Customer Reviews

Essential Retro: The Vintage Technology Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The text of this book lives up to high quality of the blog from which it originated but... the picture quality is poor. They're all grainy black and white. I expected, at least, crisp images, no matter how small, but instead these are all low resolution. It definitely detracts from the impact. Quite dissapointing.

This book offers a unique look at some old technology that was once
on the cutting edge. It's organized into ten broad chapters that
introduce things like vintage hi-fi audio, microcomputers (mostly
machines from the late seventies and early eighties), eight bit video
game systems and even a section full of 8mm movie cameras. Strangely,
there is no mention of pinball.

There are a few hundred Black & White photographs splashed throughout
the text and the quality of the images is respectable (this copy is
marked as "2nd Sputnik books edition" on the title page and I suspect
the reviewer who complained about grainy pictures had an early
printing). A fun look at desirable gadgets from not so long ago that
now sell for almost nothing.

I've been reading the author's website for a few months and bought this book as soon as I heard about it. I like that instead of it being a history book he gives hints about where to get the stuff he mentions. I wish there were more large pictures and they were all in color, but there's so much here that it's hard to complain too much.