Mike
I was born in the early ’80s, so I’ve had a front-row seat to the entire tech glow-up. I remember when a “portable computer” looked like a sewing machine, phones were anchored to the kitchen wall with a 10-foot cord, and your biggest fear was someone walking in and picking up the landline while you were trying to connect to AOL.
We didn’t have cloud storage—we had floppy disks that could hold like four Word docs. Seeing these throwback pictures is wild because I lived through this stuff, and it’s both hilarious and kind of amazing to realize just how far we’ve come.
If you remember this era or just want to see what throwback tech looked like before it got sexy, you’re gonna love this one.
1. Frog Telephone (1980s)
2. Sony Watchman FD-500
3. Buick created the first car touchscreen all the way back in 1986. The technology was dropped because customers were complaining about taking their eyes off the road, and it wouldn’t been seen again for some time.
4. Stephen King, 1982, with his $12,000 “Wang” word processor.
5. Cordless Telephone (1989) by Takenobu Igarashi
6. Sony D-50. The world’s first portable CD player (1984)
7. Omnibot 1984
8. Panasonic SG-J500 Portable Stereo (1984)
9. Sony GV-8 Video Walkman (1988)
10. Sony projection television, circa 1983.
11. Voice Printer concept (1986)
12. SONY: Japanese Ad featuring a meditating monkey named ‘Choromatsu’ using a Walkman to listen to music, 1988.
13. Sanyo Robo K07
14. Onkyo Integra (DX-6570, TA-2570, T-4270, A-8690 2 x 190 Watt), 1988
15. Before Photoshop there was Paintbox by Quantel.(1981)
16. Sony HitBit AV Pro 1986
17. 1980 Citroën Karin Concept by Coggiola. Designed by Trevor Fiore.
18. Smart TV, 1980s style!
19. In 1998, high-definition television (HDTV) sets were introduced in the United States.
20. Citroen GSA 1980
21. The Raleigh Vektar, the “World’s first computerized bike,” 1985. Featuring ‘micro chip technology’ you could check your speed, distance & riding time with just a touch of a button. It was also equipped with an AM radio, an alarm and warning system.
22. Fisher-Price Tape Recorder 826 (US, 1980)
23. In 1983, Microsoft introduced their first 2-button computer mouse for the IBM PC, PC XT, and compatibles.
24. Prototype of Yamaha Frog 750 by Hartmut Esslinger (1985)
25. Bang & Olufsen, 1983.
26. 1980s Casio EG-5 Cassette Player/Recorder Guitar w/Speaker.
27. The interior of a 1985 Nissan 300zx
28. WABOT-2 (1984) Developed by Waseda University, Japan, the anthropomorphic robot was able to read a musical score and play keyboard instruments.
29. Mazda 121 Canvas Top (1987)
30. Sony Double cassette player 1985
