[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":258},["ShallowReactive",2],{"current_page_en-\u002F2026-04-19":3,"current_page_surroundings_en-\u002F2026-04-19":249},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":209,"description":210,"draft":211,"encrypted":211,"excerpt":212,"extension":216,"galleries":217,"meta":242,"navigation":243,"path":244,"seo":245,"stem":209,"time":246,"time_zone":247,"__hash__":248},"content_en\u002F2026-04-19.md","Translucent Technology",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":194},"minimark",[9,13,16,21,29,35,40,43,46,51,54,57,60,64,67,70,73,78,81,86,89,110,113,116,120,123,127,130,133,136,140,143,154,165,168,172,175,179,182,185,188,191],[10,11,12],"p",{},"@ A long time ago in the 90s, Nintendo launched the N64 with translucent\ncolor shells.",[10,14,15],{},"Growing up in the 90s, I have a vivid imagination of technology popping\nout at you, with life awaiting on the inside. A whole world accessible\nto you, it was like we were finally on the cusp on the future. Cue\nthe release of Ocarina of Time in 1998. A stack of brand new n64\nconsoles sat there awaiting at Sam's Club, for a new bunch of owners\nto have their first jump into 3D gaming! Besides my was my mom, who\nwas wanting to play the new Zelda game that has just come out. Little\ndid I know, I became victim of the Ocarina of Time curse! : O",[17,18],"gallery",{":arrows":19,":dots":19,":loop":19,"name":20},"true","sega",[22,23,26],"span",{"className":24},[25],"mt-12",[27,28],"br",{},[30,31,32],"callout",{},[10,33,34],{},"Even Sega got in on the action! The Hello Kitty Dreamcast is\nso adorable, Japan is so lucky for these kinds of exclusives from back then.",[36,37,39],"h2",{"id":38},"tacky-colors","Tacky Colors",[10,41,42],{},"In that pile of n64s were different consoles of various colors,\nall styled with a neat translucent look. I remember how cool\nit was to be able to see partially inside of the console. Nintendo\nwere fuckin proud of what they were doing. You also seen other companies\nsuch as Apple with the iMac, or Sega with the Dreamcast, try their hand\nat translucency.",[17,44],{":arrows":19,":dots":19,":loop":19,"name":45},"n64_and_cool_tech",[22,47,49],{"className":48},[25],[27,50],{},[10,52,53],{},"Just look at these N64s! So pretty and bold, Nintendo was\ndefinitely proud of this son of a bitch!\nAfter all of these years, I couldn't help but wonder.\nWhere did this all come from? And where did it go?",[10,55,56],{},"If you couldn't tell, the N64 is very dear and special to me.\nOn that note. I'd like to take the opportunity\nto thank my Mom, my cousin Brandi,and others for playing\nZelda with me when I was younger. It sure was a lot of fun\nand you all got me hooked on Zelda! Mwahaha\nWe sat together for hours, working through Peach's Castle\nin Mario 64, scaling Ganon's Tower and overcoming\nhis evil. Even my brother and I playing through Majora's Mask\nnot long after! So many great memories!!!",[10,58,59],{},"Anyways. The colors. Why were the colors\nalways so... tacky?",[36,61,63],{"id":62},"translucency-into-another-world","Translucency into another world",[10,65,66],{},"A lot of the aesthetics of 3D games these days seem to be associated\nwith this feeling of \"another world\". And in my opinion, translucent\nand \"friendly\" technology designs that were more skeuomorphic.",[10,68,69],{},"People in the 90s weren't hooked on the internet yet, let alone\ncomputers. It was a different world back then. So product deisgners\nhad to bring a familiarity to things they were working on. Another\nthing I would like to point out was that there was a hyper focus on\n\"going green\", \"saving the planet\" - or at least as a kid from that\ntime, I remember being pushed on protecting the environment in a dogmatic\nkind of way. So I'd like to think some of the aesthetics of the\nfuturism in the 90s sense were very optimistic and hopeful.",[10,71,72],{},"One would say that they were trying to sell us an extension of our\nvery own selves. \"Jump into the world wide web\", these are far dated\nways of referring to the Internet, but notice how the terminology\nemphasizes connectivity as an individual. This was freedom. And\nas tacky as the colors were, I would say the vibe that I remember\nof the 90s matched that. Though, I'm sure some of my memory is clouded by\nmy adolescence. Speaking of...",[74,75,77],"h3",{"id":76},"game-boy-color","Game Boy Color",[17,79],{":arrows":19,":dots":19,":loop":19,"name":80},"gbc",[22,82,84],{"className":83},[25],[27,85],{},[10,87,88],{},"For my 6th birthday, I got the Berry-colored Game Boy Color. Honestly,\nwhat an interesting choice for a color name. Berry, I never thought it matched.\nBut anyways - imagine a hot summer day, chip tunes filling the void,\nwith my brother and I playing Pokemon Red and Blue respectively. He happened\nto pick up a newspaper route(this was the late 90s, so it was still a thing) and\nbought himself an adapter for that lit up the screen. It has a not transparent\ntype of plastic that made it look like a water droplet, but not at the same time.\nThat summer my brother had gotten Pokemon Red, then for my birthday later that\nyear, I had gotten Blue! It was cool connecting our GBC's together and dueling,\nrather than beating each other up over the computer.",[90,91,98,102],"u-container",{"className":92},[93,94,95,96,97],"flex","flex-col","sm:flex-row","items-center","w-full",[99,100,101],"div",{},"\nWhile on this topic, with tech at the time, a lot of ecopunk was going on.\nTake a look at CompuServe's logo - it's literally a planet. Technology in the 90s\nwas exploding into the everyday person's home, and we were all promised\na greener tomorrow.\n",[10,103,104],{},[105,106],"img",{"alt":107,"loading":108,"src":109},"CompuServe Logo","lazy","\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fcompuserve-logo.svg",[10,111,112],{},"You know another thing - each device you had was personal. It was yours. That\nwas part of the emphasis of picking a different color! Imagine if on Switch 2\nlaunch day, we had a choice of different colors\u002Fvariations (the pikachu N64\u002FGBC\ncome to mind)!",[10,114,115],{},"We could then play a game where we guess our friends\nNintendo Switch color! : D But yeah - it sure is interesting how we live\nin a world where the world is in our pocket, yet unlike the Game Boy Color,\nthere's a lack of connection that seems to persist. Conspiracy theory - could\nthe lack of system link(or street pass for that matter) by the reason\nwhy we're all so anti social these days? Ah, who nose. The nose knows, though.",[74,117,119],{"id":118},"things-felt-more-optimistic","Things felt more optimistic",[10,121,122],{},"Colors that were used were often brighter shades of white,\ntacky saturated oranges, reds, blues, etc. Everything felt\nas though we were supposed to be happy and excited about\ntechnology. That it was going to connect the whole world\ncloser together and save the planet from pollution! Heck,\nI remember a Tomadchi I had that was see through. It eventually\nstopped working and I took it apart because I've never touched\na circuit board with my bare hands before. So clearly there\nwas something to the design language that inspired myself and\nmany others!",[36,124,126],{"id":125},"so-what-happened","So what happened?",[10,128,129],{},"Some say technological evolution happened. The original motive for\nsee through casing was to\nshow off the technology and give a futuristic aesthetic. But as\ntechnology improved, we began combining everything onto a single\nchip that does just about everything. And also, with the miniaturization\nit became more important to make maximum use of space, which rules out\nthe idea of translucency.",[10,131,132],{},"See, by the y2k era, people were already getting used to the idea\nof the Internet. Then, smartphones came and their requirements\nmore or less wouldn't work with what a translucent design\nwould excel best at. Durability, heat conduction, material,\nall of those factors suddenly become top priority and aesthetics\ngo out the window. And in some cases, its not just all aesthetics,\nbut a specific subset of it. Think about the cultural world\nwe live in - with skeumorphism no longer being a thing. We joke\nabout how the younger generation of the 2020s don't know what\na save icon is, or why its a floppy disk. But that is just\na sign that we as a society moved away from needing\nskeumorphism to convey meaning. In my opinion, we've\nmoved away from a human aspect of our tech in this process.",[10,134,135],{},"So with that, circuit boards gradually\ngot less and less interesting, and as a result most of what is\ninside of our pieces of plastic are just flat circuit boards with\nnot a whole lot going on. Now, that isn't completely true, but\nI do see their point.",[74,137,139],{"id":138},"prison-tech","Prison Tech",[10,141,142],{},"So after the y2k era, the only place one would see translucent\nstyle tech was in prisons. I must say, its pretty fascinating\nhow we went from a something that gave a sense of freedom\nfall to obscurity in jail cells.",[10,144,145],{},[105,146],{"alt":147,"loading":108,"src":148,"className":149,"height":152,"width":153},"Securebook 6","\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fprison-laptop.png",[150,151],"block","mx-auto",336,384,[10,155,156,157,164],{},"As you can see - pretty low tech and intentionally designed\nto be as viisble as possible. In prisons, I suppose one of their\nconcerns with technology in a prison setting is that one\ncould easily potentially hide something inside the tech. Honestly,\nI feel like there are 100 better other places to do that. So,\nI don't really know what to think about these obscure things. Not\nonly are they hard to find, but if you buy a laptop and happen to\nshare online about how to ",[158,159,163],"a",{"href":160,"rel":161},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pcgamer.com\u002Fone-persons-journey-to-jailbreak-a-second-hand-prison-laptop-is-the-most-compelling-read-ive-had-in-absolutely-ages\u002F",[162],"nofollow","unlock its BIOS","\n, you may just make the tech vendor change their default BIOS password.",[10,166,167],{},"Securebook is a notorious maker of these kinds of laptops for\nincarcerated students, among other things. They began life in 2018\nand exploded in popularity in the 202s after the jailbreaking incident\nI referenced earlier. Which strikes me as funny, because to do the jailbreak\nyou would need to have acecess to things that just aren't easily accessible\nin prisons. For example, taking apart the laptop as the first initial\nstep you need to do. I believe you have to jump two solder points for\nthe BIOS flash to even work, so you would also need to have a working\nsoldering iron and solder. There's just no easy substitude for those\nso I feel their concerns are blown out of proportion. Having smartphones\nin prison are more of an issue in that regard than these laptops, let alone\njailbreaking them. I wonder how much these devices cost to produce\nvs. how much they're sold for. But anyways, I'm going on a tangent.",[74,169,171],{"id":170},"is-that-really-all-there-is-to-it","Is that really all there is to it?",[10,173,174],{},"Well. Sort of? There are other considerations to make, such\nas economics, and also design language. As we've all noticed,\na lot of the web has turned into a samey type of aesthetic\nwhere everyone and everything looks the same! Remember when\nYouTube on iPhone was an actual tube TV? Pepridge farm\nremembers. : )",[36,176,178],{"id":177},"looking-forward","Looking Forward",[10,180,181],{},"There has been a resurgence of translucent technology.\nTake for example - the Sony Inzone Buds in translucent\npurple goodness. They clearly knew what they were doing here haha!",[10,183,184],{},"With the rise of Raspberry Pi, Single Board Computers, you also\nstarted to see more of an ergonomic, skeumorphic type of design\nlanguage start returning to some of the devices that are coming out now.\nAnalogue recently also had come out with an FPGA clone of\nthe Nintendo 64 with translucent color shell. So, we're definitely\nseeing some companies experiment with the idea. The world right now,\nas filled with negativity as it is today, I feel could use a bit more\ncolor. I see this as a good development.",[10,186,187],{},"I think out of everyone who is experimenting with this, Sony\nis the most interesting. In addition to the near ear buds, they\nbrought back a concept Sony Walkman that has a fully transparent\nshell. For a cassette player, that's a great choice - a lot of\nanalogue moving parts there!",[10,189,190],{},"Will we see more translucent\u002Ftransparent case designs with an ecopunk\ntype of aesthetic? Perhaps - with the rise of fascism in the United States\nand the recent Artemis II mission to the moon, I can only imagine that\nwe have the planet's good health in mind.",[10,192,193],{},"This was a short blog, but a random rant where I wanted to\ntalk about something that I wish would come back. Until next\ntime, gm112 waz here until he wasn't!",{"title":195,"searchDepth":196,"depth":196,"links":197},"",2,[198,199,204,208],{"id":38,"depth":196,"text":39},{"id":62,"depth":196,"text":63,"children":200},[201,203],{"id":76,"depth":202,"text":77},3,{"id":118,"depth":202,"text":119},{"id":125,"depth":196,"text":126,"children":205},[206,207],{"id":138,"depth":202,"text":139},{"id":170,"depth":202,"text":171},{"id":177,"depth":196,"text":178},"2026-04-19",null,false,{"type":7,"value":213},[214],[10,215,12],{},"md",{"sega":218,"n64_and_cool_tech":225,"gbc":235},[219,222],{"src":220,"alt":221},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fdreamcast-sega-saturn-1.jpg","Hello Kitty Dreamcast",{"src":223,"alt":224},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fdreamcast-sega-saturn-2.webp","Sega Saturn in Translucent Black, White, Grey and a lighter Grey variant with their respective boxes behind them.",[226,229,232],{"src":227,"alt":228},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fn64_and_cool_tech-1.jpg","Green Translucent Nintendo 64 Box",{"src":230,"alt":231},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fn64_and_cool_tech-2.png","iMac",{"src":233,"alt":234},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fn64_and_cool_tech-3.jpg","Transparent Mac Classic",[236,239],{"src":237,"alt":238},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fgbc-1.jpg","Translucent Indigo Purple Game Boy Color Box",{"src":240,"alt":241},"\u002Fcontent\u002F2026-04-19\u002Fgbc-2.jpg","Translucent Indigo Purple Game Boy Color",{},true,"\u002F2026-04-19",{"title":5,"description":210},"23:45:00","America\u002FNew_York","IbTPnhvU030v_dYIYRCb1kKnbDIcEiEpSlyqBSeJdro",[250,254],{"title":251,"path":252,"stem":253,"children":-1},"Remembering Zelda: Oracle of Life Online Part 1","\u002F2026-03-14","2026-03-14",{"title":255,"path":256,"stem":257,"children":-1},"TBD","\u002Fmoon-pearl\u002F2026-01-30","moon-pearl\u002F2026-01-30",1777350108369]