#retrotech

[mushroomyhouse]

NFTs? AI? What the hell is a Crypto???????? I miss simpler times 😢

Go back to the days of dial up and CD-ROMs 🥹 Old computer washi tape!

💾mush.house/margotfink💽

[steelblue8]

AWA CD-700 cassette deck (1976 - 1978)

This is my daily driver cassette deck and I absolutely love him he's so fucking gorgeous. Anyway. AWA stands for Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, and they were the holders of the Marconi patent for the Australian market - the legal permission to build radios, in general. Became quite wealthy, they sold a lot of home audio equipment, turntables, radios, TVs and the like. This particular cassette deck wasn't actually made in Australia - its a rebadge job, identical units have been sold around the world as Fairmate, Dart, Audiotronics and Grundig appliances, among others. I really love it - the sides are a gorgeous genuine wood, the faceplate is brushed steel, the buttons and switches are brilliantly heavy and clunky. It's a fairly simple unit - no dolby, the "Noise limiter" is a playback only system that sounds like shit, and this particular one has some difficulties fast forwarding and rewinding, and needs a bit of calibration

[neondreams83]

[carabinersims]

Computer Lab Series 1

This set is inspired by: early 80s computers, my dad’s office when he taught electrical engineering, and VHS tape artifacts. Many of the pieces in here are stylized versions of real-life things, which I’ve included more info about under the cut.

This set contains 11 new meshes and features 2 retro computers, a desk chair, a desk, and lots of retro clutter items.

Download link (SFS): Separate packages or ZIP of the whole thing.

Here's some fancy promo GIFs!

Set contents:

Electronics:

Carapro II Portable Computer: Based on the Kaypro II Portable Computer (1982) // 4 swatches (including wood grain/rainbow!), 789 polys

BBC Micro Computer: Based on the BBC Micro Computer (1981) // 4 swatches (including wood grain/rainbow!), 329 polys

Furniture:

Steelcase Desk Chair // 5 swatches, 746 polys - has 1 LOD

Retro Desk // 4 swatches, 264 polys

Clutter/decor:

Floppy Disks // 2 swatches, 734 polys

Stapler // 3 swatches, 152 polys (has 1 LOD)

Caradex V (Rolodex) // 1 swatch, 834 polys (has 1 LOD)

Desk Caddy // 2 swatches, 1580 polys (has 1 LOD)

Computer Manual Posters // 4 swatches, 20 polys (resized EA soccer poster mesh)

Cassette Recorder // 4 swatches (including wood grain/rainbow!), 212 polys

Cassette Tape // 4 swatches, 202 polys

Here's everything you get:

-------------------------------------------------

Credits:

Images for the poster set are taken from the manuals for the Kaypro and BBC Micro; thank you to folks who upload these online!

Fonts used in the textures are Nootrasim, Uni(versity) Llama, and Simlish Crayon.

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Technical notes/known issues:

Sims’ hands slightly clip into the computers with angled keyboards; this is not something I can fix due to how the animations are set up.

The computers don’t have mice (they wouldn’t have had them at the time), so the Sims will move their hands around as if they were using an invisible mouse.

The BBC Micro computer has a medium decor slot on top -- perfect for cute plants, books, clutter, etc. In testing, I noticed that if you place something there that trails down the sides, Sims will not want to use the computer (you have to make them sit in the chair and then interact with it). Most items don’t seem to do this so I’m leaving the slot in - just know if you put trailing stuff on top, this might happen.

The cassette recorder has a decor slot in the perfect place to actually put the cassette tape in it, and I love it! I’d recommend picking the cassette tape you want before putting it in; once it’s in the recorder, I couldn’t figure out an easy way to get it out again. You can always delete the whole thing and re-place a cassette recorder.

-------------------------------------------------

Other notes:

TOU: Don't upload to paid sites or claim you made these. If you do recolor, you can include the mesh if you link back to me.

This is my first larger set and I'm kinda nervous! If you encounter any issues please message me on here and let me know.

I've also created a companion "further reading" post here, which goes into more detail about the research and references I used for these

⭐ Like my stuff? It's all free but it does take me time -- if you want to, feel free to leave a tip on Ko-fi. ⭐

@mmfinds @maxismatchccworld @simbfinds @adoring-ccfinds @mmoutfitters  @public-ccfinds  

[odd-drive]

[glitchphotography]

Miami Nice (cp_07) // Chrome Period Drawings // ( Deluxe Paint IV // 2022 )

[peteramthor]

[foone]

One thing that's funny about being a big retrotech nerd is that I sometimes completely forget that for many people, this is so absolutely alien.

Like people will be like "oh man I haven't seen a VHS tape since I was like 5 and we visited my grandparents who still had a player and I said 'memaw, why are your dvds so big and square' and everybody laughed" and I'm like... I have a VCR in my living room. I found a random VHS tape in my car on Sunday. I have betamax tapes in my living room. I bought laserdiscs THIS WEEK. This shit is so normalized to me that I'm just amazed when people are surprised to see a 3.5" floppy disk. I mean, I love them too (obviously) but ya'll get pretty excited for them. Not even a 5.25" or something weirder like an 8" or a zip disk? Okay!

Like when I did that THE BIG ONE post I knew it'd get some response but I was surprised how much people just loved seeing & hearing a dot matrix printer. I have like three in my garage! They're just normal for me.

I dunno. It just makes me happy to see people amazed and excited for all the stuff I take for granted these days

[sketchmenot-art]

Elster (LSTR-512) - Einsamkeit

Let the red dawn surmise what we shall do, When this blue starlight dies, and all is through. If we have loved but well under the sun, Let the last morrow tell what we have done.

Drew Elster (LSTR-512) from Signalis.

This game is an absolute masterpiece and a work of art. I still can’t get over how incredible it is! I really loved it. It’s truly something special ❤️

I was inspired by the song Ritual from the Signalis OST while working on this piece. The whole soundtrack is soooooo damn good. One of my all time favorite video game OSTs of all time 💕:

Signalis OST - Ritual

Done with Clip Studio Paint EX August 2023

[allhailkingsquest]

jmepaints: When I was small, my dad played a LOT of computer games. And I absolutely loved watching him play King's Quest, Monkey Island, Ultima, Heroes of Might and Magic, Lands of Lore..... it was like watching an interactive movie with my dad as the hero on the quests. [x]

[eternitybazaar]

Come and enjoy a coffee on your retro iMac table.

[agiraffewithacamera]

Be gentle

[scipunk]

Hackers (1995)

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Dade Murphy hacks into a local television station… infiltrates the station's broadcasting system… and he manipulates a robotic mechanism responsible for changing video cassettes used to air programs… then another mysterious hacker enters the scene and Dade and the unknown hacker engage in a virtual battle for dominance.

----

Dueling HACKERS 🔐💻 IS OUR Digital LIFE on the LINE? 🚨👁️

Yes it could very well be...

Our digital lives, often entrusted to large corporations, may face significant risks… in a recent cyber incident in 2023, two hacker groups claimed responsibility for an alleged attack on a major corporation. One hacker group asserted that they successfully compromised the target's systems and offered stolen data for sale.

----

The movie presents a stylized and exaggerated portrayal of hacking culture, where the young hackers manipulate technology to outsmart and outmaneuver law enforcement officials. The film showcases a perception that law enforcement, at least in the context of the movie, is often portrayed as being behind or clueless in understanding the world of hacking.

And let's remember the Greyball incident: Uber developed the Greyball software to determine if a user requesting an Uber ride was a potential law enforcement officer or regulator. The program used various data points, such as location information, device data, credit card details, and social media profiles, to identify individuals who might pose a threat to Uber's operations. When the program identified a potential threat, it would show a different version of the Uber app to that user. This altered version of the app would display fake cars on the map, making it difficult for the user to locate a real Uber driver.

Additionally... Greyball would provide false information about the location of Uber vehicles or show no cars available at all.

The intention behind Greyball was to obstruct and evade regulators and law enforcement officials who were attempting to enforce taxi and transportation regulations in cities where Uber faced legal challenges.

So, the Greyball incident, which occurred in the real world, involved Uber using technology to identify and circumvent law enforcement officials and regulators actively trying to enforce transportation regulations… it's a real-world application of tactics that mirror the fictional portrayal we see in the 1995 movie Hackers.

[glitchphotography]

Madonna and Child (cp_08) // Chrome Period Drawings // ( Deluxe Paint IV // 2022 )

[desertmarauder]

Computer History Museum | 6/7/2023

[foone]

Fucking Gorgeous FM-Towns model 2F on craigslist near me. I don't have money or the knowledge to use this thing, but god it's amazing.

The FM Towns was a Fujitsu computer introduced in 1989 in Japan. It's built around an Intel 386, but it's not a fully PC compatible system. It ran Windows 3.x and Towns OS, which was built on top of MS-DOS and ran in 32-bit mode using an extender.

It didn't require a hard drive, booting the OS off the CD-ROM drive. It uses a custom graphics chip that's not VGA compatible, supporting sprites and overlays, with full kanji in ROM.

Audio-wise, it used a Yamaha OPN2, so it sounds much like a Sega Megadrive/Genesis.

Later systems added DOS/V (a version of MS-DOS designed for Japanese users) support, making it more like a MS-DOS computer.

There was also the FM Towns Marty, which made it into more of a console, looking less like a PC. This kept compatibility, however.

(This is, by the way, the only console to ship with a floppy drive standard)

Anyway these machines are neat and rare, but part of why they're rare is that they didn't sell very well. They're full computers so they're pretty expensive, and the FM Towns series was getting beaten by NEC's PC98 at first and then DOS/V clones later. They just didn't have the compatibility with DOS/V software to really justify them being a viable choice over the much cheaper DOS/V clones, and they had a smaller library than the much more popular PC98 series.

Still, they're very nifty machines.

Fun fact: They're called "FM Towns", right? FM is Fujitsu Micro, but "Towns" is the codename. They were named after the physicist Charles H. Townes, who did some of the fundamental work in the development of the maser, a predecessor to the laser, for which he shared a Nobel Prize in 1964.

You'll note his name is "Townes", but the system is "Towns". Futjitsu changed the spelling so that people would pronounce it correctly, rather than potentially pronounce it "tow-nes".