Old tech you'd love to get a hold of

[Sperger King]

 

[Alcatraz]

I recently dug out my dads record player in the garage, and been listening to some old records like Fleetwood Mac and Falco.
It's non specific, but I want to get a cassette player. Something about the redundant, analog tech really vibes with me. My phone recently crapped out, and being so "disconnected" as it were, has been a breath of fresh air when I'm out and about.

Weird to think that in 10 years, something like an MP3 thumbdrive you can just slot into a USB is gonna be ancient tech.

 

[Longjack Attack]

Phones from the 80s strike my interest. Imagine walking around in public trying to fit large brick in your pockets.

 

[sasazuka]

It's non specific, but I want to get a cassette player. Something about the redundant, analog tech really vibes with me.

On a related note, I put 2 AA batteries into a late-1990s AIWA personal cassette player (re: Walkman but not from Sony) just the other day. Alas, the radio still works but I had no motion on the cassette spindles. I think the rubber drive band needs to be replaced but fixing it will probably cost more than whatever limited interest I have in listening to cassettes on the go is worth. I still have home stereo units for listening to cassettes.

 

[Stoneheart]

@An Ghost you can pick those up realy cheap on ebay

 

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@Sperger King you can pick those up really cheap on ebay

 

[GHTD]

VCRs and VHS are not hard to get. You can still buy both on Amazon.

I never got rid of my VCR and tapes; it's still mostly how I record things.

Old =/= no longer useful.

@GHTD You'll find tapes still all over for little money, and VCRs are both common and cheap at yard sales.

They're fairly valuable on Amazon/eBay anyway. Still available, but not within everyday purchase length.

 

[An Ghost]

Phones from the 80s strike my interest. Imagine walking around in public trying to fit large brick in your pockets.

When i worked tech retail, somebody brought in a retro fitted one that had a new screen and worked on modern cell towers.

Spoiler

Not just anybody, a turbo mega autist. He wore a black but sunbleached fedora, a black shirt with red pin stripes, black cargo pants despite it being 90 degrees that day, and black sneakers. All these black articles of clothing were different levels of faded so he failed to match even a monochromatic outfit. And white socks. Why autists gotta wear black and white socks. He explained he just moved to the area from rural new york because his parents were getting divorced and he was living with his grand parents in the mean time. He explained how he put the screen in and whatever. He explained how he did it to save money, but theres no way it was better than a $40 burner. He explained he walked across town because he never learned how to drive despite living in upstate new york. When he was done giving me his life story, i asked him why he brought it in. He said he needed a sim card that would work with it. I said "bro its your phone, you made it. Beats me."

@An Ghost you can pick those up realy cheap on ebay

Cheap for a leica, yes. For a film camera, no. If i sold all my film cameras and lenses i have now, if wouldnt equal an m3 body.

 

[ditto]

One of those Apple Newton laptops.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

The old hardware I want have the problem of not really having any software. I've always been curious about the Panasonic/Matsushita M2 and would really like to play around with the things that were in development for it, like D2.

Phones from the 80s strike my interest. Imagine walking around in public trying to fit large brick in your pockets.

A friend had a shoe sized baby blue japanese cellphone that ran on eight or ten AA batteries, it was a ridiculous phone to have in 1999, I don't even know where he found that thing.
I think it was manufactured by Mitsubishi of all companies.

 

[Guts Gets Some]

They're fairly valuable on Amazon/eBay anyway. Still available, but not within everyday purchase length.

Right. Because they're no longer being made (at least not without a DVD combo) and people realize they aren't worthless, the price has shot up again.
That's why I said yard sale. Every time I go out to find these, I always find at least one VCR for 10 or under that these people are just dying to unload. There you go. Tapes too.

 

[sasazuka]

I think the VCRs on Amazon are "new in box". You're paying for two decades of whatever warehouse space it took up.

I see the same sort of ridiculously inflated prices on Amazon for specific Sony CD Walkmans.

If you're buying from eBay or if you wait until the thrift stores are open again, you'll probably be able to find a decent used VCR for almost nothing.

 

[Pissmaster]

I actually found a DVD/VCR combo my neighbor put out for junk pickup a few years ago, and the VCR part worked fine, but the DVD part wouldn't even start spinning the disc.

That made my day. It ain't the best VCR, it's a Samsung one, but it played my ancient tapes and even has component out. I thought about taking it apart and seeing if I could fix the DVD portion, but I really don't wanna accidentally screw up the VCR when I've got countless other things that can play DVDs.

I've also got a couple of old CRTs with built-in VCRs. I've wondered if it's feasible to remove the VCR part and use it independently, since one of them is pretty tiny.

 

[sasazuka]

^ That reminds me, I liked the kind of TV/VCR combo they used to have at college where the VCR was at the side rather than the bottom like most of the TV/VCR combos they sold for home use. I think they had a smaller screen than the usual 14", somewhere between 7" and 10" but bigger than a Radio Shack 5" Portavision.

 

[Basic Block]

I would love to get my hands on a FroxSystem:

$10,000 early 90s media center/AV processor with a cool remote.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

A good cassette player that works could be nice.

 

[Shibaru]

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.

I'd definitely love to get my hands on a Victor Model rather than the JVC Version though lol

 

[Syaoran Li]

I'd love to own a CRT TV again, mainly for the purposes of VHS and maybe some old-school gaming.

VHS tapes are still dirt cheap and so are VCR's, and DVD's are getting even cheaper than they were already.

Might do some online shopping in the near future.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I'd love to get a Genesis again. Of course, an Everdrive is a must.

I really want a mid 90s gaming PC. Ever since I built my own last year, I've been really curious as to how they worked back in the 90s. I think it'd be cool to see those older games running on hardware they were meant for. Of course, there's no practical reason for this since most games can run on modern hardware (usually), so it's mostly just for the experience of playing, say, Quake on a Pentium 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.

Wanted to do this after my first build. Decided against it since GOG makes running these old games much more convenient.

There's emulators for pretty much every 70's and 80's computer. You can experience the games without unreliable floppies and decade long loading times on cassettes.

 

[Fuck Y'all]

OG Xbox (slightly modded for pirated games)

Too bad every Xbox to buy on the net is heavily modded and Xbox emulation sucks balls