Old School

We’ve discussed my exceeding oldnessness on this blog a few times. For instance, I remember when there there as only three channels, and the remote control looked a lot like me, because it was me. I remember lawn darts, pong and Star Wars action figures being “new”. And I remember a time before all these magnetic mediums by builder Cha Mi, and their inevitable demise.

My First Computer: Adore Edition

No one brings the nostalgia with a subtle unique style quite like Chris McVeigh. His creations are so cleanly built and beautifully photographed you know they're his as soon as you see them. This is an update of one of his earliest computer builds, and it's awesome. Being an old school Amiga man, I have a soft spot for Commodore, and the 64 is an undisputed legend. You can build your own soon when he publishes a building guide to his website.

*Tack Tack Tack Tack Ding Swish Clunk*

Listen up you young'uns, you don't know how good you have it. When I was in high school this is what we learned to type on, a typewriter. OK granted there was a computer lab right next door, but they still had a load of these antiquated devices and they were hellbent on using them. So this lovely and clean little MOC by cmaddison stirs up a weird combination of nostalgia and post typographic stress disorder.

20 Megabytes?! How Will We EVER Fill That?

Yes, that title is based on a true story. This computer reminds me of my wife's first computer, a 386 beast from Hewlett Packard, and it would have looked right at home on this wonderful retro desk by Chris McVeigh. There's so many details to love here, from the insertable floppies to the what is certainly a bit of a squeaky chair. There's even hidden details in the drawers that open. Stay tuned for building instructions too!

Dim The Lights

You always knew it was going to be a pretty chill day when you got to the classroom and one of these was sitting in the middle of the room. Well, this type pre-dates my school days, but you get the picture. That's right, when we wanted to see projected moving pictures back in the day we used one of these, and threaded film through it, and it was noisy, and pretty bad, and we loved it. A wonderful does of nostalgia from builder Carlmerriam.

Sega Master System

Here's a little dose of 8-bit nostalgia, the Sega Master System. We never had a Sega system in our house until the Dreamcast came along (man, what a system) but they enjoyed a fair amount of popularity. Builder Old School Brick was clearly a fan, and built this rather convincing replica.

Old School Computin'

You kids with your multi-cores, iPhones and fancy color computers, you don't know the struggle. You haven't lived until you've installed a program from 15 floppy disks, or accidentally erased your new game by putting your headphones down on the tape, and don't get me started on modems...

A lovely bit of old school computing nostalgia from Powerpig

Old School Recording

Back in the day if you wanted to record some audio you used one of these, a cassette recorder. They were huge, they were clunky, they were crude and they were awesome. This one was build by Nathan Wells for the brickfilming documentary Bricks in Motion (in which I make a brief appearance!). It's 1:1 scale and amazingly accurate, brings back a lot of memories.

Strike Any Key When Ready

This brings back memories. The first computer in regular use in my life was my wife's college computer, a Packard Bell 386, not unlike this brilliant MOC by powerpig. Among it's many impressive specs was a whopping 20MB hard drive. Yes, that was cutting edge back then, about the size of three mp3's these days. And what's amusing is we wondered how we could EVER fill it.

Delightfully Retro

Tomorrow I will break out the Christmas carols for the first time of the year. We usually decorate for Christmas after feasting on Turkey and we'll listen to carols as we do it. Especially fun when I break out the vinyl, since I have all the records we listened to as a child. Back then they were played on a console very similar to this brilliant old school turntable by Yul Burman Karel.