A fan creates a delightful computer with retro aesthetics that would not be out of place in ‘Alien’

There is a powerful current of nostalgia around retro computing, although more than a look at the real past, it is a look at an imaginary past, at a specific aesthetic that comes to us not from personal experiences, but from things we have seen in movies and anime. ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Alien’ and other films, as well as certain animated productions of the 80s and 90s. To that aesthetic we owe one of the latest custom computer productions that has triumphed within the subreddit r/battlestations.

In an era dominated by minimalist designs and ultra-thin screens, a young Ukrainian has decided to look back to build the future. Arthur Gedz, a 25-year-old content creator with a Minecraft channel, has captured the attention of the tech community with his impressive creation: a retro-futuristic PC that looks like it came straight out of a 1980s sci-fi movie.

His publication, which shows a workstation with three screens embedded in an aged ivory-colored chassis, has generated admiration among retro design enthusiasts. The machine evokes that aesthetic based on complicated, monolithic designs, with eye-catching interfaces, tube displays and analog controls, rich in gestural movements that looked good on the move (he even tried to equip it with a CRT, but it didn’t quite fit with what he had).

A handcrafted construction

Far from using 3D printers, Arthur opted for a completely handmade approach. “I made it with wood as the internal structure, plywood as the outer body. I filled some difficult parts with automotive putty, and the softer parts with wood filler. Then I painted everything with universal matte enamel in the color ‘X021’, very similar to the plastic used in old technical equipment,” he explained.

The result is a piece that evokes the aesthetics of industrial consoles, NASA control stations and military laboratories. “The hardest part was definitely following the right geometric shapes to achieve a believable look. Since I didn’t use a 3D printer, I had to spend a lot of time making the cabinet look like it came out of a real factory,” he added.

While the exterior harkens back to another era, the inside is pure modern power: an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, a Ryzen 9 5900X processor and 24 GB of RAM. “In general, I really like retro PCs. Although I don’t know much about the hardware of that era, the visual component of 80s, 90s and even early 2000s technology elicits sincerely pleasant emotions for me,” Arthur confessed. He was also inspired by the aseptic design of Aperture Labs in Portal.

Given the enthusiasm generated, Arthur does not rule out commercializing his creations in the future. In the meantime, he is working on a video where he will show in detail the construction process of his unique machine (both for the curiosity it arouses, and to counter accusations that, in reality, the machine does not exist and has been generated by AI, part of the landscape we have today).

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