Memory Lane: What is your favorite piece of nostalgic tech?
Posted in Random by Dan at 12:45 am
This post was published 3 years 4 months 6 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.Ah, memory lane. With Chad, Chris, Derek and myself all being children of the 80’s we remember growing up with (in no particular order) Atari, Capsella, Walkie Talkies, Big Wheels, Nintendo, Speak and Spell, Walkman, the Apple IIe (Who doesn’t remember playing Oregon trail?) , the list goes on.
These toys were responsible for turning on our unquenchable thirst for all things tech, so we wonder what were your favorite gizmo’s when you were growing up? How did they influence your life.
Comment away!
I remember that handheld football game with the blinking red lights. That thing was fun in it’s day. Also the Genesis was badass when it first came out. Memories…
I also remember the old cell phones that came in bags that you had to carry around. For some reason my mom always insisted that I held the bag while she drove and talked on the phone. Needless to say I was concerned about my future fertility.
I’m obviously a little older since my first tech “memories” include:
a) catching the FM signals from a mainframe on a radio so the console typewriter became a piano keyboard
b) printing a large size Mona Lisa with a chain printer banging over each line 8 times to produce the shading
c) playing the game “Adventure” on a teletype
Things sure did progress and I couldn’t wait to get my first 2-floppy drive PC around 1983.
Many things I grew up with are now obsolete — electric typewriters, 8-tracks, vinyl records, rotary telephones, and in another couple of years, analog TV!
Well, I am a child of the (EARLY) 80’s so I missed all the REALLY cool toys! But I have always loved vintage tech.
Capsella! Wow, that really brings back memories. Capsella, Construx and the early Lego Technic sets really helped me gain an appreciation and interest for mechanical engineering.
I’m also proud of the fact that I could, and still can, solve Rubik’s Magic behind my back in a reasonably quick time.
TRS-80 Coco & MC-10
Radioshack Armatron (robotic arm)
SCIENCE FAIR 200 in 1 Electronic Project Kit from RadioShack
Laser Tag (first generation)
Intellivision II
Still have all of them except the Intellivision II, and I still enjoy them from time to time.
My absolute favorite piece of tech to look back on fondly is the Commodore 64! I used to love that thing. The games were so incredible at the time, hahah!
Plus, looking back at them makes me appreciate how fast technology has advanced. I was out at the pub the other night in fits of laughter comparing the specs of a MacBook Pro to a C=64! Remember the old floppies?? I mean the really old ones that were the size of a pizza box!
Virtual Boy (was i the only one that liked that?)
Atari 2600
the first Gameboy
I’m late 80s so I got a lotta hand-me-downs. Our first (Radioshack) Tandy Computer, Super Mario Bros 3 and Dr. Mario on Nintendo, and my first very first karoke cassette player.
no one put legos????? i was born in 89 so it was more like the 90s…but i give them all the credit for me wanting to be an engineer….
The Commodore 64 and later, the 128.
Those handheld games, we played dozens of them at school (at spares times, obviously). I miss them.
The Electronic Project Kit (I remember trying to catch some AM signal when I built a radio with it).
And that talking robot I can’t remember its name.
I was a child of the 90’s, but grew up in a house that still had a Commodore 64/128 with an old school Packard Bell Win 3.1 computer. So, I had a chance to fiddle with a computer when I was younger and that’s why I do what I do today – It influenced me to the max :).
I had a pet 2001… good times
10 print “Hello!”
20 goto 10
run
Heh…. Oh, line numbers, how I miss thee.
Born in 90′ so unfortunately I missed out on the old vintage tech that everyone else is talkin about, but I have to agree with legos. I had (still have) an ENORMOUS container full of legos.
And laser tag. who could forget old school laser tag…
I had one of those IR “Laser” tag toys that just rocked! Ah to be a kid again!
Apple II. Nothing like playing Oregon Trail in 5th grade, and not buying any food, simply so you can hunt all day long. Made you feel like a real man.
That and choosing obscene names for your characters and purposely dying quickly, so the classroom floppy disk got your tombstone saved on it.
I still have my NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, and XBOX (original!) hooked up to my big screen :) They’re all awesome in their own way – 4-player mario kart 64 ROCKS!
I haven’t tried it for a few years, but when I was in college, my atari 2600 still worked too. Virtual Boy was definitely a great system, for about a week and a half when I realized that seeing only red, even if in “3D,” was just not that cool – Mario Tennis was a great game though
How about CompuServe? I remember being young enough that I my Dad told me that I could buy dual-tape boombox from CompuServe and I thought that it was just a stereo store on the computer, my how things have changed!
The Casio sk-5. Never learned to really play it, but I spent plenty of time trying to say words backwards and reverse them (“shampoo” backwards was the funniest), and playing “Blue Danube” with coughing noises ala Ferris Beuhler.
*Beuller
How about the futuristic truck, the Big-Track.
Ah the good old days. Since I was a late 80s kid, the Nintendo was my main thing. Living in a house 3 brothers and a competitive family turned Ninendo gaming into a phyically grueling sport. Many fist fights ensued after lost games and cheating conspiracies.
And before that, the good ol’ Commodore 64. Comm64 is what sparked my interest in computers.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for my first remote control that actually “clicked” (hence the term “clicker”). And of course my first IR remote, because it didn’t (click, that is).
Also, my first computer, the Timex Sinclair. Followed by my Atari 800XL. I still have them.
Oh my God, Oregon Trail! All that hunting, “John was bitten by a snake” , Indian trading posts, buying the raft, now that was one HELL of a flashback. I used to play it on a 3rd party mac hardware machine called Power Computing.
Kid Pix, anyone else remember that? Monkey Island and Indiana Jones. Cosmic Osmo. Then there was a comic-like game about some naughty boy I could never understand. I used to get my hair shaved all the time.
I LOVED LOVED LOVED KidPix
Oh, BTW, on that Commodore 64 I learned Logo. That tortoise…
Check it VIC-20 BABY! YEAH! Adventureland! C64 ruled with Broderbund! Hey anyone remember this quote? “Destroy Him My Robots!!” Hey how bout the handheld Merlin! Good Stuff.
Buying 99 oxen in Oregon trail and finishing the game in 3 (virtual) days. Nothing like using ’sploitz in elementary school.
Stay a while! Stay…
FOREVER!!!
Hahaha I love the oregon trail.
My oxen would always die
‘83 what a year!! I poped out and boom, my love for computers and tech toys started!
I had a great ibm pc with 2 floppys and a hard drive. I I even found a sweet adult game to play on it “Fifi’s Strip Poker”!!! ahhh mono graphics Black/yellow.
I even had a “color” tandy from radio shack! in the early 90’s, but my Original Nintendo (which I still own) was my all time fav. I would stay home from school “sick” :) Just to play it ! Tecmo bowl!!!