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Fooley
Apr 25, 2006

Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shinin'...

Mister Kingdom posted:

If we're taking about ancient hand-held games, I give you this:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race

I played the gently caress out of this game. It's so simple, it's ridiculous, but in the higher "gear", it would kick your rear end.

Here's a hell of a thing, although I never had one: Blip.

A handheld pong game that was entirely mechanical, and impossible to win against the "computer".

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ultrabay2000
Jan 1, 2010




I got a Tapwave Zodiac 2 after the company shuttered, but it was still a great device. It wasn't quite powerful enough to do anything really 3D, but it could run Doom just fine. There was a Quake version that worked fine too. It had some sort of ATI graphical accelerator.

The screen was pretty nice for 2003 too, HVGA, and it was 3.7" large. It didn't have the ghosting issues a lot of PDA-type devices did around then, which made it a great media player. The video software it came with was garbage, but someone released TCPMP for it and you could play back anything converted to a reasonable format.

I think the PSP might have been better suited for games in general, the analog stick was pretty good but the control cluster on the right was a bit stiff. Of course, being a Palm-device it has a touch screen, which worked really well. The aforementioned interface had this sort of spider layout which you can see in the picture. This made it easily navigable with either the analog stick or the touch screen. I think it was pretty ahead of it's time interface wise, I don't think anything really compared until the iPhone.

WescottF1
Oct 21, 2000
Forums Veteran

Mister Kingdom posted:

If we're taking about ancient hand-held games, I give you this:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race

I played the gently caress out of this game. It's so simple, it's ridiculous, but in the higher "gear", it would kick your rear end.

I got one of those when I was 6. Loved that game. I also had the Battlestar Galactica and Football ones too. I think they cost about $25 back then. I should go look on eBay and see what they go for on there..

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

:smug:

BigDave
Jul 14, 2009

Taste the High Country

OozieNelson posted:

Everybody had one of these or knew someone who had one:



Just looking at this gave me the strongest memory. So many car rides, so many lunkers caught.

Lemon King
Oct 4, 2009

im nt posting wif a mark on my head

der_tsu posted:

They're still rocking the universe in Germany. Every planetarium I've visited has a Zeiss projector. Where I live we call them the „Kartoffel“, though. ;-)

Did we already mention mechanical computers? No? Learn about them here:

Make sure to read up on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who constructed some very odd mechanical computers. http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Leibnitzrechenmaschine.jpg&filetimestamp=20060706122903

Who said computers must be digital (you did just read about Leibniz, right?) or mechanical? There's still analog computers for the wicked: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer

If we're getting into mechanical stuff how about mechanical tv.
Still a really cool piece of tech despite being obsolete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GYGxEk0btA

Jetfire
Apr 29, 2008


From nearly every perspective, the analog mini-tape voice recorder is absolutely redundant and obsolete. But even though I use the super awesome Zoom H1 for digital recording, I'll be damned if I don't carry this around as a backup when I'm on assignment. It's still incredibly solid and reliable (provided you have a poo poo ton of extra mini-tapes).

Fozaldo
Apr 18, 2004

Serenity Now. Serenity Now.
:respek::respek::respek::respek::respek:
Ok. Time to take back handheld games back to the mechanical age, baby.
Anyone remember Pocketeers?

All the cool kids in school had one or two of these. Mine was Stuntbike which was one of the best. You wound it up and the scenery would wheel past and you had to hit the jump switch in order to make the biker lift up and clear the obstacles. Very clever game for being all clockwork. I wanted to see how mine worked so I took the back case off and a million cogs suddenly flew out. Game over for good :(

Fuzz1111
Mar 17, 2001

Sorry. I couldn't find anyone to make you a cool cipher-themed avatar, and the look on this guy's face cracks me the fuck up.
iRiver T30

I bought one of these back in around 2005. It played ogg, which really mattered back then because a 64kbps ogg sounded about as good as a 128kbps mp3, and that allowed a surprising amount of songs to fit on the 1gb of storage. It could also record at reasonable quality, oh, and it also supported and gapless playback (mp3's only).

The fact it ran on a AAA battery may have been a drawback to some, but if I had bought the (similarly priced) ipod shuffle it wouldn't still be in use because the battery would be dead (I use it because it can actually run headphones at reasonable volume despite the 1.5v power source).

Sony Minidisc MZ-N505

My brother had this and I'm not 100% if that was the exact model, what I remember for sure was that there was no need to record over analogue - the future is here now friends! Go ahead and transcode your mp3's into an inferior format using our horrible horrible software (that had to be installed on my PC because my brother didn't have a computer).

Sony TC-105 4 track mono reel-to-reel

This 20 or so pound "portable" reel-to-reel was given to me when I was about 12, I didn't get any tapes but I soon figured out how to make do by cannibalizing a few cassettes (of-course the tape was half the width and a lot thinner so I only got 2/4 tracks worth of audio and I had to be very careful rewinding or fastforwarding because it would easily rip the tape apart).

It had 3 speeds, the slowest was basically the same as a cassette recorder, the fastest actually sounded pretty clear, a lot clearer than cassettes did (if you plugged it into an amp and ignored the 50hz hum).

Bimmi
Nov 8, 2009


someday
but not today

Fuzz1111 posted:

Sony TC-105 4 track mono reel-to-reel

Hello, old friend! It's been a long time.

Pretty hot poo poo in its day. Dad had his classical tapes and I my Dr. Seuss stories which I listened to about a million times. Built like a mofuggin tank as I recall. Kinda wish I still had it.

univbee
Jun 3, 2004




SimplyCosmic posted:

Fax machines are the top of my list. And will likely be on that list for at least another 5 to 10 years.

Probably longer. Faxes have all kinds of legal protections tied into them that don't translate to scan-to-email type digital transfers (e.g. a notarized document's faxed copy is still legally regarded as notarized, whereas if it were scanned and then emailed it wouldn't be).

Bonzo
Mar 11, 2004

Just like Mama used to make it!
Spent many, many rainy afternoons with this right here.

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry


This was my first hand held video game. 2 player Galaxian. It's so 80's it hurts.

ZanderZ
Apr 7, 2011

by T. Mascis

Wow. Never saw a picture of it in someone's hands. Why is this the 2nd Sony handheld you have to pinch between your fingers in order to use the analog stick(s)?

Cool Web Paige
Nov 19, 2006

ZanderZ posted:

Wow. Never saw a picture of it in someone's hands. Why is this the 2nd Sony handheld you have to pinch between your fingers in order to use the analog stick(s)?

I'm pretty sure thats a picture of the only person who bought one.

Zedsdeadbaby
Jun 14, 2008

You have been called out, in the ways of old.
I know it was a sarcastic post, but the PSVita probably is headed for irrelevancy and obscurity far faster than most people would have guessed. There's just no market for such a device anymore.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

I'm going to go a step further: dedicated gaming machines. Home and handheld consoles aren't allowed to play games anymore, they have to do everything else too. I appreciate my consoles being able to play DVDs and video files, but past that, the usefulness of stuff like GPS, 3D cameras, hell, even the ability to update Facebook trails off sharply.

ZanderZ
Apr 7, 2011

by T. Mascis
The only reason mobile phones will eat up handheld, gaming devices, is because companies keep making awkward devices that are uncomfortable and don't mimick the console version of the game.

Vita games are supposed to be the exact same as the console version, yet it's still probably uncomfortable as hell. I used to play my PSP and my hands would hurt like crazy after 20 minutes, simply because I had to pinch it between my thumbs and forefingers.

Why the hell don't they just make a touchscreen gaming tablet? I play mobile FIFA more than I play PS3 FIFA and the only downside to a touch screen, analog stick (vs a physical analog controller) is when my hands get too sweaty.

Aside from that, it's great. The best part is when you hold an iPhone sideways, you do so, with the phone resting on your ring fingers. You have your pointer fingers resting on the top, so the natural tendency for your fingers to wanna come together is what holds the phone in place.

ZanderZ has a new favorite as of 21:18 on Aug 7, 2012

Landerig
Oct 27, 2008

by Fistgrrl

vxskud posted:

I'm pretty sure thats a picture of the only person who bought one.

Ashens also bought one, and seems to have predicted its doom.

Zedsdeadbaby
Jun 14, 2008

You have been called out, in the ways of old.

ZanderZ posted:

Why the hell don't they just make a touchscreen gaming tablet? I play mobile FIFA more than I play PS3 FIFA and the only downside to a touch screen, analog stick (vs a physical analog controller) is when my hands get too sweaty.

They're universally derided and are terrible for gameplay. There's no physical feedback and no precision. Kinect, Move and touchscreens are absolutely being murdered right now critically and commercially after a couple of years of flash-in-the-pan status.

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry

ZanderZ posted:

Why the hell don't they just make a touchscreen gaming tablet? I play mobile FIFA more than I play PS3 FIFA and the only downside to a touch screen, analog stick (vs a physical analog controller) is when my hands get too sweaty.

Sony really missed the boat with the Vita. Especially when you consider that they are already making Android phones, some of which were already geared towards playing games. They should have made a line of Playstation/PSP phones that had standardized specs, ran Android, etc. And then also sold a wifi only model to take the place of the PSP.

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

ZanderZ posted:

Why the hell don't they just make a touchscreen gaming tablet? I play mobile FIFA more than I play PS3 FIFA and the only downside to a touch screen, analog stick (vs a physical analog controller) is when my hands get too sweaty.

I thought the Vita was touch screen on both sides.

ZanderZ
Apr 7, 2011

by T. Mascis

Zedsdeadbaby posted:

They're universally derided and are terrible for gameplay. There's no physical feedback and no precision. Kinect, Move and touchscreens are absolutely being murdered right now critically and commercially after a couple of years of flash-in-the-pan status.

Sorry, I didn't mean "gaming tablet" in the sense of a large, iPad-like tablet. I mean something handheld that's a bit bigger than an iPhone.

ZanderZ posted:

when you hold an iPhone sideways, you do so, with the phone resting on your ring fingers. You have your pointer fingers resting on the top, so the natural tendency for your fingers to wanna come together is what holds the phone in place.

If they made it a little taller and however more wide they want, you could just substitute "pinky fingers" with "ring fingers." If you have an iPhone, you can see what I mean by holding it sideways between your pinky fingers and middle fingers. Hell, you can mix and match depending on how big your hands are.

With the Vita, I'd have to curl my thumbs backwards if I wanted to hold it comfortably.

ZanderZ has a new favorite as of 21:25 on Aug 7, 2012

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

ZanderZ posted:

The only reason mobile phones will eat up handheld, gaming devices, is because companies keep making awkward devices that are uncomfortable and don't mimick the console version of the game.

No it's because the games are $1.

quote:

Aside from that, it's great. The best part is when you hold an iPhone sideways, you do so, with the phone resting on your ring fingers. You have your pointer fingers resting on the top, so the natural tendency for your fingers to wanna come together is what holds the phone in place.

That's also how you hold the Vita.

And the PSP, actually.

What's wrong with your fingers?

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

Aphrodite posted:

No it's because the games are $1.


That's also how you hold the Vita.

And the PSP, actually.

What's wrong with your fingers?

The difference between vita and ipad in Denmark is a factor 10. It just makes no sense to buy a Vita.

Iacen
Mar 19, 2009

Si vis pacem, para bellum



Boiled Water posted:

The difference between vita and ipad in Denmark is a factor 10. It just makes no sense to buy a Vita.

Unless of course you want to play games like Gravity Rush, the MGS collection and the Vita-enabled catalogue of PSP-games :)

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

Iacen posted:

Unless of course you want to play games like Gravity Rush, the MGS collection and the Vita-enabled catalogue of PSP-games :)

Which will still cost me a boatload of money compared to smartphone games.

Hamburlgar
Dec 31, 2007

WANTED

Iacen posted:

Unless of course you want to play games like Gravity Rush, the MGS collection and the Vita-enabled catalogue of PSP-games :)

Exactly why the PSV is obsolete already.

Fozaldo
Apr 18, 2004

Serenity Now. Serenity Now.
:respek::respek::respek::respek::respek:
Are Split Flap Displays still used anywhere? I vaguely remember these on alarm clocks when I was younger but they were more impressive at airports.

Terrible Robot
Jul 2, 2010

FRIED CHICKEN
Slippery Tilde
I just realized that with a bit of effort you could adapt a few split-flap displays into a really cool gauge-cluster for a car, assuming they can flip fast enough without breaking.

Gyro Zeppeli
Jul 19, 2012

sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

I miss the massive split flap displays at airports. They were amazing when they all updated at once.

CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK

AlternateAccount
Apr 25, 2005
FYGM

Terrible Robot posted:

I just realized that with a bit of effort you could adapt a few split-flap displays into a really cool gauge-cluster for a car, assuming they can flip fast enough without breaking.

They have to roll back over to get to a lower number, so ehhhh that would be annoying.

Elim Garak
Aug 5, 2010

That and the computer were really the best parts of Season 2 of Lost.

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair

SimplyCosmic posted:

Fax machines are the top of my list. And will likely be on that list for at least another 5 to 10 years.

I was once trying to figure out why our shop's e-fax wasn't sending properly to some other dude's e-fax and it was like five minutes before we both realized we should just e-mail the loving thing.

Kammat
Feb 9, 2008
Odd Person

VogeGandire posted:

I miss the massive split flap displays at airports. They were amazing when they all updated at once.

CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK

The big display at 30th St. Station here in Philly is still flaps, and it's awesome to watch and hear it update still. I'm going to miss it if they ever decide to change it.

Boneitis
Jul 14, 2010

Kammat posted:

The big display at 30th St. Station here in Philly is still flaps, and it's awesome to watch and hear it update still. I'm going to miss it if they ever decide to change it.

As are the two large mainline train stations in Paris.

Totally Reasonable
Jan 8, 2008

aaag mirrors


Old-rear end Sidekick meter and a legitimate Blue Box. The Sidekick may not be totally obsolete, but the Blue Box most certainly is.
I'm not sure if the entire pre-4AESS phone system could be considered "failed" but it's definitely gone.

For background: these are both tools used in the maintenance and testing of older phone networks. The big one on the right is particularly infamous in some circles, as unsavory types (like the Steves Jobs and Wozniak) used to make unlicensed copies of it, which were used by other unsavory types to make free and untraceable calls all over the world.

edit: That Blue Box takes 12 D-cell batteries. It's heavy as hell when prepped for "portable" operation.

Totally Reasonable has a new favorite as of 04:35 on Aug 8, 2012

Dvega
Aug 2, 2006

The most magical song of all.

VogeGandire posted:

I miss the massive split flap displays at airports. They were amazing when they all updated at once.

CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK-CHK

They got rid of the one in Boston's South Station. Now they've just got the digital display, with it's fake flipboard sound clicking over the waiting area like a mocking laugh. :(

axolotl farmer
May 17, 2007

Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

Totally Reasonable posted:

unsavory types (like the Steves Jobs and Wozniak) used to make unlicensed copies of it, which were used by other unsavory types to make free and untraceable calls all over the world.

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Fuzz1111
Mar 17, 2001

Sorry. I couldn't find anyone to make you a cool cipher-themed avatar, and the look on this guy's face cracks me the fuck up.

Bimmi posted:

Built like a mofuggin tank as I recall. Kinda wish I still had it.
You recall correctly, you could probably use a hammer on the play/rewind switch without doing damage. Still precise enough that the thing played cassette tape at perfect speed (and if you were careful, it was gentle enough not to stretch the tape even though it was far weaker than it what it was designed for).

Kaboom Dragoon posted:

I'm going to go a step further: dedicated gaming machines. Home and handheld consoles aren't allowed to play games anymore, they have to do everything else too. I appreciate my consoles being able to play DVDs and video files, but past that, the usefulness of stuff like GPS, 3D cameras, hell, even the ability to update Facebook trails off sharply.
This is something that really pissed me off about the PS3, they used the media centre angle to try and sell it, and while it had all the hardware, the software means that my galaxy s2 is a better media centre in every single way. There's absolutely no reason the PS3 should be so limited in the container formats it plays or its multitasking ability (even just being able to download anything I like in the background would be a large improvement).

As far as smartphone games go - the casual games that have been growing in popularity since the PS2 and DS mostly play just fine if not better on a phone or tablet. Call-of-Duty? Not so much, but it's not like those kind of games work that well on a portable anyway. Infact I honestly can't see myself getting any of the next gen consoles because the casual games that work on well on a portable work fine on my phone and the rest work better on my PC than a console.

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