Memory Lane | Step back in Old-School Technology

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Posted on June 13, 2012 by Chris Lau Posted as Blogosphere Discussion Blogosphere Polls

Memory Lane: A Stroll Through Old-School Technology

The late Steve Jobs’ memo written in 1974 will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on June 15. The memo was written when Jobs worked at Atari. Also up for auction is an Apple I motherboard. Its rarity (there are only six in working condition) will fetch a high price that starts from $120,000. The computer will also include operating manuals and a cassette interface.

Name any electronic device you’ve owned that went up in value!

Here is an easier challenge: Name the first old-school technology that instantly brings you fond memories. Sure, the fax machine was practical and is still useful now, but may be considered old-school, but what brand do you think of first?

Atari comes to mind, with Asteroids bringing back instant nostalgia:

For those who thought of Asteroids, it is funny how one’s memory imagined the graphics having been more advanced than they really are.

What is old-school tech to you? Is it an iPhone 1?

Nokia phone?

Blackberry Pager?

Warning: revealing what you think as old-school tech may also reveal your age.

Chris Lau Chris Lau (79 Posts)


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  • waynemansfield

    8″ floppy discs make me weepy

  • jimwirshing

    I had both Atari 400 and Atari 800 computers, with a green-screen monitor and a 5-1/4″ floppy drive!

  • Mike Sharadin

    HP Calculator with a module to expand memory function and it had a timer chip! I used it to time swimmers at the Olympics in 1984 with discreet splits.

  • Mark Dandeneau

    My first computer was an 80286. I think it had 256 Megabytes of RAM and a 40 Megabyte hard drive. It ran DOS Windows 3.1 was just coming out. The first gaming system that I remember was the Atari ping pong that a friend of mine had.

    • http://twitter.com/MarkReynoldsIT Mark Reynolds IT

      Hi Mark.  It was probably 26 kilobytes of RAM.  The 80286 was a 16-bit CPU which could only address 1 MB of RAM, with 384 kilobytes of this reserved at the top end for system functions and add-in cards, leaving the maximum addressable RAM at 640 kilobytes.  You could (if you could afford it) add in a card with RAM chips that would be seen as a drive.  The first 40 MegaByte hard drive I bought for one of these cost $500.00 – a bargain at the time!

  • http://twitter.com/tulleuchen Tulleuchen

    I actually liked the simipler times, the games may not have had fancy graphics but they really were quality and challenging when you think about it. Now a days the graphics are amazing, but things are in a sense easier. Getting infinite retrys, etc. Gotta love Atari 2600, Vic20. Asteroids, Space Invaders, PacMan, and even phoenix and Demon Attack. 

  • http://FireYourBossProject.ORG/blog Sandor Benko

    386 with DOS and Wing Commander!

  • Harold Gardner

    A DEC mini with 8 megs of RAM

  • http://twitter.com/MarkReynoldsIT Mark Reynolds IT

    MicroBee personal computer – 16 kB of RAM – very much pre Commodore 64.  Hewlett Packard 29C scientific calculator, followed later by a gob-smacking (for the time) Hewlett Packard 41C calculator.  All big money back then – back in the days when a 5 MB (that’s right, megabytes) hard drive set you back $10,000.  No, I didn’t get one.  Then my first IBM PC – a 286 with 512 kilobytes of RAM, 2 x 5.25″ floppy drives, no hard drive, and a green only monitor.