The very best in obsolete and failed technology...

dj jarvis

dj jarvis wrote: »

not at all , they were technically superior to VHS , and were used by tv stations and news channels until fairly recently , most if not all mobile recording devices used by the likes of CNN SKY and RTE would have been a Sony Betamax recorder.

VHS killed betmax in the home market , but the television industry loved it.

Betamax, survived in SE Asia for at least another decade after losing the "format war" in the west. I always found the picture quality better as well.

Silverbling

The first clearwire box, wireless internet at its best, you had to sellotape it to the window or get your granny to stand on a chair in the corner while you surfed the net when the reception was dodgy.

You attached the ethernet cable then unplugged it and took a few steps backwards, if it worked you tried reversing into another room, clutching the ethernet cable in case of emergencies

shleedance

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

True but to get equivalent specs for the computer as a laptop I would have had to spend twice as much.

People buy laptops when they don't need portability and end up overspending. I wouldn't consider desktops obsolete in any case.

You're again forgetting that the average Joe are now not as likely to buy a desktop. I've even seen more and more desktops pop up in cash converters, charity shops etc. since the past few years despite not having any problems with them.

A desktop will be faster and much cheaper than a laptop, along with the benefits of building your own, but it is still delegated to the more enthusiast market rather than the average consumer. With POS World advertising cheap laptops with some meaningless "advantage" such as craploads of RAM or HDD space, yet have woeful construction quality, bloatware and crippled specs on everything else, people will buy it up.

Czarcasm wrote: »

I wouldn't call desktops or CRT monitors a failure though, they're around donkeys at this stage (I'm loathe to part with my 19" CRT even though I use a pair of 42" LCD TVs for monitors nowadays! ), how about the netbook though? Now there was a flash in the pan failure! One minute they're the greatest thing since sliced pan, the next thing they're replaced by tablets, which you can write even less on!

I gave the young lad my netbook as it was just about the right keyboard size and weight as a mini-laptop for him instead of that V-tech toy crap, and I refuse to use a tablet. Again, bought one for the young lad, they're handy for document reviewing, that's about it, best pray you don't have to make any edits though!

CRTs did fail at one thing - they were bloody massive, weighed a lot and were power inefficient. Not to mention slightly dangerous to repair and potential health issues (CRTs had to be leaded to prevent X-Rays coming out, for example). Many were often not as sharp as their LCD counterparts either. For this reason, I can't blame people moving to LCD. I don't think there's any company who still produces CRTs nowadays, anyway.

That said, I am still fond of CRTs since they allowed you to change resolution without worries up upsampling, accurate colour and fast refresh rates/minimal latency without ghosting. It is also a weird and cool technology in my book. I've 3 of them in my room for those reasons alone! :cool:

As for netbooks, I did like them and owned a few. They haven't really failed - just that tablets sadly absolutely destroyed them for most people.

syklops

Czarcasm wrote: »

Every product has a barcode ("obviously", says you! ), and the idea with barcode battler was you'd scan in the barcode off say a bag of sugar, and like pokemon you'd get a particular "character" to do battle with. Scan the barcode on a bottle of milk (Jaysus, a bottle of milk) or a loaf of bread and you'd get different characters to do battle with depending on the barcode.

I've looked it up since I wrote my post. It does sound kind of cool. It was massive in Japan(theres a surprise!) but flopped almost everywhere else.

dj jarvis

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

I first heard the "vinyl will soon be dead" remark back in 1986.

I am still waiting.

The format's lowest ebb was 1993 - just 300,000 new LPs sold in the US.
In 2013 it was 6,000,000.

and sales in Europe are climbing year on year

and for this you can thank DJ's for keeping alive and giving it the kick start in the mid 90's , with all the "Superstar" dj's doing the rounds , every kid had a set of 1210's in their bed room , and they needed vinyl to play with, it went mainstream again , a new generation of music lovers with decks - im looking at 2 pair of them right now !!!

Irish Steve

mickdw wrote: »

Obsolete before they were even introduced.

No, just not programmed in a way that prevented the challenges, they are much quicker, easier to use, cheaper to manage, and took the angst out of the results, oh what a shame for the politicians, no drama to milk and get screen time from.

We should still have them, and be using them for things like local referenda, and local votes on local issues, which just might mean really accountable politicians.

That's the real reason they didn't fight too hard to keep them, it would mean that they could be challenged much more easily, and made to change policies that are wrong, both nationally and at a local level.

josip

josip wrote: »

Bought a Sony minidisc, bought a Nokia "I need an exit" WAP phone, bought a 3D TV 2 years ago.

josip wrote: »

Jaysus, how could I have forgotten my discman in the above list?

Czarcasm wrote: »

... how about the netbook though? Now there was a flash in the pan failure! One minute they're the greatest thing since sliced pan, the next thing they're replaced by tablets, which you can write even less on! ...

Yep, I had a netbook too, but it was a Dell Mini 9/10 running Windows.
I went to went to do UAT with one of the UK Telcos shortly after I got it during the winter.
The UK guy looked puzzled when I showed up without a laptop bag.
I'm not sure his expressin improved any when I reached inside the pocket of my coat and took out "Tom Thumb".
I was blazing a trail into the future I was.

Tokyo

The mini bedside TV!




The myth:
TV on the go! Camping, fishing, in your car, in bed at night - pretty much anywhere, you could watch your favourite TV show or football match in comfort. Never be bored again!

The reality:
Literally HOURS fiddling with the dial and ****ty antenna trying to tune in the one station that was available at the time. Battery life... about 8 minutes. Picture quality... remember the moon landings? If you got a picture at all, that was about as good as the picture and sound quality got...


Of course, I still wanted one....

wil

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

By implication everything that tried to replace it failed.

The Space Shuttle.

All the other types of bikes , except specialised bikes optimised for one task.

Like I said "If it works it's obsolete" we live in an age where there is change for changes sake.

Now often do new products have problems that weren't there in the original version.

Stuff like the Click Of Death in later Iomega Zip Drives.

Any number of hard drives that are less reliable than older models.

The capacitor plague that means a lot of the electronic equipment from the mid 90's to a few years ago won't live as long as older stuff.

There seems to be an ever decreasing cycle time from introduction to obsolescence. Stuff that lasts too long eventually stops selling.
Built in unreliability could even be a marketing strategy

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

anyone remember palmpilots?

your post became obsolete about 6 pages ago:p

Dravokivich wrote: »

The problem with mini disc was it came avail here late into its production run. It was in japan and the usa throughout the 90's. You see one in last action hero.

I don't think that was the problem, it was here in the early 90s, but it was too expensive and didn't have much support from the big record industry companies, not keen on the idea of easy cd quality recording when margins on CDs were huge. Only a very limited number of bands and companies published to minidisc, some made a point of it, but stores didn't stock stuff they knew the couldn't sell as few people had players, people were replacing their records with cds and tapes were still the budget and portable option. By the time Sony reduced prices, CD-rs were becoming dirt cheap and mp3s appearing, and then after Rio, came iPod. The Walkman was dead, long live the ipod iphone ...

mike_ie

mike_ie wrote: »

The mini bedside TV!




The myth:
TV on the go! Camping, fishing, in your car, in bed at night - pretty much anywhere, you could watch your favourite TV show or football match in comfort. Never be bored again!

The reality:
Literally HOURS fiddling with the dial and ****ty antenna trying to tune in the one station that was available at the time. Battery life... about 8 minutes. Picture quality... remember the moon landings? If you got a picture at all, that was about as good as the picture and sound quality got...


Of course, I still wanted one....

I used to have one of these http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/90756513-this-russian-made-portable-tv-set-would-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXtU1fxin2pwMjD9cYbiJq2ox6zDpfNVHOzzwFqB6Y2J2Avxx6ZhILfM3cDK0i%2f%2fS6gVUAROweCTss74dDrwN%2bvw%3d

CJhaughey

I had one of those mini TV's it was a JVC that had an AM/FM/LW receiver and a tape deck as well as the tiny B&W screen, it also had a switch that could invert the picture.
Anyone remember golfball typewriters? They had a very short lifespan, word processors killed them shortly after they were launched.

CJhaughey

CJhaughey wrote: »

I had one of those mini TV's it was a JVC that had an AM/FM/LW receiver and a tape deck as well as the tiny B&W screen, it also had a switch that could invert the picture.
Anyone remember golfball typewriters? They had a very short lifespan, word processors killed them shortly after they were launched.

I bet that it was the Belgian model, you needed that switch to watch French TV which used the opposite modulation to everyone else.

Dempsey

wil wrote: »

There seems to be an ever decreasing cycle time from introduction to obsolescence. Stuff that lasts too long eventually stops selling.
Built in unreliability could even be a marketing strategy

Thats been going on since the lightbulb.

Its called 'planned obsolescence'.

Dempsey

Dempsey wrote: »

Thats been going on since the lightbulb.

Its called 'planned obsolescence'.

Yes but most of the stuff here went away because of "perceived Obsolescence", in other words people dumped them because they were "so last year" despite the fact that they could do what they were intended to do every bit as well as the newer version (in most cases).

CJhaughey

Deleted User wrote: »

I bet that it was the Belgian model, you needed that switch to watch French TV which used the opposite modulation to everyone else.

I don't know what market it was made for but the build quality of the Japanese stuff then was unbelievable.
There was a tiny glare screen that fitted over the CRT that was made of aluminium and had folded away with tiny springs so that you could just flip a switch and it would spring out.
Its probably still working somewhere.
3 obsolete technologies in one machine!

nlgbbbblth

dj jarvis wrote: »

and sales in Europe are climbing year on year

and for this you can thank DJ's for keeping alive and giving it the kick start in the mid 90's , with all the "Superstar" dj's doing the rounds , every kid had a set of 1210's in their bed room , and they needed vinyl to play with, it went mainstream again , a new generation of music lovers with decks - im looking at 2 pair of them right now !!!

or KAMs, Aristons, Vestax etc.

I sell records from time to time [usually duplicates / spare copies] and it's 1990s LPs on major labels that are in serious demand.

syklops

CJhaughey wrote: »

I don't know what market it was made for but the build quality of the Japanese stuff then was unbelievable.
There was a tiny glare screen that fitted over the CRT that was made of aluminium and had folded away with tiny springs so that you could just flip a switch and it would spring out.
Its probably still working somewhere.
3 obsolete technologies in one machine!

Speaking of obsolete, its CJ Haughey everyone!

I have 2 minidisc players one which is my first one is a very beautiful looking Aiwa AMHx30, in brushed aluminium. The other is a banged up AIWA, not sure of the model but it records, the first only plays. At ~15 years old the first still looks gorgeous. Don't use it though.

I got a Creative Zen vision M for my birthday a few years ago. Best birthday present I ever got. The number one annoying thing about it was you couldnt just copy media onto it and play it, you had to use the proprietary software to convert videos to the proprietary aspect ratio. Made copying video a pain in the ass. Also converting using ffmpeg took ages and didnt always work. Got my smartphone and havn't used it since.

sligojoek

Back in the 70s my father was selling a car and decided to take out the SHARP 8 track tape player because it might be worth a few bob in years to come. He left it on the ground and went into the house to get something. In the meantime my mother decided to go to the shop for fags and reversed over it. There was war in the house for days.

I read through about half the posts so far and see no mention of the ZUNE. A friend of mine got me a 30GB one in 04 or 05. I broke the screen after 6 months and a new one was about 200 quid at the time. My daughter now uses it as an ext hard drive for her photos.

5uspect

wendell borton wrote: »

OK it was crap, but how about another tupelov the tu-95.
Despite being a 50's design and prop driven it can match the speed of modern jets and going to be in service until 2040.

The tu-95 is a jet... and has been around for just as long as the B-52.

Dempsey

5uspect wrote: »

The tu-95 is a jet... and has been around for just as long as the B-52.

Tu-95 is prop driven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

5uspect

Dempsey wrote: »

Tu-95 is prop driven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

No, it's a turboprop, which is a jet engine with a big prop bolted onto the front, similar to the turbofans you find on modern Airliners except with an added bypass shroud.

Dempsey

5uspect wrote: »

No, it's a turboprop, which is a jet engine with a big prop bolted onto the front, similar to the turbofans you find on modern Airliners except with an added bypass shroud.

No, its not. If you want to get pedantic, Jet engines exhaust provides enough thrust for propulsion. The exhaust of a turbo prop doesnt produce anywhere near enough.

Czarcasm

Is anyone else still struggling to get their head around the fact that Concordski was a real jet and not just a made up Russian rip-off by tagging "ski" on the end of Concorde?

Tokyo

Czarcasm wrote: »

Is anyone else still struggling to get their head around the fact that Concordski was a real jet and not just a made up Russian rip-off by tagging "ski" on the end of Concorde?

It's not all they ripped off - pretty sure Aeroflot at the time were caught stealing Concorde design plans.....

syklops

Czarcasm wrote: »

Is anyone else still struggling to get their head around the fact that Concordski was a real jet and not just a made up Russian rip-off by tagging "ski" on the end of Concorde?

Im more struggling with the fact that a commercial aircraft built in the 60s holds the record for being the fastest commercial jet and when retired was not replaced with something that went the same speed or faster.

Anti masturbation devices haven’t yet raised any head yet, so cream it!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/male-anti-masturbation-devices

Czarcasm

syklops wrote: »

Im more struggling with the fact that a commercial aircraft built in the 60s holds the record for being the fastest commercial jet and when retired was not replaced with something that went the same speed or faster.

I remember reading in "Quest" (a science publication in the 90's) that when the Concorde was in the air, oh jesus what is it now - you could place a book in the open fissures as the plane stretched or something, and when the plane was landing, the fissure would close up again, book gone! Of course you could always retrieve it on the return journey

But yeah, I imagine they set a lot of records in the 60's and 70's that will never be broken because of safety concerns and so on, I mean, does anyone want to mention the moon landings? They were a bit of a flash in the pan seeing as we haven't been back since...


*cough*faked*cough* :pac:

syklops

Czarcasm wrote: »

I remember reading in "Quest" (a science publication in the 90's) that when the Concorde was in the air, oh jesus what is it now - you could place a book in the open fissures as the plane stretched or something, and when the plane was landing, the fissure would close up again, book gone! Of course you could always retrieve it on the return journey

But yeah, I imagine they set a lot of records in the 60's and 70's that will never be broken because of safety concerns and so on, I mean, does anyone want to mention the moon landings? They were a bit of a flash in the pan seeing as we haven't been back since...


*cough*faked*cough* :pac:

Funny you mention the moon landings I was thinking about Apollo 13 earlier. It was surprisingly low tech. An awful lot of the calculations were done by hand. Thay had a row of guys in a line doing the same math, and if they all agreed then it was correct.

Then computers came along and management became obsessed with computer based timesheeting systems, they fired the five guys, and the rest of NASA have been spending thousands of man-hours filling in their timesheets so we have not made it to Mars yet.

I have a pet-peeve about timesheets.

syklops

syklops wrote: »

Funny you mention the moon landings I was thinking about Apollo 13 earlier. It was surprisingly low tech. An awful lot of the calculations were done by hand. Thay had a row of guys in a line doing the same math, and if they all agreed then it was correct.

Then computers came along and management became obsessed with computer based timesheeting systems, they fired the five guys, and the rest of NASA have been spending thousands of man-hours filling in their timesheets so we have not made it to Mars yet.

I have a pet-peeve about timesheets.

I think that the space shuttle had five computers doing the calculations, so if more than three came up with the same answer then it was taken as correct.

If all five had different answers then it would have resulted in brown trousers!

Tokyo

Czarcasm wrote: »

I remember reading in "Quest" (a science publication in the 90's) that when the Concorde was in the air, oh jesus what is it now - you could place a book in the open fissures as the plane stretched or something, and when the plane was landing, the fissure would close up again, book gone! Of course you could always retrieve it on the return journey

CLose enough In flight, friction would heat the plane enough that it would get longer by about a foot over the length of the aircraft - this would open up a gap between the flight console and the bulkhead. Any member of the crew unlucky enough to leave their cap or similar down on the console during flight would often find that they wouldn't be able to retrieve it on the ground

SpaceTime

The "Payphone"

I ran out of batteries the other day and was faced with having to use a "pay phone".

1) I had no idea how to put the coins in. They seem to have installed some kind of frustration device on the coin slot.

2) It seems to cost about €2.00 to make a call!!

3) I couldn't remember anybody's phone numbers as they're all stored in my phone.

4) It smelt funny and I didn't want to let it touch my ear!

SpaceTime

SpaceTime wrote: »

I ran out of batteries the other day and was faced with having to use a "pay phone".

1) I had no idea how to put the coins in. They seem to have installed some kind of frustration device on the coin slot.

2) It seems to cost about €2.00 to make a call!!

3) I couldn't remember anybody's phone numbers as they're all stored in my phone.

4) It smelt funny and I didn't want to let it touch my ear!

You were lucky to find one, they're almost obsolete these days.

bobwilliams

I bought one of these fleshlight things on line,what a waste,i can't even get the helmet of it up me arse,

Capt'n Midnight

Irish Steve wrote: »

No, just not programmed in a way that prevented the challenges, they are much quicker, easier to use, cheaper to manage, and took the angst out of the results, oh what a shame for the politicians, no drama to milk and get screen time from.

The challenges included being able to tell which way people voted by eavesdropping remotely, easily falsifying the results. The machines had no decent physical , electrical , electronic or computational security

syklops

bobwilliams wrote: »

I bought one of these fleshlight things on line,what a waste,i can't even get the helmet of it up me arse,

I'm not sure an inability to read a product description constitutes an obsolete technology.

You spent 70+ quid on something to put up there? Why not visit your local green grocer?

Capt'n Midnight

wil wrote: »

There seems to be an ever decreasing cycle time from introduction to obsolescence. Stuff that lasts too long eventually stops selling.
Built in unreliability could even be a marketing strategy

You don't need to build in unreliability in products like RAM / CPU's / LEDs / Solar panels / Hard drives where the performance for unit price improves at 50% ever 18 months or so


Unfortunately marketing persons don''t understand that cost cutting can destroy a brand name and it will take a very long time to build it up again , but the marketing persons have their bonuses so what do they care ?

Capt'n Midnight

syklops wrote: »

Im more struggling with the fact that a commercial aircraft built in the 60s holds the record for being the fastest commercial jet and when retired was not replaced with something that went the same speed or faster.

blame the Americans

they wanted Mach 3 , because it's 1 higher than Mach 2.

more of the "not invented here" syndrome

completely forgetting that a plane three times faster would cost a lot more than three times as much AND that since each flight took a third of the time you'd only need a third as many planes

jmcc

Irish Steve wrote: »

No, just not programmed in a way that prevented the challenges, they are much quicker, easier to use, cheaper to manage, and took the angst out of the results, oh what a shame for the politicians, no drama to milk and get screen time from.

Technically speaking, the security model for the stinking pile of rip-off crap that the Irish government "bought" was designed by pondscum intellects who hadn't a clue about technological security. A paper sticker on a box is not anti-tamper protection. Just to explain it simply for you: there was no security on those over priced technological turds.

Regards...jmcc

wil

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

You don't need to build in unreliability in products like RAM / CPU's / LEDs / Solar panels / Hard drives where the performance for unit price improves at 50% ever 18 months or so


Unfortunately marketing persons don''t understand that cost cutting can destroy a brand name and it will take a very long time to build it up again , but the marketing persons have their bonuses so what do they care ?

that one major exception - we should all be rocking 10Tb portables if it wasn't for a few drops of rain and a near cartelle in the aftermath. HDs were cheaper per Tb over 2 years ago. And on occasion RAM was also commoditised. Remember the great RAM hoist a while back.

For examples of stuff that lasted too long as far as manufacturers were concerned - big old CRT tvs, 12 inch portable crts - they outlast their modern counterparts by at least 20 years and changed hands several times on the s/h market. Similarly old hifi separates - sound quality would still beat most of todays plastic boxes.
Priorities change and hifi and hi-def gets subverted by mp3 and 4inch smartphones for personal media consumption.


But to the obsolete I'll add the Casio calculator watch

Czarcasm

wil wrote: »

that one major exception - we should all be rocking 10Tb portables if it wasn't for a few drops of rain and a near cartelle in the aftermath. HDs were cheaper per Tb over 2 years ago. And on occasion RAM was also commoditised. Remember the great RAM hoist a while back.

For examples of stuff that lasted too long as far as manufacturers were concerned - big old CRT tvs, 12 inch portable crts - they outlast their modern counterparts by at least 20 years and changed hands several times on the s/h market. Similarly old hifi separates - sound quality would still beat most of todays plastic boxes.
Priorities change and hifi and hi-def gets subverted by mp3 and 4inch smartphones for personal media consumption.


But to the obsolete I'll add the Casio calculator watch

Do go on...

I remember alright the Thai earthquake or was it a typhoon and trying to source parts that didn't make you feel like you'd bought a bicycle without a saddle, the price of stuff went through the roof - RAM, hard drives, I think processors were ok but they were always pricey, basically anything coming from Malaysia, scare, and shocking dear (remember walking into PissyWorld and seeing a sign - "One hard drive per customer"!), and then there was that whole business later on with a worldwide shortage of LCD panels...

Anyone remember the "exploding laptop" batteries?

gugleguy

Atari Jaguar. Smoke and mirrors type of marketing. Has it been mentioned so far? Too sacred as a boards.ie symbol?

5uspect

Dempsey wrote: »

No, its not. If you want to get pedantic, Jet engines exhaust provides enough thrust for propulsion. The exhaust of a turbo prop doesnt produce anywhere near enough.

Then by that logic, ignoring that jet engines are actually gas turbines, a turbo fan powered airliner isn't a jet either since the fan provides most of the thrust while the turbojet core just provides power.

Jet engines come in many variants all build around a turbojet core. Only turbojets rely on high speed air expelled from nozzles, most modern jets actually use turbofans since you can get considerably more thrust by moving a lot of air relatively slowly rather than a small high speed jet. Bypass ratios have been increasing massively in recent decades. There are very few, if any, aircraft using turbojets today

Turboprop engines are the same as turbofans but without the bypass ducting for the front fan/prop. This reduces weight and is ideal for lower speeds and altitudes were a prop is more suitable.

It's the same technology. To claim that the TU95 is merely a prop aircraft and better than jets is incorrect since it uses a varient of the same engine technology as these other jets.

On Concorde, the reason so it hasn't been replaced is purely economic. You burn far less fuel cruising at high speed subsonic speeds than insuring the significant pressure drag of supersonic flight.

Dempsey

I never said it was better than jets and to say it was so was just as bad as your the props are there for aesthetics comment. The difference I stated between turboprop and jet engines is correct.

Tokyo

Not a failure by any means, but very much obsolete now in the age of touchscreens, and android, and iPhones...

I give you... the Nokia 5110



This was my first phone - while every other kid had the sleeker 3310, I inherited this monolith from my dad. These old Nokias were the dog's wotzits - no phone memory to speak of, so your contacts were stored on your SIM, it could store ten whole text messages, and of course, it had Snake. Their main selling point though, is that they are pretty much bulletproof. Mine has been dropped repeatedly, stood on, soaked in the rain, left on a mountain for a week, ejected from a car window at 50kph as I took a curve in the road.... it simply couldn't be killed. I dug mine out of a drawer this morning out of idle curiosity, pushed the power button, and it started up.... after 12 years.... When the cockroaches are crawling into the ruins of a post-nuclear holocaust Earth, all that will be left is AK-47s and old Nokia 5110's, and they'll use them to coordinate the takeover.

imitation

My crowing achivement fot obsolete tech was to get the 20 year old 120mb hard drive in my amiga to work and to be able to copy it onto Pc. Then I got a sd to ide adapter and sooped up the amiga with a 4gb sd card, instant bootups !

Czarcasm

imitation wrote: »

My crowing achivement fot obsolete tech was to get the 20 year old 120mb hard drive in my amiga to work and to be able to copy it onto Pc. Then I got a sd to ide adapter and sooped up the amiga with a 4gb sd card, instant bootups !

You're after reminding me now of the ORIGINAL XBOX, not the 360 but the first generation, that people are modifying into media centres by slapping XBMC on there. Anyone should be able to pick one up in a cash converters shop for about €20, or even online of course

Tokyo

Czarcasm wrote: »

You're after reminding me now of the ORIGINAL XBOX, not the 360 but the first generation, that people are modifying into media centres by slapping XBMC on there. Anyone should be able to pick one up in a cash converters shop for about €20, or even online of course

We had one of these sitting beside the TV, long before you could get smart TVs or DVD players that could take a USB key, or play .avi's or .mp4's. For a 'hack', they were awesome - not only could you play media files, but you could also load game emulators and ROMs on them - many's the night we sat in playing mario kart or the like......

e_e

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm amazed that the humble audio cassette tape hasn't been mentioned, it revolutionised our lives in the 70s. We could just tape the songs rather than have to buy the records (another obsolete) media.

Neither cassette nor records (vinyl) are obsolete. You still get bands releasing on tape and vinyl is at its highest number of sales since the 90s.

e_e

Also I owned a GameGear as well as a Game Boy Camera and Printer. Anyone remember those? :P

e_e

e_e wrote: »

Neither cassette nor records (vinyl) are obsolete. You still get bands releasing on tape and vinyl is at its highest number of sales since the 90s.

Obsolete in the sense that they have been super-ceded by something else and the vast majority of consumers have ditched them.

Vinyl has developed a cult status and cassettes stayed around longer simply because car radios didn't play CD until the end of the 90s.