Memories of ancient technology
 

Following on from my "what was your first computer" thread, who remembers using what is now outdated but at the time was cutting edge tech for listening to music? I recall "metal tapes", very expensive but the quality was incredible for the time....
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...ES/MA-R901.jpg
(This is a cassette audio tape. It may not necessarily be a metal one)

a Walkman of course. Everyone who was anyone (and those of us who were not) had one
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...alkman-006.jpg

and later, even a Minidisc! They could record AND play AND you could shift the tracks around, record over them, label them and so much more. Yeah, they died out pretty quickly.
http://www.minidisc.org/images/sony_mzn505.jpg

So, anyone else remember this ancient tech? Anyone use it?

I remember when I had dial up internet and before I owned an MP3 player when downloading one song would take about half an hour. I would download all the obscure B sides and singles by bands I liked. I would stick a jack into the computer and would manually record them onto mini disc as they played.

Thank God I only had to do that for a year or so.

http://pierretristam.com/images2/09/...ight8track.jpg

How I use to learn songs on the guitar. The penny taped to the stylus makes the arm easier to control for pinpointing parts of the record.

http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/im...y%20ET%27s.jpg

I just found the first record Trollheart ever bought.

http://www.tinfoil.com/k2b.jpg

I heard there was some old geezers posting in here. Oh wait.

Google Image Result for http://www.retrocom.com/images/Laf_comstat25A.jpg

Over the hill banter. ;)

Someday this technology will save the world when everything crashes. People will actually have to communicate once again. :soapbox:

This was also a trick for fixing scratches, if you recall?
No way man! That technology was way ahead of anything I could afford! The organ grinder was where I hung out --- damn monkey! ;)

http://www.iact.in/wp-content/upload...ny-discman.jpg

Too big to put in any pocket
Even something as harmless as walking would make it jolt and lose it's place.
and who the hell carts a load of CDs around on their person?

Oh man, I did that. Remember the CD wallets you could get, fit about ten CDs? The hassle of trying to change it when out, on the bus, wherever. It was this that pushed me into minidisc land. I still thought they were great, just never given the chance to develop into something really big.Course, the idea of being able to see the titles scroll across the screen was sooooo cool!

Speaking of CDs, remember when they first came out they were packed in "long" boxes cause retailers thought they'd be too easy to steal otherwise?

The tree huggers went bat**** and soon after they came simply wrapped in cellophane.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/trailbla...pic1-large.jpg

Long boxes were never really a thing with European CDs.
All the ones I had were American imports.

The very first cd's I ever bought were Def Leppard Pyromania and Thompson Twins Into The Gap, I bought them at Licorice Pizza. Both came in the big boxes. Hey man Into the Gap was a good album. LOL

I think the first long boxes I ever had were Judas Priest's Sin After Sin (After spending 6 years trying to find it on vinyl because I didn't own a CD player) and Alice Cooper's From The Inside.
Oh and Slayer's Reign in Blood because it wasn't released on CD in Britain until years after it originally came out.

I remember having almost equivalent of my ipod capacity in 2 cd wallets with cds that looked like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...lThisAlbum.png

I remember burning everything i could find on the net into blank cds, music, anime, dreamcast emulators etc.

But the old technology i miss the most is the VCR's
i had everything on Vhs tapes and i sorta used it as a primitive Tivo to record stuff on TV and stuff like that..

i actually tried buying one recently at wallmart and it was more expensive than the dvd players and they didn't even have them in stock!
All they had was the Vcr/dvd/blueray expensive crap that no one uses and is still way too overpriced.

I remember when the first DVD-RW's came out.
The shop I worked at were selling them at £15 each.

I got one of these personal CD player thingys for my 12th birthday. It was designed to be jog-proof and to be used 'on the go'. Even by personal CD player standards it was ridiculously bulky. I was delighted to get it though as it meant not having to put up with cassettes getting destroyed on me.

http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/p...MAN-ESA-45.jpg

My very first stereo was a Ferguson boombox like this. As a kid I thought it was badass.

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/s...-head/3T18.jpg

A lot of this is kinda cracking me up. This was my first portable music when I was a kid and it only picked up AM.

http://ephemera.typepad.com/.a/6a00d...4bd2970c-300wi

Here's mine albeit a later model..

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...8051624292.jpg

This thread makes me feel even younger than usual. :laughing:

I remember when some cars had tape decks.

Mine still does :D

Bloody hipsters

At least I never had to worry about it getting stolen.

x 2.

http://classicboombox.com/wp-content...-900-white.jpg

Something along these lines was my most prized possession from about the age of 11 to about 15. I don't think mine had autoreverse though. And it probably wasn't a brand name. I also painted all over it and covered it with stickers.

omg I can see you in a track suit carrying cardboard so you break dance.

I actually used a CD Walkman up until I was about 15, which would have been like... 2008. I collected and burned a lot of CDs in my early teens so iPods and other MP3 players were never really on my mind. I'd just pick a CD every morning, throw it in, and listen to it a couple of times a day before I got back home.

Last year I was driving a '95 Chevy Silverado that only had a tape deck, so instead of throwing a fancy stereo in I just decided it would be more fun to start collecting tapes. Now I have a killer collection of probably ~250 classic rock / metal tapes, a lot of rare ones too.

Not sure which would be worse, the sound quality or the flavor

Nope. Never saw those.
Ah. I guess that's why. I do remember VHS films being ridiculously expensive, like about £67 for one...
Oh oh oh! I want it! I love Frosties! That is so cool!
Sorry I don't smoke. Shouldn't you be in bed by now, young'un? :D
Oh man! Autoreverse! The state of the art! No more had you to stop, open the deck, switch the tape around, close it, hit play and off you went again. The biz!
You shut up. Don't you know Frosties are Grrrrrrreaatttt!? How many times must Tony the Tiger tell you?
(Mind you, the reception might be a little crackly...)
:shycouch:

I hear it sounds GR-REAT!!! :laughing:

The first Doctor Who VHS to come out was in 1983 and that retailed at £40, which works out at £120.50 in todays money.

I remember going into a video shop around the same time when ET was released to rent and they were selling copies to buy at £80.

I'm not sure any film is worth £240 no matter how good it is.

http://www.sunnyskyz.com/uploads/201...wwdw-gear1.jpg

This technology's quite ancient.

It pretty hard to break dance to Love & Rockets and Bob Mould, but maybe I could have done better if I didn't wear so much denim at the time.

I had a walkman. I'd try to jam the thing in my pocket when I went for walks.I'd also carry a backpack with a couple CDs. Never again.

Great thread. I did the CD player in pocket thing :D. I remember around 1999/00 everybody had a Gameboy Color and played Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow, I never had one and used to play on my mate's ones. Always wanted to play that.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._System_II.jpg

This was my first games console, I got it about 1997, second hand. It had Castle of Illusion (Mickey Mouse) on it, and a game you didn't need a cartridge to play, called Alex Kidd.

I can't even remember my first console.

It was around 1981/82 and was one of those generic ones you bought from a Littlewoods catalogue and had generic games like Space Invaders, Black Jack, Some maze game, Galaxians, Breakthru and Pong.

The thing I remember most was how hot it got quickly and how I was never allowed to use it because by the time I got home from school & set it up my Dad would come home & want to watch the TV.
I think I barely had it a year before it fried, I must have got at least 24 hours use out of it altogether. Thankfully my Grandfather bought me this not long after it died.....

http://www.denstoredanske.dk/@api/de...meandwatch.jpg

My Walkman had a clip so I could hook it on the outside of my pocket. :p:

My first electronic game device, a soviet knock-off of the Nintendo Game & Watch, where you had to catch eggs rolling down from four hen's nests.

http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki...ogodi_igra.jpg

Stylish!