HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are your favorite “retro” electronic products?

8 points by manaskarekar ↗ HN
For reasonably generous interpretations of "retro". A bit vague, but I'm curious about all the possible categories of electronics.

I have been feeling the urge to pick up a nice old computer/laptop/device as a digital typewriter. I would love for it to have near instant response time and a nice keyboard.

This led me to the question, although I hope the responses aren't limited to that category.

22 comments

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fullshark
Anything without a useless internet connection (e.g. dumb tvs which don't exist anymore).
speedgoose
You don’t have to connect your tv to internet though.
jpl56
I'm afraid you'll get constant error messages if you don't
jpl56
I have the chance to still use my dumb TV from 2010. No firmware update notifications, no ads in the menus... I watch Youtube from my PC using this TV as a second monitor. I use a BT keyboard to control the PC and its mouse.
sgbeal
The Palm Pilot and its clones, e.g. the Spring Visor (i think it was called). i read my first e-book on one around 2000 or 2002 (Alice in Wonderland) and have fond memories of them.
anotheruser13
Close! It was the Handspring Visor. Handspring was the company Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky founded after leaving Palm. The Sony Clie was also a nifty PalmOS gadget.
eimrine
Lamp amplifiers for their great sound (but only for no-bass music).

Incadescent lamps for their deep red color, ideal choice for bedrooms (so hard to get them nowadays).

manaskarekar
>Incadescent lamps for their deep red color

Any specific ones that you like but are hard to find now?

eimrine
There are regulations to all lamps with light-emitting wolfram filaments. Last few years they may be sold only as "heaters". Today they are not only cannot be sold, but also there is a campaign of replacing them with LEDs.
k310
My "retro" computer is a Mac Cube. I was keeping it to run hypercard, but I got the MacOS9 emulator to run on M2 hardware, so who knows?

Also in the retro category is a HeathKit HD1250 Solid State grid dip meter. Came (from the thrift store) with one coil missing, so I made one.

Well, there's the IMSAI with lots and lots of cards.

k310
My "retro" computer is a Mac Cube. Also an IMSAI with lots of cards.

Also in the retro category is a HeathKit HD1250 Solid State grid dip meter. Came (from the thrift store) with one coil missing, so I made one.

I still use the 80's audio gear and speakers.

helph67
ANALOGUE AM/FM 4 channel stereo system + 12 inch turntable + 4 track cassette deck. Regularly play Long Play (12 inch) records via large (mid + woofer) speakers. Neighbours appreciate the quality of the music!
derwiki
I bought a nice JVC 80’s audio cassette deck. Higher quality than anything I ever had when cassettes were in vogue, tapes are $3 at the record store, longer play than records, and I can record my own.
manaskarekar
Nice! Which model?
derwiki
KD-V6 — I really wanted a 3 head and this fit the budget
manaskarekar
That looks fun. Although cassettes don't enjoy the same attention as vinyls from audiophiles, I really enjoy the sound for certain genres of music and think cassettes are a definitive way to listen to some albums.
sneed_chucker
IBM Model M buckling spring keyboard
manaskarekar
Nice, do you just use USB adapter for the DIN connector?

Did you consider the one from Unicomp?

sneed_chucker
Mine is a 1994 so I just used a USB to PS/2 adapter.

I also have a Unicomp New Model M which is a pretty nice keyboard as well. Wish they made the housings in grey instead of black though.

sralbert
13” CRT tv for video game tournaments and LAN parties
linguae
Some of my prized possessions include a collection of NeXT workstations (including a cube), a few classic Macs (the oldest being a Macintosh SE), an HP-48SX graphing calculator, and a Brother word processor I received as a Christmas present in 1995 since I enjoyed typing on my mother’s typewriter. I’d love to own an Apple Newton one day, and my dream retro purchase would be a Symbolics LISP machine, though those are quite rare and are very expensive whenever they show up on eBay.
shortrounddev2
I haven't found any good feature phones in 2023. They all have shortcomings or bugs that make them useless to me. They're also all really boring and ugly these days (like all electronic devices).

The one "retro" thing I find myself using most is my Casio digital watch