Old tech you'd love to get a hold of

[salvuserit]

It would be really fun to mess around with tube-based personal computers from just before transistors became the standard.

 

[sasazuka]

I miss how in the ol' days you could get varying levels of shitty reception and static but sometimes you could still watch tv through that. Nowadays you either get the channel or it's pretty much unwatchable.

That's why pocket televisions in particular have mostly disappeared. Modern ATSC pocket televisions are alright if you put them on a table or counter and put the antenna in the window, but they're fairly useless if you want to watch over-the-air television in a moving vehicle. I really miss being able to watch television on the bus or train. Obviously, smartphones let you watch TV shows through the Internet but you either have to download them at home, pay for an expensive data plan, or use public WiFi if your bus or train even has that option.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I Already have ahold of a VHS Camcorder (General Electric Images CG681 to be exact - Yes, a GE Product made when Bob was still working at GE.), but I Really want one of these JVC S-VHS Camcorders just for the novelty of owning one.
View attachment 1262809
View attachment 1262810
I'd definitely love to get my hands on a Victor Model rather than the JVC Version though lol

Something I learned about a couple of years ago through Techmoan was D-VHS, HD video on a tape that could hold the same amount of data as a blu-ray.

(pop the video out) this isn't D-VHS though, it's some other tape based format.

It's really cool how it's got the soap opera video motion(just look at 00:56) while also having the color, resolution and clarity of a far more modern format.

Techmoan video:

Retro-Tech: When HD Movies came on VHS

A look at the short-lived D-Theater format which offered HD movies on VHS. Captured D-VHS Demo Tape showing New York in 1993: https://youtu.be/fT4lDU-QLUY D-...

www.youtube.com

 

[An Ghost]

Model m keyboard and a blue microsoft optical mouse. Nostalgic but also their durability and comfort are touted over modern stuff. And im getting sick of my neon piss color keyboard and mouse.

 

[tehpope]

I would love to get my hands on a MUSE laserdisc player and decoder. Those things are the holy grail of laserdisc collecting. They were niche even back when released. The players are the very best ever released for the format and the discs are also rare. Video seems to be pretty good though the MUSE format have issues with moving images and dark scenes.

I know Techmoan did a video series on it and had issues with his player. Not sure if thats the rule or exception with MUSE.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

entium or whatever the hell people played it on.

I almost want a mid 80s one because I still can't wrap my head around how people played on them in the late 70s and early 80s, but there's even less practical reason for that since those games can run on damn near anything nowadays.

I love 90s PCs. Pentium and later is easy enough to throw together, 486 and earlier gets messy (for me) as many of the big names and DIY brands were not as big, and reviews are non existent unless you have old PC magazines, so knowing what is good is a total crapshoot. If you want to find info on old systems, the VOGONS website is your best bet.

Me personally? I'd love two different old PCs. First, a K6-III+ build with a 2MB motherboard. AMD super socket 7 motherboards had L2 cache on board, and when the K6-III chips came out with L2 on board, the motherboard cache was turned into the first L3 cache. However, while 512K boards were common, 1MB were harder to find and 2MB boards were almost never seen, as the K6 platform was seen as a budget line. Add in the beginning of the great capacitor plague and the collapse of places like Goodwill willing to sell old PCs, the supply of K6 hardware has dried up. 2MB super socket 7 boards occasionally pop up on ebay, but I'm not paying $300+ for one.

The other thing is a Pentium III PC with a VIA266 chipset. This allowed the use of DDR266 with a tualatin CPU. Awesome platform, but nearly impossible to find due to very limited production.

Oh, and a Voodoo 5 6000 QuadGPU to go with either, because glide games, the last visage of DOS that cant be emulated.

That dual disc laserdisc player. I already have too many players and the reasonable side of me tells me no. But maybe one day.

I'd LOVE one of the late 2000/early 2001 japanese laserdisk players, the ones with component output. But they run $1500+ when they do appear.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I remember years ago I saw an ad for this in the instruction manuals of one of my games. It's an LCD screen for the PS1.

There's just something badass about plugging in an LCD screen to the back of your console and playing without the need of a TV. Hell I'd go as far as to call it semi-portable since all you need at that point is a wall socket for the PS1. It's honestly a little mindblowing they were able to do something like this in the early 2000s. The Switch is basically a better version of this, but even so it's a great idea and one that I think needs to be brought back.

 

[sasazuka]

@Duncan Hills Coffee Stuart Ashen just did a video last month about various screens for the original Playstation. Several third-party manufacturers made their own versions.

Spoiler: PS One Portable Screens | Ashens

 

[tehpope]

I'd LOVE one of the late 2000/early 2001 japanese laserdisk players, the ones with component output. But they run $1500+ when they do appear.

The best video output for Laserdisc is S-Video. But in reality Composite is the best since the rf signal stored on the discs are in composite with Luma and Chroma combined. S-Video is usually used in high end players to output a filtered signal from their comb filters. Most, if not all, are pretty out of date now of days and the most common method of getting a "great" signal is to pass the composite signal through a DVD Recorder. Most DVD recorders have pretty good comb filters in them to clean up VHS tapes.

Those players with Component are the combo DVD/LD players. The Component outputs are for DVD only.

There's also the doomsday project that takes the raw RF signal from discs and converts them to frames. Its the literal best you can get out of LDs, but its like $400 for the units and you can only use players that allow you to tap into the RF signal.

I remember years ago I saw an ad for this in the instruction manuals of one of my games. It's an LCD screen for the PS1.

View attachment 1271345

There's just something badass about plugging in an LCD screen to the back of your console and playing without the need of a TV. Hell I'd go as far as to call it semi-portable since all you need at that point is a wall socket for the PS1. It's honestly a little mindblowing they were able to do something like this in the early 2000s. The Switch is basically a better version of this, but even so it's a great idea and one that I think needs to be brought back.

Those are pretty cool. Most 6th gen systems had similar 3rd party screens. Even the Xbox. Had one for my gamecube back then.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Those are pretty cool. Most 6th gen systems had similar 3rd party screens. Even the Xbox. Had one for my gamecube back then.

You serious? I ought to track some down then. I had no idea they made some well into the next generation.

 

[Pissmaster]

I remember years ago I saw an ad for this in the instruction manuals of one of my games. It's an LCD screen for the PS1.

View attachment 1271345

There's just something badass about plugging in an LCD screen to the back of your console and playing without the need of a TV. Hell I'd go as far as to call it semi-portable since all you need at that point is a wall socket for the PS1. It's honestly a little mindblowing they were able to do something like this in the early 2000s. The Switch is basically a better version of this, but even so it's a great idea and one that I think needs to be brought back.

I really wanted to get one when I was little, but they were prohibitively expensive. They cost more than the console at the time, I think. Plus they didn't work with original model Playstations, and didn't come with a battery, so you still had to plug them into a wall. Though there were 3rd party batteries.

With how cheap LCD screens are nowadays, it might be a fun project to make one myself out of a suitcase for a PS5 or something.

(or a Switch just to be funny)

 

[Marissa Moira]

Something I learned about a couple of years ago through Techmoan was D-VHS, HD video on a tape that could hold the same amount of data as a blu-ray.

(pop the video out) this isn't D-VHS though, it's some other tape based format.

It's really cool how it's got the soap opera video motion(just look at 00:56) while also having the color, resolution and clarity of a far more modern format.

Techmoan video:

Retro-Tech: When HD Movies came on VHS

A look at the short-lived D-Theater format which offered HD movies on VHS. Captured D-VHS Demo Tape showing New York in 1993: https://youtu.be/fT4lDU-QLUY D-...

www.youtube.com

Just look at the lack of cellphones in that video.

I remember years ago I saw an ad for this in the instruction manuals of one of my games. It's an LCD screen for the PS1.

View attachment 1271345

There's just something badass about plugging in an LCD screen to the back of your console and playing without the need of a TV. Hell I'd go as far as to call it semi-portable since all you need at that point is a wall socket for the PS1. It's honestly a little mindblowing they were able to do something like this in the early 2000s. The Switch is basically a better version of this, but even so it's a great idea and one that I think needs to be brought back.

The PS1 was marketed as portable they even sold small carry cases for it. If you look at some of the old commercials they advertised the portability of it heavily. The only real issue was the power plug which was a standard prong plug, that kind of held it back with the portability aspect, but third party and modern options exist for having it take advantage of modern USB cords.

It's less than half the length of the nintendo switch.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

I remember years ago I saw an ad for this in the instruction manuals of one of my games. It's an LCD screen for the PS1.

View attachment 1271345

There's just something badass about plugging in an LCD screen to the back of your console and playing without the need of a TV. Hell I'd go as far as to call it semi-portable since all you need at that point is a wall socket for the PS1. It's honestly a little mindblowing they were able to do something like this in the early 2000s. The Switch is basically a better version of this, but even so it's a great idea and one that I think needs to be brought back.

Dont forget both the PS2 and Gamecube had something like this.

 

[Jason Wynn]

My dad had got me this Franklin Bookman electronic Bible as a Christmas gift when I was a kid. It's a pretty primitive e-reader, but I thought it was great back then. It's easy enough to track one down, I've just been in that mindset of wanting an old nostalgic piece of tech, but not wanting it enough to spend money on.

 

[Hammerstein]

I'd probably use it to play Antarctic Adventure.

 

[Slav Power]

I'd love to collect a whole bunch of old-school Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones from the 2000's, since those were some very nice phones.

I'd also love to build a Windows 98 gaming PC, with a Voodoo card and a Model M for the keyboard, but there are no tech thrift stores in Poland, so the next best thing is looking up stuff on OLX (Polish Craigslist) and going around the country buying stuff for it.

 

[Pissmaster]

I'd probably use it to play Antarctic Adventure.

View attachment 1271975

...holy crap, I just now noticed that the old "It's a Sony" logo is supposed to be a big dithered S. I never knew what that was before, it looked like a fat gut or a pregnant woman from the side.

 

[Dialtone]

Model m keyboard and a blue microsoft optical mouse. Nostalgic but also their durability and comfort are touted over modern stuff. And im getting sick of my neon piss color keyboard and mouse.

I have the Unicomp version of the IBM Model M and honestly it's really fun to type on, plus they have tons of models to pick from and you can pay a little extra to remove their garbage logo and have a clean looking keyboard.

 

[Puff]

My dad had got me this Franklin Bookman electronic Bible as a Christmas gift when I was a kid. It's a pretty primitive e-reader, but I thought it was great back then. It's easy enough to track one down, I've just been in that mindset of wanting an old nostalgic piece of tech, but not wanting it enough to spend money on.

View attachment 1271952

Shit, I have one of these at the parent's house somewhere.

 

[core_go7]

A basic flip-phone would be pretty nice (2005-2008 era).