Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Smoke posted:

However, I did come across this thing which I also recall using at one point:

You push the ball in the direction you want it to move, and the buttons are off on the side(With a left/right hand switch to select which side) Uses the same leaf switch/microswitch technology so it's pure digital, and the LEDs near the buttons light up when pushed.

Aw. I was hoping for another Space Orb 360.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2012 17:52

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:51

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Mr_Person posted:

I didn't realize there were people who didn't use their middle fingers for triggers. It's not like there's anything else it could be doing (except for in fighting games).

People tend to grip the controller with them so it has more than the ring and pinky fingers for support. My PS3's controller feels really awkward whenever I try to put my fingers on both sets of triggers; its center of gravity ends up way out in front with nothing underneath.

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 02:20 on Nov 17, 2012

# ¿ Nov 16, 2012 19:44

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

RoleModel posted:

The type 2 Saturn controller was the closest thing to it and should have shipped with the system instead of the other one.

Huh. You seem to have both made a bizarre typo and accidentally linked to the wrong image.

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 03:41 on Nov 19, 2012

# ¿ Nov 19, 2012 03:39

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Farbtoner posted:

Also, the '96 Bob Dole and Bill Clinton campaign sites are still alive and kicking:

I wouldn't say that something that only exists as an archive is "alive and kicking".

# ¿ Nov 27, 2012 21:50

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

HardDisk posted:

How do you get the first person inside the vault?

Serious question.

I'd imagine that the person on the previous shift opens the door for them.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2012 14:41

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Gromit posted:

I remember hearing speech out of the old Apple II in games like Sea Dragon, Horizon V and Tumble-Bugs. Surely that only had a lovely little beepy speaker too?

Same deal; you just flip the 1-bit speaker signal on and off with the right timing to play a sample. The technique applies to literally any computer that can produce sound.

In fact, as a technology, it's far from obsolete.

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 05:30 on Dec 19, 2012

# ¿ Dec 18, 2012 14:44

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Remulak posted:

slam dump

That is one unfortunate malapropism.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2013 14:51

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Monkey Fracas posted:

SchneekRAD

Please, it's Schnee :krad:

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 18:12

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

I think I might buy one of these Expert Mouse things just to put an 8-ball in it.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 14:19

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Flipperwaldt posted:

Uh...

I thought it was maybe because I was blocking javascript or whatever, but unblocking didn't make any difference, so

It's supposed to say "analysis", but the site's badly-coded and covers up part of the word. Here's how it looks for me:

Ctrl+V: Analysis, Modeling & Visualization, Telerobotics and Product Marketing here.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2013 13:52

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ubergnu posted:

Is that felt?

The floor's carpeted, but an '80s GM won't have anything on the dash but hard, hard plastic.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2013 22:53

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Not failed, but definitely obsolete:

One of the greatest expressions of that optimistic '90s technophilia I can think of.

For anyone who doesn't recognize it, it's Deep Blue, the computer that beat Garry Kasparov.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2013 18:35

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Zopotantor posted:

The BeBox had two rows of lights showing the CPU load (it had two processors - in 1996).

I sold mine

While we're on computer should-have-beens, my eternal favorite:

The Amiga essentially created the "modern" personal computer all on its own in 1985. Mouse-driven interface, multitasking, sampled sound, (relatively) photo-quality graphics, capability in both business and entertainment - it was the first to bring them all together. Unfortunately, while Commodore's overseas branches in England and continental Europe had a good amount of success with it, it was promoted horribly in the States and lost out over here to IBM and Apple. Then, while the competition caught up technologically, upper management refused to upgrade the hardware, even though the engineering division proposed several updates over the years. By the time that the too-little-too-late 1200 model was finally introduced in 1992, the Amiga was horribly outclassed by its competitors and had lost its relevance, and Commodore went bankrupt two years later. :smith:

(Then you get the embarrassing mid-'90s PowerPC "Amiga" that the crazy, furry diehards soldiered on with, but I'm not about to touch that. Or the CD32. Ugh.)

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 03:59 on Oct 26, 2013

# ¿ Oct 25, 2013 22:32

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Zeether posted:

That and it had Turrican II, which is goddamn amazing. The fact that Giana Sisters got a new game makes me hope someone will take a stab at a brand new Turrican at some point.

Have you checked out Hurrican? Some people have called it a Turrican remake, but it's more like an unofficial sequel. It's also free.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2013 14:59

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

You know what, let's just put the whole Amiga Power archive here. Probably the last worthwhile thing that "gaming journalism" ever produced and one of the best magazines ever regardless of context.

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 15:24 on Oct 27, 2013

# ¿ Oct 27, 2013 02:12

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Just remembered that I posted this in a YOSPOS thread a while back and never got around to putting it here. Better late than never!

The Scanimate. An analog video effects computer from the '60s and '70s that worked by directly manipulating a video signal and re-recording the output from a screen at extremely high fidelity (preventing generation loss). It was heavily used in both television and films of the time, but I think that this groovy, epilepsy-triggering music video is the best demonstration of its capabilities.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2013 15:42

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Jedit posted:

It was the first perspecitve-driven vertical scrolling video game, and it was smooth as hell.

I hate to burst your bubble, but that doesn't really mean anything. It's "perspective-driven" in the sense that the playfield is distorted for a 3D effect and that it uses a crosshair instead of a "player" sprite, but neither of those were unprecedented in 1978 (maybe the combination was, but that just sounds like meaningless specificity to present it as the "first" of some arbitrary kind), and "vertical scrolling" is completely superfluous. And there's no reason for a game that uses these techniques to not run smoothly; even the measly 2600 was able to pull off a less-detailed equivalent in its Pole Position port, and that's without the specialized hardware that the video mentions (which is probably a limiting factor, given that the simulated viewpoint never changes).

Still impressive for 1978, but more for its creativity than for any technical innovation.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2013 00:16

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Jedit posted:

There was actually a lot of technical innovation in Sky Raider. Several patents were filed for the hardware used in the game.

That's because it had specialized hardware at all, not because what that hardware did (scaling rasters) was such a technological breakthrough.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2013 03:22

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Lucy Heartfilia posted:

Are you talking about this piece of poo poo?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI9qbR-398o

Cause it's amazing how lovely it is.

I don't know what's worse, the fake plastic autoharp or the absolutely depressing people praising it.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2014 20:39

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Manky posted:

Cool! I can't even tell what's going on but I like it.

It's a joke. :ssh:

# ¿ Jan 4, 2014 17:20

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ol qwerty bastard posted:

The viola organista is sort of like a grand piano version of the hurdy-gurdy (and also it sounds way better imo). It was designed by da Vinci, a few of them were built in the 1600s, but then their popularity just completely died out.

Here's a modern reconstruction of one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv3py3Ap8_Y

It's so weird watching this because it feels like someone's just taken audio of a string quartet and dubbed it over video of a piano being played.

Base Emitter posted:

The viola organista, Leonardo Davinci's hypothetical cross between harpsichord and hurdy-gurdy, as built by a Polish pianist:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/11/viola-organista/

Reminds me of the Wheelharp (which had a sadly unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign last year :smith:

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 03:29 on Jan 5, 2014

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 03:27

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

axolotl farmer posted:

That was an awesome read. Thanks!

I feel sorry for Biro who lost everything in a failed project to create the newest most advanced analog keyboard based on 8-track tapes juuuust before digital synthesizers became available.

The worst thing is that digital synthesizers were absolute poo poo until the '90s but managed to displace the older keyboards almost overnight because they were "cutting-edge". The '80s were a real dark age for popular musical aesthetics.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 16:25

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Phanatic posted:

Yeah, all these albums sucked:

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2014/01/06/top-100-albums-of-the-80s/

The synths were absolute poo poo:

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

I said that the technology hadn't matured, not that it had somehow destroyed people's ability to make good music. Of course it was possible to use those synthesizers effectively, but it took a lot more skill to make them sound good, and it still usually ended up sounding a lot deader and drier than what came before and after. (And I do think that Thriller's synthesizers generally sound kitschy and unpleasantly dated.)

For content, an '80s digital synthesizer that I actually like a lot! The Ensoniq ESQ-1:

Designed by Bob Yannes, the guy behind the C64's "SID" sound chip, and basically his magnum opus as an engineer. What's interesting about it is that it uses both digital and analog sound manipulation, giving it a greater range of sounds than pure analog synthesizers and more warmth and depth than most contemporary digital synthesizers. Funnily, given that the ESQ-1 had strong ties to the C64's sound chip, Apple ended up licensing the synthesizer's main chip for use in their IIGS computer (a weird, Amiga-like evolution of the Apple II that was eventually abandoned in favor of the Macintosh). This video shows off some neat sounds (and some really dorky ones, I'm afraid, but it's the best that I could find on YouTube):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2V0c3gPb2Q

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 04:56 on Jan 7, 2014

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 19:02

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

OttoVonBismarck posted:

Hell of an entrance. :wow:

# ¿ Jan 8, 2014 03:10

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Monkey Fracas posted:

A cartoon elephant hardly seems appropriate for an educational poster about a chemical weapon.

It's a gas mask. :ssh:

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 23:37

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Never mind; forgot something extremely basic. :doh:

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 22:16 on Jan 11, 2014

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 21:00

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Moly B. Denum posted:

Oxygen isn't the only oxidizing chemical. Something like Chlorine trifluoride can make just about anything burn, can't be extinguished and reacts violently with water. Some other things that burn under water are a mixture of fuel and oxidizer, like gunpowder.

Oh, duh. Doesn't potassium do that too?

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 21:50

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ravenkult posted:

What's the most cyberpunk obsolete tech you got?

The Japanese MSX computers of the mid- to late '80s are probably the most cyberpunk-looking things that I can think of:

Sony Hit Bit HB-F1XD Mark 2

Panasonic FS-A1 WSX

Sanyo Wavy 70FD

Even the names are perfect.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 04:35

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Exit Strategy posted:

I own one of these. The MSX and MSX2 are what William Gibson was thinking of when he wrote about cyberdecks. They were supposed to be the evolution of computers like that.

Fooley posted:

These are almost EXACTLY what I thought "decks" looked like when I first read Neuromancer...

Cool, so it wasn't just me. :hfive:

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 05:01

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

WebDog posted:

This one is vapor-wear as they never released it.

My eyes are rolling right out of my head at this.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 13:22

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

AlternateAccount posted:

This is clearly for playing Tempest in an emulator.

There we go.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 19:49

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Boiled Water posted:

The only convincing image I can think of would be a comparison between a tablet and a kindle in bright sunlight.

It seems like every other YouTube video now has a Kindle ad showing just that.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2014 01:08

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

WebDog posted:

A good case study was the Real Phone. (1997)

1997? That looks like friggin' 1992.

WebDog posted:

Oh and Microsoft BOB actually appears on the XP install CD, as garbage data in order to pad out the space.

Beautiful. Is there any way to access and use it?

# ¿ Mar 16, 2014 03:10

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

I meant to link to this Laserdisc-based video manual for a combination hard drive and 5¼-inch floppy drive when it was first posted in YOSPOS, but I somehow forgot about it until now. Definitely worth at least a quick skim, especially the part in the middle where the instructor explains the necessity of letting the hard drive warm up and reach "thermal stability".

Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 00:28 on Mar 20, 2014

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 00:21

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Man or Astro-Man?'s "A Simple Text File" was specifically written for a dot-matrix printer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0QHY7S-OtU

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 22:30

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

DicktheCat posted:

Is anything about the screens-ruining-your-eyes myth true? I've heard it all my life, and have never seen any actual scientific discussion of it. I've always assumed it was a new wives tale type thing.

It's nothing specific to computer monitors, just the inevitable effect of spending too much time focusing on something less than a yard from your face.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 23:50

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Humphreys posted:

Here, have some Popular Science magazine covers! The B&W to colour converter sounds intriguing and wouldn't mind knowing more about it.

This page has some good information, and there's a great set of pictures here (as well as a link to the Popular Science article itself), but it's best to see it in action.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 05:13