on the condition you’ll end up paying from 20-100EUR for a Game & Watch. The most common defects are the lack of a battery lid and the breaking of the hatch (which is the case in my device).
As you can see form the picture, Nintendo has kept the same style of controls for the entire 20 year period that these two have in age difference. This is quite remarkable. It must be said that the buttons on the Game & Watch are still in extremely good shape. Additionally, the Micro in general has stunning looks, albeit the red light behind the start and select buttons, which is pretty tasteless. It’s got a bit of weight to it as well, which gives a nice quality feel.
To compare them a little more I’ve played the Game & Watch titles on Micro. Nintendo has release a whole range of retro Game & Watch games packages for the newer platforms. Also, they’ve made key chain size versions of the classics. Donkey Kong jr. is what I’ve mainly been playing on the Gameboy. I must say that the pixel screen doesn’t quite have the same charisma as the LCD. So, if I were to make a choice between the two, I would still go for the good old Game & Watch.
Filed under: design, gaming, portable | 1 Comment
Tags: atari lynx, donkey kong, ds, dsi, game & watch, gameboy, gameboy micro, nintendo, psp, wii
LPs are so last season
I have a feeling that LP’s might be going out of fashion and that CD are soon going to be the “niche thing”. The generation that is now into LPs, is the one that saw their parents use LPs and maybe had a few of their own.
The situation is now the same with the new generation. They saw their parents use CDs before everything became immaterial files. The jump from LPs to CDs was definitely not as drastic as the the move from a disc to a file. This leads me to think that the rise of the CD will be even bigger. People just have a tendency to like and collect physical objects.
In order to prepare myself for this next revolution, I recently acquired a CD and cassette player! At the same time I decided to start putting together a collection of classic CDs, like G’n'R Use Your Illusion for instance. And this thought came to me 4 years after I sold them all 
Anyways, the greater surprise was the cassette player. The sound that comes out is immaculate, music like Christmas songs never sounded better. Somehow the tone just has a more authentic feel to it.
As I was buying the player, I became intrigued with vintage Bang & Olufsen products. I decided to go for the BeoSound Century system from approximately 2001. The system is an integrated cd/fm radio/cassette with speakers. There are several facinating things about the system, to name a few:
1. The glass door that moves away at the show of the hand.
2. The aux-plug is a DIN.
3. It comes without a remote (Beo4).
BeoSound Century from Beoworld site
I managed to program a Sony universal remote to operate well with the system. I have yet to build a DIN plug to connect my laptop, so that is going to be a project at some point. I guess I also want to buy the remote one day, just because it is so nice.
Prices on the systems have tended to be around 500 EUR and remotes that I’ve seen have been in the 80 EUR range.
Filed under: audio, design | Leave a Comment
Tags: b&o, bang&olufsen, beo4, beosound, beosound century, cassette, DIN, LP, sony
new Macbook Pro < PowerBook G4
Let’s face it. The old PowerBook G4 is a much nicer looking object than the new MacBook Pro. What’s nicer in the new MacBook line? Well the unibody thingy is nice, but that’s about it.
So, what sucks? You have to start with the keyboard. A black keyboard? Why oh why? It doesn’t look nearly as nice as the silver keyboard on the G4. I guess it’s about the contrast that can be created for the lighting in the keyboard. In any case there are some lighting conditions that will actually cause the black keys to be inferior. The lighting in the silver keys on the previous MacBooks was fine.
What else? The black screen edges? Why oh why? This combination of keys and screen make the new Apple line-up look like very average laptops. That’s just wrong. The reasoning for this is probably something about making the screen look larger than it actually is. Well at the end of the day you have a “bigger” screen, but an ugly one at that.
Ironically, in the new MacBooks you have a uni “body”, but limbs (the keys and screen) that don’t belong to this same body. On the good old G4’s the limbs and the body belonged to the same laptop.
What else is nicer on the G4? The speaker areas and the power button strike me as more beautiful.
Filed under: computers, design | 2 Comments
Tags: G4, keyboard, MacBook Pro, PoweBook, screen
reflexer's image on Flickr
For some time now I’ve noticed that I’m not nearly as interested in electronics stores as I used to be. I was certain that it was due to the fact that I had grown older and lost some interest in the subject. The other day it dawned on me that this was probably not the ultimate reason.
Why are electronics stores not so interesting anymore? The reason is much simpler. It’s due to convergence. While the devices themselves have grown to be more complex and more beautiful, they have also become more interesting, but the different genres of products have disappeared. So basically, there is no variety of products on the shelf anymore. All you have is a bunch of media players in different form factors. There are gaming consoles that you connect to your screen. There are mp3 players that take photos. There are laptops that you can play games with. There are video cameras that take photos.
You don’t see shelves with portable cassette players, portable cd players, calculators or electronic games. Now that all the products can do everything, you can’t really browse the store and look at different objects that are interesting because they have a different purpose. Anyways, I thought that it would be a pretty nice idea to start a store that would resemble one of these old stores and feature some of the greatest products ever made.
Has anyone visited such a store lately? What would you like to see on the shelf? In my blog next entries, I will be talking about the things that I would want to see in the store. And who knows maybe one day I’ll start such a store
Filed under: store | Leave a Comment
Tags: electronics, store, vintage
Sony Discman D-88
I was recently navigating the web for all kinds of old tech stuff that I once wanted.
1. I didn’t really think that many people shared this passion with me, but as I watch the bids on eBay, I realize that I’m not alone.
1. I had thought about starting a blog, but hadn’t really found a “cause” to dedicate myself to.
Well, 1+1 is 2. Here I go, I’ll start posting about things that I find cool and we’ll see where it goes. I’ll kick off with the Sony Discman D-88. This is by far one of the most interesting portable CD player that I have ever come accross.
jasonsewell's D-88 image on Flickr
As you can see this player was designed to hold a CD single and normal size CDs come out of the corner. Last I saw one on the market was the US eBay and it went for about 50 USD.
Filed under: audio, portable | 6 Comments
Tags: cd, d-88, discman, sony
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