Retro

The Lost Art of Aztec Prismatic Blades

The Lost Art of Aztec Prismatic Blades

Start talking about flintknapping, and most people probably think of arrowheads or other projectile points. Though made using essentially the same fundamental techniques, a “prismatic blade” is a very different animal. In the archaeological record, prismatic blades appear as long, thin flakes of stone, usually having two parallel cutting edges and a trapezoidal or triangular cross-section. A few modern flintknappers make prismatic blades, but the leading light (online, at least) is probably Californian Jim Winn, aka paleomanjim.

Tool Tales: The Pump Drill

Tool Tales: The Pump Drill

A pump drill is an ancient tool traditionally been used to generate friction heat for starting fires, as well as for boring holes. The principle of a pump drill’s operation is similar to the button spinner or whirligig, in which rotational momentum is built and maintained by repeated twisting and untwisting of a cord. After reading about them in a book about primitive technology, I got interested in the idea of a “modern” pump drill, operating on the same principle as the ancient tool but manufactured from industrial-age materials instead of wood, stone, and bone.

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Arcade Controls on Raspberry Pi

Retro-arcade gaming is more than recreating the sound and graphics of bygone video games. To anyone who spent endless hours of their childhood feeding quarters into rows of pulsing, blaring machines, the feel of the industrial-grade joysticks and buttons is an essential part of the experience. Thankfully, Raspberry Pi can help recreate that experience.