Asklemmy

1976 Gottlieb Volley pinball machine

Easily beaten by others, but I'm happy that my old Das Keyboard lasted nearly twelve years before it started missing keystrokes. Only retired it last week

Pentax ME SLR camera, bought by my uncle in the 70s. Got some dents and scratches but it’s still taking beautiful pics.

An electronic typewriter that my parents bought when I was entering highschool in the early 90s.

While my first works of fiction we're not written on it, my first fiction I ever submitted (it was rejected btw) to a publisher was.

I wouldn't get successfully published until the late 90s/early 00s after I had built my first PC out of scrap parts and a cheap copy of windows 95.

But that typewriter still holds a special place in my heart.

1975 Gibson Grabber bass. Instead of having multiple pickups, it has one pickup that you "grab" and slide across the pickguard. I had to get the fretboard re-set, as it had been sliding down the neck and making it impossible to intonate.

Terrible design, but it's a unique piece of music history that I enjoy having on hand.

Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario...I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.

If I'm going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.

Bang & Ollufsen record player from 1977

My Atari 7800. Had to replace capacitors and a transistor to get it working again. Also added composite AV output.

My dad has a 65+ year old tube radio that still works great. Sounds amazing too. It was my grandfather's radio and it's older than my dad is we're not sure how old it is exactly.

1940 Turkish Mauser (8mm), at the newest 83yo. But that year's production was cobbled together from old stock receivers and barrels made just before 1900. So parts of it could be ~120yo.

Might not be tech now but in the late 19th c. the Mauser bolt action was absolute tech.

A pair of vertical speakers with three elements each made by my father in the early 80s and the paired amplifier that he built at the same time

SNES purchased by my parents in 1992.

An old blade server I was able to take from my very first job, state of the art for the time it was made around 2002. It's still running and I've been using it as a media and hosting server for years despite how out of date the specs are now.

This isn't entirely uncommon, but my 20 year old car is in perfect shape, fully paid off, and can do any job. I'm proud of that thing.

A 1960s electric meat slicer. Use it every Thanskgiving. That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.

A 70s crockpot/fryer. Another fire hazard that is relegated to hot buttered rum and frying food.

More recent would be a 720p Samsung TV hooked up to an AppleTV HD we still use in our Master bedroom, mostly for classic movies on TCM. We’ve had it for 15 years and she’s still kicking.

My mom's morantz receiver from the late 60s.

One of the first projectors that could do 720p from 20+ years ago. Kinda crazy how bad it seems now while being state of the art on release

10 year old Dell machine that I’m using as my home assistant and Plex server. Picked it up on Facebook for $30, tossed new ram in for $10, and a new SSD for $40 and it’s snappy and does a great job. And the SSD will go to any new machine.

Until recently, my daily driver laptop. ThinkPad x200s from 2008. When covid hit I started using my desktop and a month ago I tried the laptop and it doesn't turn on anymore :(

Nowadays nothing noteworthy... maybe my smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 1.

A Singer sewing machine from before the Great War.

Should be able to dig up a fully functioning Sony Minidisk player. Owned and lost quite a few of them over the years. Damn things were sleek and small, but they meant the world to me. Napster and then Limewire provided the mp3s thanks to the old 56k dialup modem, then a mini jack connection from PC to the Minidisk. It took a hell of a long time to get everything set up just so, but it was worth it. Every time.

If a razor counts my Gillette Fat boy (~1954). If you're wanting to know about electronics the motherboard/ram in my media server(2011). I have older stuff around but not in active use.

Clock radio is from around 1979 I think. Stereo tuner from 1978 (Sansui TU-9900!).

Oh, I have two functional tube testers from the 1950s. Also a short wave radio from about 1950.

I like old stuff.

Probably my speakers. They were custom built by one of my dad's mates in the 80s. Not sure when exactly.

Quadrophonic 8-track player. I use it as an amplifier.

I also keep a copy of "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" by Meco loaded into it. It's a disco/jazz fusion that's truly horrible, but authentically 70s.

1961 Gibson Discoverer Amp. Found it in the basement as a teen. Replaced the fuse holder and fuse. Powered up all the tubes no problem and still running strong today.

I’ve got planes and a chisel from late 1800s, some of the best tools I own. The steel of the blades is fantastic, and the feel of the handles after more than 100 years of being handled is fairly unique

HP Touchpad from 2011 that was given to me.

I try not to hoard stuff in case I ever need to relocate, so my list of owned items isn't big. I would love to collect retro consoles otherwise.

My rather ancient audio setup: a Yamaha RX-496RDS stereo receiver with a Vestax PMC 17A Mixer and T+A Triton R130 speakers for 2 (lame ass) Gemini PT 2100 Turntables (through a preamp) and some PC-Audio. Most of this stuff is from the 90s or early 00s. Wasn't the best setup in the first place but it still works fine to this day and probably even beats some of the contemporary bluetooth thingies.

1979 Sanyo Record Player. It was my mom's and she bought it in high school

A microwave from 1997. I give it most of the credit for staying alive. It's a brick house.

I was thoroughly impressed by Technology Connections exploration of the Sunbeam automatic beyond belief toaster. Bought one cheap off Craigslist a while ago and added a ground wire. Works great.

I also picked up an IBM selectric pretty cheap, mostly works.

Best I have is an old Midland Gun Company double barrel shotgun that belonged to my great-grandfather. Passed through the Birmingham Proof House and bears 1904-1925 proof marks, but doesn’t actually have a date stamp, my understanding is that they didn’t start date stamping until 1921. The company was bought by Parker-Hale and the records were subsequently destroyed in a fire, so I’ve never been able to find out exactly how old the thing is.

As far as "daily driver" tech, Motorcycle is 43 years old. My razor is 103 years old. Luckily I'm closer in age to the motorcycle.

AKAI S-1100 sampler. It is still in mint conditition, released in 1990. It was a studio standard in those days. I don't use it that much these days, but the time stretch on that machine is amazing. For Jungle and Drum & Bass it's an essential piece of hardware imo. The Prodigy for instance had two of them 1100's in the studio and on tour if irc.

My Amiga 500 is from 1987.
But I think the stereo & LP player in the living room is from the early 70s.

altec lansing speakers from 2000.