Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Pompous Rhombus: Mar 11, 2007

Fozaldo posted:

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.

I've a split-flap alarm clock on my desk in front of me right now, that I found it at an antique flea market in here in Japan. Gonna be bummed to leave it behind, but it's only set up for the delicate Japanese 110V system. When I first got it I thought it was broken because it couldn't keep time for poo poo, then I thought to check the back and saw the switch to go from 50 to 60hz (East/West Japan have different power grids).

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

My favorite coffee place when I was a student in Bangkok (in a fancy mall) had a massive flip display that cycled through different designs, patterns, etc. That sound mixed with bossa nova brings back some happy memories.

Short video I found of it on Youtube.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 10:20

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 15:35

Kaboom Dragoon: May 7, 2010; The greatest of feasts

Fuzz1111 posted:

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).
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).

Considering how prevalent and popular, say, the .mkv format is, you'd think adding that to the PS3/60 would be a no-brainer, but noooo...

There's a weird feeling when the little portable media player that plugs into your TV you got for �30 last week is, technically speaking, better at the home media thing than the �200 monolithic wunder-console.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 11:50

RagnarokAngel: Oct 5, 2006; Black Magic Extraordinaire

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.

I missed the part where these optional features in any way hinder your ability to play games?

Edit: And don't say cost because counting for inflation games are cheaper than ever.

RagnarokAngel has a new favorite as of 12:04 on Aug 8, 2012

# ? Aug 8, 2012 12:02

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

Fuzz1111 posted:

(even just being able to download anything I like in the background would be a large improvement).

It can do that.

Kaboom Dragoon posted:

Considering how prevalent and popular, say, the .mkv format is, you'd think adding that to the PS3/60 would be a no-brainer, but noooo...

There's a weird feeling when the little portable media player that plugs into your TV you got for �30 last week is, technically speaking, better at the home media thing than the �200 monolithic wunder-console.

Sony is also a movie and TV studio, they're not going to natively support popular piracy formats.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 13:12

Croccers: Jun 15, 2012

RagnarokAngel posted:

I missed the part where these optional features in any way hinder your ability to play games?

When games start bugging you to log into Facebook/Twitter to post dumb stuff on your account.
Tropico 4 puts Twitter buttons so you can tweet every little thing. In the expansion Modern Times you even get an edict:

Don't know if the 360 version of the game has Facebook though.
There's also a number of other games that try to get you to log into Facebook/Twitter. The under-rated Blur is one of them.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 13:23

Farbtoner: May 17, 2011; by Y Kant Ozma Post

Croccers posted:

When games start bugging you to log into Facebook/Twitter to post dumb stuff on your account.
Tropico 4 puts Twitter buttons so you can tweet every little thing. In the expansion Modern Times you even get an edict:

Don't know if the 360 version of the game has Facebook though.
There's also a number of other games that try to get you to log into Facebook/Twitter. The under-rated Blur is one of them.

One of my inadvertent favorite examples of bullshit social marketing integration in games is in Superbrothers, a game from the last Humble Indie Bundle. Just about every time you perform an action it tries to get you to spam your social networks, and people in the thread were bending over backwards trying to justify it as being an artistic statement and not just the gamemakers being lovely and self-promoting.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 15:09

Kaboom Dragoon: May 7, 2010; The greatest of feasts

RagnarokAngel posted:

I missed the part where these optional features in any way hinder your ability to play games?

Edit: And don't say cost because counting for inflation games are cheaper than ever.

They don't? My point was that consoles and handhelds seem to have 'plays games really well' as less of a priority these days. I've heard it argued that the Vita would probably be more appealing if it wasn't bogged down with so much crap, and the 360 menu is more cumbersome since they redesigned it with Kinect in mind. They're trying to cram as many extra features in without actually asking if it makes the package any more attractive.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 15:59

EdwardSwifferhands: Apr 27, 2008; I will probably lick whatever you put in front of me.

I wanted to post both Telix and OS/2 Warp here but was beaten, both are posted on page 14! Appreciating the ones of you that are talking about BBSes, I loved them as a teenager. A few things that still stand out for me as being fantastic:

ANSI Graphics and thedraw. ANSI graphics at the time were an extension to the standard Ascii character set and included some nice blocks and half blocks you could draw with. There was also a 16 color foreground palette and a smaller background color palette. You could make a nice green,red,blue,etc letter or number (or any character) with a colored background. Thedraw was one (of many) program that let you create some pretty nice graphics that would transmit quickly over your modem from a BBS. ANSI artists would organize into groups and release monthly packs of their work. Some of it was mindblowing at the time and some is still amazing today. https://sixteencolors.net has a small archive of old art packs. As a person visiting BBSes it wasn't very leet to not be involved in some way. You better have warez, draw ansi, or run a board if you want to make friends. "Family" type BBSes were much more friendly to the lurker types. Calvin here was created for Termite Terrace which was one of my favorite boards to call when I didn't mind spending on long distance.

BBS door games and 'networks' Door games were games you could play on a BBS that often had a multi-player aspect. A popular one was called Food Fight. You'd slowly build up a bank of money in various ways and buy food to throw at other players to climb the ranks. There was always a limit to how many things you could do per day so as to limit the amount of time you were tying up the BBS phone line.

Some BBSes were linked together to create networks that called either each other or a central location on a daily basis to automatically update forum posts, mails, or in some cases door games would tie into the network and BBSes would fight each other. There were hundreds of networks out there, warez and programming themed networks were where I learned the art of computering. FIDOnet for anyone who remembers was probably the biggest and best for a while. I don't know how the internet was shaping up exactly at the time but I'd bet FIDOnet and similar networks offered more actual fun and community than the early internet did.

The best of the games(in my opinion of course) was called Barren Realms Elite. Essentially you are given a barren planet which you must use to build resources and an HQ. You would grow your population and then build spies, troops, jets, tanks etc to take on other planets which were other local BBS users. The game eventually got bigger in scope and your BBS would become an alliance fighting against other BBSes around the world. Since the BBSes were setup to only call and update every 8,12,or 24 hours usually, attacks and their results would have a travel time typically in the 12-72 hour range. I'm actually jonesing to play this right now and I know that there are telnet BBS communities that still play. This game also limited you to a specific amount of turns per day. Very nice really as you could be part of a huge MMO but not waste your life away playing.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 16:09

ZanderZ: Apr 7, 2011; by T. Mascis

Fozaldo posted:

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.

Steampunk.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 18:04

Gyro Zeppeli: Jul 19, 2012; sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

ZanderZ posted:

Steampunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA

# ? Aug 8, 2012 18:57

ANIME MONSTROSITY: Jun 1, 2012; by XyloJW

Farbtoner posted:

One of my inadvertent favorite examples of bullshit social marketing integration in games is in Superbrothers, a game from the last Humble Indie Bundle. Just about every time you perform an action it tries to get you to spam your social networks, and people in the thread were bending over backwards trying to justify it as being an artistic statement and not just the gamemakers being lovely and self-promoting.

Yeah, that invisible unless moused-over button really broke my immersion, gently caress that game.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 19:11

Kaboom Dragoon: May 7, 2010; The greatest of feasts

VogeGandire posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA

'What happens when goths discover brown' is always my favourite description of it. Then I feel sad because I actually like steampunk...

# ? Aug 8, 2012 19:29

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

WebDog posted:

How I wish for the return to remotes that are this simple and not have your parents ring you every week to be reminded which button displays the program guide or requesting that I come over to reprogram the set top as it's been accidentally reset.

Don't be so fast with your wishes. Ultrasonic remote controls weren't all that good, either. I faintly remember our family visiting the now dead father of my stepfather once. His ancient TV still used a ultrasonic remote which kind of surprised my dumb young self at the time. I of course had to play around with it while my parents and my step-grandfather talked in the kitchen. At the time I didn't yet know dogs could hear some stuff we humans could not. Cue the second surprise of that day as I used the remote on my step-grandfathers dog pretending it was a phaser or something. The dog instantly flipped out and fled the room, howling as if I had used a real phaser on him. The old guy of course stormed into the room only seconds later, demanding to know what I had done to his dog. (The rest of that visit I was forbidden from watching TV and had to sit with my old folks in the kitchen, enduring incredible boredom while listening them blathering on and on and on.)

In short, I think I prefer remotes who won't upset my pets every time I change a channel.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 20:31

torjus: Nov 22, 2005; I want YOU to MSPaint!

Snorkzilla posted:

Door games were games you could play on a BBS that often had a multi-player aspect.

Great post!

A few years ago some goon set up a BBS on telnet so we could play LORD and TEOS II. I hadn't played them since SysOp'ing a BBS in the 90s, so it was a blast from the past to log in every day for the daily dose. Still awesome games. I wish someone would do this again.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 20:59

AlternateAccount: Apr 25, 2005; FYGM

Snorkzilla posted:

BBS door games and 'networks'
The best of the games(in my opinion of course) was called Barren Realms Elite.

No way. One of my proudest nerd memories is being the #1 guy on the big local BBS's Legend of the Red Dragon for a lonnnnng time.

# ? Aug 8, 2012 21:14

Axeman Jim: Nov 21, 2010; The Canadians replied that they would rather ride a moose.

Libluini posted:

Don't be so fast with your wishes. Ultrasonic remote controls weren't all that good, either. I faintly remember our family visiting the now dead father of my stepfather once. His ancient TV still used a ultrasonic remote which kind of surprised my dumb young self at the time. I of course had to play around with it while my parents and my step-grandfather talked in the kitchen. At the time I didn't yet know dogs could hear some stuff we humans could not. Cue the second surprise of that day as I used the remote on my step-grandfathers dog pretending it was a phaser or something. The dog instantly flipped out and fled the room, howling as if I had used a real phaser on him. The old guy of course stormed into the room only seconds later, demanding to know what I had done to his dog. (The rest of that visit I was forbidden from watching TV and had to sit with my old folks in the kitchen, enduring incredible boredom while listening them blathering on and on and on.)

In short, I think I prefer remotes who won't upset my pets every time I change a channel.

One of my schoolfriends had one of these remotes and a parrot that could both hear and imitate the sound, therefore changing TV channels at random, all day. Said parrot also learned to imitate their telephone and would have family members rushing out of the shower or the bed to answer the "phone" only to find it was the parrot.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 00:00

Inspector_666: Oct 7, 2003; _{benny with the good hair}

Pompous Rhombus posted:

I've a split-flap alarm clock on my desk in front of me right now, that I found it at an antique flea market in here in Japan. Gonna be bummed to leave it behind, but it's only set up for the delicate Japanese 110V system. When I first got it I thought it was broken because it couldn't keep time for poo poo, then I thought to check the back and saw the switch to go from 50 to 60hz (East/West Japan have different power grids).

Sell it to an American!

# ? Aug 9, 2012 00:27

JediTalentAgent: Jun 5, 2005; Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!

Kaboom Dragoon posted:

'What happens when goths discover brown' is always my favourite description of it. Then I feel sad because I actually like steampunk...

We need to get in on the ground floor of the next '-punk' movement and own it now.

If it doesn't already exist, I call 'Gildpunk': Everything all golden, silver, pearl, silken and ivory, polished to a perfect clean.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 06:38

olaf2022: Feb 19, 2003; Fun Shoe

VogeGandire posted:

I loving love my maglite. And it's nice to know that I could bludgeon someone with it if need be.

Presenting: my six-D-cell Maglite with nightstick mod:

# ? Aug 9, 2012 07:25

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.

Aphrodite posted:

It can do that.

Sony is also a movie and TV studio, they're not going to natively support popular piracy formats.

It can do some downloads in the background yes, but last time I used the thing much (been a while I admit) there were still some downloads that would be cancelled/paused if you started a game.

Everytime the limited format support is brought up someone calls the formats that it doesn't play "piracy formats" and it really is a big copout: if sony intentionally omitted support on the basis of piracy, why did it leave in support for other video and audio formats that pirates use? I mean, why allow the user to dump a bunch of mp3 files onto it? Afterall that format is probably used in far more cases where sony's copyrights are infringed.

It has nothing to do with cost or difficulty either, mkv is a free container format and the PS3 will happily decode the H264 and AAC streams you typically find in an mkv file (for that reason it's actually trivial to turn most mkv's into to an mp4 that the PS3 can deal with, no re-encoding needed, just de-mux and re-mux).

Anyway, back on topic, I present to you the Toshiba T3100SX:

My parents got this thing in 1994 and it was obsolete even then (my dad got it because it was the same model that he used at work). Check out the specs:

Plasma monochrome display (thankfully we got a 14" monitor after a year or so)
2 heavy ni-cad batteries (which it would use one at a time), according to the specs from the link above they offered 2-5 hours of battery life when new - by the time we got it we were lucky to manage an hour
386SX 16mhz (with performance closer to a 286 than it's 386DX big brother)
7mb of RAM (which was actually pretty decent for 1994 where 4mb was more standard, I have no idea what a machine from 1989 was doing with that much ram)
40mb of hard-drive space
VGA graphics (ever tried beating off to gifs in 16 colour mode? Finding out that x-tree gold could display them in glorious 320*240*8bit was a godsend, though I had to pick what part of the picture I wanted to come to)
2400baud modem in an expansion slot (which I only realised after a few years - I managed to get on a few BBS's)
According to that link it had another proprietary expansion slot, which could be used for "a choice of modems and network cards, including GSM phones for voice, data-transfer and internet connectivity" kinda cool they include internet connectivity as a selling point in 1989

Though it was capable of running popular titles like Doom and Descent, it took several minutes to start them and they ran very very slowly: Doom was probably about twice as fast as Descent and if you shrunk it's viewport to minimum and enabled "low detail" double-sized pixel mode, you would still only get 10-15fps from your approximately 20*16 pixel, postage stamp sized viewing area. Do you think that stopped me? gently caress no! I even got a null-modem cable, connected ours to the one my dad got from work, and me and my brother played that poo poo multiplayer! Goddamn we must have been bored.

Sturdy as all hell and took every one of my teenaged temper tantrums like a champ (including putting it on the floor and jumping on the keyboard - yeah I was a little poo poo).

I hated the thing until we upgraded in 1998, but considering I'm a software engineer now, I should probably be thankful for those early experiences of fighting for the 640K, figuring out how to get the best out of my crappy selection of games (hex editor on savegames was fun), and figuring out how to expand my collection of games (had to use that hex editor to crack a few games myself).

Fuzz1111 has a new favorite as of 07:53 on Aug 9, 2012

# ? Aug 9, 2012 07:49

KuruMonkey: Jul 23, 2004

Fuzz1111 posted:

Everytime the limited format support is brought up someone calls the formats that it doesn't play "piracy formats" and it really is a big copout: if sony intentionally omitted support on the basis of piracy, why did it leave in support for other video and audio formats that pirates use? I mean, why allow the user to dump a bunch of mp3 files onto it? Afterall that format is probably used in far more cases where sony's copyrights are infringed.

There are multiple places you can go to and BUY legitimate MP3 format music.

Are there any legitimate sources to BUY video from that will deliver the video in MKV wrapped format? (there may be, this is a legit question!)

I can't think of any; you tend to get MP4. So I suspect Sony are supporting the formats they perceive as having legitimate sources, and not supporting the one they perceive as being ONLY used to encode illegitimate media...

# ? Aug 9, 2012 09:31

Wayne Knight: May 11, 2006

Fuzz1111 posted:

Anyway, back on topic, I present to you the Toshiba T3100SX:

My parents got this thing in 1994 and it was obsolete even then (my dad got it because it was the same model that he used at work). Check out the specs:

Plasma monochrome display (thankfully we got a 14" monitor after a year or so)

2 heavy ni-cad batteries (which it would use one at a time), according to the specs from the link above they offered 2-5 hours of battery life when new - by the time we got it we were lucky to manage an hour

386SX 16mhz (with performance closer to a 286 than it's 386DX big brother)

7mb of RAM (which was actually pretty decent for 1994 where 4mb was more standard, I have no idea what a machine from 1989 was doing with that much ram)

40mb of hard-drive space

VGA graphics (ever tried beating off to gifs in 16 colour mode? Finding out that x-tree gold could display them in glorious 320*240*8bit was a godsend, though I had to pick what part of the picture I wanted to come to)

2400baud modem in an expansion slot (which I only realised after a few years - I managed to get on a few BBS's)

According to that link it had another proprietary expansion slot, which could be used for "a choice of modems and network cards, including GSM phones for voice, data-transfer and internet connectivity" kinda cool they include internet connectivity as a selling point in 1989
Though it was capable of running popular titles like Doom and Descent, it took several minutes to start them and they ran very very slowly: Doom was probably about twice as fast as Descent and if you shrunk it's viewport to minimum and enabled "low detail" double-sized pixel mode, you would still only get 10-15fps from your approximately 20*16 pixel, postage stamp sized viewing area. Do you think that stopped me? gently caress no! I even got a null-modem cable, connected ours to the one my dad got from work, and me and my brother played that poo poo multiplayer! Goddamn we must have been bored.

Sturdy as all hell and took every one of my teenaged temper tantrums like a champ (including putting it on the floor and jumping on the keyboard - yeah I was a little poo poo).

I hated the thing until we upgraded in 1998, but considering I'm a software engineer now, I should probably be thankful for those early experiences of fighting for the 640K, figuring out how to get the best out of my crappy selection of games (hex editor on savegames was fun), and figuring out how to expand my collection of games (had to use that hex editor to crack a few games myself).

Awesome. I have one of these. Found it at a thrift store. When I booted it up it still had a bunch of insurance company software on it. One thing that may not be obvious to those that have just seen the image: It's not really a "laptop", it's a "portable computer". I believe they made battery packs for it, but to use mine, I have to plug it into a wall with a standard computer power cable. The thing weighs about a million pounds, but has a built in handle. I've thought about bringing it with me to a starbucks for comedic effect, but I'm just not that goony yet.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 13:57

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Fuzz1111 posted:

Everytime the limited format support is brought up someone calls the formats that it doesn't play "piracy formats" and it really is a big copout: if sony intentionally omitted support on the basis of piracy, why did it leave in support for other video and audio formats that pirates use?

I think you're mistaken in the idea that a corporate decision should be internally consistent and make sense. They're pandering to the market to sell products and to their anti-piracy interests at the same time and end up with these half-assed compromises.

They've done this before. Portable Minidisc recorder with an optical in, but no out. But still provide a line out, instead of consistently sticking with just the headphone out then. So they can pretend it's a fully fledged digital recording device, but not provide you with a feature that would actually make it useful. And that was still comparably effective in making it useless for pirates.

With digital video it has become harder for them. You can't not support any popular codecs and still pretend it can function as a media player. That poo poo won't sell and they know it. They learned that lesson the hard way; they absolutely tried. See the usb/mp3 "supporting" version of Minidisc they had later. But that apparently doesn't stop them from dragging their feet and sneaking in the inconveniences for pirates they can get away with.

If piracy isn't the reason, and neither is cost or difficulty, as you rightly say yourself, what the hell is? How is citing piracy as the most probable reason a cop-out? Nobody's saying its a very sensible or efficient measure.

Fuzz1111 posted:

My parents got this thing in 1994 and it was obsolete even then (my dad got it because it was the same model that he used at work).

[*] 386SX 16mhz (with performance closer to a 286 than it's 386DX big brother)

A 386SX wasn't that crazy in 1994. My dad got a new one in 1993 and I worked with a 8086 until 1996. Before Win95, just about anything could run DOS and Win 3.11 about equally and not having the newest computer just meant you couldn't play the most recent games. Or maybe that was just a matter of lower expectations on my part. Anyway, Win95 really was a tipping point that pushed the market forward and having a new computer really became a lot more important after that.

My first computer was this Amstrad PC1512:

Two double density (180KB) floppies, no harddrive. More or less CGA compatible video. Black and white screen that allowed for 4 shades of grey! Came originally with non-MS DOS and a non MS graphical interface called GEM Desktop (still have the floppies somewhere). Upgraded from the standard 512KB ram to 640KB!

It was almost 100% IBM PC compatible, but that was only a problem with IBM DOS anyway. MS DOS gave no fucks.

It had wonderful idiosyncracies: the mouse was called a turtle in the manual. It had a UK keyboard without F11 and F12. It had a knob for pc speaker volume, which was nice when playing games with sound. Also, instead of using a CR2032 battery for keeping time, date and bios settings, it took four AA batteries in an indentation at the bottom of the other indentation that the stand of the screen fit in.

I got it in 1991 after it had been in my aunt's attic for five years. I upgraded to a Pentium 60 in 1996 because I needed a sound card and VGA to use ScreamTracker.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 19:51

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

The Vadem Clio

I had one of these back when I was in college in 1998. It was a fairly unusual device for the time and was ahead of it's time in lot of ways.

It had a unique design that allowed you to use it as a laptop or a tablet. I used it quite a bit to type notes in class and draw sketches on the notes. It ran Windows CE 3.0 and was all flash and ram. This allowed for it to start up very quickly (because it was never really off, just asleep). It also meant that you would loose data if you ever let the battery completely drain.

But no worries, you could just sync it to your PC when you got home using the proprietary mini dock cable that connected to your serial port and used a very old version of Microsoft Active Sync.

Battery life was a lot better than your averager laptop. Partly because the thing had either an 84Mhz or 168Mhz MIPS CPU.

No wireless connectivity of any kind since it predates WiFi and bluetooth standards. But it did have a 56K modem built in, so you could enjoin the internet of the late 90's on Pocket Internet Explorer 3.0, which is about as much fun as it sounds.

Sharp sold a rebadged version of it called the Tri-Pad that I think was a little more popular.

I still have mine in my attic. Honestly, I would kind of like to see an updated version of this. Same form factor and everything, just with a modern OS and modern internals.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 20:55

Dalax: Oct 27, 2007

Fuzz1111 posted:

I present to you the Toshiba T3100SX:

And presumably you also used it to set up sentry guns?

# ? Aug 9, 2012 23:33

Gehenomm: May 1, 2008; Ask me about hitting on mathematicians.

This ugly beast:

(picture from retrocomputacion.com)

It was basically a clone of Sinclair's ZX Spectrum, with a few enhancements. Had a better, faster BASIC interpreter, joystick port and a sound chip. It was very popular in Uruguay in the late 80s and early 90s, with a metric shitload of the things still around in the hands of collectors.

There were hundreds of applications available, word processors, spreadsheets, terminal emulators, "expert" systems, and of course games, any kind you can think off. And all of them running cheerfully in 48 kilobytes of ram. Add to that printers, modems, lightpens, disk drives, all kinds of joysticks and mice.

I used one for 4 years or so, mostly to play games, but i had my first BBS experiences with one of them, my first email account, and i learned BASIC and assembler in that ugly beast.

# ? Aug 9, 2012 23:37

MagnumLode: Apr 10, 2004; Have some Kool-Aid, dipshit.

I just dug out my old Zip 100 USB. It still works, surprisingly better than I remember.

# ? Aug 10, 2012 06:23

Cuttlefish Party: Mar 18, 2011; Cuttlefish: GO.
(They've advanced quickly.)

Landerig posted:

Ahem, 70's and 80's speakers, if they were well made and not low end crap could easily hold up today if you didn't crank them ridiculously. The only real issue with the age would be surround rot, if they were foam surrounds. Cloth surrounds should be fine and foam surrounds can be replaced.

I have to thank you for this post, because it motivated me to replace the rotting foam surrounds on my Boston Acoustics A60 speakers. I didn't realize it was such a simple DIY project . . . $22 and a few hours of labor, and they sound as good as they ever did! Well, the subwoofer helps a lot, but I'm still very happy I've held on to them.

When it comes to obsolete games, this bad boy whiled away many a long car ride:

Why did Merlin look like a phone? gently caress you, that's why. It could out-Simon Simon with nine keys instead of just four. You could play Mastermind and feel smug when you won even though all you did was just exhaust the solution space. Ah, good times.

# ? Aug 10, 2012 06:44

JiimyPopAli: Oct 5, 2009

Cuttlefish Party posted:

When it comes to obsolete games, this bad boy whiled away many a long car ride:

Why did Merlin look like a phone? gently caress you, that's why. It could out-Simon Simon with nine keys instead of just four. You could play Mastermind and feel smug when you won even though all you did was just exhaust the solution space. Ah, good times.

One of my favorite Christmases was when I got one of these from my brother. 3 years ago. Now my kids play it too. These rock!

# ? Aug 10, 2012 12:48

BillyJoeBob: Feb 7, 2010; Anal-retentive, overly loquacious weapons scientist.

Wanamingo posted:

The mako was actually based on a real vehicle called the LAV-25.

Anyway, though my only knowledge of it comes from the internet, I think that the GameLine for the Atari 2600 deserves a mention.

Essentially, it was an oversized game cartridge with a phone jack in the side of it. The way it worked is you would plug it into your wall, and then call up the company. You'd then order the game over the phone, and it would actually download into the game cartridge. The GameLine itself cost $60 to buy, plus $1 for each game you downloaded. The downloads would expire after a limited number of plays, so it was more analogous to playing on an arcade than anything else. However, the GameLine was released in 1982, which was right before the videogame crash -- by 1983 a single dollar was actually pretty expensive for just a few plays, considering you could just buy the game for not much more. It had a total of 75 games available throughout its life, and almost none of them were any good. There was only a single exclusive game made for it, but the service was discontinued in 1984 before it could be released.

It seems so primitive now, but the technology was just crazy ahead of its time. The guy who invented it had actually planned using the technology as a way of letting people download and listen to music through their TV, but after that fell through he repurposed the idea. It never panned out, but he planned to expand the GameLine so that it could do things like email, check the stock market, and home banking. The company that made it, CVC, would eventually go on to become America Online.

I used to have one of these sorts of things, but for the Sega Genesis. It was called the Sega Channel and I loved the hell out of it as a wee lad. Coming home from Kindergarten and seeing what new games came up in the cycle was awesome. I was especially fond of playing Afterburner on it, along with the couple Sonic games we didn't own. I really wish I had a better memory of it, but I was probably 5-7 at most when we cancelled the service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Channel

Fozaldo posted:

Another favorite of mine is Nixie Tubes

These were used to display limited info like on scales and numerical readouts of scientific equipment. They could display whatever they were made to but mostly numbers. I think they are beautiful to look at and take me right back to my childhood watching science programs in the 70s.

You can now buy fantastic clocks like this in kit form or made up.

If you happen to come across any of these tubes be sure to look them up as some of them are worth a fortune.

I am absolutely fascinated by Nixie Tubes for some reason, and I would love to get my hands on some for various projects. I'm determined to get a Nixie clock some day, and I like building coil guns, and thought it would be pretty neat to incorporate a Nixie Tube into one as a charge indicator like some kind of homebrew weapon out of Fallout or something. :v:

# ? Aug 10, 2012 13:21

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.

Flipperwaldt posted:

I think you're mistaken in the idea that a corporate decision should be internally consistent and make sense. They're pandering to the market to sell products and to their anti-piracy interests at the same time and end up with these half-assed compromises.

You could be right, I guess it just reminded me of the sort of stuff a mate of mine says - I try not to talk with him about anything to do with sony because he's a huge fanboy and everything they make is flawless:
him: hey see if you can adjust the TV, can't get it to look right (he's colourblind)
me: [after 10 minutes of stuffing around] your TV doesn't seem to allow any setting thats not hugely saturated
him: it's vibrant!
me: the speaker distorts too easily
him: good i don't like bassy music anyway
me: why doesn't your so called media centre play any media
him: not everyone's a pirate like your pc using buddies! oh by the way can you take my usb drive home with you? I have more mkv's for you to convert

Dalax posted:

And presumably you also used it to set up sentry guns?

Hahah I do remember pausing that scene to see just how similar it was to my PC.

Unfortunately mine doesn't work anymore, neither does the one my dad got from work, they both refuse to boot indicating flat battery even when plugged in (removing battery makes no difference). It's a shame there's some stuff on the harddrives I'd like to get (and they use a non-standard interface).

# ? Aug 13, 2012 08:57

BogDew: Jun 14, 2006; E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

Someone has made a sentry gun program for the Amiga...in 2011.

Just need to combine it with this setup and it'd be sweet.

# ? Aug 13, 2012 12:17

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Fuzz1111 posted:

You could be right, I guess it just reminded me of the sort of stuff a mate of mine says - I try not to talk with him about anything to do with sony because he's a huge fanboy and everything they make is flawless:
him: hey see if you can adjust the TV, can't get it to look right (he's colourblind)
me: [after 10 minutes of stuffing around] your TV doesn't seem to allow any setting thats not hugely saturated
him: it's vibrant!
me: the speaker distorts too easily
him: good i don't like bassy music anyway
me: why doesn't your so called media centre play any media
him: not everyone's a pirate like your pc using buddies! oh by the way can you take my usb drive home with you? I have more mkv's for you to convert

Oh no, yeah, I see where you're coming from now. If someone is defending it as a sensible and comprehensive measure, then that's just wrong. I think we both agree there's incompetence in play somwhere somehow.

I had a similar experience by the way with Sony earphones that had very harsh highs. Someone defended them by saying they would wear down to a duller sound over a few months. Yep, two wrongs apparently making a right, right there.

# ? Aug 13, 2012 14:13

Discount Dracula: Aug 15, 2003; Nap Ghost

I had a Dex Drive. It was the bomb. You could share your PS1 game saves on the internet - for the six months that anyone used it.

# ? Aug 17, 2012 08:44

Suspicious Dish: Sep 24, 2011; 2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro; Fun Shoe

So, according to some contacts formerly employed at Nokia, the N-Gage was pushed heavily onto a team that knew it was a terrible idea and sucked. Or at least too early for its time.

As a "gently caress you" from the team, it was designed to look like a goatse intentionally.

Now you know.

_{it even has the ring}

Suspicious Dish has a new favorite as of 08:54 on Aug 17, 2012

# ? Aug 17, 2012 08:47

SyRauk: Jun 21, 2007; The Persian Menace

56k posted:

If this thing still exists and works, I am convinced this is how my grandma uses the internet.

My grandma had one and (when they first came out) I was BLOWN away. She used it for a looooooong time and would probably still be using it if she were still alive. I really miss the startup music which was this chill, funky groove that let you know you were about to spend a couple of hours chilling with your grandma while she did her genealogy research and well what do ya know? you're now related to Jesse James and Thomas Jefferson. Thanks WebTv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xM7ajY_giw

SyRauk has a new favorite as of 10:00 on Aug 17, 2012

# ? Aug 17, 2012 09:54

Greblin: Mar 12, 2008

Suspicious Dish posted:

So, according to some contacts formerly employed at Nokia, the N-Gage was pushed heavily onto a team that knew it was a terrible idea and sucked. Or at least too early for its time.

As a "gently caress you" from the team, it was designed to look like a goatse intentionally.

Now you know.

_{it even has the ring}

I don't know if this is true, but I want it to be

# ? Aug 17, 2012 13:11

Poknok: Mar 14, 2007; by Y Kant Ozma Post

My grandad collects old newspapers and books, and in his giant stash of paper I found a collection of ostensibly "scientific" magazines from 1950s which were in reality just pictures of cartoonish robots and someone's idea how space travel will one day look alike. Ridiculous and amazing at the same time.
Anyways, the writers of the magazine correctly understood the huge potential nuclear power holds and they were fascinated about it; the only thing they didn't catch is how loving dangerous it was. Among the things listed there were:

Wristwatch powered by plutonium RTG
Radioactive golf balls. The idea was that you'd find your ball using a directional geiger counter
Uranium-powered oven. Hey man, the bread sure gets warm when radioactive!

And so much more stillborn technology. Too bad my grandad lives six hours away, people in 1950s used to get worked up about stuff that we either take for granted today or the stuff that never came to pass for one reason or another.

# ? Aug 17, 2012 15:02

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Poknok posted:

My grandad collects old newspapers and books, and in his giant stash of paper I found a collection of ostensibly "scientific" magazines from 1950s which were in reality just pictures of cartoonish robots and someone's idea how space travel will one day look alike. Ridiculous and amazing at the same time.
Anyways, the writers of the magazine correctly understood the huge potential nuclear power holds and they were fascinated about it; the only thing they didn't catch is how loving dangerous it was. Among the things listed there were:

Wristwatch powered by plutonium RTG
Radioactive golf balls. The idea was that you'd find your ball using a directional geiger counter
Uranium-powered oven. Hey man, the bread sure gets warm when radioactive!

And so much more stillborn technology. Too bad my grandad lives six hours away, people in 1950s used to get worked up about stuff that we either take for granted today or the stuff that never came to pass for one reason or another.

I love the art of 50's sci-fi. The pointy rockets, the antennas, the glass domes.

# ? Aug 17, 2012 15:06

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 15:35

Manky: Mar 20, 2007; Fun Shoe

Poknok posted:

My grandad collects old newspapers and books, and in his giant stash of paper I found a collection of ostensibly "scientific" magazines from 1950s which were in reality just pictures of cartoonish robots and someone's idea how space travel will one day look alike. Ridiculous and amazing at the same time.

Popular Science is still around :rimshot:

# ? Aug 17, 2012 15:08

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