Whats the oldest bit of electronic technology you own?

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  • zx1zx1
    edited November 2010
    My Spectrum +2, got that in 1987.
    My mum still owns a camera that my dad bought in 1969, it's quite big and heavy and you can't get film for it but she keeps it for sentimental reasons.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • edited November 2010
    I have a ZX81, Lambda 8300 and a Newbrain. Just don't know which one is oldest LOL
  • edited November 2010
    The rotary dial phone (it was installed in my grandparents house when the house was completed in the late 1960s). Standard phone that was installed all the way up to the late 70s or so. I think this particular one is about 1968 or so.

    Then the clock radio, which is from the late 1970s and has a green VFD (vacuum florescent display, a technology still pretty common today, usually seen in cash registers and the like).

    It would have been the nixie tubes in my nixie tube display, but they are Russian and the thing about the Soviet Union is when a factory was told to make something, they just made it regardless of whether they were obsolete or not or whether there was demand, they just kept making it until someone told them to stop or the Soviet Union collapsed. And that's all that stopped the nixie tube factories in the USSR. The ones I have are dated 1991, by then this kind of display technology had already been obsolete for about 30 years! But it's good, because I like nixies :-)
  • edited November 2010
    MattLamb wrote: »
    For me, the oldest bit of kit I own is probably a late 1970s TV chess game in the loft at my parent's house. I assume it still works, but I wouldn't want to put money on it.



    Is that Star Chess? Sort of ike regular chess, but with sound effects, and the pieces could open fire on each other, and the king could go into hyper space?
  • edited November 2010
    Since I lost my Game&Watch a few years back, the oldest tech I have is the calculator my sister bought me for sixth form:

    http://www.voidware.com/calcs/el5103.htm

    Ah the joys of being able to do square roots the way you write them...
  • edited November 2010
    Frankie wrote: »
    I have a ZX81, Lambda 8300 and a Newbrain. Just don't know which one is oldest LOL


    Oh I forgot I bought a Game & Watch some years ago, and I also have a Videopac system aka Odyssey, which both is older than the 3 mentioned before :)

    Maybe my memory/brain is getting to old LOL
  • edited November 2010
    a CASIO VL1 keyboard.
  • edited November 2010
    Legendary:

    gameNwatch-parachute.jpg
  • edited November 2010
    I have a couple of pong machines that predate my 'heavy sixer' atari.
  • edited November 2010
    Bethan wrote: »
    a CASIO VL1 keyboard.

    I used to have one of those (and still remember the annoying demo song).

    I've looked for a cheap one on ebay on and off but they seem quite collectible by the prices they go for.
  • edited November 2010
    My Spectrum and Vectrex are both of the '82 vintage, though they're showing signs of age (wobbly picture on the former, lines being drawn in almost - but not quite - the right place on the latter) so I'm a little concerned they may soon go to live on a farm :-(

    Used to own a Bang & Olufsen telly from 1981 (no, I didn't pay for it. Long and not very interesting story) with woodgrain effect. A proper B&O too, not a rebadged Rediffusion like the cheating basts sold for a while (it's all about the brand, daaahling) which did all sorts of ace things like refuse to watch Dawson's Creek without losing the picture, and inexplicably picking up Dutch television one afternoon. Had a Scart socket, pretty advanced for '81! Sadly it eventually went pop.

    I own plenty of books and things from before '82, but that's the cutoff point for electronica in this house. 28 years for commercial electronic equipment is pretty good going I guess...
  • edited November 2010
    thx1138 wrote: »
    Is that Star Chess? Sort of ike regular chess, but with sound effects, and the pieces could open fire on each other, and the king could go into hyper space?

    That sounds very much like the one, yes.
  • edited November 2010
    I own every VFD handheld distributed by Grandstand (all boxed), Astro Wars etc, theres about 11 in total, took me over a year to get them all, currently on a shelf being displayed, i love em!
  • edited November 2010
    '79:PrinztronicMicro5500> '83:Spec(48K)> '84:Spec+(kit)> '86:Spec128> '88:ST> '90:A500> '93:A1200> '93:SNES> '95:PS1> '99:PC> '02:PS2> '05:Xbox> '12:Xbox360> '14:PS4 XboxLive:messy73, PSN:mrmessy73, YouTube:mrmessyschannel
  • Interesting..

    I have somewhere in a big box Battlestar Galactica(1978) by Mattel..like in this lib picture. Still works...but it's very messy.

    1978-battlestar-galactica-space-alert-electronic-game-mattel-electronics-vintage-6ef6ebc80951c11f59819571d23239f1.jpg
    I stole it off a space ship.
  • never ended up with mi dads old (60s?) mono reel to reel machines but got all his reels Oo
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • Hmm... It's radio in my 1968 car =)

    1y5mJI8.jpg
    Brand New Games for ZX Spectrum www.olegorigin.org
  • edited October 2016
    All my old stuff from England got sold or donated after my mother died.

    I've literally got no old stuff any more :(

    Or at least not tech, I've got some extremely old schoolbooks that belonged to my grandma, and some of the stuff in those is hilariously racist, and sexist without even realizing it :))

    I mean some of these books literally say things like "This is the kitchen! Get used to it it's where the woman spends most of her day while her husband is at work" :))

    There's even worse ones like "This is Sambo, him and his wife are from Jamaica, that's an Island in the sea somewhere that we used to own, his skin is very black, but don't be scared him and his wife can also spea the English Language".

    I'm not joking...This is real :))
    Post edited by dm_boozefreek on
    Every night is curry night!
  • The best I can do is my Donkey Kong Game and Watch (1982). However I would have got it later, cause I'm not that old! I got it brand new in the early 90's, so it must have had a long run.
    My only Speccy game (so far): a simple snake clone
  • I still laugh at my 32K Super Memory Expander whenever I see it in the loft. It's about the size of a fist!

    s-l225.jpg
    (couldn't find a decent image of it)
    My only Speccy game (so far): a simple snake clone
  • Hmm... It's radio in my 1968 car =)

    1y5mJI8.jpg

    Wow!!! What kind/make of car?

    I stole it off a space ship.
  • edited October 2016

    There's even worse ones like "This is Sambo, him and his wife are from Jamaica, that's an Island in the sea somewhere that we used to own, his skin is very black, but don't be scared him and his wife can also spea the English Language".

    I'm not joking...This is real :))

    Yeah...a funny thing though that got me into VERY much trouble once or twice. Swedish word for a unmarried lover/couples is SAMBO...from sammanboende. Of course..I was born in England to a Norwegian mother and Polish father(which explains why I'm both laid back AND a nutter at the same time)
    Post edited by Ælita on
    I stole it off a space ship.
  • Kaija wrote: »
    Wow!!! What kind/make of car?

    GAZ-21 Volga

    pDKRcOY.jpg
    Brand New Games for ZX Spectrum www.olegorigin.org
  • Wow Oleg..THAT is beautiful!
    I stole it off a space ship.
    Thanked by 1Oleg Origin
  • Almost as beautiful as a Dacia Sandero ;)
    Every night is curry night!
  • Almost as beautiful as a Dacia Sandero ;)

    Yeah..I never seen any Romanians in UK driving them.

    I stole it off a space ship.
  • That's cos' all the men are out from 11pm til' 6am drinking Tuaca, than during the day the women are locked up in "studios" showing their bewbs on a webcam. Nobody ever sees any Romanians ever :))
    Every night is curry night!
  • John Young's mom left her old vibrator at my place after she left satisfied. That's pretty ancient.
    ...just like her.

    Other than that it's probably a Philips Videopac G7000.
    Website: Tardis Remakes / Mostly remakes of Arcade and ZX Spectrum games.
    My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
    Twitter: Sokurah
  • I was fiddling with a pair of very crusty 2000 type group selectors earlier. They need stripping down and cleaning to see whether they're too far gone to ever operate again. They've obviously been stored somewhere damp :(
  • guesser wrote: »
    I was fiddling with a pair of very crusty 2000 type group selectors earlier. They need stripping down and cleaning to see whether they're too far gone to ever operate again. They've obviously been stored somewhere damp :(
    Did you get them from polo's mum?
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
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