gameboy camera

gameboy camera

The gameboy camera was introduced to Japan originally as an official Nintendo product known as "Pocket Camera" in September 1998. It was marketed towards kids as a toy to take selfies with and add googly eyes to.

 Surprisingly enough, it came along with along with a variety of other features that actually make it dope as shit. Like;

-The so-called "extra" game "DJ" (AKA "Trippy H". No joke...) where the player takes control of a 3 band sequencer/synthesizer, which has impressively well thought out and easy to use controls to create variable 16 note loops. 

(Hint- Watch the first five seconds then skip to around the 0.45 mark)

-The additional printer, which would be loaded with a toilet roll style canister of glossy paper that had adhesive backing. 

"Would be loaded" and "Had adhesive backing" are key phrases here. That stuff's endangered to the point of extinction i'm afraid.

-The time lapse feature that provided the option of making crudely pixelated stop motion movies with anything laying around your bedroom floor.

why it's not dope as shit...

-The inexplicably creepy photos that would flash up on your screen should you happen to press particular buttons. 

Apparently this stems from the original japanese version of the game. Even stranger, some of those shots were actually taken off of the international version of the game. 

As if they were saying "Oh no, that's going too far. Old chubby Charlie Manson up there, that's Ok. These two bozo's! I'm not having it!"

cheers

pxl-2000

pxl-2000

The PXL-2000 is a small handheld b + w video camera which records to regular audio-cassette. It was developed by a group of inventors in the mid-80's, led by James Wickstead, who then sold the rights to the company Fisher Price, who, in turn, began production in 1987.

It was on the market for just shy of a year with around 400,000 units produced. It's often said that the high price in comparison to other kids toys at the time was probably a large reason for the PXL's demise. It was initially marketed to kids for US$170 (roughly AUS$400 in 2014) and eventually went down to around US$100 (roughly AUS$220 in 2014) before being removed from production.  

They're amazingly hard to find now, though there is one ebay member in the states who circuit bends and sells them. Handily enough, they do them to include a light level adjustment knob, monitor outputs, freeze frame and a "bleed switch". 

Personally, i've been hunting one of these for a good few years and I'm adamant that there's one waiting for me, on the shelf of a country town op shop somewhere out Woop Woop. Waiting... 

specs

The pixelvision can record 11 minutes of footage to a standard c90 cassette tape. It records at a high tape speed of 429 mm per second, which is necessary for the high bandwidth required to record video to an audio cassette. The video information is recorded to the left audio channel of the cassette and the audio to the right.

Some of the faults that come about because of the design or manufacture of some pixelvision cameras also results in some of the camera's most recognizable effects. 

Such as; the decayed drive belt that causes the often-distorted, stuttering images or; the fogged blue filter, which is there to prevent infrared light from entering the CCD and causes miscoloured images. 

notable uses

 -A sequence from Richard Linklater's breakthrough film Slacker

-Sonic Youth's "Mote" video clip

-The hilarious short film Pee Wee Goes to Prison, which was shot using dolls and toys to stage the imaginary trial, conviction and eventual release of Pee Wee Herman for the sale of Yohimbe which, I assume, is an imaginary drug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clObuUzV2jw

Oh, and this...

cheers 

lincoln chordmaster

lincoln chordmaster

This is a lincoln chordmaster organ made somewhere in the years between 1950-1970. I decided to start this blog because of the lack of useful information I could find on the net about these absolutely awesome instruments.

So, in full disclosure; I'm no technical expert when it comes to these organs, just an aficionado in the sense of being a player and enthusiast. 

The organ pictured here is one that I picked up from an estate sale today, but i've owned several over the last decade or so, when i got my first one from an op shop as a kid.

It's been hard over the years to find information about the manufacturing of these beautiful sounding chordies but, as far as i can gather from the abundance of them over here and the lack of info about them on foriegn sites or message boards, they were probably Australian made*. 

I also assume that they were done in small (possibly 100 per) runs because, of the 4-5 that I've owned and the other handful that I've seen, they all have minor variations to buttons or design and include a two digit number inside their shells.

(*Addendum - They were actually made in Italy and shipped in large quantities to Australia during the European Migrant boom of the 1950's. At the time they were sold as "Table accordians")

As far as the specifics of the organ, i can't say all too much, other than what i've gleaned from playing them and opening them up. So let's try that...

the guts 

     

5 small screws to take the grille off, two large ones to separate the chord section and then 4 more medium sized removed to take off the ply-board rectangle that holds the keys and fan.

the guts - the underside

The first thing you'll notice is the simplicity. All of the sound from these machines comes from that small fan blowing through the open/close passageways that meet the reeds of the keyboard (above) and chord section (above and below)

One of the main issues that come up with the chordmaster is that a chord and/or a button may get stuck down with droning or, otherwise, no sound being produced. There's a simple fix for that problem though, which will be easier to illustrate using the picture below;

Each of these vertical rods triggers another smaller, connecting horizontal rod. If the chord/button is stuck down, then you can use your hands and tweezers to gently bend the two rods into their original position. There's no trick to this, you can do it just by sight.

the shell

The compartment which holds the chord section of the keyboard receives air through the opening you can see in the picture above and blows it forward, through the reeds, towards the player.

the keys 

The air comes through the openings created by pressing any particular key, relative to the position of that key to that of the keyboard, through the front grille section.

the fan

The fan is a mystery i'll leave to brighter and more curious minds. It's endearing for it's charm and the absolutely integral part it plays in keeping Admiral Chordmaster General Elite running smoothly, but it's loud and possibly not the best choice for the function it serves. 

cheers