Retro Tech
Here is a colourful rendition of a selection of technologies from the 80s & 90s. The collection is inspired by several movies; Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Wall Street, Ready Player One and Say Anything. I also grew up with the Atari and SEGA Mega Drive, so they certainly had to be included.
This was a total labour of love and nostalgic indulgence, so I’m certain there will be more to add to the collection in future.
I’ve got another little write-up on Medium
https://fabriceyes.medium.com/retro-tech-my-process-e2840b4bd5de
Panasonic RC-6015 • Back to the Future (1985)
Seiko Voice Note M516 • Ghostbusters (1984)
Polaroid Supercolor 635
SONY Walkman WM-B39 + MDR-3L2 headphones • Ghostbusters II (1989)
JVC GR-C1 • Back to the Future (1985)
Sharp GF 7600 Boombox • Ready Player One (2018) • Say Anything (1989)
SEGA Mega Drive + Sonic the Hedgehog
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X • Wall Street (1987)
Atari 2600 + Adventure • Ready Player One (2018)
Emerson EC-130
Vectrex
Emerson EC130
This is the first piece of retro tech that I’ve made that wasn’t inspired by a movie reference or something that I grew up with. I was looking for an interesting television to make and a colleague sent this one over…with a useful eBay listing.
It’s always really useful to have a collection of reference images to work from straight away, as spending ages sourcing images can be frustrating.
The controls and typography on this model got me hooked, and I knew those elements would look great. I also added plenty of detail to the rear of the television, as even though they aren’t visible in this render, I wanted to prepare for reusing this object in other scenes that I may put together in the future.
Vectrex
The Vectrex was a short-lived console sold by Milton Bradley from 1982 to 1984. They lost a good chunk of change on this product; to the tune of around $31M.
I’d never seen or even heard of the Vectrex until earlier this year, but upon seeing one for real (a friend of mine has one; original box and all) I decided that it was needed in the Retro Tech collection.
It was a little bizarre and had a good amount of character and details for me to give it a go. I think there is still plenty to do with this model; bringing it into future scenes and working more with animating the screen. After all, the screen is what this product is all about.