RetroPrompt and RetroTower miniature electronic desk decorations with illuminated displays

Why I Make Tiny Electronic Worlds

I started making these miniatures partly out of nostalgia for the computers I used as a kid. I wanted to bring back a little of that feeling: a glowing screen, a blinking DOS prompt, and the sounds of a computer starting up.

But one of my goals is also to inspire other makers. Small screens, microcontrollers and 3D printing let us build things that would have been much harder to make before. I want these little objects to give someone an idea for something of their own.

A familiar computer, at a very different size

RetroPrompt began with the idea of a miniature CRT-style monitor displaying a blinking prompt. At first, I made the prompt proportional to the monitor. It turned out to be too small, so I enlarged it.

The side effect was that it looked cute, almost like a cartoon version of the original. That wasn't something I had planned. It came from trying to make the little screen readable.

Paired with RetroTower, it brings back the look of an early desktop setup. These are electronic desk decorations. The monitor doesn't accept commands, and the tower recreates startup sounds rather than running a computer.

The screen is only part of the build

Inside the monitor is a tiny OLED display. To give it the curved look of an old screen, I make a custom mold and cast the lens in epoxy resin.

Custom lens mold beside a clear curved epoxy lens
A custom mold lets me make the curved lenses for my miniature screens.

There's also a lot of work in the parts around the electronics. On Mini PET Prompt, the keyboard lettering was particularly difficult. The letters were too small for the printing methods I was trying, so I recessed them into the 3D model by 0.3 mm. I could then paint them and clean off the excess.

Mini PET keyboard panels during white lettering paint cleanup
The recessed letters keep the paint where I need it while I clean up the keys.

Other builds have brought different experiments, from tuning a tiny buzzer to sound like a floppy drive to hand-painting the controls of a miniature arcade cabinet. Getting the electronics working is one part of it. Making everything fit and look right takes its own work.

Something to start an idea

Questwise Ventures also includes electronic modules and components for other people's projects. The miniatures are another way to share what can be made with small electronics.

I hope you enjoy them as objects on your desk or shelf. And if looking a little closer makes you think, “I could try making something,” that's one of the things I wanted them to do.

Michael Yim
Questwise Ventures

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