Obscure, forgotten hardware

[Hetzer]

Do you possess any kind o' hardware we can qualify as obscure, unknown and forgotten? What's it? How it landed into yer hands? Does it still work?

In my case I have this tiny (8") Arcus monochrome CRT which I got for 10zł (about 2,2€ / 3$) in unknown condition back in 2023. Plastics are yellowed and have visible damages, but electronically in perfect condition (heats up quickly, good and sharp image on it's native resolution (640x480, le VGA resolution) and all potentiometers work smoothly). Assuming from warranty stickers on bottom it comes from late nineties. And well, pretty light for a CRT (weights as much as 22" LED monitor)

[Uptorn]

I no longer have them, but these old Dell media center style PCs were probably the earliest systems I had ever used.

[CwF]

I still have a Microfiche console.

[Hetzer]

I no longer have them, but these old Dell media center style PCs were probably the earliest systems I had ever used.

I see ye had pretty a lot of this stuff. Did they have any purpose or were just sitting around? What fate they faced?

I still have a Microfiche console.

Can ya tell more about it? Sounds interesting

[CwF]

CwF wrote: ↑2024-04-06 08:44
I still have a Microfiche console.

Can ya tell more about it? Sounds interesting

A Micron I think, in a box. Replaced by a monitor and large pdf files.

[Uptorn]

I see ye had pretty a lot of this stuff. Did they have any purpose or were just sitting around? What fate they faced?

As far as I understand, they were brought home from industry specifically as family computers. Once a Pentium tower found its way into the house, these basically sat abandoned in the basement since. Sadly they were recently discarded.

[friendlysalmon88]

I remember back in the mid 1990s my next door neighbor brought over a single board which I started to dabble in cam basic which was the embedded directly onto the ROM on the SBC.