Retro Tech Aesthetics

[brentw]

One of my grandma's old portable TVs.
She loved portable TVs, only person I ever knew who actually owned multiple handheld televisions.
Sadly none of them have been useable since broadcast television switched from analog to digital signals.

 

[bnuungus]

The Cybiko Wireless Handheld Computer For Teens

I found out about it bc of this xkcd comic which kind of shows you how complete this thing really was when it comes to features

I bought one off of ebay as an impulse buy because it was pretty cheap and I can tell you it was fully designed for teenagers in the early 2000s. It really only works in a very short range so I'm guessing the intended use of this thing was for you to take it to the mall and connect with other people there who have one and then make new friends. Pretty neat little device that was very quickly rendered obsolete a few years later.

 

[grap]

Check out this Royal Digital II calculator I picked up at an estate sale. It needs to be plugged into the wall with a cable thicker than my desktop's:

The four-position switch on the left-hand side controls how many decimal points you want represented. If you divide five by two at the "0" setting, it will tell you the answer is 2!

This summer I bought this Samsung Comment from a Goodwill. Unfortunately, not only is there the usual issues with 3G, but this phone appears to have been produced during a period when Cricket Wireless was experimenting with sim-less phones, so I doubt it can be rehabilitated.

And finally, my pride and joy, the Roland MC-300 midi sequencer, which boots from a floppy disk:

 

[grap]

She loved portable TVs, only person I ever knew who actually owned multiple handheld TVs.
Sadly none of them have been useable since broadcast television switched from analog to digital signals.

I had one during my teen years and loved it so much. I would watch TV all night and no one was the wiser.

 

[RisingThumb]

I think Old GPU boxes are thread-adjacent right? The Big Boxes for Amiga and PC games in the 80s-2000s are also pretty aesthetic

 

[brentw]

Just stole these images from Boxerdog in the pics that go hard thread.
Check out these computers, the minidisc player, that phone, etc.

Pedestal Imac:

CRT HDTV, quite an uncommon sight:

Oh man, check out that Sony HitBit:

 

[eris]

'kay i'll post some of my stuff


Sneaky media server living inside the case from a dead Mac IIci with all the trimmings



awesome victor calculator



great-looking xerox keyboard


iMac G3 with period correct web browsin'



super nice Sharp thing

 

[Mauserpad]

Beige technology i love beige as a color in general
now everything has to be all black and edgy with ugly curves instead of basic straight lines

 

[Ross_Я]

Space era tech looks cool.

I also like clear plastics and kind of hope to buy myself an Apple Newton eMate 300 one day, albeit I have no idea what I would use it for...

And if we are about to talk about cars, I can talk hours about cars... I have gigabytes of photos, some personal magazine scans, custom cars, concept cars...

I guess, I should leave it at this for now, but if you are interested in cars as much as I am - just let me know. I can upload my whole collection, if you want.

Not to sound "fake deep" or some shit, but has anyone else realized that older tech tried to look futuristic, or at least; attempted to go for an aesthetic that at the time was perceived as futuristic. While modern tech believes itself already futuristic and thus doesn't bother to put any real personality behind itself leaving modern aesthetics to be boxy and lifeless. All the while still older technology despite its boxy appearance has more personality and aesthetic choice built into itself through the sheer concept that it was designed to be functional AND look nice?

I miss old design so much, something about the way it fit the time while also trying to make itself fit a time far beyond itself is something that can't be replicated because so much of retro futurism came from the limitations of the times. Now everything is about being smaller, more functional, and completely substance over style. Sure I appreciate that I can fit my phone in my pocket and that it basically functions as a portable small computer but damn I miss having a phone that had more personality than merely a case and lock screen to share a personality aspect of myself. I find myself going to thrift stores and buying up old tech like VHS players and old CD players for the aesthetics alone.

I have something to add. In my opinion, as someone rather poetically put it somewhere "humanity collectively lost belief in itself". I myself feel you can clearly see it starting somewhere in the 20's, when people dreamt of space, and then all those space flights actually happened, and they've influenced people for at least a decade. But then, as people figured out that there will be no space flights, no distnat planets, no alien races or whatever else, you can pretty much see how science fiction was replaced in culture by much grittier cyberpunk genre. Still, at that moment at least computers were a novelty, and so people still had fantasies about AI, robots and cybernetics. As those became a mundane reality - or much closer to being one - they pretty much repeated the way of sci-fi: people realised just how much of cybernetics and AI we will have and... well, pretty much stopped pushing the envelope for whatever reason... I'm not sure why it happens. But once the biggest part of the world realises how impossible them fantasies are, they, in general, cease to be. Dreams only held up among general population when they have some slight chance of possibility of actually being real.

I mean, you still can find those traces of genuine dreams - usually, in some small, underground places. Indy movies and video games, undergrounds music, small kit cars made by order, etc. But they never-ever go big.

You can argue what people before 20's dreamt about, but I guess it is pretty much adamant that there were dreams. Nowadays when we know everything, it is hard to dream about something - you gotta be practical, logical, material. And it is further enforced by society for whatever reason. Something along those lines... I've wrote this idea about half a dozen times at this point, yet today I kind of feel I did not make myself clear. But I hope you've got the idea.

 

[Some_porcupine]

Space era tech looks cool.
View attachment 83672
View attachment 83673
View attachment 83674

I also like clear plastics and kind of hope to buy myself an Apple Newton eMate 300 one day, albeit I have no idea what I would use it for...

View attachment 83675
And if we are about to talk about cars, I can talk hours about cars... I have gigabytes of photos, some personal magazine scans, custom cars, concept cars...
View attachment 83681View attachment 83686
View attachment 83687
View attachment 83689
View attachment 83690

I guess, I should leave it at this for now, but if you are interested in cars as much as I am - just let me know. I can upload my whole collection, if you want.


I have something to add. In my opinion, as someone rather poetically put it somewhere "humanity collectively lost belief in itself". I myself feel you can clearly see it starting somewhere in the 20's, when people dreamt of space, and then all those space flights actually happened, and they've influenced people for at least a decade. But then, as people figured out that there will be no space flights, no distnat planets, no alien races or whatever else, you can pretty much see how science fiction was replaced in culture by much grittier cyberpunk genre. Still, at that moment at least computers were a novelty, and so people still had fantasies about AI, robots and cybernetics. As those became a mundane reality - or much closer to being one - they pretty much repeated the way of sci-fi: people realised just how much of cybernetics and AI we will have and... well, pretty much stopped pushing the envelope for whatever reason... I'm not sure why it happens. But once the biggest part of the world realises how impossible them fantasies are, they, in general, cease to be. Dreams only held up among general population when they have some slight chance of possibility of actually being real.

I mean, you still can find those traces of genuine dreams - usually, in some small, underground places. Indy movies and video games, undergrounds music, small kit cars made by order, etc. But they never-ever go big.

You can argue what people before 20's dreamt about, but I guess it is pretty much adamant that there were dreams. Nowadays when we know everything, it is hard to dream about something - you gotta be practical, logical, material. And it is further enforced by society for whatever reason. Something along those lines... I've wrote this idea about half a dozen times at this point, yet today I kind of feel I did not make myself clear. But I hope you've got the idea.

miss it
made thread, named Do you miss "promised future"? - or so

Do you remember (Now Lost) "Future"? (Promises broken - GVC, Ftgr aero, MCM...) / Don't fix what ain't broken / This would fry ancient peasant's brain

Parallel thread with https://8chan.moe/404/res/17276.html Example: "internet will topple down *Patriarchy*!" related: https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?threads/young-people-%C2%B484-%C2%B414-and-on-giving-up-on-life-life-under-l-s-capitalism-where-is-my-jetpack-cancelled-futures.6412/...

forum.agoraroad.com

but more about this snark in

(Bad, post- modern, "future-less" (culture-less) timeline) Young people (1984-2014) giving up on life, future...

thanks @WhiteSnake for birthing this idea edit: what this post is about (skipping the foreword from user W-S who ghosted me XD)...

forum.agoraroad.com

 

[waffle]

For your nostalgically aesthetic consideration.

I put together the AV cart of my dreams to house my old consoles in a usable way. Everything works.
I took my time to cable manage the whole thing and route each console through power distribution block so they all don't have to be powered up each time and I can select in and out for both power and AV. It's on rubberized casters so I can roll it up right to the dinner table to watch re-runs. Two controllers for each console, a handful of games, and some VHS are stored in the cubby door side for easy access.

N64 is running Remutes cartridge album https://remute.bandcamp.com/

1987 Radioshack 16-250 CRT TV
Sega Master System
N64
Dreamcast
SNES Mini
NES Mini
Xbox360
PS2
Panasonic VCR
AppleTV