Retronauts Episode 219: Hardware Design, Pt. 1
Added 2019-05-06 14:00:04 +0000 UTCHey, it's another "big picture" topic—coming right on the heels of last week's rental discussion. This time, engineer and Flip Grip accessory design Mike Choi joins me and Bob to look back on some of the most aesthetically appealing game consoles of all time. It's an exercise in using your imagination, since podcasts don't come with graphics! Whoops. Well, please enjoy regardless.
Comments
Loved this episode! Jeremy/Bob/Mike, I was thinking about your question about the reason for the choice of purple in the SNES. I feel like it was very much a style decision of the time, and the thing that immediately came to mind was the SGI Onyx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Onyx) and the O2, but I didn't realize until looking it up that the Onyx didn't come out until '93 (and 96 for the O2), so -- if anything, it was probably influenced by the aesthetic zeitgeist that the SNES was part of... or maybe it's all one big design continuum. Anyway. I'll stick to my guns and say that the SNES design was very _of the time_ in terms of hardware visual design choices, and that purple must have been a very purposeful decision.
Tony Etienne
2019-05-17 14:14:04 +0000 UTCI love it!
Griffin
2019-05-14 11:52:33 +0000 UTCWill a list be posted of the discussed consoles? Really wanted to google them all but was commuting on my bicycle...
Griffin
2019-05-14 10:39:40 +0000 UTCWe'll get to those eventually.
Retronauts
2019-05-13 14:07:04 +0000 UTCI bought the sharp twin famicom, because I heard it is more reliable. I don't know if there's any truth to that though.
Elliot Long
2019-05-12 23:23:59 +0000 UTCReally liked this episode and look forward to part 2 (and hopefully 3)! I had forgotten about many of these systems but a quick Google image search brought the memories flooding back. The discussions about types of plastic used and how they were designed to feel and look were especially informative. I appreciate this new direction - I think it is a great addition.
VanDiagram
2019-05-10 09:27:29 +0000 UTCListening to this on my morning commute made me realise that I ride to work every day on a Famicom themed bus: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Lothian_Buses_Envrio400XLB_1071.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Lothian_Buses_Envrio400XLB_1071.jpg</a>
2019-05-09 08:19:44 +0000 UTCNo Western consoles? What’s with the anti-wood grain bias?
Phillip
2019-05-07 22:41:09 +0000 UTCAlso, since Bob asked about the back cover on the TurboGrafx, it was for hooking up the TurboBooster, which allowed for saving games that would otherwise be password-based (because HuCards have no space for battery backup)
Zachary Adams
2019-05-06 20:10:38 +0000 UTCWhich version of Bionic Commando is this version of "Heat Wave" from? I don't think I'd ever heard it before.
Zachary Adams
2019-05-06 19:32:34 +0000 UTC
