Category: 50s to 90s

I found a video online of photos of Kuwait taken right after the Gulf War so I emailed the owner of the video asking him if he could send me the pictures to post and he did. This is the description that was attached to the video:

We were sent to Kuwait in May 1991 to rebuild the Kuwait International Hotel for an upcoming conference. The project was canceled soon after we got to Kuwait due to security concerns. Kuwait City at this time, just a few months after the first gulf war, was in shambles. Almost nothing worked and there were vast amounts of arms still lying around. The fires were still going strong. So much so that flying into Kuwait was like entering an outer circle of hell.

All 74 photos below are credited to B. Dietrich, AIA

When I travel I wear what I call my travel watches. They are cheap digital watches which no one would want to steal in case I get mugged (don’t ask). For the past 2 years I’ve been using my Casio calculator watch but I recently decided I wanted a watch that could at least tell me the temperature. So after a bit of searching I decided to get the Timex Skiathlom. Its a very rare and strange (i.e. ugly) looking watch from the late 80’s. I used to have one back in 1990 and I figured I would get one. I had forgotten the name of the watch but after a bit of help from a Timex forum I managed to find the watch on eBay in excellent condition. It cost me around KD10 which isn’t too bad. Since there is barely any information on this watch online, I decided to scan the manual and take a clear frontal shot so that if anyone searches for this watch in the future they will find at least some info.

So if you’re interested in the Timex Skiathlom owners manual and a high resolution picture click [Here]

I ordered the Pocket Retro Game Emulator from ThinkGeek 10 days ago after reading about it on a few websites. Its a small portable game system that comes with built in emulators that would play games from the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo and a few other systems. Since I am a huge fan of retro gaming and since it would be a great addition to my collection, I ordered the device for $99.

The device has a built in 4GB drive so I quickly copied all my favorite games onto it and realized I still had nearly 4GB free so I copied ALL my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games onto it which amount to around 2000 games. I also copied a few NeoGeo games including SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.

The device played everything I threw at it even SVC Chaos which was a huge shock. Not only that but the device also came with the appropriate cables to connect it to my TV so I could play the games there if I wanted to. Some SNES games weren’t running that perfectly for example NBA Jam was running slightly faster than it should and the sound in Donkey Kong Country was a bit strange but the device plays NHL ’94 perfectly which alone would make the game system worth $99. The build quality isn’t that great, it feels cheap and its pretty light. I am not sure how much abuse it would take but I doubt its as durable as a Nintendo DS or PSP.

Now one thing that kinda pissed me off is the fact that ThinkGeek is marketing this device with the name “Pocket Retro Game Emulator”. In reality the system turned out to be called the Dingoo Digital A320. A quick search on eBay for the Dingoo would result in a ton of results with the device priced at around $75. So if you want to buy one that’s where I would look. Will post a more thorough review at a later date.

Note: The device also plays movies and music. Also has a built in FM tuner and an eBook reader. The battery is built in and lasts over 5 hours. In case 4GB isn’t enough the device takes SD cards.

For some reason I’ve had this opening theme song stuck in my head all day. [YouTube]

Update: Fixed the title

Update2: Here is the Salamatak song [YouTube]

A reader spotted the yellow Kid ‘R’ Us koala bear at the Friday Market shoved underneath a foosball table. It doesn’t look too happy.

Thanks Valencia!

Just a blast from the past. I used to play this game back in 1991 in my computer class when I was still in Kuwait English School. In the video above the game actually starts at the 2 minute mark. [YouTube]

I found this video on YouTube, its a short amateur movie that was shot in Kuwait back in 1992 by a guy called Ali. If you consider the fact that this movie was shot and edited by a teenager in the early 90s without a computer, its actually pretty cool.. in a geeky way. [YouTube]

For some reason I now feel like watching The Dirt Bike Kid

This is one strange Korean commercial. It’s for fried chicken and stars a Korean version of Robocop and has spaghetti western music as the soundtrack! [YouTube]

I think I want to make some retro Kuwaiti t-shirts and sell them as a side business. I could make like a Kids ‘R’ Us shirt or “I heart Sunkist” one.. the possibilities are really endless!

Does anyone by any chance have anything related to Kids ‘R’ Us? Pictures of the branches, the koala bear doll, an old ad, ANYTHING related to Kids ‘R’ Us? If you do please contact me, I want to try and preserve the brand by collecting or documenting as much Kids ‘R’ Us stuff I can find. [Email Me]

So I was flipping through eBay looking for random stuff when I found a couple of people selling a brand new in the box Liono figurine from the popular 80’s cartoon Thundercats. I thought that would be a great Christmas gift for myself until I spotted the price. There were three sellers and the cheapest was selling the toy figure for KD160 while the most expensive was selling it for KD2,400! Makes me wish I never opened up my toys as a kid.

Back in 2006 I posted about how I was able to get a hold of three original Apple Think Different banners from the local Apple dealer (Digits) and today I finally put them up.

For those of you who don’t know, the slogan “Think Different” was created for Apple back in 1997 (yes they were around before the iPod). The slogan was used in various commercials and print adverts but the most famous ones were the creative innovators tribute ads. I was able to get a hold of 3 banners, a Pablo Piccaso, Martha Graham and the rare Buzz Aldrin one.

Since I just finished redecorating (I now officially live inside my blog), I managed to find space to put up the banners and they look great. It took me two years but they’re finally up. The picture above is of the Buzz Aldrin banner, its 70cm wide and 160cm in height.

I am a HUGE fan of the original Mortal Kombat game. I used to play it non stop back in 1993 in Canada at the arcades and I then got the SNES version and Sega GameGear version to satisfy my addiction. I even wanted to try and get the arcade machine for my house here in Kuwait but I couldn’t find a place that had it.

Anyway I ordered the Plug & Play version of the game last week from Amazon and I got it today and its amazing! They’ve basically squeezed the game into a joypad that runs on AA batteries and you just plug the joypad into the TV and play a version of the game thats extremely close to the arcade original. Its very practical and it costs only KD2!

If you’re interested here is the link to the game on Amazon. [Link]

And if anyone knows where I can buy the arcade machine from please tell me!

I just found this incredible book about Kuwait dating back to 1975. It has a ton of great pictures which I will scan every now and then and post over here. The caption under the picture above reads:

Kuwait also enjoys some of the more sophisticated pleasures of the West, and even the Far West. Here, for example, is a drive-in cinema in the open air not far from the city. In order to enable you to watch a film in comfort without moving from your seat, two large “pumps” introduce into your car the sound track of the film being shown and the air-conditioning which is essential at the height of the summer. All you have to do is to watch.

It sucks that no one has invented the time machine yet!

In honor of Google’s 10th birthday they’ve brought back their oldest available index from January 2001. So now everyone can search Google as if its 2001! Here is the link to their 2001 search. [Link]