David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
What did the 1980s taste like? If we’re going to limit ourselves to something available then that you can’t get anymore, I would submit Five Alive juice for your consideration. Five Alive was a citrus beverage, containing orange, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, and lime juice. It was a product of the Minute Maid division of the Coca-Cola Company.
The Tandy MMS-10 is a self contained speaker unit that sits under a monitor, providing external speakers for vintage computers. Radio Shack sold them for use with 1990s multimedia PCs. But the MMS-10 looks and works well with an Amiga computer too. And who would blame you for using one with a Tandy 1000?
The Tandy CM-5 monitor, introduced in 1987, was the less expensive CGA-compatible monitor from the Tandy 1000’s heyday. It was a very basic monitor and had a reputation for being reliable, but Tandy cut some corners on the picture tube.
The Marx 30982 and 80982 Wabash gondola is a colorful yellow gondola with lettering for a midwestern railroad. It was part of their short-lived 7-inch line, though it’s easy to convert to a 3/16 car if desired. The 30982 dates to 1949-1954, with the number switching to 80982 from 1955 to 1961. Read more
Tight rolling jeans was a fad in the late 1980s that extended into the early 1990s. I remember cuffing jeans as a reaction to bell bottoms, but it was most likely driven by a combination of factors.
If you want a Windows 7 retro gaming PC, you have a lot of options. The dizzying number of options may make it more confusing. But it’s also part of the appeal. Let’s talk about how to select components and build one. As for the argument whether Windows 7 is retro: If you’re nostalgic for it, it’s retro.
Depending on who you ask, Reggie Jackson was neither the first nor the last baseball player to have a candy bar named after him. But for people of a certain age, the Reggie Candy bar, first available from 1978 to 1981, and then reintroduced in 1993 and 2023, is iconic. And when it’s not in production, the people who miss it miss it badly.
The story of the Reggie bar, of course, is intertwined with the story of its namesake. And it started with a well-publicized comment Jackson made in frustration.
Marx train set 9618 was an electric train set Marx that Sears sold in 1953. But you may also hear collectors refer to it as Happi-Time train set 9618, because that’s what Marx printed on the box.
Swatch watches were a popular fad in the 1980s, a reaction against the growing popularity of digital watches. The company is still very much alive today, but Generation X will probably always associate the colorful watches with the 80s. But Swatch is more than just a retro icon. It’s also an excellent lesson in product marketing.
As expensive as CGA monitors are, EGA monitors or even more expensive and difficult to come by. But did you know you could do EGA on a CGA monitor, albeit with some caveats? In this blog post, I’ll explain what degree of interoperability CGA and EGA have.