Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

lazer_chicken posted:

The cool thing about laserdisc is that, up until the dvd release that contained the original theatrical versions, the laserdisc versions of the original star wars trilogy were regarded as the best. I'm sure true star wars fans have some argument that it's still the best.

I have that trilogy. I bought an LD player in the early 90s and joined the Columbia House Laserdisc Club and that was my "introductory three disc" deal. The LD player (made by Radio Shack) still works as good as new. I also have an industrial model Pioneer player.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2012 20:12

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:28

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

olaf2022 posted:

Most record players I've seen are capable of playing at 33/45/78 rpm.

I don't know if it's the proper term but I'm of the opinion that the smaller 7" records should be called "seven inch records" because they're not necessarily 45rpm; I have a few 7" records that are 33rpm. Similarly, I have plenty of full-size 12" records that are 45rpm.

Then, there are also oddball sizes like 10", 6" and oddly-shaped non-circular records.

The 7" records are generally called 45s or singles since the majority of them are 45rpm and have one song per side. There are exceptions, of course.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2012 21:24

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

rockinricky posted:

One of those exceptions being the single of "With or Without You" by U2. That song is Side A and spins at 45 rpm. Side B spins at 33 rpm and has 2 songs.

That's weird. I've never heard of that being done.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 00:54

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Oppenheimer posted:

A friend of mine just got a 40-inch crt TV for like 10 bux. I shudder to think of the weight of it.

I still have a 27" CRT TV and googling tells me it weighs 108 lbs. So that 40" is probably close to 150-175lbs.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 15:27

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

You Are A Elf posted:

You're thinking of Highway Hi-Fi, an in-car record player made for Chrysler in 1956 that took weird 10 inch discs that played at 16⅔ RPM. The company that made them was CBS (yes, as in the TV network) Electronics. It's no surprise that it was a colossal failure when you think of a record player in a car, especially one as large and heavy as a '50s Chrysler.

You want real ridiculous failure, imagine a record player in a VW Beetle (top center):

# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 18:44

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

axolotl farmer posted:

See the windshield washer kit in the top left?

The WV beetle came with a windshield washers that ran off the air pressure in the spare tire. Looks like the aftermarket kit came with an electric pump like every other car ever.

e: Oh lol, a spare fuel cannister to keep under a seat inside the car. Sounds like a fantastic idea!

They also sold a gasoline-powered heater.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 18:58

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

JediTalentAgent posted:

edit: Are there even any decent DVD recorders with built-in tuners, anymore?

Not that I've seen. Hell, even decent plain recorders are hard to find.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 12:28

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Amaritudo posted:

Really in the end, Blu-Ray won solely because Toshiba just didn't have the Hollywood clout that Sony did. There was a glimmer of hope when Paramount defected to HD-DVD but the loss of Warner put the final nail in the coffin.

Sony got revenge over the whole Betamax thing.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 03:18

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

When DVD recorders first came out, they sucked. I decided to roll the dice and buy this:

Panasonic's DVD-RAM recorder (mine only recorded RAM discs, but could play DVDs & DVD-Rs). You could timeshift and edit on the disc. I used it to record shows from my pre-DVR satellite receiver, edit the show and copy it to a VHS tape.

They were about $500. I had two. They both died within two years.

I found one in a pawn shop last year for $60. I needed something since my cheapo DVD recorders all died and I still had about 20 DVD-RAM discs. It's been flawless.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 04:10

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

kopiko posted:

This is a bit more useful because it can tell the time and has an alarm and stopwatch. Again, the phone number storing feature went totally unused, especially since the keyboard was practically impossible to use. You basically had to stab the buttons really hard with a sharp fingernail or pen, which was also a pretty good way to damage it with pen/stab marks. Regardless, to school kids it looked cool as gently caress and got me props in class

I had this for some reason:

You put it to the mouthpiece of the phone, push the button, AND IT DIALS THE NUMBER!

I also had the requisite nerd attire calculator watch.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2012 00:05

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Invisble Manuel posted:

I always wanted one of these:

It was a black and white video camera that recorded video to standard audio cassettes, from Fisher Price.

I don't think it recorded audio.

Sample video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtj8ILSfKUM

I've seen these go for hundreds on ebay.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2012 01:23

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

kith_groupie posted:

I bought the 30Gb version in 2005. It's been sitting on a shelf unused for over a year. I dug out the adapter and plugged it in and it's as good as ever. However, the battery is kaput, so I ordered a new one.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2012 23:38

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

If we're taking about ancient hand-held games, I give you this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race

I played the gently caress out of this game. It's so simple, it's ridiculous, but in the higher "gear", it would kick your rear end.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2012 22:57

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Perry Normal posted:

For content, The Fisher-Price Movie Viewer

No audio, it worked via hand crank. It played these -

There was a handheld version as well.

The bigger version could also be used as a projector. Pretty simple stuff, but I had hours of fun moving cartoons forwards and backwards.

And, of course, it's been hacked.

http://www.retrothing.com/2008/07/modding-a-fishe.html

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 01:54

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Armyman25 posted:

The best part of the console tv was it made a nice stand for the new tv.

Jeff Foxworthy posted:

You might be a redneck if you have a working TV sitting on top of a non-working TV.

I must be a redneck because I did this once.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2012 20:24

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

RillAkBea posted:

Well we do still have all those toolbars that random freewares want you to install. The ones people usually install because they assume they're somehow necessary to run whatever they're installing.

Gah! Toolbars. My nieces wreak havoc on my parents' computer (they're in their 70s and rarely use it) by installing toolbars. I went to their house one day last year and found that the upper third of the screen was chock full of toolbars. It took me over two hours to clean the damned thing.

I recently discovered that my old AOL email address was still active. I haven't used it since 2000.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2012 20:51

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Jasta posted:

Yeah, I pay rent to older people and have to write them cheques, but that's the only time when I use them.

The apartment complex where I live just started offering the opportunity to pay online.

For a $10 "convenience" fee.

I can get a box of checks for about $8 AND I live 30 feet from the office. I'll keep on writing checks.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2012 19:11

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Every apartment I've ever lived in has required checks. Those that have offered online payment always charge $10 to $35 for it. What gives with that? How is an online payment anything but easier for them? Paypal fees?

Back when I lived in a natural-gas heated house, I paid with a check. If I paid over the phone, it costs $9.95. If I paid online, it cost $4.95.

When I asked them why they would charge me to pay online and get their money instantly, but not charge me to pay with a check which could take days, they had no answer.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2012 20:06

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

BoutrosBoutros posted:

There's just no excuse for old people to write checks.

No, but you have to understand that "old people" are set in their ways. Some will adapt to newer tech and some will not.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2012 20:35

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Phanatic posted:

But a friend of mine in high school had something almost as cool. It was just a record player, with a regular old needle, but it had a tray like a CD player or even more like a laserdisc player. You'd eject the tray, load in a record, and press play. It didn't have a regular tone-arm, it had a track with a needle in it so it would always move perpendicular to the groove (the way a tone-arm swings in an arc annoys some audiophiles, I'm led to understand).

But the cool thing was it had a laser. Not to play the record, but it had an optical sensor that could use the laser to tell the difference between the songs and the spaces between the songs. So you didn't have to pick up the needle and move it to a new song, it had track-skip buttons (and FF and reverse) just like a CD player did.

Only one I ever saw.

Sounds like it was a linear turntable.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2012 19:03

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

minato posted:

Our old record player used to have an automatic record changer.

I had one of those. It was a BSR. One day the motor finally locked up.

For those of you young whipper-snappers who collect old vinyl and notice that double albums are numbered Side 1/3 and 2/4, this is why. When you put the two albums on the changer like this:

2
-
1

and then flip them over you get this:

4
-
3

Some albums had a ridge molded in around the label to help prevent scratches when one disc landed on the other.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2012 19:17

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

^^^^drat YOU DICK :argh:

Jedit posted:

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

I see your flexidiscs and raise you cereal box records from the late 60s/early 70s.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2012 00:11

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

I think you made a slight mistake. They were sides 1/4 on one record and 2/3 on the other, as I remember. Then the flip trick works.

I had to check some of my double albums and you're right. Oddly enough, several of them are numbered 1/2 and 3/4.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2012 15:22

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Jedit posted:

Of course I can believe it. I most recently saw a pneumatic transport system in a supermarket over here just a year or so ago.

The hospital I work for has one as well.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2012 14:55

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

cobalt impurity posted:

Doesn't every bank drive-through use this kind of thing as well, just bigger tubes?

All the ones I've seen do.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2012 15:30

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Code Jockey posted:

Despite my love for it, I would say the Famicom Disk System is rather obsolete.

That looks like something you would have seen on Star Trek TOS.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2012 01:55

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Killer robot posted:

I don't remember those days, but I do remember this era:

Pull tabs...

We had those when I was a kid (70s) and we were always told not to drop the pull tab into the open can for fear of swallowing it and dying.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2012 23:45

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

DNova posted:

Because natural gas is a far cheaper source of heat energy to dry clothes. In the US, in places where natural gas is available (almost eveywhere), nobody in their right mind would choose an electric dryer.

Last time I had a dryer, it was electric. When they deregulated natural gas in Georgia, the prices went through the loving roof.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2012 15:33

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

If you want to talk weird film formats, there's Scopitones.

An early version of music videos you could watch in a jukebox.

Here's an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io7taNUIly4

# ¿ Nov 25, 2012 01:43

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

b0nes posted:

I saw this on Youtube, and I thought I had saved it, but there was a piano using British(?) technology that used pieces of audio tape to play music. Anyone know what I am talking about? It might have even been posted in this thread.

The Mellotron. A staple of 70s music.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2012 02:03

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

DStecks posted:

I'm still using my sister's old Zen Stone (Creative's answer to the iPod Nano), and it's gotta be pushing 6 years old now, and it still works great.

I have one of those, too. Mine's about four years old and I use it everyday.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2012 23:52

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Bertrand Hustle posted:

My first desktop had a 2 GB hard drive. I was ridiculously proud of that. It was top of the line. Now I have a 2 TB external HDD sitting on my desk that probably cost me less than the 2 GB would have at the time.

I bought my first computer (Leading Edge Model D) in 1988. It had two 5.25" floppy drives because I couldn't afford the 10Mb HD at $500.

I built a 386 machine in 1992 and put in a 400Mb drive that cost about $300. I just ordered a 2TB drive for $99.

I've been ripping all of my DVDs and have tons of other video and have been waiting for terabyte drives to come down. I figure I'll need 8-10 TB to hold it all.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2012 00:42

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Here's an oldie, but a not-goodie: Polaroid's Polavision instant movie system.

It created instant movies. Great, huh? Oh, wait. The movies only lasted 2.5 minutes. And were silent. And required a special player.

Here's a commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLXfhMI7B5Q

And a sample movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2pclBwpeBs

This came out at about the same time as VHS/Beta video cameras. While those cameras were bulky and expensive, they did offer sound and a substantially longer recording time. Not to mention the tapes could be re-used.

Nice try Polaroid.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2012 19:34

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

razorrozar posted:

With that case on there, it looks kind of like a giant PSP UMD. Does that case go into whatever plays them, or do you take it off?

You insert the cart into the player and the disc is released and you pull the empty cart back out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoTc9l7ObHY

# ¿ Dec 25, 2012 03:23

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Gorilla Salad posted:

Now I'm trying to remember which car had the cantilevered doors that slid into the wheel well and let you open the car doors even when there was very little room next to the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjoKa74zArs

The Kaiser Darrin?

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 23:17

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Monkey Fracas posted:

I want a laserdisc for no good drat reason- those record-sized CDs are just so intriguing...

I guess they're not really "C" Ds at that size, though. More like "Gigantic"Ds. GDs.

I've had a laserdisc player for over 20 years. Still have the original unmolested Star Wars trilogy (thanks Columbia House Laserdisc Club!). I'll scan ebay now and then looking for oddball stuff.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2013 22:20

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Sham bam bamina! posted:

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ispW6-7b2sA

A demo reel of the Scanimate. Warning: extreme 70s music!

# ¿ Oct 27, 2013 17:45

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Monkey Fracas posted:

So before I was born TV looked like one big neverending episode of Soul Train? I kinda feel like I got screwed here, man.

Hell, just look how movies were introduced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3q4_8_9hFI

This makes me realize that no networks have movie nights anymore.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2013 18:08

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Axeman Jim posted:

NO!

I first saw this in Billy Idol's "Flesh for Fantasy" video and couldn't figure out what the hell it was (no internet in those days).

Possibly :nws:

for S&M dancers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1oM7LBbxE

Jim Stafford plays it on the Tonight Show (the logo is blacked out for some reason):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VgdpU2nEw

One of the musicians on the Simpsons used it on one of the early season episodes, too.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2014 23:48

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:28

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

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/

I do not envy the person who has to tune it.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 00:50

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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