FORGOTTEN 1970s Gadgets We NEED BACK 

I always wanted an Amiga 500 in the 70s. It took me till 1995 to get one though.

We played Pong endlessly! I do not know how much time we spent on this game, but it was a lot! Atari 2600, I had almost every game. Asteroids was my main go-to. Today, I am in my 50s and I still enjoy playing video games

I was born in the 70's so basically i had all of these gadgets as a kid - first that pong on tv, then the Atari consolle, then the sony walkman ( i think these were from the 80's already ? Atari e and walkman ) this is another travel back in time - great video

I had a Speak & Spell when I was a kid... totally forgot about it until this video!

God I remember when my dad brought PONG home 😂😂. Boy I thought we were the 💩. We were entertained for hours lol.

I'm 66 years old and you really take me back my favorite was the Atari 2600.

I was already a teenager when Pong came into the market. I also remember my first camera, a Kodak Ista-matic 104.

I remember all of these. 🙂

My cousin had pong. We had the Atari. Now we have the “new” retro Atari. My husband still has his Walkman. We still have a VCR and movies on VHS that we still watch sometimes.

I have the Atari 2600 full consul and addons plus 10 games, I also have cassettes that are 50 years old and still work fine. Great video, Cheers.

Cassette tapes I still use today, even VHS tapes when I can find blank ones. I miss cameras with film, you had to think a whole lot more when taking photos unlike a phone where you take dozens of snapshots just to cheery pick the good ones.

I’d love what we called a “Music Centre”. The record player, cassette tape recorder and radio contained in one unit. It came with a pair of good speakers. I used to drool at them in department stores because I couldn’t afford one. Another thing was the “RadioGram” It was more furniture like. In a wooden console, a record player and radio with built in speakers. Those were happy family times.

My grandmother bought the atari 2600 for me and my 2 siblings at her house.She was the master of Qbert and breakout and Pacman. It's awesome that my gram is the one who introduced us to video games!❤❤❤❤❤❤ Luv u Mimi!

Great 😊

Absolutely none of those things do I miss.

I’m 60. My most memorable gadget was the Pong game. My brother and I got it for Christmas. We had so much fun with it.

Back in the 80s, I had a Walkman. Liked a lot!

Atari 2600 - my most memorable Christmas gift ever. Many thanks to Nolan Bushnell and the resourceful Atari and Activision game programmers!

I still have our Coleco Telstar. It's the Ranger model, because it came with a light-sensing pistol, for the added pong-style game of skeet & target shooting that you point at the TV so that it sensing the electron raster of the CRT. We still also have our Atari 2600/VCS. Both of them were bought within a year of each other in the late 1970's. Since I am basically the electronics & computer guy in the family, I have kept both of these machines, not only because of the tech, but also because of the sentimentality & nostalgia, as they both represent a part of my family's history in my frame of reference. I do not have a Walkman, but I have a no-name basic portable cassette player, but it's been broken for decades so I have yet to fix it. I also still have many VCR's, which includes large piles of VHS tapes. Most of the tapes are just recordings from television, but there are a big handful of tapes of home videos, from our VHS camera, that recorded some of our everyday life & celebrations (birthdays etc), as recorded by my Dad (RIP), as far back as the late 1980's, so those tapes are very priceless & precious. I still also have the VHS camera (camcorder), plus another more compact camcorder for the smaller tape size (VHS-C). I am planning to back up those tapes to digital & so I will need an analog-to-digital A/V converter. We still have plenty of instamatic-type photo camera's, because my Dad was a photo-buff. But since I never got into analog cameras, I don't know how to work them, nor to understand how to repair them. Plus they do need an outside service you have to pay to get the photos processed. We have hundreds & hundreds of photo prints that my Dad shot over the decades, since the early 1970's. I am not sure what to do with them once my life time is up as I am probably the only one who cares about them, since I don't have kids to hand down these "heirlooms" to. And yes, I had also played with the Speak & Spell back in the '70's, but I don't think we have ever owned one. It's now funny to think that all this stuff can all be integrated as apps on one smartphone, as computer games, music, videos, photographs & AI voice speaking & voice recognition, plus enough power to add tons more of other kinds of applications.

GREAT VIDEO

I loved the Poloroid Instamatic camera. Take a picture and out it pops, then wait a minute to see the image. The large Getto-Blaster was a favorite for music.

Subscribed. I was born in '79 but I appreciate all the changes and technology before my time.

Used to take magic cubes apart because the bulbs would light up if thrown against a wall

I was born in 1943. My first radio as a kid was the Crystal Set. I kept stringing a long wire antenna out my bedroom window to a local Utility pole for top reception and the PECO maintenance guy kept taking it down. He eventually got the message when I connected the so called antenna wire to the 2nd Anode of an old TV in my dads shop in the radio shack.

All of them because of my age! But the Walkman for me and the Phillips recorder for my dad... Dallas, X-Files, Star Trek (original tv version) and the RAMS football games! RIP🕊❤️👑🙏🏽 dad (43 yrs ago) on this father days in 🎉2023🎉

i have the atari 2600 4 switch and 6 switch, i was born in 80 but i remember playing it as i have 3 older brothers, my parents also played it. had that right up till a fire in 99, so the stuff i have now is not the same ones. and i have more games now than we did then. but i remember getting the nes new, i also replaced that since the fire. our school had the speak & spell.

Had one and my mom and dad and I enjoyed playing it. I had friends who had one and when I would go to sleep overs then I would play it. My mom and dad had one. Had one and enjoyed it. Love from Marysville, California

I had a 110 camera in the 1990s, yes you could still buy that film then. I miss using it despite not being the greatest picture quality.

Pong consoles also gave video games the stigma of ruining TVs. People would play Pong for hours and since it was strictly B/W, there would be a white "net" line down the center of the screen for hours. The image would get burned into the picture tube such that you'd be able to see it during dark scenes in whatever you were watching. This really wasn't an issue with later game systems that used colors and had more varied game designs, but the idea that video games harm TVs persisted in many people's minds. That's the reason that many Atari 2600 games cycle the colors after a game has ended.

in 1977 I received a LAFEYETTE TELSTAL 140 CB RADIO and still use it at home. Since then I bought a GALAXY 2547 to use at my leiser while at work.

I loved my pong and atari. We played alot when I was a kid. Still have both and they still work. 😀

45 rpm records with good music

I loved the Speak & Spell -- if I remember, you could get hilarious results by inputting words not in its database or by deliberately misspelling them; e.g., "urinator" and, "dooshes".

Well this was a very nice walk down memory lane. I had a few of the ATARI Video gam consoles and a box full of games (around 30) by the time I was finished getting them. I actually had several of these items and they were a blast to have and use on those rainy days, oh how nice it is to walk down memory lane now and tnen.

One fun memory I have about the Speak & Spell was a comedian who used one in his act. He would talk to it and have it say letters that sounded like words as a response. It was something like this: Comedian: Now you made a friend on your recent trip, what was his name?" Speak & Spell: "J." later on: Comedian: Now who told you something that dumb?" Speak & Spell: "U."

Technically, the Atari 2600 was officially named the Atari VCS (Video Computer System). It wasn't re-branded as the "Atari 2600" until the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982.

Gadgets, yes. Forgotten, no, and none of the ones mentioned here are things we really need or want back. That said, I bought a 110 camera in the late 1970s, specifically for situations when I didn't want to lug my SLR. It wasn't a Kodak Instamatic model; it was a Berkey Keystone one with a built-in strobe flash, which was far more convenient than Magicubes. (About 6 years before that, my dad bought me a 126 camera that used 126 film cartridges and Magicubes. The main advantage to Magicubes was that the camera didn't need batteries to use them. The disadvantages were that they were relatively expensive, bulky and sometimes they'd misfire, melt the housing or even burst when used.) I took hundreds, maybe even a few thousand photos with my Keystone 110, and while I certainly appreciated its portability and convenience, I can't say it took great pictures. With the possible exception of specialty cameras like the Minolta 110 Zoom SLR, 110 cameras were not known for taking great pictures. The tiny negative size of the 110 film format doomed them from the start. I think only disc film was worse.

Video games were never my thing... although I did enjoy playing Angry Birds on my cell phone about 10 years ago. Almost all of this stuff came out after my time--I was born in 1959. I still have a Sony VCR which I use to watch tapes occasionally The only thing I owned from this list was a Walkman or two. In fact, I still have one--it's a Sony WM-FX290W. Still works great!

I had a Kodak Pocket Instamatic. I have an album of photos I took at Disney World. You can tell a 4th grader took them.

People still remember most of these things. I have earlier slider projector that still works last time I tried it.

Huge pocket calculators that were carried in a belt holster.

There's one more console that still deserves consideration... the Mattel's Intellivision. A great jump ahead in matter of gaming consoles!

We don't need a single one of those "gadgets" back - they had their time, but is now completely obsolete.

I love how everything from the 1960s\70s looks *wayz more futuristic than anything now.

I was born in the late 60s. I remember them all ! Least favourite out of your list was the Kodak instamatic. Crap pictures on tiny film ! Something like an Olympus Trip on 35mm film was way better, and just as convenient. The Polaroid cameras, whilst even worse pictures than the instamatics, and more expensive running costs, at least had the instant developing of the picture gimick. Otherwise, I I loved them all. I had an Atari VCS 2600 as an xmas present in about 1980. I remember having portable cassette players like the walkman. Pong was a brilliant game, and VCRs, when we finally got one in 1985 (so VHS) was also brilliant.

Love this kind of content. Subbed.

I wanted Asteroids when it first hit the home systems. my father was not a fan of the television, he thought I spent too much time in front of it already, so I never got into video games, I had a Vivitar 110 camera, same small silhouette, built in flash, expensive film and processing, and finally a Walkman, ate batteries like they were candy.

For me it was the Walkman all the way. I remember we couldn't afford a stereo or a boombox as referred to popularly so if i wanted to enjoy hi fi sound quality the only affordable option was the Walkman. I used to spend a fortune on quality cassette tapes. Still have the tapes even today. 😊

Great video, I subbed, looking forward to more awesome content!

If we're going back to the 70's I want a PK ripper and a Evil Knievel stunt cycle.

not only do i remember them, i owned all of them, i was a bit (and still are) a bit of a tech geek 😎

From the mid 1960s through to today, technology has been accelerating every year more than in the past decades. It has reached a few plateaus over time, and then took off again.

You, sir, got yourself new subscriber. Keep rocking!

I loved speak and spell I had one now I have new one

My friend had pong and i got the 2600 in '82. Had fun & my parents played alot of Pac Man, too.

There was an extension for the "magic cube" you could use for the hip pocket instamatic, inserted into the portal where the cube itself normally would have gone. By raising the flash cube a couple of inches off of the camera, red eye was reduced. There was a popular Kodak instamatic used in the 1960s, which also used cartridges, but the 120 cartridge had 35mm film in it, and that camera, though also small, was too thick to fit in one's pocket.

All of them.

I feel like I had the Kodak Pocket Instamatic in toy form it was red.

I remember the inflatable electronic turnip! It was incredibly addictive, you could eat vegetables and play with friends over 5 miles away at the same time

In 72, when I was 9, I got a Panasonic cassette tape player recorder that was powered with D batteries. It was big like a woman's purse. Small battery radio where out, but I could play what I wanted. I would take it to school, push play and grab a girl and dance. After the song I would grab my tape player and walk off. The 70s where fun.

I still have 140 of these games in the form of Shockwave Flash Player games on PC & also have a Commodore 64 emulator for Windows. I never had a Walkman, but todays to go music is way better in that my phone has a 1Tb. storage card and Bluetooth to my 3,000 watt home theater when I need some umph.

Pong was the greatest game ever 😅

Don't forget the Viewmaster.

aceste au valoare și astăzi în prezent

I had that 110mm camera. I took some important life milestones photos with that - including some I never got to see when it was stolen 😕

I had a Walkman cassette player with a battery charger cradle. It was really nice until a guy at work used it, and of course, dropped it... That was the end of that!

I'm 34, and I wasn't even thought of in the 70s. I own an atari 2600\vcs and have for around a decade or more at this point. I have multiple games and a few accessories. My favorite is the starpath\Arcadia super charger plus one of the cassette games dragon stomper. I grew up with vhs and I miss watching them.A lot of this stuff carried on into the 80s and 90s, but it's interesting to see how they started.

LOL, caught the recent "Lego Version" of the Atari 2600 in several of those shots.

Actually, in 1977 the Atari was the VCS, it was renamed the 2600 in 1980.

Why the hell would we want any of these devices back?

I still have a fleet of N1500 compatible video recorders here, the slightly later N1502 model was superior so I use those. It was followed by a Long Play version, N1700, I have those too.

I remember them all. Still have a walkman, VHS palyer, had the Atari with many games, had a few Kodak 110 cameras. Remember playing pong. The good old day.

I loved the Atari 2600👍🏻, the 70's were great.

Walmart, Family Dollar and some other stores sell video games systems that play retro 1970's and later games some 40 to 100 different games built into the systems.

I built the first VHS machine in my lab at RCA LABS back in 1977 as part of a research team improving VHS recording techniques.

I had a Walkman, I loved it.

Hmm...I had ALL of these...but, none of them would I say that "WE NEED BACK"...lol.

I still have my Kodak Ektra 1 110 film camera. Not their first model of course. One difference is that it uses a Flip-Flash flash bar. I got it in 1978. In the mid or late '70s my folks bought a competitor to the Atari, a Telstar game system, which featured Pong, a single play handball game they called 'Jai alai' and the four paddle hockey game. With VCRs being expensive to me, I didn't buy one until 1990. Before that, I had to rent the machine with the movies.

I want them all, and my rack stereo that I lost when Pinatubo eruption ate my house.

the atari 2600 came out 1 year before i was born. but one of my favorite gadget's from back when i still use today is my cb radio. i always have one in my car's no matter what. sadly tho the use of the cb radio is not what it once was now days to many people just eat up channels running thier mouths about things no one really cares to hear about.

I remember Atari 2600 & 5200 also. Cassette Walkman? Been there done that, worth it before CD'S.

I was a teen in the 70's. Never had money for any of these things. Parents were cheap and stingy, so we didn't have an Atari, much less a freekin color TV. I think the first thing I was able to buy on my own, when they finally got cheap enough, was an off brand Walkman. Sure miss the 70's. Wish I could go back as an adult now and live through it all.

Why would we need these back?

These have to be the least obscure items you could have selected. Even the youngest millenials know about VCRs, Walkmans and such.

Re: Pong: "Everyone knew it would change the way we play video games". LOL. We didn't play video games prior to Pong, as Pong was the FIRST video game. I remember c. 1975 I saw Pong for the first time while visiting some second cousins. How utterly boring it was. No wonder I never got into video games!

I have never seen one of those VCR's with the small Cassettes before, but one of my bother in laws did have a Sony top loader back in the 70's that cost $1500 , back then! which would be a whopping $11,757.49 , in 2023! 😱

My parents used to stay up till 4 am in the morning and play their 2600.

I remember the Polaroid instant camera. I actually saw them for sale at Target recentlt, don't know why as they don't make film for it anymore.

The Smeak and Smell

i remember the times i used to be the remote controll for my parents🤦‍♂😂😂😂😂

I had the Atari 2600 with about 8 cartridges. Space Invaders and Asteroids were my favorite. I had pacman too but it was nothing like the arcade game.

Nineteen seventies,my goodness ,how it was been so long time ago!

Another item. The 8-track tape.

Thinking of these things, being 69, I loved my Betamax video tape recorder. it had such incredibly crisp resolution, making VHS look like doggy-doo (much like comparing VHS to Blu-ray today). But with VHS consoles selling "as low as" $500 and Betamax selling for $1200 (and these were in 1970's dollars, so multiply that times 3.75 to compute for today's dollars), the general buyer's choice was inevitable. That, and Beta used 1-hour cassettes, but VHS could record 2-6 hours, as long as one could tolerate really lousy video and sound quality.

I had a Pong console and a Walkman and Speak N Spell and the instamatic

I really miss those days, such simpler life, and no cell phones

stuff we need back... eh. 'somewhat more decent than back then' 2 way radios should be installed by default in every car that leaves the factory. basically every chip ever made throughout the 1980s 1970s 1990s 2000s should be for sale in quantities in electronics stores on every street corner, and oh eh those electronic component shops themselves should make a comeback as aliexpress simply is too much work. lol. waiting for the mailman and all that.

i subbed too, great channel.

It's Atari 2600 = two sixhundred, not twenty sixhundred. The Philips VCR 1500 was never on the market in the USA, but Betamax didn't come much later in the 1970s, followed by VHS. The Philips and Grundig VCR system was quite popular in Germany and the Netherlands and were at use in schools until the late 1980s.

the atari 2600 was incredible.