What's A Piece of Tech From Our Generation That You Don't Miss?
Posted by bronzemat@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 197 comments
Posted by bronzemat@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 197 comments
Kabraxal@reddit
VHS.
DVD/Blu Ray is simply the peak for film. I’d kinda argue the same for music, but it is a sandwhich with Vinyl and CDs instead of a pure upgrade.
TryAgain024@reddit
CD is peak music media and I’ll fight anyone who tries to deny it.
Kabraxal@reddit
I will “argue” shared peak… CDs have portability and ease of use but vinyls just have an aura of use that can’t be matched. Putting a record on and setting the arm in place is magical.
thrwaway070879@reddit
CD's
Let's not get nostalgic over a fragile digital format. These aren't like vinyl there's no analog warmth or tone or whatever it's ones and zero's. Same as what you get on Spotify.
TryAgain024@reddit
Vinyl has inherently WAY, WAY less range in terms of both frequency and amplitude. And gradually erodes every time it’s played.
The romanticism around it is nonsense that has been disproven by multiple blind listening studies.
ChromeDestiny@reddit
I think CDs can potentially be great but they live and die by how they're mastered, there's got to be that Goldilocks point where it's not too loud and not too quiet.
AcceptablyPotato@reddit
My CDs from high school still work fine. My vinyl collection has not held up well at all and most of them are warped or scratched and I can only listen to them in one room of my house. CDs had their downsides, but I really don't get the romanticization of vinyl.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
Not currently, Spotify is working on rolling out a lossless audio option, but as of now it's lossy compression. Just being digital doesn't mean it's the same quality as a CD. There are other streaming options that give you lossless, but there's also always the possibility that the music you're listening to won't be there at some point if you're depending on a streaming service.
That said, I know many people can't hear the difference and/or don't care.
actionerror@reddit
Pay phones. So gross. 🤢
TryAgain024@reddit
But available. Chances of getting someone to let you use their phone now are shitty. And chances your call will be picked up from some random number are probably even worse.
Mwiziman@reddit
Cell phones without a keypad. Trying to text on an old candy bar phone (fucking Nokia) was TEDIOUS.
Typical_Dweller@reddit
I was old enough and poor enough that I missed that era of cell phone use. All I know is that scene in The Departed where someone sneakily texts with the phone still in their pocket, since you don't actually absolutely need to see the screen to do so with the old text method. That seemed kind of fun.
I also wonder if having a Blackberry was good. Physical buttons. Was that good?
TryAgain024@reddit
Compared to a pad of 12 keys, a set of physical qwerty keys was like (insert angelic hour with light shining down).
CopperWaffles@reddit
When you are 15 with a girlfriend and only have a Nokia, you learn how to text stupidly fast on 12 buttons.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Isn't that... with a keypad? Do you mean specifically multi-tap?
Mwiziman@reddit
Candy bar phone’s typically didn’t have a qwerty keyboard (although BlackBerry and some others had a slide out that did) Had to suffer through multi-tap. Wiki
CopperWaffles@reddit
When you are 15 with a girlfriend and only have a Nokia, you learn how to text stupidly fast on 12 buttons.
condensed-ilk@reddit
T9 lol.
statistacktic@reddit
CDs sucked too. No matter how careful you were, eventually they got scratched beyond use
TryAgain024@reddit
Nah. I have hundreds that still play great. Because I actually took care of them and stored them appropriately.
triggeron@reddit
Rechargeable batteries that sucked.
TryAgain024@reddit
And started leaking caustic goo everywhere if you don’t pull them out of the charger or the device you were using right away.
TryAgain024@reddit
Vinyl records. YEAH I SAID IT.
Kulban@reddit
Answering machines
TryAgain024@reddit
Have to disagree on this one, actually.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Nah i liked mine! I miss it
Kulban@reddit
Reason I hated mine was I lived in an area where brown-outs were frequent. I had to set the time and date on it constantly or I'd never know when I received a call.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
I would put inappropriate quotes on mine (Waves!) like from goodfellas and piss a lot of ppl off!
Typical_Dweller@reddit
I really liked the one I had when I moved out of my parents house, their old late 90s one. I especially enjoyed all the noise it made as it played and stopped and reversed. I lived in a house with multiple rooms along the same hall, and one of my housemates told me he always knew when someone was calling me because the answering machine could be heard snapping and whirring from a fair distance away.
One-Earth9294@reddit
People don't even really use voice mail from my experience just everyone expects you to know they called because their name shows up on the ledger.
candycookiecake@reddit
One of my favorite memories: booop~ Hello this is Miss [redacted] just calling to let you know that candycookiecake is being put in the advanced math program starting next week. Congratulations. ~boooop
rearwindowpup@reddit
You really shouldnt use your real name as your Reddit one...
candycookiecake@reddit
Hopefully my future employers won't Google me and find my super top secret Reddit account 😁
Dudeinairport@reddit
In 2012 I worked at a place that had voicemail and I just never set it up on purpose.
So I’d get emails from people saying I tried to leave you a voicemail that said XYZ”
Traditional_Cat_60@reddit
Remember actively wanting to get phone calls? How times have changed.
Clams_N_Scallops@reddit
Yep. I used to jump for joy over phone calls. A friend wants to talk to me!!! Now I hate the sound of my phone ringing, no matter what ringtone I choose.
media-and-stuff@reddit
I loved hovering over it listening to see if I wanted to answer.
Not only did you know who called, but they usually would say why in the message. I’d decide then if I was gonna pick up the phone. lol
Key_Street1637@reddit
I know that, but I still heavily associate it with VHS.
Key_Street1637@reddit
VHS tapes. The death of "pan & scan" is one of the best things to ever happen.
SplendidPunkinButter@reddit
We had pan and scan because of TV aspect ratios, not because of the VHS format
2278AD@reddit
I fixed/ruined so many tapes and vcrs with the butter knife hack
noronto@reddit
I understand that they are still necessary, but I sure hate cords.
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SplendidPunkinButter@reddit
Wireless is worse in most ways
One-Earth9294@reddit
THE BOX OF CORDS! We all had one. Never know when something needs a new AC adapter and there's always a chance you'll have one sitting around that matches lol.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Ironically, you're almost demonstrating the solution I found for cable management behind my PC and media centres.
I put the powerbar and all tied up cables into a plastic box like that, and then cut notches in the side from the top to allow the cables out just the amount they're needed, and then snap the lid over. Keeps the dust out. Keeps 'em organized. Easy to clean around.
HappySkullsplitter@reddit
Tape deck adapters for cd players
SplendidPunkinButter@reddit
I never once had this problem. The side with the writing on it went up
One-Earth9294@reddit
The in-between tech between the analog and digital age is so much dumb nonsense lol.
Express-Structure480@reddit
I was using one until 2016
HappySkullsplitter@reddit
I think I made it to 2004 before I switched to an FM transmitter
I felt like Buck Rogers
Express-Structure480@reddit
I tried that, no dice! I had a 91 civic with a tape deck, 5 years later I got a 01 civic, tried to put a radio in it but wouldn’t fit so I settled for the tape deck. In my current ride I have a cd player and working air conditioning!
AmazeMeBro@reddit
Check out Fancy Pants over here with the auto-reverse tape deck!
Traditional_Cat_60@reddit
Sounds like me trying to use an older USB cord
SplendidPunkinButter@reddit
I do miss cassette tapes though. They had better sound quality than people give them credit for, and they went ka-chunk when you closed the tape player. And you owned your music.
In all the years I used tapes, I had the tape come unspooled like this by accident maybe once or twice, tops. This happened specifically if you used a cheap shitty tape player
PeteONeillBassPlayer@reddit
Garmin, and tom tom, and all that super user-unfriendly navigation stuff.
FIREnV@reddit
Sony Discman. Try walking around with that thing- or working out! Skip, skip skip... Awful.
ArcadeToken95@reddit
Players with skip protection were the best invention for the time, made the experience so much better
CherryPickens@reddit
So. Much. Money. Spent. On. Batteries.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
the rechargeables were a dud…
Critical_Liz@reddit
omg, I probably could have had better things if not for the money I spent on batteries. I got rechargeable batteries but even they only last for so long.
And so many cds ruined thanks to those things skipping.
And so much space taken up by my cd wallet.
rearwindowpup@reddit
Sega Game Gear enters the chat
FIREnV@reddit
I had one of those! Sonic was awesome. Other aspects of that device were abysmal.
FIREnV@reddit
Oh geez. I forgot about the batteries!! I think I bought that stupid thing multiple times over with battery purchases.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
I loved mine! I went through so many b/c they went flying while i was bike riding!
nefarious_angel_666@reddit
Ya, you took my answer. Fuck those things
nefarious_angel_666@reddit
Ya, you took my answer. Fuck those things
Bentzsco@reddit
I don’t ever listen to my old cassettes but I loved making mix tapes for people. Laying out my whole music collection and thinking about that person and what they might respond to. How the songs would flow to each other.
Milksteak_To_Go@reddit
I was in a local vinyl shop recently and noticed they had a shelf of cassette tapes near the register. They seem to be coming back as a trend. I don't see them having the same renascence that vinyl did though. People aren't that silly...are they?
UnwillingHummingbird@reddit
I have a drawer full of cassette tapes in my cubicle at the office. My office does not have public wifi, and I have a cell phone plan that doesn't have unlimited data, and I don't want to burn up all my data listening to Spotify all day. I do also listen to audiobooks and mp3s on my phone, but I figure I paid for all those tapes, they are still perfectly good, why not get some use out of them?
media-and-stuff@reddit
Most won’t even last. I still have a few and the tape just falls apart, like dusting a vampire.
The older ones seem to hold up better, but most of the late 90s or older ones, the tape is just waiting to turn to dust.
Echterspieler@reddit
That's weird. i've never had a tape fall apart and I have some really old ones.
media-and-stuff@reddit
Mine fell apart in the tape player. It sounded weird and when I took it out the tape was half dust. lol
It was an early 00 tape.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
They are, yes. See r/cassetteculture . I often buy tapes at concerts because they're usually like $5-10 and fit easily into my pocket, CDs/vinyl cost more and aren't as portable. I do have a tape deck now too, decent vintage Pioneer, and turns out I do still have an appreciation for the way tapes sound. Damn sure wouldn't want to go back to them as my portable audio medium though! 😄
Milksteak_To_Go@reddit
That's fascinating. I'm trying to recall how they sound...I guess no pops and crackles like vinyl, slight background hiss, and not quite as clear as a CD?
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
The frequency response/range is different, so there's less high-end, probably the biggest difference.
I do enjoy playing with the 33/45 button on my turntable still, always makes me laugh when I put on a death metal album and turn it into raging chipmunk music.
GenghisConnieChung@reddit
Cassettes are fun to sample, especially if you have a tape deck with a speed control.
UnwillingHummingbird@reddit
I don't miss loading video games from cassette tape. My family had an Atari 400 computer with a cassette deck, and while most of our games were on cartridges, we had a few on tape, and playing any of those was an exercise in frustration. You'd have to wait so long for it to load, and if anything went wrong, it would error out and you'd have to start over again. it sucked. cassette tape was far and away the WORST storage medium for video games.
WilliamMcCarty@reddit
Fucking fax machines. Hated those pieces of shit. Never worked right. I know they still exist but I haven't to use one in at least a decade, thank the tech gods.
Murgatroyd314@reddit
Between PDF-to-fax services and fax-to-email services, I wonder what percent of documents sent by fax these days never exist on paper at either end.
media-and-stuff@reddit
My local government still requires you use them for some forms. It’s crazy because no one has one and one wrong digit = who knows where that form will end up.
And these are super personal forms with everything needed to steal your identity and then some. And they expect people to find a random fax machine to send them in. Like I don’t want the library to have access to all my personal info. You can click “reprint” on most fax machines.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
yeah, that one time Columbo solved the case with a fax
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
The weird part is dealing w older folks who wont accept an attachment, olnly a fax
Critical_Liz@reddit
I worked in a pharmacy and the BEST was when someone called you on their fax and you'd pick up and get the SCREEEEEECH right in your ear.
Monarc73@reddit
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=office+space+fax+gif&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FTeceNyVWiQycg%2Fgiphy.gif
church-basement-lady@reddit
I still have to use them and still hate those pieces of shit.
bivo979@reddit
Fax machines were invented in 1843.
purple_hope1@reddit
Floppy disks… soooo many needed to save the smallest of data.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Lol the cost of the first “jump drives”!!! Did anyone pay $60?
Substantial-Egg-7093@reddit
Those lasted WAY longer than I ever expected. And never went down in price because so many places still used them, even when you could buy much larger USB drives for way, way cheaper.
Substantial-Egg-7093@reddit
I'm a software engineer in biotech. I was talking to someone casually about how some sample I ran generated 5+ TERABYTES of data.
I remember going to a Fry's Electronics in 1996 or so and seeing a 24 GB drive for $2500
marmot1101@reddit
I miss the concept, not the reality though. Cheap enough to give away, no long ritual to copy(burning a cd), small enough to carry a stack. But the r/w speed and capacity were absolute ass.
Critical_Liz@reddit
Oh man, during college we were in the smaller discs phase and I always had one on me for papers and such, and what would happen was that the metal bit would get bent out of shape. So frustrating.
purple_hope1@reddit
God… yes, and you were desperately hoping it still worked and no data was lost. Did they also lose data near magnets? (Shivers in student anxiety)
ProudParticipant@reddit
I want a modern TV in that 1970s wooden facade. I've seen people upcycle those TV shells with modern components, and for me, it's the perfect balance of nostalgia and functionality. Plenty of storage for all the tech you dont want to look at. I'd take a teak record player cabinet with updated components as well.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
My 90s tv w dvd player is still my favorite. The movies i like (old) look terrrrrrrrble on some modern tvs!!!
Practical-Trash-4976@reddit
Thank you for this post. It’s always amusing to me when people are nostalgic about our inconveniences of yesteryear. I get the whole vinyl thing, but man do I enjoy my Spotify Premium. It’s what every music lover fantasized about during the pre-streaming era
One-Earth9294@reddit
The one that always gets me is Blockbuster. People actually miss late fees and a company moralizing on what was acceptable viewing that never carried cult classics?
The only thing that company ever did was accelerate the need for the internet after they ran out all the mom & pop video stores because no one knew where to get porn anymore.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
I miss the early 90s indy video stores! They had great selection! Im lucky to have two old school dvd stores near me but i still call them video stores.
Critical_Liz@reddit
I almost never went to BB. In the 90s we went to the mom and pop places, especially with my sister when she and her husband were living in Boston, we went to some...interesting...places. When those went away there was Hollywood Video which had a better selection.
Netflix was a revelation. Getting dvds in the mail, no late fees, huge selection! I remember Blockbuster tried to mimic the service, but still had a shitty selection and it failed.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
The rewinder machine! how many times did the rewind button blow out and you had to buy the rewind machine! Never have to be kind rewind!
Reasonable-HB678@reddit
The floppy discs that had the notch on one corner- the five inch ones that would be useless if someone took a pair of scissors to them.
peet1188@reddit
Zip disks
Critical_Liz@reddit
Oh man, and you had to buy an external zip drive to use them.
Turbografx-17@reddit
iomega made internal ZIP drives as well.
TelevisionKooky3041@reddit
SyQuest Drives. A cookie for anyone who remembers them.
Unlikely-Win7386@reddit
Dot matrix printers. Because everyone needs to know the printer is printing.
candycookiecake@reddit
I just retrieved an old 56k modem from my parents storage.
Clockwork12782@reddit
Dude. I had a 14.4
Famous-Somewhere-@reddit
9600 baud modem gang here
GarminTamzarian@reddit
2400 baud on my 386DX40. EGA monitor. Had 4MB of RAM, though, and a 420MB hard drive.
Prestigious_Ear_2962@reddit
Well look at mr fancy pants with a 386 and 16 colors
286 here. 640k ram, 2400 modem, monochrome monitor, 9 pin dot matrix printer
MentalAusterity@reddit
And a whole extra processor just for math!
GarminTamzarian@reddit
My first PC was a 12mhz 286 with an amber monitor, a 5.25" floppy drive and no modem, running MS-DOS 3.3. It did have 1MB of RAM, though (expanded memory, yo!).
kittysparkles@reddit
I had a Condor 64. 64 birds that were trained to peck 0 or 1 based on user input.
tommy0guns@reddit
I had that too. Couldn’t do shit with it though. I learned BASIC and how to trim the feed edges of the paper.
TheDevilActual@reddit
Nice. Western Digital Caviar 2420.
GarminTamzarian@reddit
I'm so old, the first hard disk I ever bought was made by now-defunct Scottish drive manufacturer Rodime.
PhysicalRetardation@reddit
This unlocked memories of a time when me and some buddies were joking about Scots manufacturing computer components. Man... Ever wonder why the Scots aren't leading in manufacturing delicate computing components. Lol.
GarminTamzarian@reddit
PhysicalRetardation@reddit
Exactly! 🤣
GarminTamzarian@reddit
InsideInsidious@reddit
I was gifted a 1200 baud by an uncle after I expressed interest in computers to him while visiting family. I couldn’t use it as it was an ISA card and I had an 8086 😭
GarminTamzarian@reddit
LOL...a 16-bit bus is a must when communicating at 1200 baud.
Famous-Somewhere-@reddit
I gotta say, we sound like the old guys who used to talk about their old hot rods when we were kids.
ApatheistHeretic@reddit
1200 baud from an internal (ISA) Hayes board. I could type faster sometimes...
19deltaThirty@reddit
I started at 2400, 9600, 14.4, 28k. The path to 56k was a long one.
Manck0@reddit
300 baud on my Commodore 64... I played Qlink and pissed my dad off a lot.... also took up the phone going to bbs sites
BlackZapReply@reddit
Cassette tapes of any kind. The fact that these are being sold again to zoomers is ridiculous. For some reason, I keep thinking that I heard that someplace was giving away free pencils with each tape sold.
Dustteas@reddit
Portable CD players! Even after the anti-skip they were pretty crappy.
Critical_Liz@reddit
Anti skip was a lie.
spinereader81@reddit
VHS tapes. The only good thing about them was the boxes.
I records- excuse me, vinyl is in, but I don't miss them. They scratch if you look at them wrong (maybe they're made better now), they can warp, and changing tracks is so much easier on a CD or digital device. Only thing I've ever liked about them is how big the case is. Makes the cover art pop, and makes the lyrics easy to read.
Critical_Liz@reddit
Seriously, I sometimes say I'm young enough that I don't get nostalgic about them but old enough to know they weren't that great.
Echterspieler@reddit
records only scratch if you handle them/store them improperly. I have hundreds of LPs that belonged to my dad that are still like new because they were taken care of/stored properly
GarminTamzarian@reddit
They scratch if you look at them wrong
Ahem...DVDs anyone?
mtron32@reddit
DVDs are still good, I have thousands and none of them are scratched
GarminTamzarian@reddit
My CDs all play fine (last I checked), but the DVDs look for any reason to skip. Given that it's all digital anyhow, my stuff is all archived to hard disks now. Kodi makes everything much more accessible anyhow.
mtron32@reddit
An audio engineer friend was just bitching about them. Digital offers the same sound and you don’t need to pay 40 dollars for an album
Plantayne@reddit
I never once got a fax machine to work properly.
ruthless_techie@reddit
CRT television’s designed like it was a piece of furniture, and took 3 men to move it.
WhippidyWhop@reddit
Tube TVs with no remote.
DrMcJedi@reddit
What do you mean no remote? You’ve got legs, don’tcha?
WhippidyWhop@reddit
sigh
Yes, dad.
Prestigious_Ear_2962@reddit
that's what little brothers are for.
GarminTamzarian@reddit
Many modern televisions are literally inoperable without a remote.
DrMcJedi@reddit
Sure…but old school dial TV meant you are the remote.
Henchforhire@reddit
You are the remote so no need for one.
candycookiecake@reddit
Good ole channel dial that only goes up to 12 possible stations.
SmittyComic@reddit
Love/hate with film cameras.
loved having a photo that you cherished.
don't miss only getting 24 to 36 chances per roll to get a good shot and sometimes you'd be lucky to get half looking okay - after paying a good amount of money to get them developed.
rearwindowpup@reddit
Towards the end there were some places that let you hand the bad pictures back and you only paid for ones you wanted. That was peak film era.
SmittyComic@reddit
nice, wonder if they did better because of that, or lost money.
jackfaire@reddit
Tamagotchi and Tamagotchi like toys. I got one to fit in and hopefully make some friends but it was just anxiety inducing.
REOassWagon@reddit
Cameras that you just had to trust to take a good picture. You’d find out a couple weeks later.
88-Mph-Delorean@reddit
3.5 floppy disks, I would work all night on a paper then get to my colleges computer lab and get the dredded format disc prompt.
REOassWagon@reddit
Absolutely. It wasn’t just annoying, it was life ruining.
epidemicsaints@reddit
CD's!
Cordless phones with a battery life of 18 minutes.
One-Earth9294@reddit
Yeah almost nothing charged back then because battery technology was still pretty primitive. We sure spent a lot of money on AAs though.
epidemicsaints@reddit
I have since learned that the lithium batteries we have now do best if they are constantly topped up and kept charged. Back then, most rechargeables needed to be drained all the way before they charged, otherwise they developed what was called "memory" and would only charge a small percentage of their capacity. I don't understand the ins and out but that's the basic idea.
I have an electric razor that still works this way and it came with a sticker that said run it until it dies before charging.
One-Earth9294@reddit
Yeah I remember hearing that as recently as when I got my current phone in fact. Which is a Galaxy S8... it's old but not THAT old lol.
I'm pretty sure that the advice was meaningless though.
RedditRatsPodcast@reddit
Binaca, wintergreen mouth spray, shit’ll fuck your eyes up
Also pull out tape decks, fuckers were heavy and you had to get a purse to carry them round
One-Earth9294@reddit
You're supposed to spray it in your mouth.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
I don’t miss any of it. The shit we have now is awesome. I’m glad phone cameras weren’t a thing in high school and college though.
dufflebag7@reddit
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
dufflebag7@reddit
LOL. Obviously you’ve never tried Super Colon Blow
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
It's how ~~I get through~~ my day gets through me!
GarminTamzarian@reddit
Colon Blow and you-oo-oo in the mornin'!
Allezgatta@reddit
I’m convinced!
Allezgatta@reddit
I’m convinced!
GarminTamzarian@reddit
I miss Phil Hartman so much!
Eh-I@reddit
Looking up and entering the third word of the second paragraph on page 12 of the instruction booklet as DRM.
weedtrek@reddit
Widescreen format on 4:3 ratio screens. On modern TVs widescreen is perfectly fine, but on old TV's, especially smaller ones, widescreen meant an extra small picture that was annoying to watch.
Henchforhire@reddit
IDE hard drives no more messing around with pin settings.
Was really windy out and having a vape during my break and I thought a small puddle blowing up was a broken cassette tape someone tossed on the ground. You really don't see that anymore I was really disappointed it was just a puddle.
zombie_overlord@reddit
Fax machines. I don't miss them because they are inexplicably still around.
wookieejesus05@reddit
Rotary phones, my parents had one in their kitchen up to maybe 5 years ago
eggs_erroneous@reddit
Audio coupler modem on an Apple IIe. Like in war games. My dad was into tech shit. I remember text chatting with a family friend. This would have been c. 1984. Cutting edge stuff back then. That why I get so the chicks now. Nbd
Geekboxing@reddit
VHS tapes, they always got worn out or eventually got eaten by a rogue VCR.
Giant, heavy-ass PC monitors.
5.25" and 3.5" disks, so prone to being randomly faulty.
Goddamn dial-up. Sure, the modem sound is nostalgic and we all have warm fuzzy memories of the early Internet, but in reality it sucked. Whoops, Mom picked up the phone and put an end to whatever I was doing!
ChromeDestiny@reddit
I wish DVD recording decks had come around a few years earlier, I would have been able to back up a few things I taped off TV before the video tapes wore out.
jabbanobada@reddit
My brother got a Virtual Boy for his birthday and could never use it because he was prone to get motion sickness. I could play it for 10 minutes before getting a headache. Worst system ever, but a distant predecessor to some cool things.
FoofaFighters@reddit
I worked at Target when the virtual boy came out, and within like 3 months the display one was relegated to our break room. I remember trying it and thinking there was no way in hell I'd spend money on this. I played it a good bit and it grew on me a little over time (the red wire-frame graphics were oddly intriguing), but we didn't miss it when it left.
rearwindowpup@reddit
Friend of mine got one, we were so excited to play it. 20 minutes later we were back outside and it never got touched again.
Funandgeeky@reddit
I played one in a store. It was all right but it was the first Nintendo system I didn’t want.
Now I have the Quest 2. VR is awesome but it needed more time
pianotherms@reddit
Pagers.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Clams_N_Scallops@reddit
Social media wasn't really tech from our generation. It belongs to the true millenials. Though I do miss angelfire and the early days of myspace... Good thing nothing I posted on either of those sites can be found anymore though.
tgold77@reddit
I miss tapes. In my memory the good out weighs the bad. Being able to record your own mixes? Recording stuff off the radio? Getting the chipmunks voice with high speed dubbing? Game changer.
Chuck_Cali@reddit
The brown GE alarm clock. My gawwwwd I get PTSD moments from that original alarm tone, or from waking up to static at 80 decibels if I used an FM radio alarm on it.
gnrlgumby@reddit
More a meta comment, but pc tech advanced so quickly, and developers didn’t try very hard to work on older tech. It took 2 years for our family computer be out of date for new releases.
84OrcButtholes@reddit
TV antennas.
sdujour77@reddit
I enjoyed compact cassettes. CDs, I don't miss.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Do you mean the minicasettes we used in answering machines and some recorders?
sdujour77@reddit
Nope. The tapes we all grew up with, as pictured above. The format is properly referred to as compact cassette. I only know that because I have a large collection of vintage audio gear. Wanna record a radio broadcast on a reel-to-reel, then transfer that to an 8-track cassette? Of course you don't. No one does. But I can do it! 🤷🏻♂️
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Cheers! Always good to know the proper name of things.
Illuminated_Lava316@reddit
The crappy modem that would blow out if you got static electricity shock when you touched the laptop.
taylortherebel@reddit
phones stuck to the wall
Lazy_Match724@reddit
I dont miss the tangle of landline phones but i do miss people calling my name out loud to tell me I got a phone call🙇🏻♀️
CaptZombieHero@reddit
Dial up internet
dufflebag7@reddit
https://i.redd.it/x55qijhhh2nd1.gif