Would you buy a handmade retro inspired computer? I got this daydream that's sticking around of making bespoke functional KVM sculptures and selling them. If I did them by hand though they'd probably be expensive like $2500 a piece for just a fancy schmancy monitor/ mechanical keyboard combo. Here's an AI rendering based on a drawing I made to show one of my ideas. Mostly I just miss the era of computers looking cool instead of like black or gray rectangles.
>>108867009People have barely money for groceries.Rich people don't want to buy useless old techNerds make their own machines, if they have creative drive.It's ugly besides the metalic hinge.
>>108867038Thanks for liking the hinge.It'd be an oled panel behind curved glass, HDMI and USB connections to your existing computer. So not useless or actually old tech. I imagine the rich nerd market is all I could really reach. I don't have the capital to get them made in a factory, so I was thinking more like a functional art piece. Somehow the place at the mall stays open selling statues of popeye the sailor man smoking dope so something that did something might have a chance. I wonder if I should talk to the slimy greek guy running the mall statue store and ask if he'd like to launder money with my computers next to his lions and donald ducks...
>>108867088>oled panel behind curved glass, HDMI and USB connections to your existing computerNot really sure if there is a market for this. People interested in old tech typically want to collect the actual old tech.
>>108867088This >>108867377I'm a CRT fag and I would never in a million years buy some fake flatpanel mimicry. We actively make fun of such efforts, how they completely miss the point. Maybe some performative redditor poser will buy up such slop but actual enthusiasts would never.
>>108867377Maybe I'm the only market then, I collected the old tech than got disillusioned with trying to use it for a 9800 baud 80x24 terminal session to do productivity work. I want the class of old world with some of the benefits of modern systems.At the same time I think we might all be discounting the boomer market. My grandpa is dropping tens of thousands on paintings of olives driving cars. I dunno I think I'll make it my goal for the year to pump out like 10 copies of one design and put them on etsy.
>>108867412I'm a CRT fag too but honestly I could not tell you the difference between the CRT I'm looking at right now and the flat screen next to it. OLED has deeper blacks so I imagine it'd be pretty nice, better than chopping up actual CRTs for this and I'd also save on shipping costs. My prototype is almost done so I'll see how it looks in practice soonish
>>108867494Flat panels have no motion clarity or multisync
>>108867009people do buy such stuff but idk about high price point if there's market for that, I don't think so, people that are into such stuff don't really have that much money to waste.Like this small mac clone is super popular currently but it's only $60.I love serial terminals, threw out mine back when they where just e-waste, now I want one but it's impossible to find any where I live.
>>108867505with $2.5k price point your could probably build electronically correct crt emulation with fast refresh oled. https://blurbusters.com/crt-simulation-in-a-gpu-shader-looks-better-than-bfi/
>>108867546OLED tech just isn't bright enough to truly match how a CRT refreshes, it'll always be a crude imitation with visible compromises.
>>108867461So you want a 4K monitor behind curved glass with a modern nic to do real modern work while just pretending you're at an old speccy or c64 or something that's been magically upgraded? I don't really get it man. The fun of old tech is in the challenge of getting something cool to work with extremely limited resources or in reverse engineering the efforts engineers of the time made to make sometimes cool work with extremely limited resources. I don't think you'd even have the right vibes while using it, it would just feel, I dunno, really hollow and you'd be bored of it after using it for a day.
>>108867603Yeah that stuffs fun too, I guess the whole point is just "muh aesthetics". When you use a computer, it kinda turns invisible after a little while, but those in between times when you look at your desk you could be like "neat" and I think that's my goal.
>>108867529Yeah, that's probably a bigger hole in my plan than I had hoped. I figured that price by doing a little research on how much a fiberglass sculpture runs for, combined with the cost of monitors and keyboards. I can do fiberglass and make something that looks nice, nicer than something 3d printed in 16 pieces and glued together. Maybe if I sold enough I could get the capital to do an injection mold run to cut costs, but for that I'd probably have to have a large following of potential buyers and operate on a scale I could no longer imagine as a garage-based one man side hustle.
>>108867603>I don't really get it man.It's like in blade runner with fake synthetic animals since real things don't exist anymore.
>>108867711Pretty much, I wanna be an artist in this dead art form. I don't wanna dig up the same 12 examples of beautiful computers, Vt100, ADM 3A, TRS 80, etc, I want there to be more and new beautiful computers.
>>108867708I was toying with idea of making serial terminal out of 40x2 vfd modules, yeah it would have spaces between modules and all but I love vfd displays so much. I have one of those as status display for aida and it's just beautiful with such a hard hitting retro futuristic vibe.But display modules alone would be $1300 so it ain't gonna happen.
>>108867748They don't make em bigger? That's a killer idea. If I were to DIY a display terminal, I think a full wall of split flaps in 80x24 would be fucking sick, imagine it, like a big train station display while you work. Refresh rate, price, and effort make it impractical but would probably be really neat in a museum or something.
>>108867748What if you use something like this, maybe just need some direct attaching to the lead wires to control it.As for the big gaps, you could order some plastic lense hder thingy that reflects just the display, basocally you glue the light of the displays in the optical matrix together
>>108867837Yeah he could stagger them and combine them with a diagonal pane of glass pic related
I also like the dual monitor idea. Never seen this on a real period piece
Comfy home automation terminal
>>108867009>>108868101Good art. Definitely got the art style down. Maybe look into what the cyberdeck community is doing with their DIY community. I feel like if you could get a blend of both cyberdeck/80s-90s computer people would show interest. I think the main problem the cyberdeck community has is that they can't source parts for scaling up even small workshop level manufacturing.
>>108868564Cyberdeck seems silly to me, it's just a laptop in cosplay.
>>108867009>Would you buy a handmade retro inspired computer?absolutley not. if i want one ill make it myself.
>>108868564Thanks kind anon>>108868575I need to try out some of the alternatives but anyone who pretends they're using a raspberry pi for active use is lying to you. I have a 3B in the garage to pull up schematics and its ass.>>108869396Alright
>>108867009For me, its the kaypro.Somthing about just makes my dick rock hard.and the keyboard folds into the screen so you can carry it around like a laptop. (a 30lb laptop, but hey, lift more bro) its so fucking based.
It looks great but I'm a cheap fuck and I'd be worried about the ergonomics
>>108867009I wont give a single red cent to anything that had any ai anywhere in the design or build, including concept art.
>>108869575Based, same here. Its edgy and industrial.>>108869894Ergonomics is certainly gonna be hard to get right>>108869913Reddit is that way and AI-free world is nowhere. These are rendered from images of hand drawn sketches to show me what it might look like with color/texture
>>108867009no i would handbuild my own retro inspired computer and probably sell it
>>108871485 (Me)honestly though op this is a pretty fire idea. maybe it would make a good open source project you could sell carefully sourced kits forbuncha 9" color or monochrome crtsasa/abs shellsalps keeb?>>1088694683b vs the 4 or the 5 is like a massive leap though right? doesnt the 4 have an 8gb model and require active cooling? also the 3b only has a 10/100 port right vs the +
>>108867009>Look inside>Made in India>Shitty i3 that's somehow still overheating>Chassis made out of plastic and glue>Fake turbo button to get basedlennials' attention >Comes with Winjeet 11
>>108867009>2300$ for dumb terminalYou are legit insane, are you jew?
>>108867088Either make it a legit CRT, or bust.
>>108867009You telling me you can build CRTs?
>>108867088>HDMI and USB connections to your existing computerTo do what exactly?
The problem with sleeper PCs and such is that anything newer attached to it looks out of place. Like mice and other USB devices.
>>108867708Looks cool, idk what people want anymore desu
>>108871527The realistic expectations are I cannot source CRTs in numbers especially with size constraints, cannot convince a factory to do an abs injection molding run for likely under 50 units (Has anything open source been injection molded?) but maybe alps keys is doable. I was gonna go for my favorite switches - blues, but I'm not cultured in mechanical keyboards further than that. I know I don't like browns and blues are fun and loud.My 3b was unusable, my 4 is sluggish, the 5 being $100 doesn't make sense to get compared to just a practically free desktop from 8 years ago unless you're building an altoids-tin cyberdeck.>>108871630Yes, no. Like I said fiberglass isn't cheap but its one of few ways a dude can make large customized objects over and over at home. When I actually go through the process I'll be more able to figure a price, maybe closer to $1000.>>108871798Noted, gonna go to trade school and learn how to blow glass and infuse phosphor and such, wish me luck diy'ing a flyback in the garage.>>108871840Let's think on what an hdmi connection to a monitor and usb connection to a keyboard could ever be used to do.>>108871861You're right. I had a couple designs where to the right of the numpad I put an integrated trackball mouse.
