A proper barn-find?

I recently sold my Kodiaq L&K SUV, and now I plan to replace it with a 31-year-old classic W124. It all started out as an obvious way to save money because my wife is not commuting while on parental leave and it did not make sense to have two expensive cars rusting away in the carport. We decided to try and get by with only one car. Before long, we realized that a 2nd car is indeed a very good idea when you’re living in the countryside. But it does not have to be anything fancy if you only need it a couple of times per month. I then remembered that my grandfathers very nice W124 has been collecting dust in a garage for at least a decade. Is this a proper barn find perhaps?

DiaryRikard ÖqvistOctober 4, 2024cars, retro, sustainability, classic, mercedes benz, analog, petrolheadComment

Retro gaming on period-correct or modern systems

EA had a big sale recently on Steam where they released the whole original Command and Conquer series. All the old original games, no remastered editions. I really enjoy these old gems for nostalgia and the occasional retro LAN party, and getting them on Steam helps a lot, because it has been difficult or even impossible to play them for a long time. A Steam release is thus perfect for simplicity. I messaged my retro pals and gave them a tip on the sale. In the conversation I jokingly said that the best way to enjoy the original games is on proper Retro hardware with spinning discs. Surprisingly, my joke turned out to be the truth.

ComputerRikard ÖqvistMarch 15, 2024retro, gaming, pcComment

Supply and demand

One of the best things about kids is that you get an excuse to dust off your old Nintendo games and play together. Especially around Christmas when I have the time to do so. My boys have a couple of old Nintendo DS’s, and yesterday I was attending some online auctions to complete our game library with some mandatory classics for couch competition. My wife also wanted to complete her library but couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw that her desired game went for 1500-2500 SEK today. Consequently, she brought her Nintendo box and started to check online auctions to see if she had some desired and valuable game. Several of them were indeed quite valuable at around 700-1500 SEK. But the most inconspicuous game of all we found in the back of a drawer in an old cabinet. A mint condition Game and Watch, Mario the Juggler. Her reaction after searching for the title in some auctions was priceless.

Diary, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistNovember 6, 2023nintendo, retro, value, collector, rareComment

Retro LAN party

“Error: Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue or DEL to enter setup”. This is not a joke. It is a brilliant real-world error message that I got this Saturday during our retro-LAN while running four Windows 98-powered battle stations. What a magnificent weekend, to meet up with four very old friends for a trip down memory lane. Gaming together on period correct hardware in a single room. Easily one of the funniest things I have done in about two decades.

Computer, DiaryRikard ÖqvistAugust 22, 2023gaming, pcmr, retro, friends, friendshipComment

50 years of progress

A couple of weeks ago, I was checking out a musician 2nd hand site. And I noticed something extremely unusual for a site like that, a vintage Bruel and Kjaer type 2209 sound level analyzer. There is something very appealing with the design of vintage measurement equipment. Everything from the big knobs and clunky switches to the choice of text font just oozes with hand made quality. I thought that this would make an excellent addition to our Umeå office. As a conversation starter, it doesn’t get much better than a professional sound level meter from five decades ago.

AcousticsRikard ÖqvistApril 25, 2022retro, vintage, acoustics, engineering, norsonic, bruel&kjaerComment