If the present day is a little too stressful, opt for the past via some old-school tech

[View this email in your browser]( [Open Ars Technica in your browser]( Forgive us. It's been a week between [increasing COVID-19 infections]( marking the start of a new school year, the chaos in Afghanistan [sending ripples]( through the world, and [the "worse than it already was" climate news]( arriving this month. We have and will continue to cover this kind of pivotal news thoroughly and quickly, but it's all those anxious developments have led us to fighting space frog cops more often than we normally would (thank you, [ScummVM](, for letting us easily indulge in Windows 3.1 gaming). Or, to watching films like [Strawberry Mansion](, which intentionally sets out to deliver the trippy, campy aesthetic of '80s sci-fi and fantasy. Or, to flipping through old issues of Apple 2000, M.A.C.E. (Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts) Journal, or [other publications from computing groups]( of yore. [Don Draper]( famously reminded us nostalgia is delicate, but potent. So in this week's Orbital Transmission, we're sharing a few new releases that have us escaping the horrors of summer 2021 (however briefly) to enjoy aspects of the past we remember fondly. From retro games to desktop aesthetics, vintage computing will always be an indulgence that gives us the warm and fuzzies. It's why we'll happily [boot up a Quadra 700]( when we're feeling down, even if it might not render the homepage as well as even outdated versions of Internet Explorer. —[Nathan Mattise]( Dealmaster's Deals of the Week Dealmaster's Deals of the Week Today's best tech deals: Kindle Paperwhite, Logitech webcams, and more The Dealmaster's latest deals roundup includes Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite, [our favorite e-reader](, for $80, which matches the lowest price we've ever tracked. We've also got deals on a couple of recommended—and, lately, hard to find—[webcams from Logitech](, among many other discounts on good tech. [See the full list of deals here]( Orbital Transmission 08.18.2021 Orbital Transmission 08.18.2021 [(image) ]( The dream of the '90s (operating system) is alive with SerenityOS [Read Full Story »]( The dream of the '90s (operating system) is alive with SerenityOS Be still our Windows NT-loving hearts. SerenityOS combines "the aesthetic of late-1990s productivity software and the power-user accessibility of late-2000s *nix," which means we were immediately interested in this new OS project. And the emphasis should be on new OS there—this thing Isn't just a Linux distro that shares Ars' style preferences. It's actually an entire operating system built from the ground up, which means custom-built kernel, display manager, shell... everything. There's no actual release yet at this point (still a year or two away according to founder Andreas Kling), but Ars' Technology Reporter Jim Salter jumped through the technical hoops necessary to put this thing through an early test-drive. We think he's in love, and that's before you even start to consider the human story behind this project. SerenityOS started as a personal therapy project. Kling is a recovering addict, and he decided to build an operating system as a long-term project to focus his mind and occupy his time, similar to the way someone else might decide to build a car or house. [Read Full Story »]( [(image) ]( We would like to play this lost Atari Laserdisc haunted amusement park game [Read Full Story »]( We would like to play this lost Atari Laserdisc haunted amusement park game Some retro gaming simply doesn't hold up without some extensive remastering—have you tried getting past the calculator-level graphics of Boxing on the original Atari anytime in the last few years? That's what makes Laserdisc games a particularly well-preserved bit of gaming nostalgia. These games relied on pre-recorded video interspersed with interactive elements for players, and some of them stand as some of the most popular or noteworthy games in video game history (see Dragon's Lair or [Night Trap](). And when '80s gaming juggernaut Atari was staring down dwindling home console sales, they looked to this emerging game style as a possible solution. Atari Playland, a Laserdisc arcade cabinet centered on a haunted amusement park, never made it to market, but film director Richard Taylor recently recounted its production for Ars' Gaming Contributor Matt Paprocki. The gameplay would have involved floating superimposed ghosts for players to shoot, and a player's view would follow on-rails routes, filmed using a complex, pre-programmed series of camera movements and a rotating platform supporting elaborate sets that could stretch over 40 feet long. [Read Full Story »]( [(image) ]( In S2, Star Trek: Lower Decks is the '90s Trek throwback we crave [Read Full Story »]( In S2, Star Trek: Lower Decks is the '90s Trek throwback we crave We know, we know—animation is not some place the Star Trek franchise has really boldly gone before. But after watching a few S2 episodes of ST: Lower Decks ahead of its recent debut, we couldn't help feeling overcome by loving nostalgia. This is the '90s-iest Trek creation since we all initially met Jean Luc-Picard. Lower Decks intentionally recreates the aesthetic of TNG and Voyager, from the ship design to the scoring to the blue typeface used for the credits. But its most refreshing throwback is the show's willingness to be low-stakes and silly while telling self-contained stories. This was a hallmark of '90s Trek—DS9 followed the gorgeous, nuanced [Far Beyond the Stars]( episode with a [Honey I Shrunk the Kids]( spoof where someone accidentally makes a shuttlecraft tiny—yet this sense of playfulness is often absent from the nonstop world-saving bombast of other modern Trek series. [Read Full Story »]( [(image) ]( How an early 2000s camera OS became the world's big phone platform [Read Full Story »]( How an early 2000s camera OS became the world's big phone platform In early 2005, a small company called Android decided to pivot from a camera OS to an open source phone platform. And if that didn't sound like enough work, the team still had the daunting task of actually building a product, which meant they’d need more money to hire a large enough team to do the work. You might know the ending to this particular story if you read Ars Technica, but the early days of the Android OS are some of the more mysterious bits of modern tech history—well, mysterious until now at least. Longtime Android developer Chet Haase just released Androids: The team that built the Android operating system, his love letter to the early days of Android as told by many of the people who were in such rooms. The story of how the small Android team pitched (and eventually went through an acquisition with) Google is excerpted at Ars right now, but trust our own [Android Historian Ron Amadeo's review](: this is the director's commentary track for the most popular phone platform in the world. [Read Full Story »]( [Condé Nast Spotlight | The breaking news and top stories everyone is talking about. All in one place. The most popular stories from Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, Architectural Digest and more. 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