After reading these articles, I feel really old...

[Tawmis]

I remember when I lived with my mum and dad, before I got my own BBS up and running - I was huge into the SD Local BBS Community... (Anarchy X being the biggest and best one, by far! - and just because this got me thinking about them - I googled them - and they're still mentioned here and there!) - anyway - I would remember playing BBS Door Games like L.O.R.D., Tradewars, and even Studs (oh yeah baby, ASCII sex? Could it get any better? *laugh!*) - and then while in the middle of my game or posting, suddenly hear, "KRaZZpK, DIAL DIAL DIAL - Hello? Tawm? You on the internet?"

Then... DISCONNECT from the BBS.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

Usually happened when I was typing some long post...

[dotkel50]

Until February, when i finally broke down and got cable, I was still using dial-up. Wonders if I was the last one . Last week my nephew asked me why I was winding my watch .

[Rath Darkblade]

Heh. I remember some of these - heck, I still have to do some of these as part of my *job!* Like go to the bank to cash cheques once or twice a week.

What kind of checks? Paychecks? Why not deposit those through a bank machine?

We don't have paychecks - we get paid electronically. However, from time to time a customer sends us a check payment. Then I, as the accounts receivable officer, have to deal with that sort of thing. I really don't mind them, since they give me an excuse to take a walk to the bank - and also get a breather away from my screen...

Here's a few more of my own - Eudora Mail, Pegasus Mail, CRT screens (I used to have these, but haven't used them in yonks.) Physical dictionaries? I own two or three, and consult several at libraries and things to look up particularly uncommon words and phrases. Here's something that kids might never know about - live theatre... grmph.

The last physical dictionary I owned (well, actually it belonged to my parents) specifies Ronald Reagan as the President of the United States. Yes, it's just that old.

I have an OED, a Reader's Digest dictionary, a dictionary of cool 18th-century words and phrases... I also consult the local library's older OED from time to time.

Until February, when i finally broke down and got cable, I was still using dial-up. Wonders if I was the last one . Last week my nephew asked me why I was winding my watch .

You're definitely not the last one, dotkel. I was using dial-up until roughly 6 weeks ago. *grin*

I not only remember dial-up modems, I also remember (and can replicate) the exact beeps and hisses they made when they connected and disconnected. It roughly goes like this:

RIIIINNNG... beep beep beep beep boop boop beep beep boop beep! Ring ring... ring ring... ring ring... beep beep beep beep booooooop... tannang anangaaaaaa... hiiiiiisssss hiiiiisssss... hiiiiiiissssss...

You are now online.

Talking of old things, does anyone remember UHF? (Apart from the Weird Al song)?

[Tawmis]

Talking of old things, does anyone remember UHF? (Apart from the Weird Al song)?

Oh yes...

[Maiandra]

Ah yes, the Walkman. When you had to actually fast-forward for five minutes to get to your favourite song, then rewind it to hear it over. I recall being thrilled and amazed when they came out with auto-reverse.

[Rath Darkblade]

I recall being excited with my first DVD-R drive and my first DVD purchase - a Weird Al video collection! Does anyone remember their first DVD? Or even their first video purchase?

I think mine was a Guns 'n Roses tour of Japan video or something similar... hey, it was 1991. ;p

[DeadPoolX]

I recall being excited with my first DVD-R drive and my first DVD purchase - a Weird Al video collection! Does anyone remember their first DVD? Or even their first video purchase?

I think mine was a Guns 'n Roses tour of Japan video or something similar... hey, it was 1991. ;p

1991? DVDs didn't exist back then. Unless you mean your first "video" purchase and not first DVD.

I don't recall my first video purchase. I do remember using Betamax and LaserDiscs for a while in the 80s. Both really did have superior video quality when compared to VHS. Beta degraded far slower as well.

My first DVD was 1999 movie X-Men.

[BBP]

My first DVD was Primus's Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People. My first VHS was probably a gift, the only one I recall buying for myself was the South Park movie.

[Tawmis]

My first DVD was the first Matrix movie.

I think. Or maybe that was the first one with the big screen tv?

Shoot. What was my first DVD?

I don't think it was Matrix... I think that was the first DVD we got for the big screen now that I think of it...

[Datadog]

My first DVD player was on a new computer I'd just bought, and I remember stopping by a store and picking up "Dark City," "Titan AE" and "Caddyshack" on the way home. Then I got "Almost Famous," "Snatch," and "Memento" a week later... and then I got a job at a video store and sort of fell off the wagon for a while. Somewhere after 2004, I weened myself off the impulse movie-buying (before I could run out of shelf-space.) The last movie I remember buying was "UHF" two years ago.

[Rath Darkblade]

DataDog, you have UHF? *drools* I've never seen it. What's it like? I'd love to get it, but it's never been released in Australia.

(Well, not that I know of...)

[Datadog]

What's it like? It's like if they gave Weird Al a big budget and then let him and Michael Richards go to town with crazy shenanigans, unscripted performances, gross-out humor, random movie and music video parodies, a rousing game of "Wheel of Fish," animal abuse, and ninjas. Then somehow had to patch it all together with a somewhat coherent story. In other words, one of the finest films in existence. But that's just me.

[Jules]

(I'm posting... at WORK just in case you didn't know! )

ahem

Wow, I can’t believe I remember some of these.

Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.

Yes! We had one that went up to 13 channels. The picture wasn’t very clear but it made a nice TV stand for our newer TV. ^_^

8-track cartridges.

I remember rollerskating to my dad’s 8-track: Elvis’ greatest hits. Ahh memories. ^_^

The scream of a modem connecting.

Ugh, this would drive us insane! Sometimes if my sister would be on the phone, I’d be able to hear her talking through the line! ^_^

The buzz of a dot-matrix printer

Wow, our first printer. That thing was LOUD and used banner paper. When we got our first “new” printer, I took our old dot matrix one apart just to see what was inside.

DOS.

To get into DOS, we had to go into dosshell first, iirc. In there, we could find only two games: Nibbles.bat and Gorillas.bat. Anyone remember those?

Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.

LOL! Our first Tandy had 2MB of RAM. We were so excited when we upgrade to 4MB. They socked us $800!

Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.

Yes! Only, we had a Sega Genesis.

Rotary-dial telephones.

One thing good about them is that they still work when the power goes out.

Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.

My parents would make us do this all the time, only, they’d make use wait until it came out on VHS. We didn’t have a cinema until I was in high school. We had two drive-in theaters instead.

[Tawmis]

Oh! So it's not blocked at work anymore, Jules?