Filed under:
Jim Golden's Relics of Technology
-
8" floppy disks
"I remember seeing these in WarGames. I was 10, and it had a big influence on me wanting to get into computers."
-
Punch cards
"Punch cards have been in service for over 100 years, were responsible for Y2K, caused a presidential election to go sideways. It's a piece of cardboard with holes in it that control machinery. Amazing."
-
5.25" floppy disks
-
3.5" floppy disks
"I love this image for the color and the pattern. What an improvement over 5.25" disks, you could just throw them in a bag. They're rigid, smaller, they came in colors, what's not to like?"
-
7" vinyl records
"I collected and traded hardcore and punk 7-inch records as a kid. I wanted to include 7-inch records because although vinyl is having a resurgence of sorts, 7-inch vinyl isn't."
-
Microcassettes
-
Video game ROM cartridges
"These are from a Magnavox Odyssey2 gaming system, but the technology was universal for all those early 8-bit gaming consoles - Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, NES, etc. The Nintendo 64 was the last gaming console to use ROM carts."
-
Zip disks
Originally supposed to be the successors to floppy disks, they held 100MB each, which seemed like a lot at first. They were eclipsed by USB flash drives.
-
Betamax
Betamax may have lost the war against VHS...
-
VHS
...but both were eclipsed by optical discs.
