One theme that we see all the time at Miniature Versions of Things is the love of novelty, retro technology — and of course, around here, that means miniature retro tech.
Folks seem to love the nostalgia of an old arcade game, polaroid camera, or boom box… And with ever-increasing technology capabilities, these products become smaller, higher-quality, and less expensive over time.
Why Mini Retro Tech?
The ability to crank out these increasingly miniaturized versions of gadgets is dependent on a couple of things… First, the human loves for nostalgia and small, cute things… and second, Moore’s Law.
Moore’s Law
Moore’s Law (which is more of an observation) states that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. In layman’s terms, we can fit twice as much processing power into the same sized computer chips every two years. The corollary to this, would be that we can shrink a given circuit to half its previous size every two years, as well.
Supply and Demand
With the power of overall progress in technology at our backs, engineering miniaturized versions of video games, cameras, appliances and more became logical. The love of cute, nostalgic, miniature things would continue to drive demand, and there is no shortage of great retro products to perfect.
Lucky for us Miniature Versions of Things fans, a number of companies have seized the demand and the know-how to create a wide range of retro tech replicas — from arcade games, to children’s toys, and televisions sets!
Leading Products and Companies
Some of these products are put out by toy companies like Westminster Toys, World’s Smallest, and SuperImpulse who specialize in creating high-quality novelty items. These brands have a variety of products, and are often officially licensed versions of popular brand name toys — like Bop-It! These companies don’t specialize in tech, but build out some miniature techno toys as part of their overall product catalogue.
Video and Arcade Games
Other companies focus more exclusively on miniaturizing technology-enhanced entertainment — like arcade games! Companies like MyArcade and TinyArcade specialize in creating miniature versions of classic arcade games, in a variety of formats. Other companies focus on miniature game consoles, televisions, and more.
Crowdfunding
Occasionally one of these products comes about via crowdfunding, like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. These products generally offer something that sets them apart from other competitors in the category–which allowed them to catch enough attention to raise funds.
The Thumby video game console is a great example of a high-quality product that started as a crowdfunding campaign. This exceptionally tiny product is also exceptionally high performing. Allowing users to upload games, customize the device, and even program it!
The Future of Retro Tech
The quality of these products is increasing while their sizes decrease. It looks like we’re approaching the point where anything smaller will be unwieldy for our hands, which should lead to an increase in quality–but who knows! Maybe we’ll find new adaptations for using even smaller technology. We’re sure to see more unfathomably small tech products, and their funky retro counterparts.
We’re excited to see what the future has in store for miniature retro tech as the quality continues to increase. After all… something new becomes “retro” every day!
Miniature Versions of Things 