Let's Play A Little Game (inspired by ScoobSTI)

"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi) 03/02/2015 at 12:05 • Filed to: None

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Name a device or technology that was ubiquitous when you were a kid but is all but gone now. I'll take an easy one so nobody else does: the diskette. I used these for my school projects until probably 6th grade when I received my first flash drive. I do have experience with the actually floppy disks, but mostly because of my fascination with old technology.

Look in the comments to avoid duplicating somebody's answer, and try and stay away from the obvious ones!

'Wägen, EPA LOL > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:10

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Nibby > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:11

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zip disks

PDAs

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:11

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Portable CD players.

I actually used to have this exact one, and luckily the pockets on my JNCO jeans were big enough to haul it around all day.










Related:

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:11

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Jcarr > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:11

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People used to rent movies from an actual physical store. In the early days, you even had to "rewind" the movie before you returned it.

Jcarr > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 03/02/2015 at 12:13

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Haha, JNCOs. I loved my Twin Cannons. I think I wore them to junior high every day for a week when I first got them.

camaroboy68ss > 'Wägen, EPA LOL 03/02/2015 at 12:14

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my 98 Camaro still has a tape deck in it. I keep a few in the car just for those kick it old school days

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:15

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there's one. Flash drive in 6th grade! HAH! i moved on to 3.5" disks from 5.25" in 6th grade. There was talk of fabulous new tech like Megneto Optical drives and removable cartridge drives from IOMega! Yeah, that's right ZipDisks! 100 whole megabytes in a single *CHEAP* pocketible cartridge!!! Cheaper and faster than the MO disks, even if they didn't hold as much data...

note: It wouldn't be until four years later, near the end of my sophomore year of high school that I would actually see a working ZipDisk...

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > Jcarr 03/02/2015 at 12:15

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They went perfectly with my "winged out" hair and skateboard. lol

'Wägen, EPA LOL > camaroboy68ss 03/02/2015 at 12:16

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My '04 TL had one, as well. We all laughed about it wondering why they bothered to put a cassette player in a MY 2004 vehicle.

E. Julius > Nibby 03/02/2015 at 12:16

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Ha, my brother's first MP3 player was a massive iomega Hip Zip. He used to carry around a little package of zip disks that only held like ten songs each at some ludicrously low bit rate downloaded over night off of Napster.

I also fondly remember PDAs. My dad used to get a new one from work every year or two, starting with the original Palm Pilot. The obsolete ones made for a pretty fun series of toys when I was a little kid.

DrJohannVegas > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:16

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I have a pairing: Long-Distance Calling cards and payphones.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:16

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CRT TV's, no one has them any more and even into the mid 2000's, they were still being sold, I freakin hate moving those stupid TV's, a 35 inch on easily weighs 200 lbs.

E. Julius > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/02/2015 at 12:17

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I have a massive collection of old mix tapes from a friend's dad. I need to get a Walkman (or a car with a cassette player) so I can actually listen to them somewhere besides my house. Love the look of the pre 90s Walkmen.

extraspecialbitter > Jcarr 03/02/2015 at 12:17

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spanfucker retire bitch > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:17

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Now it's just a sub-brand of NERF and all of the guns suck.

E. Julius > 'Wägen, EPA LOL 03/02/2015 at 12:18

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When I was quite little (my older siblings remember this better than I do), my dad would spend hours before a long car ride painstakingly crafting a mixtape that consisted entirely of 2-15 second long snippets of songs assembled into some sort of coherent sound or story for our entertainment. I have no idea what compelled him to do this.

E. Julius > Jcarr 03/02/2015 at 12:20

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My family jumped on the DVD train in the late 90s, so I was pretty young, but I do remember watching our back catalog of VHS movies extensively and using these to record television shows in the pre–Tivo days.

camaroboy68ss > 'Wägen, EPA LOL 03/02/2015 at 12:20

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i was surprised to see it in my car as well. Since it has the upgraded stereo with the 12 disk cd in it.

E. Julius > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 03/02/2015 at 12:23

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I wasn't too into music when these were still in vogue (being 5 years old and all), but once, my parents got mad at my older brother and wouldn't let him bring any entertainment for a 24 hour road trip. The only thing he managed to smuggle into the car was his Discman and Maroon 5's Songs About Jane, which he proceeded to listen to for almost the entire car ride. I bet he still remembers all those songs.

Xyl0c41n3 > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:24

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Film, film cameras, negatives, slide film (RIP Kodachrome), developing trays and the vinegary smell of stop bath and fix. I still use some of this stuff occasionally, but not as often as I'd like. And every year it becomes more expensive to do so, too. :(

Xyl0c41n3 > camaroboy68ss 03/02/2015 at 12:25

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But do you also keep a No. 2 pencil or a BIC pen in your car to respool the cassette when it inevitably comes unraveled? Hehehehe.

Wacko > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 12:26

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Drugs, its gotta to be the drugs. !

you dad was weird and cool.

Xyl0c41n3 > DrJohannVegas 03/02/2015 at 12:27

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OMG, I used to use a long distance calling card to call my parents! Damn, I'm old. I was also firmly on the "I don't want a cellphone" bus for a good long while, too. Nowadays you can't pry my iPhone from my hands. Lol.

E. Julius > DrJohannVegas 03/02/2015 at 13:56

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This predates me, but my brother and sister used to tell me about using a pay phone to make a collect call from the movie theater (or wherever they needed my parents to pick them up from), and quickly saying "MOMPICKMEUP" when it asked for your name haha

E. Julius > spanfucker retire bitch 03/02/2015 at 13:58

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To be fair, at their peak the most extreme Super Soakers were pretty freaking intense. I had the gigantic green one that was contemporaneous with the first one in your comment, and I could barely lug that thing around as a kid. Not to mention the damage and errant shot to the face could do! Still cool though, wish they'd designed the pump in a way that made it more difficult to accidentally snap off : (

E. Julius > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 03/02/2015 at 13:58

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The oldest computer my family had when I was a kid used the 5.25" disks, but I've never seen a magneto optical disk in person, nor a full size zip disk like that (I thought they only made the tiny ones). I hope you feel old now!!!!

DrJohannVegas > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:01

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spanfucker retire bitch > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:02

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To be fair, at their peak the most extreme Super Soakers were pretty freaking intense. I had the gigantic green one that was contemporaneous with the first one in your comment, and I could barely lug that thing around as a kid. Not to mention the damage and errant shot to the face could do!

But that's what made them so great!

E. Julius > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 03/02/2015 at 14:05

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They were still in widespread use when I was a kid, but by that time the new models were just black plastic boxes. In my bedroom though, I had a long outmoded set from when they weren't just electronics, but furniture. Something like this:

My parents also still have the gigantic old rear projection TV my dad bought in the early 90s, which I remember being simultaneously awesome and terrible because my dad would never let us play video games on it. Trying to avoid burn–in I guess. The thing looks downright prehistoric now.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:05

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E. Julius > DrJohannVegas 03/02/2015 at 14:09

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Hahaha never seen that before. Was that a common trick, or did my siblings just steal it with from the commercial?

E. Julius > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/02/2015 at 14:11

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Why would somebody need that much coffee table art?

E. Julius > spanfucker retire bitch 03/02/2015 at 14:15

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Haha true. I still miss mine (80 encumbrance score lol). Awesome site I just discovered thanks to this research. Check out this badass family tree:

user314 > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:16

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Let's see who remembers trying to hook up rabbit ears, or an Atari or NES, with one of these:

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:17

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hahaha a buddy of mine turned a corner in a crazy water gun war as a kid and caught a shot from that CPS 2000 in the last pic straight to the face/eye.

He was out of the game for over an hour nursing that eye. That thing was psycho.

We actually had some backpack ones that held tons of water. Those things were awesome.

E. Julius > user314 03/02/2015 at 14:17

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I remember having to buy the damn converter to use my N64 with an old tv!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 03/02/2015 at 14:18

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Haha I still have a 27 Inch, gotta keep it so my original NES Zappers still work.

Gave my 23 to a friend who lost his in the crazy Detroit Flood last summer (his NES survived)

spanfucker retire bitch > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:18

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I had that splashzooka one that's pictured above. God damn did I love that thing. No pumping, the range was ridiculous and you felt bad ass as hell having it stationed on your shoulder.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:18

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I know this'll be hard to believe....but they actually used to have WORDS in them. Like...stories, reference information, all kinds of stuff.

I'll go read on my Kindle Fire tonight though....

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 14:20

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Follow up to my other Books post with, more specifically, the printed Encyclopedia Britannica!

E. Julius > spanfucker retire bitch 03/02/2015 at 14:28

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I have a friend that I've been friends with since elementary school. He's been doing an annual pool party since second grade (going on 14 years now), and his family's pair of splashzookas have always been a mainstay. Great soakers.

E. Julius > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/02/2015 at 14:29

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Was that for like when your iPad is dead?

E. Julius > Wacko 03/02/2015 at 14:34

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Haha he still is!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 15:44

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It was the stone ages, the iPad wasn't even INVENTED YET!!!

E. Julius > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/02/2015 at 15:54

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Ha ok grandpa, why don't you just plug your cassette tape into your palm pilot and disco down to Circuit City.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > E. Julius 03/02/2015 at 16:11

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Oh man, I used to love Circuit City, best prices on Car Audio, they installed 2 head units, a round of speakers, my first sub then my upgrade to 2 subs.

It was a sad day when they died.

(fuck I'm old)

JasonStern911 > E. Julius 03/03/2015 at 00:15

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