great thread, we, friends or cousins had loads of this old junk in the early 80s!
This amazed me as a kid.
[img] https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQOGpKf-rcMZkdev0ZAYO9GN25dvVXiB-NqUYezNCYaARqy5lwAUg [/img]
You can still get this game so I bought it to see how it worked!
Now I know it has sort of taken the magic bit away. 🙁
I was recently reminscing about "DRAW" on the Acorn - if windows a graphics editor like this instead of of Paint / Drawing things badly in Word who knows where the world would be right now.
I grew up before they invented techno-gadgets.
When Action Man started getting hands like this;
[img] 
[/img]
it was a major leap forward in toy technology.
[img] 
[/img]
ricardo - I had that exact electronics kit.The crystal radio worked a treat. I remember scraping pain off my bedroom radiator to get a good ground for the antenna wire!
I see the 9V PP3 battery isn't connected in that shot!
I think I bought it from Tandy??
globalti, is that a two stroke tractor?
I was never particularly amazed by gadgets because by the time I got to play with them they had been out for years and were old hat.
However you reminded me.. my neighbour had a game called Vortex Raider on his C64 which did blow me away. It was 3D - a whole virtual world inside a computer... magic. Needless to say, he never wanted to play it little arsehole that he was. I'm sure it was because I did want to.
[img] 
?w=AABYo_FNX89DFMjEgCUMDkzwnqZdRCTuCN3uLTgXOY7E-w[/img]
Seeing that on Pg1, just instantly transported me back to such a happy place!
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
and this
[img] 
[/img]
and this
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
This:
[img] 
[/img]
Our parents got it because they had been told "your kids can program it just like the computers they have at school (BBC micros)
Needless to say, that never happened, and we spend all our time round our next door neighbours playing 'Booty' on their Spectrum:
[img] 
[/img]
😉
Note for younger reader: Back then, 'booty' reffered to the treasure that pirates collected, rather than a prodigious female bottom!
my old man bought one of these home from work.
[img] 
[/img]
Digital photography! mental.
my mums mate (mobile hair dresser) used to turn up with this huge phone.
[img] 
[/img]
We had one of those floppy disk digital cameras, it could take something like 5 photos per disk. ****ing useless.
Also,
[img] http://www.paulthrussell.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/barcode1.jp g" target="_blank">
http://www.paulthrussell.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/barcode1.jp g"/> [/img]
I think the only thing that was vaguely a "techno-gadget" when I was young was my Spirograph.
ricardo666 - I also had one of those its - spent loads of time building various electronic devices. Not sure I ever learnt anything about electronics though - just followed the instructions.
As for other gadgets, the Vic20 was the real one for me (predecessor to the Commodore 64). Used to spend ages playing on that, and programming in basic as well.
As for the calculators - my Dad's first job after leaving the RAF (early 60s I guess) was trainign engineers to fix desktop calculators... how things have changed!
SCANMAN PLUS!
I remember getting one of them at work. What a useless ball of shite it was too!
That speak and spell thing or that computer game that was shaped like a futuristic set of binoculars. I think the game had WW1 bi-planes or something...anyone know what its called?
Edit Doh...somebody already posted a pic of it
I loved my Oric-1 home computer as they were called in the early 80s.
I ordered it as I'd heard of terrible delays affecting Spectrum supplies.
I ordered the Oric in September 1983 and received it in February 1984.
So that didn't go to plan. I loved it though and got into 6502 machine code.
Programs written in MC were sooooo much quicker than those written in BASIC.
Even though the 6502 ambled along at 3mHz...
[img] 
[/img]
Blackpool, early 1980's.
Not just PacMan though, a variety of look down table screened games with controls on the side of the table.
I loved my Oric-1 home computer as they were called in the early 80s.
I had one of those, in fact still got one in the loft. Not my original though. It had a 2MHz CPU though not 3
[img] https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSSdbmGdvlRTkkTytFZWFXBlshmcCrNVy6ligbYkK1C2P7Lm6gYg [/img]
it was a step up from log tables
[img] 
[/img]
My grandparents had a Betamax with a cabled remote control and I remember when they upgraded to a video player with a wireless remote control. That was top of the range! Even if the video player did still weigh a quarter of a ton.
The fact that their TV didn't have a remote and you had to get up and turn the volume down was clearly wasted on them. 😉
Toys bloody luxury,
[img] 
[/img]
Molgrips - I stand corrected. It was a 6502A [s]running [/s] crawling at 1mHz.
Blimey I think our combi boiler has a faster processor!
My dad was an engineer so had a few colleagues that built interesting things. One of them had built a life size Tardis in the lounge for his kids! I think I was about 6 at the time so it was genuinely amazing when it made noises and lights flashed etc.
Also remember my older brother programming games on the BBC B and them being reasonably good!
Have a distinct memory of early (for me) days on the web. Remember you could go into a website set up like a graphical gig with a blocky avatar, then walk up to people to chat and they would respond in different languages. That was a bit of an eye opener.
Derek - it was my birthday present from dad when I was about 10, kept me quiet for hours. And yes it came from Tandy, which I followed it up with a short wave radio the following year.
Not electronic but I used to be amazed and love these things
[img] 
[/img]
I remember having 6 channels on the TV. Only 4 of them had anything on, but there was 6 buttons. Which meant it was a fully future proof and super posh TV - in my mind anyway.
I remember having 6 channels on the TV. Only 4 of them had anything on, but there was 6 buttons. Which meant it was a fully future proof and super posh TV - in my mind anyway.
😯 I remember having 4 buttons on our tele but only 3 worked!
Bregante > that's a 3V29, that is... slightly disturbing that I still remember that but would have to think seriously about what I had for tea.
Not strictly gadgets... but
Wot no Astrowars ?
Also I'll sort out a pic of the box for 'Elite' Acorn Electron cassette version as i have it in the house somewhere...
[img] 
[/img]
Bregante - we had the same VHS player!
ricardo666 - I've still got one of those 75 in 1 electronics kits in my loft!
Excellent thread, well done STW
Inspiring a curious combination of feeling old, young, and a fear of ageing, all wrapped up in a misty eyed joyful reminiscence.
The 75 in1 electronics kit. I had one of the range, but for the life of my can'tt remember which one. The 75 looks very familiar. I remember doing one from the book that was a long distance listening bug. You could hear people talking on the other side of the house. Never got the radio to work though.
My dad worked for Radio Rentals back in the 1970s. We were the first in the street to have colour TV and later the first to have a video recorder. I remember one Xmas he brought home a video camera on lone. It looked like a 8mm cine-camera with a cable attached to a shoulder strapped video recorder. As kids my brothers and I were amazed.
Activision games console too. Like an Atari but with crap games.
Old 'puterz you say? Used to have one of these
[img] 
[/img]
For the geeks it was 2mhz z80 with 32kb of ram.
What really amazed me though was the electronics kits. The idea that you could pick up a radio station with a couple of transistors, a coil of wire and a few other bits was and is still amazing
[IMG] 
[/IMG]