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Totally Tubular Tech From Our 20s –> Celebrating Our 20th Year

Have you heard? The Geeks turn the big 2-0 this year! And as you can imagine, any milestone birthday brings about times of reflection.

And nothing begets bouts of nostalgia quite like old technology.

Two teens looking through a box of old records

Image from an episode of King of the Hill

We asked a few of our Geeks what their favorite tech was during their 20-something years, and the answers ranged from pagers to 3D printers.

One thing’s for certain, however: You never forget your first tech love. 🧡

So in celebration of CodeGeek’s 20th anniversary (coming up in June!), we’ve compiled a short list of our favorite retro tech—just in time for #NationalRetroDay.

Tweet by @smiles_and_nods

Check out our photo album below and harken back with us to the good ol’ days of tech. (For some of us, those days are a bit more sepia-toned.) ⬇️

☞ Want to see what else we were up to in our 20s? We’ll be sharing #ThrowbackThursday pics and old-style Q&A interviews with the Geeks every month on our Facebook page!


“My pager. Very cool to have a pager on one’s belt!” — David

Image source: eBay

Vintage iPod shuffle

“I was in love with my iPod back then. Music at my fingertips in a small device was magic to me.” — Leah

Image source: Poshmark

Vintage Canon 35mm SRL camera

“My favorite tech back then was my 35mm SLR camera.” — Jamie

Image source: Unique Photo

Vintage Palm III on desk with power cable

“My Palm Pilot (Palm III and V) and Palm Pilot Pro. You had to learn the letters its way, not yours—and take the time to master that. I still have letters I write using the Palm flow, like the letter E.” — Ron

Image source: Wikipedia

Laptop and a 3D printer on a wooden table

“3D printers! I think that tech is so interesting and I’ve had a ton of fun experimenting with different projects over the years.” — Graden

Image source: Ennomotive

Vintage Gateway 2000 computer

“My Gateway computer and AOL.” — Cathy

Image source: Fudzilla

Screen view of an iPod Touch

“iPod Touch (basically still the same).” — Chris

Image source: eBay

Vintage Sony analog TV set

“My television set (analog back then). I finally got one for myself for my bedroom and you could set the timer to turn off after an hour or two, which meant I could fall asleep watching Star Trek: Voyager. It was the best.” — Rebecca

Image source: eBay

Vintage original Palm Pilot with stylus

“My favorite piece of tech back then was the original Palm Pilot. It was so awesome! I thought I was so hip with that cool, little stylus and the sweet black cover I had for it.” — Todd

Image source: Gadgeteer


Want even more fun tech stuff to help celebrate #RetroDay? You got it!

Read 👀

Watch

Visit 📶

  • Mobile Phone Museum – The Mobile Phone Museum is designed to safeguard this important collection of mobile technology and its heritage.
  • Museum of Endangered Sounds – The Museum of Endangered Sounds was created by Brendan Chilcutt in 2012 as a way to preserve the sounds made famous by his favorite old technologies and electronics equipment.
  • Infinite Mac – Want to see what it was like using a Mac in the mid-90s? By using two web-based emulators, you totally can.
  • Henry Heffernan’s modern-day retro résumé – Take a seat at a retro Windows 95 desktop and browse around Henry’s interactive and immersive portfolio.

Follow

  • @retropcgeek – “When I was 11 I got my first PC, an Amstrad PC2086. I then upgraded to a 486, I then upgraded again, and again. Now the internet is on my phone.”
  • @computerloverecords – “Based in Los Angeles, CA focusing on various aspects of synthetic music inspired by 80s nostalgia.”

<— Ready to go back to the future?