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Everyone's experienced it at some point. Some piece of technology that did not stand the test of time, despite your best efforts to see it to the future. Certainly some people loved the betamax, or... god forbid, HD-DVD (sorry Charlie). This thread is for sharing the stuff you loved that, ultimately, failed.



The Sony Discman, mp3 edition! This bad boy would not only play audio cd's, but would also play data cd's with mp3's burned to them! I felt like the future was finally here, and was able to fit up to 30 songs on one disc at a decent bitrate! But this was only the beginning, because soon after, I upgraded to...



That's right, bitches! The sony minidisc! All the convenience of an mp3 player with all the annoyance of bulky, removable media. Not only could this thing play music off of a minidisc, it could also WRITE music to a minidisc! The future is now, motherfucker!

This little thing got me through college. "OMG, 100 megs! I'll never be able to fill it up all the way!"

Cheesy1 said:

This little thing got me through college. "OMG, 100 megs! I'll never be able to fill it up all the way!"

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OMG! Zip discs!

Ravenpoe said:

OMG! Zip discs!

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I see your zip disc and raise you...

I was going to say zip discs, too. My mom used to use them to save back ups of the accounting program for their business.

I had a watch that would hold contacts and could sync with a computer by holding it up to the monitor. It was a Microsoft product. It didn't last long.

In elementary school, this was the ultimate in portable gaming!

HAH! Jake still has that thing!

When it was announced that the Atari 2600 was going to get Pac-Man, us kids all went wild...

Until...

DarkAudit said:

When it was announced that the Atari 2600 was going to get Pac-Man, us kids all went wild...

Until...

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... WTF is that shit?

It's that Pac-Man game you all know and love! You should buy it for your Atari right now! And don't forget to look for the game based off of the smash hit movie "E.T.", you'll also love that for sure!

HCGLNS said:

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wooo hooo! the idiot stick! I keep meaning to buy one of those. I payed for college with one of those in my hands.

Oh, it was bad. I couldn't even play Mike Tyson's Punch Out with this piece of crap. But it was so...damn...cool!

ThatNickGuy said:

Oh, it was bad. I couldn't even play Mike Tyson's Punch Out with this piece of crap. But it was so...damn...cool!

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I had a power glove. I bought it second hand from a flea market, but I could never get it to work correctly. I always thought it was broken... nope. Working as intended.

What does the sling blade have to do with anything?

Sega CD drive.

Tamagochies.Was fun until I figured out how to cheat it.

fade said:

What does the sling blade have to do with anything?

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When I first heard the famous monologue from "Sling Blade," I thought how in the hell are you supposed to kill some one with one of those delicate things... Then I figured out he meant a ditch knife or brush hook... it made more sense then.

I was going to come in here to say the Powerglove, but someone beat me to it.

I think everyone was thinking Powerglove (it's so bad) as soon as they saw the title.

I never owned one, but I remember wanting to go to Target with my parents every chance I could get, so I could run over to the electronics department and play the Virtual Boy they had on demo. I loved that shit

True story, I sold my Sega Genesis, and all my games (Including Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and the Sonic & Knuckles combo cart) so that I could afford to buy a Virtual Boy.

Worst decision ever. I'm pretty sure it's the reason I now wear glasses.

sixpackshaker said:

When I first heard the famous monologue from "Sling Blade," I thought how in the hell are you supposed to kill some one with one of those delicate things... Then I figured out he meant a ditch knife or brush hook... it made more sense then.

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Yeah we called what he was talking about in the movie a "bush axe".

I rented a Virtual Boy back when Blockbuster would rent out systems. I enjoyed the hell out of some of the games (Wario Land, that robot boxing one) but the headache I'd get after like 20 minutes of playing was just the worst.

Apparently I'm a dinosaur at the tender age of twenty-nine because
1.) I use Internet Explorer,
2.) wear a wrist watch and
3.) consider newspapers my primary source of information.

North_Ranger said:

Apparently I'm a dinosaur at the tender age of twenty-nine because
1.) I use Internet Explorer,
2.) wear a wrist watch and
3.) consider newspapers my primary source of information.

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Why are you using NorthRangers account,Dave?

North_Ranger said:

Apparently I'm a dinosaur at the tender age of twenty-nine because
1.) I use Internet Explorer,
2.) wear a wrist watch and
3.) consider newspapers my primary source of information.

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I also wear a wrist watch. A mechanical one, with hands and a calendar. This apparently makes me an eccentric...

That makes two of us, Jelly ol' boy.

Hey, the new IE is getting a lot of good press.

Silver Jelly said:

I also wear a wrist watch. A mechanical one, with hands and a calendar. This apparently makes me an eccentric...

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I think you are confusing a symptom for the root cause.

I wear a wristwatch, with analog hands and a calendar. It's not mechanical though. It's quartz electric, uses Citizen's eco-drive to be light powered, 15 minutes of sunlight is enough to power it for a month.



Watches are not terrible tech. Unless they also play UMD movies.

Heh, got the Eco-Drive as well, although not the exact same model you have, 'Poe.

I have noticed, however, that more and more people forego wrist watches of any kind in favour of using their cellphones as timepieces. Which to me feels more than a little silly. Granted, I use mine as an alarm clock, but I still prefer to check my watch than check my phone for time.

I wear a mechanical wristwatch...In winter. In summer, the band on my wristwatch can either be a bit loose and jingle and annoy me, or, if I tighten it, be too tight and leave marks. My arms really swell and deflate throughout a day because of fluids pooling in my arms, sweat, etc in summer. I'm young but I' ve got old people's problems

However, my alarm clock is of the wind-up kind, so that counts as old fashioned, right?

As for horrible tech I love... Man I loved my very first walkman, with tape recorder. Still have it, though I don't know if it still works.

I would love to get an old fashioned wind-up pocket watch. Just to keep in a vest pocket and make a show of pulling out to check any time somebody asks me the time. I may or may not wear a monocle for this social interaction.

David said:

I would love to get an old fashioned wind-up pocket watch. Just to keep in a vest pocket and make a show of pulling out to check any time somebody asks me the time. I may or may not wear a monocle for this social interaction.

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I actually inherited such a watch; a 1920s Zenith that belonged to my great-uncle. I admit not using it in public, but it's still a bitchin' pocket watch.

I got a pocket watch from my parents that I used for years... until it stopped working.

I never bothered to get it fixed but I've always kept it, just in case.

My dad gave me a pocket watch he kept up his ass in Vietnam. Not because he was a POW or anything. Just for funsies.

I had a zip drive too, back in the day, but was nowhere near the enthusiast my father was. He backed up EVERYTHING onto zip disks. Heh.. my zip drive was PARALLEL. It took FOREVER.

Another piece of bad tech I loved in my childhood? PHOTON.




Huge clunky infrared wannabe-lazer tag that didn't really work right if you played it outside in the sun.

Hey North_Ranger, the watch makes you stylish and your ability to tell time won't die out daily based one the number of messages and pictures people send you! I have a few watches and one pocket watch from the 1800s that I bring out for special occasions. Wish I could wear the watches more often but they get snagged working in server racks and wiring closets.

Awful tech? I've worked with damned near all of it, the Zip drive qualifies because in it's era the capacity was wonderful but did anyone else here get to experience the click of death and goodbye everything on that Zip disk?

Nope. Not yet. Still have plenty of 'em, though (in 100 and 250 varieties) and the drives to boot. I don't have any bernoulli or Jaz disks or carts, but I do still have some MO 230/640 disks (and a working 640 drive). Man, I wish MO would go mainstream. I love 'em for archiving.

--Patrick