I have a radio from the late 30s, though not in working condition. And a radio from 1961 that I use regularly
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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atari vcs (from before it was rebranded to atari 2600)
1950s oscilloscope
So many old computers & calculators here.
I have an Apple IIe, but at the moment it's at my friend's place. What I have with me are a bunch of Thinkpads: a barely working X60, a fine X200 with busted battery, and a combination of 20 and 30 series ones I am currently using.
May I insert some additions of analog here?
I got a Rotel RA-04 audio amp from 2006 from my dad that I am currently using, and I'm sure there are older stuff where it's from.
Aside from that, a Yaesu FT-60 FM transceiver made in 2004 still running strong.
Game Boy Advance with a Pokemon Sapphire cartridge that I don't think has been removed in over a decade. Every time I turn it on I always wonder how I spent so many hours staring at a screen with no backlight.
I have a bunch of mid-century Roberts radios that I've convert to smart speakers (using the original speakers and, where possible, the amplifiers) if that counts.
Either my TI-99/4A, or if it still works, the IBM 7072 that I got from NYIT for $200 in 2000.
I believe itβs my Atari 2600! I canβt think of anything older that Iβve got that runs on electric juice.
My husband has a collection of obsolete technology. The oldest thing heβs got in there is a VT100 terminal.
One of the Play it Loud Game Boys (the red one), it's as old as I am
oldest electronic
Electronic WHAT!?! Choose a noun, son.
My original gameboy colour
1962 fender brownface pro-amp
I still have my original Pikachu gameboy color, and it works. Somehow the battery on my Pokemon Red hasn't died but there's nothing useful on it.
Not electronic, but I have a pre-WW2 era windup clock that still works. It's loud af and built like a tank
The first generation Pokemon games all used significantly less power to maintain their RAM battery saves than Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal by virtue of not having a real time clock constantly ticking the power away. RBY saves only needed to maintain the power for the save itself and did no additional work on top of that.
Original GSC cartridges would last about 10-15 years, whereas RBY could last 20-30 years. We're currently in the span of time where many RBY cartridge batteries will be failing but it's still possible to find ones with functional original saves on batteries just barely holding on.
Many people like to try using physically larger batteries when doing replacements, but most of them don't realize the batte ries aren't losing charge at the end of those many years because they're drained and out of power. RBY saves use so little power from the battery in the cartridge that they won't fully drain it after 30 ish years. Instead the battery saves fail because the batteries themselves fail after 20-30 years. Picking the larger button cell batteries won't help since they'll still have the same total lifespan and will still lose charge at almost the same rate as the spare batteries that weren't installed in your cart ridge of choice.
I have a battery operated tube radio from mid to late 1940's. It even works, but the battery it uses is getting rare and quite expensive. And my country doesn't really use AM radio broadcasts anymore, so it's more of a curiosity nowadays.
I also have a lot of working stuff from the 1950's, mostly radios and amplifiers. Great gear, and much easier to service than their modern counterparts.
Donkey Kong Game & Watch (1982)
I have an electric singer sewing machine from 1964 and another one from around 1950. Amazing how well they work.
They will last forever.
The machines probably yes. The little electric motors will probably need replacing eventually though.
Extremely old singer sewing machine gang unite
They arenβt even my oldest machines. Just the oldest ones that use electricity
Hi Enrique! (Β°β½Β°)/
1983 Lenco LRP 5450 DD record player &
1998 Yamaha RX-496 RDS stereo receiver
My father-in-law got them for us 2nd hand for a joint present. Quite a decent system!
Not a real audiophile, but it works well and we enjoy it.
I also made a Google Home kind of thing out of it using an ESP32S3 that uses ESPHome, Home Assistant, and Music Assistant to make it a Spotify connect node to play Spotify through it, control it with an IR blaster, and use Voice Assistant with it if I am not too far (it has a single mema mic)
Bulova Accutron from the 60s. I also have a Heathkit oscilloscope which I think is of similar vintage.
A Hitachi TRK-3D8 boombox from 1986 - you can see it sitting above my retro PC here.
I got that for 12β¬ on eBay and that was the best deal I ever made. It has great audio range, the subwoofer packs a mean punch and it looks awesome. It's the perfect device for a drum&bass enthusiast. Just put some batteries and a Bluetooth tape in and you can even take it outside (it's quite heavy, though).
Original Gameboy.
Still works.
Hah, you stumbled upon one of Lemmyβs weird UI quirks. If you start a line with a number and period, it assumes youβre making a numbered list. But that period is placed at a specific indent, so long numbers spill off the left side of the screen.
- Hereβs what it is supposed to look like.
(Adding a line break here)
- And here is what happens when the number is too long.
It only works with 8 numbers or less though, because 99999999 is the highest value that the numbered list supports.
A Bell & Howell 8mm/16mm projector and a handheld super 8 video camera that belonged to my dad. I'm not sure how old they are but probably late 70s/80s. From what I gather, he was very much into manual film editing.
A panasonic lumix dmc-fz50 that I got from my mum after she got her new camera. It's from 2007, so not that old, but still, it's only three years younger than me. It takes pretty good photos for it's age, especially macro shots. It's biggest flaws are the display and view finder. The image in the view finder got yellow and foggy with time, to the point it's almost unusable. And the display is rather dark so it's no good in sunny weather.
I still have a CRT from the early 90s and all my old video game consoles.
My Nintendo dsi. Since 2009
Probably either my Olympus OM-1 or my Minolta SR-T 201. Both still work (the Olympus just needs some cleaning and maintenance)
An originally original gameboy. Still worked until about 2 years ago. I assume there's just a little battery or a capacitor that needs replacing, but I haven't had the time to look into it.
i have an old magnavox TV from the early 70s, with the wooden slat curtain thing you pull in front of it.
Old 8 track players,
my great grandfather was an electrical engineer and made some custom lighting controls in wooden boxes, with dials and meters and switches, he did made it all for his church!
from that same grandfather, he had some portable reel to reel tape recording stuff, an old portable projector that comes in a cast iron cowl.
tons of stuff that everyone makes fun of me for holding on to.
i have an old magnavox TV from the early 70s, with the wooden slat curtain thing you pull in front of it.
i grew up on old floor wooden console tv's and had one up until 2014 when it died and discovered that neither replacement parts nor repairmen existed anymore despite the tv being manufactured not very long ago in 1992.
i haven't bought a tv ever since then and my plasma died after only 8 years, so i don't have a tv anymore; but would instantly buy one they made another console tv.
i keep wanting to rip the guts out and install a 40 inch tv with some self hosted stuff in the cabinet, amplifier etc.
it would be cool! but also that thing is cool as it is
i thought about doing this multiple times, but each time i remember that i'm considerably less handy than i like to think i am and that my hubris lead me to almost killing myself when i changed the breaks on my car myself. lol
I have a CRT from 1995. Aside from that, probably my dad's turntable which has unofficially become mine, or the Yamaha electric keyboard
I cleaned up when I moved, so the oldest gadget I have right now is a 15 year old MSI laptop, still happily running with linux.
I still use my 2011 MacBook Pro! Heβs got a SSD and 16GB RAM now, but he still works perfectlyβand on original battery, lasts for over three hours! (Originally got him for LAN parties, and always used him plugged in. I believe 40-ish charge cycles.)
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Either the wood-grain radio with clock or a 1970s bubble-LED calculator
A ferrite core memory module, circa 1956 at a guess.
Casio f-91w watch. Its like 6 years old now, so the battery only has like 4 more years left.
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