I’ve been collecting retro hardware for a long time now, and I’ve made plenty of expensive mistakes along the way. Here’s the advice I’d give my past self before buying that first console — the practical stuff that doesn’t show up in buying guides. 1. Sort Your Display Situation First This is the one everyone skips and almost everyone regrets. Plugging a SNES into a modern 4K TV with a composite...
In 1990, SNK released a home console that matched arcade hardware. The Neo Geo AES was extraordinary — and it priced accordingly. At $650 USD at launch, with game cartridges costing $200–$300 each, the Neo Geo was the aspirational system that most players could only dream about. That exclusivity has made it one of the most sought-after collector items in retro gaming. MVS vs AES: Understanding...
A year ago, “AI agents” was mostly a research topic. Today, it’s a practical reality that small business owners are starting to use in their operations. If you’re running a small business in Australia in 2026 and haven’t thought seriously about what AI agents mean for you, now’s a good time to start. What an AI Agent Actually Is An AI agent is an AI system that can take sequences of actions to...
A dedicated retro gaming space is one of those projects that starts as a simple idea and turns into an obsession. I’ve helped a few people set these up and I’ve built and rebuilt my own several times. Here’s what I’ve learned about what actually matters. Start With the Display The display decision shapes everything else. Your options in 2026: CRT television — authentic, zero input lag, gorgeous...
No console war since has matched the intensity of the 16-bit rivalry between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, this wasn’t just a commercial competition — it was a genuine cultural split that divided playgrounds and generated arguments that haven’t fully been settled even now. The Combatants The Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in North America) launched in...
One of the most important things to understand about AI language models is that they don’t “know” things in the way humans do. They generate text by predicting what words are likely to follow other words, based on patterns learned during training. This makes them extraordinarily capable — and occasionally dangerously wrong in confident-sounding ways. That’s what we call a hallucination. Why...
In 1987, Commodore released the Amiga 500 for around $700 USD. Inside that beige box was hardware so advanced that it made the IBM PCs and Apple Macs of the era look primitive. The Amiga 500 had capabilities that professional workstations couldn’t match at ten times the price. It was, by any reasonable measure, too good. The Custom Chip Architecture The Amiga’s secret was its three custom chips:...
Retro gaming has a reputation for being expensive, and for some platforms that’s true. But there are still excellent options for under $100 AUD if you know where to look. Here’s where I’d start if budget was the primary constraint. Original Game Boy (1989) The original grey brick Game Boy is remarkably durable and still findable for $30–70 AUD. It plays the entire Game Boy library on four AA...
I run a digital consultancy. I have clients across web development, strategy, and AI implementation. I also have an AI agent helping me manage a meaningful chunk of the operational work. Here’s what that actually looks like — not the glossy version, but the honest day-to-day reality. Email and Client Communications My AI agent monitors my TechGurus inbox and handles a first pass on incoming...
The Analogue Pocket is not cheap. At $249 USD, it costs more than a Nintendo Switch Lite. But for anyone with a love of classic handheld gaming, it might be the most satisfying piece of hardware available in 2026 — and the reasons why come down to how it’s built. FPGA Handheld Gaming Like the MiSTer FPGA for home consoles, the Analogue Pocket uses FPGA technology to recreate classic handheld...
