What I laughingly call “my mind” is usually jam-packed with a jumble of rambling miscellaneous musings, all vying for my attention… and today is no exception.
One of the topics that’s currently at the forefront of my consciousness (and quite possibly my unconsciousness, for all I know) is that of retro electronic toys.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that just saying this triggered a new cascade of concepts, starting with, “Hmmm, what does the word ‘retro’ mean?” (It’s one of those words that I know what it denotes… right up until I try to explain it to someone.)
As usual, nothing is simple because there are competing definitions, but I can live with the following, which I’ve cobbled together from multiple sources: When we say “retro,” we’re usually referring to something that imitates, celebrates, or originates from things in recent history—especially styles, trends, or technology. Furthermore, we’re usually talking about the mid-20th century (roughly the 1940s to the 1990s), but we can sometimes extend this to the 1920s and 1930s.
For example, I can easily envisage something that’s newly made but is designed to look like an Art Deco piece of furniture from the 1920s, a chrome and Bakelite electric toaster from the 1930s, a vacuum tube radio from the 1940s, a fridge from the 1950s, or an electric guitar from the 1960s (say a Fender Vintera ‘60s Stratocaster).
Now I’m thinking about the word “classic” and the fact that I recently heard a group of teenagers talking about “classic rock.” I was vaguely interested until I realized they were dribbling on about bands from the 1990s (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Radiohead…). That’s not classic! Classic rock refers to real bands like Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, Boston, Rush, The Eagles, The Doors, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath…
I’m sorry… I got a little carried away for a minute… what were we talking about? Oh yes, now I remember…
The scary thing is that, when I come to celebrate my 100th birthday in 2057, I can imagine a young person of that time boasting about the fact that they’ve just purchased a retro-style [your suggestion goes here] modeled after one that their parents had in the 2020s. Now I feel like an old fool (but where are we going to find one at this time of the day?).
Talking about “retro,” as we are, also reminded me that yesterday, as I pen these words, I visited GigaParts in Huntsville, scouting out a new computer system. Even though the tower in my office is only about 3 years old, it’s starting to run into niggling issues. For example, the latest automatic Windows 11 update failed to fully install, somehow managing to disable my Ethernet (and hence internet) access. Now I’m obliged to perform an arcane ritual every morning to get everything up and running again. It turns out I really need to apply a firmware upgrade to my main C drive from Western Digital to make the Windows 11 upgrade stick. Not surprisingly, I’m a little loath to do this without having a backup plan in place.
The reason I like buying my computers from GigaParts is that they custom-assemble systems using premium, performance-matched components tailored to the user’s needs. Also, they have a top-notch support group, should the occasion arise. Anyway, I found a very tasty Zero Pro Z9 Desktop Workstation with an Intel Ultra 9 285 processor, 64GB RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. My plan is to use this to upgrade my home office, taking my time loading all my software applications and replicating the setup in my work office. Only when this system is fully established will I attempt to apply the firmware upgrade to the system disk on my main office machine.
I was just wondering why I was waffling on about GigaParts and their relationship to “retro,” and then I remembered. On my way to the checkout, I passed an end display that screamed out to me, “Max! Over here! Come and look at this awesome retro keyboard!”
Retro keyboard (top) and Dual Super Buttons (bottom).
It was fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at things) that my existing keyboard has been getting a little flaky recently. As a result, I really didn’t need much to persuade me that one of these retro devices needed to accompany me home.
This bodacious beauty is the brainchild of 8BitDo, a Hong Kong–based (Shenzhen) company founded in 2013 that specializes in gaming peripherals that blend nostalgic retro designs with modern functionality. It’s a mechanical keyboard with a great feel, the build quality is extremely good, and it’s a lot more substantial than you might expect (at the time of this writing, they are available on Amazon Prime for ~$90, but I don’t know how long it will be before this price is no longer available due to tariffs and supply chain problems).
You can connect the keyboard to your computer using Bluetooth, a wireless 2.4G dongle (supplied), or a wired connection (which I prefer).
To be honest, I didn’t realize that it came with the Dual Super Buttons until I unpacked the box when I got home. It turns out that these are designed to function as large, programmable macro pads for custom tasks. You can assign macros, launch apps, input text snippets, or trigger shortcuts. Assignments can be performed instantly, just by mapping directly, without needing software. For more complex macros, you can use the 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2, which you download from the 8BitDo website to your PC.
Sad to relate, I fear we’ve wandered off into the weeds (why didn’t you stop me?). As you may recall, we were talking about retro electronic toys.
I used to attend an annual technical conference, which is held at a retreat in California (I’m still invited, I just don’t have the time to attend). Attendance is limited to around 100 participants, and it’s invitation-only. In addition to luminaries in the electronics and computing domain, the top chip designers from competing companies use this venue to share the latest and greatest in architecture and concepts. Not surprisingly, therefore, attendees are forbidden from revealing anything about this event, including its name or location. I fear I’ve said too much already.
The reason I mention this is that, at one of these conferences, I met Dave Hampton, who, along with Caleb Chung, invented the Furby in the late 1990s. The Furby was the first toy to combine AI-like behavior, voice recognition, and responsive movement in a mass-market plush form. It was famous (and infamous) for its eerie blinking eyes, nonsensical “Furbish” language, and unpredictable responses. Dave gave a presentation in which he described the design decisions that went into the Furby. He also described how the Furbish language was conceived and implemented. Hasbro relaunched Furby in 2023. Now, that’s a retro toy if ever there was one.
Having said all this, one project I’d like to work on myself is a retro recreation of the original Cube World platform. This was invented in the early 2000s by Tony Ellis and Judie Ellis, the husband-and-wife team behind Conceptioneering Ltd.
Each of the original Cube World cubes contains an animated stick figure who performs various actions. The figures can interact (including moving between cubes) when multiple cubes are connected horizontally and/or vertically, as in the 4×4 world depicted below.
A 4-by-4 array of Cube World cubes.
I just took a gander at some video snippets on Tony’s TikToc channel. Also, there is a wealth of little videos gathered in Gooman130’s playlist on YouTube. And I recall seeing this advert on American TV back in the late 2000s.
The more I learn about these little Cube World creations, the more I realize just how clever this all was. For example, they were equipped with sensors that allowed their characters to detect when their cubes were being shaken and react accordingly.
Now I’m wondering what we could do with the technologies available to us today, including higher resolution color screens, more sophisticated sensors, and more powerful processors, especially if we augmented each character with a small amount of artificial intelligence (AI).
I don’t know about you, but my head is buzzing with ideas. Now I’m thinking about gathering a group of like-minded souls for a “brain-stem-storming” session to see what we can come up with. How about you? Do you have any ideas you’d care to add to the mix?
