I wanted to share this amazing project my wife made for me as a surprise gift to commemorate my 10K subscriber milestone.  Here it is a wooden Youtube play button!  Here are a few pictures of the process.  She carved the "play" icon out by hand with a set of chisels.

"Don't you just wish you could go back?"  Well here is a little slice of early 80's gaming via the Atari 2600!  See what it was like to sit down in the basement with some snack and a cool drink and relax playing some retro-video games.  Click to watch the video!

Breaking the 4th Wall

Check out some pictures below of my "basement" set that features a modular wall that can be moved from side to side for different angles and setups.

Nylint Michigan Crane (Shovel) toy restoration.

Quick Review:

Overall this little piece of nostalgia is what it claims to be, the DOS version (I think) of the complete game.  Yeah, yeah you can play it on emulators and in browsers now a days.  A physical stand alone product like this is appealing to people of a certain generation.

Packaging:

Well done, mimics the game perfectly.  Makes a nice shelf sitter.

Design:

Retro look that fits nice in the hand

Gameplay:

All the elements are there, and I mean just like the original.  To my eyes nothing is left out, no scenes, options, or sounds.  It is Oregon Trail except portable.  It is way better than that crappy card game that they put out before (You have seen it on the shelf, DO NOT BUY)

Controls:

They are functional, but "hunting" is a bit more difficult than I remember even when using the arrow keys.  Also navigating the Columbia River (late in the game) is again more difficult than I remember.  The "D" pad, if you can call it that, could have been better.

Overall:

For $24.99, its worth it for entertainment value alone.  If you remember playing this in the 3rd grade you will love it.  If you didn't well you might not understand.

Game Manual

Structo Telephone Company repair truck restoration.  Below is an ad for this very truck.  $1.98 in 1957 money converted for inflation is about $18 in 2017 money.  A not unreasonable amount for a toy even back then.  Notice the tools that came with, probably rare and hard to find.  Below is some pictures from the internet I found of close ups of the real tools.