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[-] ptc075@lemmy.zip 9 points 6 days ago

I own a model electric train that was built in 1937. So, 88 years young?

Runs well, it's kinda weird to think that this was a toy and this level of build quality was normal. To be fair, it wasn't exactly. This was a high end toy aimed at affluent teens and young adults. It would have been equivalent to buying a new PlayStation. But still, I have trouble imagining any toy you could buy today that would hold up like this.

[-] Vaggumon@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago

Fully functioning Commodore 64, monitor, 2 floppy drives, printer, and several joysticks.

[-] vaionko@sopuli.xyz 6 points 6 days ago

I have a radio from the late 30s, though not in working condition. And a radio from 1961 that I use regularly

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

250 MHZ analog oscilloscope from HP

[-] ShankShill@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Sinclair Microvision MTV-1. It doesn't work though. First released about 1978 according to Wikipedia.

Found it in a thrift store in a small town with a single stop light, in the middle of nowhere. That's also where I got my sealed copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 on 5 1/4 floppies. Total cost $7.

[-] crimsonpoodle@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago
[-] SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

heck i bet that is awesome looking. Does it still work?

[-] herpypony@pawb.social 2 points 5 days ago

1980 Sony trintitron crt TV that still works. Got the N64 hooked up to it.

[-] locuester@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

A TI-99/4. I need to find an old tv to hook it up

[-] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 days ago

atari vcs (from before it was rebranded to atari 2600)

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

I have my grandmothers iMac G4. Just an interesting looking from the days when Apple made interesting looking things. It still works but it’s really used for anything.

[-] Pulptastic@midwest.social 2 points 6 days ago

Probably a Cowon iAudio mp3 player from the mid aughts. I might still have a Philips cd mp3 player from the early aughts. Ooh in my garage I have Sony PC speakers from 2001.

I've got an old TRS-80 in stored-in-a-leaky-shed-for-40-years condition. I can also lay my hands on an AM/FM radio that I think dates to the 70's.

[-] dellish@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Empire State radio, R52

[-] scytale@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 9 points 1 week ago

You should throw it a quinceanera. Put it in a dress and buy it a small car.

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[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

oldest electronic

Electronic WHAT!?! Choose a noun, son.

[-] prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

I suspect this is the (non-word) singular form of the noun "electronics". If there's a better term for such words, and you let me know what it is, I will give you my thank.

[-] SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] Lorindol@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Original Gameboy.

Still works.

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hah, you stumbled upon one of Lemmy’s weird UI quirks. If you start a line with a number and period, it assumes you’re making a numbered list. But that period is placed at a specific indent, so long numbers spill off the left side of the screen.

  1. Here’s what it is supposed to look like.

(Adding a line break here)

  1. 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.

[-] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

A ferrite core memory module, circa 1956 at a guess.

[-] ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

My husband has a collection of obsolete technology. The oldest thing he’s got in there is a VT100 terminal.

[-] Nemo@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago

I have the Commodore64 my family got used when I was 8.

I've had it less long, but the sewing machiney mother bought after she left college is older than that.

And I inherited it even more recently, but also have my maternal grandfather's electric hair clippers from when he was a teenager, around 1960.

And I bought my house most recently of all, but some of the wiring dates back to 1926 (the house itself was built without electricity in 1880).

[-] Bunbury@feddit.nl 7 points 1 week ago

I have an electric singer sewing machine from 1964 and another one from around 1950. Amazing how well they work.

Extremely old singer sewing machine gang unite

[-] Bunbury@feddit.nl 2 points 6 days ago

They aren’t even my oldest machines. Just the oldest ones that use electricity

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[-] JayJLeas@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Donkey Kong Game & Watch (1982)

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

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)

[-] oxjox@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

I'm still the original owner of one of these 1982 Pac-Man consoles. Actually, I thought it was lost for decades but my aunt discovered it during a basement clean out and gave it back to me. Last I checked, it still worked. But the volume is so dang loud that I remember I always had to play with it outside.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Our old pong console. I don't know if it still works because it's been boxed up for over a decade at this point.

Oldest in use? Probably my old texas instruments graphing calculator, but it's dying. I got it back in the early nineties for college, and my kid was using it last year with homework, but the screen is failing and it sometimes just freezes until you pull and replace the batteries. So only kinds in use, and barely hanging on.

My VCR is newer and still sees use rarely, but was used daily for a few years in the early naughties.

Wait! The phonograph! It's still functional and my dad got it in the early eighties, so it's older than the pong console, but I think calling it electronics is dubious, so I dunno if it counts. But it's the oldest functional electric powered thing we have that I know of.

[-] adb@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Not entirely sure but this has to be one of the oldest and is fully functional.

4 channel mono audio mixer, with germanium transistors only

From the mid-sixties

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[-] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Don't know if it counts, but my suitcase record player has vacuum tubes. Still spins but it needs a needle.

[-] rmuk@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] RabbitMix@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago

One of the Play it Loud Game Boys (the red one), it's as old as I am

[-] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

My original gameboy colour

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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
62 points (98.4% liked)

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