What Is the Oldest Software / Hardware You're Still Using Besides Games?

[Doom_Dude]

I'm using a photo editing program called PhotoMax Pro from 1998 (copyright on it says 94-98). It was called PhotoStudio too as I have another version on CD that's definitely the same program. It was one of those programs you'd sometimes get when buying a printer or scanner. I use it for texture design and scanning photos / sketches and the damned thing has worked with win98 through to win10. Go figure.

 

The oldest hardware I'm still using is my computer speakers. Creative Labs, Cambridge Soundworks that I bought back in 1998. Can't kill these great sounding speakers and they've outlasted 4 computers.

 

[cambreaKer]

i don't know if game consoles count but i have a super nintendo that i bought back in 2015

[Doom_Dude]

13 minutes ago, cambreaKer said:

i don't know if game consoles count but i have a super nintendo that i bought back in 2015

 

Sure, what the hell. I didn't even think of consoles. Wish I still had my olde Atari 2600.

[Chow Yun Thin]

I don't know if Notepad counts since the one on Win7 can't surely be the same as the original one.

 

I've been using a Microsoft Internet keyboard since 2000. How coincidental that this past weekend, I cleaned out the hair and food crumbs and scrubbed off the hand filth. It looks as good as the day I got it. My second oldest piece of hardware is a cheap Sennheiser headset from 2004. Still sounds good, though I don't want to think about how fucking filthy the earpads are.

 

Oh god, I just realized my stuff has more years on this Earth than some members.

 

MattDamonGrowingOldBecauseFuckUploadinga7Meg.gif

[seed]

Software wise... probably just SFPack for unpacking soundfonts that come in .sfpack format. I'm not using legacy software anymore, or don't have any use for it anymore. Old games is as legacy as it gets for me now.

 

Hardware wise, I still have 2 CRT TVs in my house, a Daewoo one that's heavier than a block with a built-in DVD player, and a small one in the kitchen. I also still have some random mp3 players somewhere and some old phones such as a Sagem and a Sony Ericsson k510i, but haven't touched those for over 10 years. Doubt they even work anymore.

 

The big CRT TV definitely shows its age now, insofar as its lost its sharpness, there is noticeable blur when smaller, multiple scenes in rectangles are displayed on screen, like those shows with multiple scenes shown at once, 3 above, 3 below. The smaller the objects or people are in the scenes, the blurrier it gets. It's lost its flexibility, sadly, though by no means horrible.

 

But lemme tell ya, you flat panel plebs, compared to most basic flat panels I've seen, this thing still fucking BLOWS their contrast and colors out of the water. It's a night and day difference from the oversaturated/overbright garbage consumer level TVs and monitors offer nowadays. Good luck spending some 500-1000$ on an OLED, HDR, or whatever capable monitor/TV for something that was available in consumer grade TVs/monitors in the past. It's really just too bad practicability killed CRTs off... And also fuck you 4:3 format, although widescreen tubes existed as well, but they were rare - and bigger than a house...

 

But the extremely shitty colors and contrast in flat panels is something I will never forgive. Thanks but I'll pass, don't have 1000$ to spend for something like this.

[Doom_Dude]

9 minutes ago, Chow Yun Thin said:

Oh god, I just realized my stuff has more years on this Earth than some members.

 

Oh lol, that's funny.

 

You reminded me, I'm still using a Logitech Internet Navigator keyboard from 2003. Spilled beer on it one day and had to dry it out. lol

[Loud Silence]

Nero 6 when i'm on XP. I love to overburn audio CDs. 81:40 (and sometimes little more) instead of 80min.

PHILIPS 29PT8641/12 (google it). Still have flawless picture and puts shame on modern TVs.

 

Very recently i abandoned VHS. But still sometimes i record some music videos from TV.

[Mr. Freeze]

Guitar Pro 5. Came out in 2005, been using it ever since to write MIDI because every newfangled composition software I've tried has terrible workflow. 

[Boaby Kenobi]

1 hour ago, seed said:

And also fuck you 4:3 format, although widescreen tubes existed as well, but they were rare - and bigger than a house

 

I still have an older TV but it's not got a plug on the end of the cable although that's easily fixed. It's really heavy, like it takes at least two people to move it. Really good for older consoles and DVDs.

 

 

[Doomkid]

Oldest gaming hardware would be a Famicom console. Got an NES with all the fixins too, arcade style Advantage joystick, controllers with turbo buttons and all that good stuff. All from between 1983 to 1989 or so.

 

Oldest piece of general tech, other than boring stuff like my old-ass fridge or microwave, would probably be my TV. It’s from the early 2000’s, the era when flatscreens were still really novel. It makes weird buzzing sounds at this point but til it breaks, I don’t care.

 

My car is about 19 years old, but I’m guessing that doesn’t count for much, I still see a bunch of them (generic Camry) on the road.

 

Most of my stuff is less than 15 years old, which is actually kind of sad, really. Thinking of all the old gizmos I’ve owned that have unintentionally been sent to the landfill is kind of disheartening.

 

In terms of software it’s a different story, I’m all about the old stuff long as it works. Still using Guitar Pro 5, WinRAR that hasn’t been upgraded since the Stone Age, a version of Camtasia Studio from 2010, and I still find I’m able to do certain jobs faster in XWE than Slade. Speaking of Doom software, there’s a bunch of little DOS tools I muck around with too, like DMCNV32 to convert stuff between Doom, Doom2 and Heretic format, and more obvious stuff like DeHackEd.

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

I still use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 to make and edit MIDIs.

[Andromeda]

These babies still work fine after 20+ years of use, though the control knobs are a bit wonky now:

[Endless]

For almost a year, I used to have one of those old CRT monitors that would melt your eyes in the night. Those things were huge I'm prob radiactive lol. Now I have a modern monitor and the old CRT is just housing dust like a relic.

[Biodegradable]

Definitely my editing software. I still use my old CS5.5 version of Adobe Premiere that I bought back in 2011. It came along for the ride back when you could buy the Adobe Creative Suite full of all the latest programs at a student discount as I was at university. Funny enough, I never used Premiere during those days as I was studying animation, not film/video stuff. It wouldn't be until October 2015 when I started teaching myself how to use it after I developed depression and started making YouTube Poops to help keep me sane while my brain was melting. I did that for three years and now still use it today for my work as a freelance video editor. I know I won't be able to get away with using nearly 10 year old tech forever for this line of work, but for now it's perfectly fine for cutting YouTube videos for cash and its reliability and stability prevents me from having to pay Adobe rent in perpetuity for their modern software that they manage to make worse with every update.

 

At least for now...

[CyberDreams]

Hardware wise it's probably stereo equipment for me (if that counts) and it's probably my turntable that i don't actually use very much (i'm more of a CD guy tbh). It's an old Lafayette T-6000 from the mid 70's. It's really damn big too! Here's a pic of what it looks like: (not my pic though; this one is kinda dusty; mines not)

 

Software wise? I actually have no idea...I know Win 10 doesn't have Paint anymore and since i'm still on Win 7 ;) (but i rarely use that tbh lol). Seriously though, i have no clue.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Hardware wise, probably my Atari 400.

Software wise, probably some Atari 2600 games.  Even though I emulate them now, I do still have them as cartridges.

Software that isn't a video game... most of the software I use has a long history (e.g., Bash shell, ls/cat/grep/latex/man/etc., sc), but it still receives updates. 

[Grazza]

Word 97 (from late 1996), since the later versions all have greater annoyances or disfunctionality (and I have metric fuckton of macros and customizations for 97). Well, I gave up checking out new versions quite a few years ago, but it was clear what direction they were going. I dread the day when I try to install 97 on a new system and it fails completely. To make matters worse, my Office 97 CD is actually the upgrade disk from Office for 95, so they both have to work, at least to some extent.

 

The oldest version of ChessBase I still use now and then is CB9, from 2004. I use 13 and 14 for most things though. Each version has its pros and cons: each time they fix some things, break some things, trash some features and add some features and/or bloat. CB6 is not on my system though. :p

 

Hardware-wise, I do have some old PCs lying around, but the ones I currently use are all fairly recent. I have an ANITA 1000 calculator back in England, but obviously I don't actually use it, and it hasn't been plugged in for years. Pretty cool with the Nixie display. Edit: I recall also finding it cool that while my ordinary calculators couldn't handle numbers higher than 9.9999999 x 10^99, the ANITA just kept on going, so I could find out what Factorial 70 was. Of course now we have Alexa for such things. :p

Edited June 24, 2020 by Grazza

[dr_st]

Well, I use DOS file managers (Norton Commander) and launchers (Quikmenu III) to run my games and manage files inside my DOSBox environment. I also sometimes use Open Cubic Player for playing MIDI/MOD files inside same environment.

[mattjoes]

The oldest one I can think of at the moment is Encarta 97 World Atlas.

 

 

[Dark Pulse]

Probably either Irfanview, mIRC, or Paint Shop Pro 7.

 

Although to be fair, the first two are still getting updated.

[MFG38]

10 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Guitar Pro 5. Came out in 2005, been using it ever since to write MIDI because every newfangled composition software I've tried has terrible workflow. 

 

I remember using GP5 to compose MIDIs back in 2013-14. That software had a great MIDI implementation, at least compared to GP7 - I've composed a couple MIDIs with GP7, and when I exported them, they came out with all instruments completely sterilized as far as effects like glides and bends are concerned. And all notes were at the same volume - I've had to tweak the MIDIs in Anvil Studio afterwards. GP5 was much less of a pain in the ass in that regard.

[kalaeth]

it has to be the sound system, although it has been reduced to a 3+1 instead of 4+1 (a cable broke a few years back) :

  They still work well enough to wake the entire building if I want to :D

[Doom_Dude]

7 hours ago, CyberDreams said:

Hardware wise it's probably stereo equipment for me (if that counts) and it's probably my turntable that i don't actually use very much (i'm more of a CD guy tbh). It's an old Lafayette T-6000 from the mid 70's. It's really damn big too! Here's a pic of what it looks like: (not my pic though; this one is kinda dusty; mines not)

 

 

Software wise? I actually have no idea...I know Win 10 doesn't have Paint anymore and since i'm still on Win 7 ;) (but i rarely use that tbh lol). Seriously though, i have no clue.

 

Nice turntable. My only turntable now is one of those machines (got from my dad) you see in places like Walmart that are marketed for people to rip vinyl to CD. I don't play much vinyl and it actually sounds decent. I'm a CD guy too and I have over a 1000 in my collection. I have all those ripped to MP3 and I put them on shuffle when I'm at the comp. Otherwise I use a mini-stereo I bought in 2003 which is a Phillips FWC555 that has dual cassette and a triple CD changer. It can read CD-R and CD-RW (can't read MP3s). It's a solid, good sounding stereo for what it is.

 

I bought win10 Home a few years ago and it came with paint. :D I use it all the time actually. I think you can still get Paint from the MicroShaft store for free (I could be wrong).

 

So I was sitting here this morning and spotted my old calculator. It's a Texas Instruments TI - 1768 ii, made in 1990. It has a tilt screen and is solar powered. I received it for Christmas way back when and it's still in good shape.

[MrDeAD1313]

I have a Pentium III build that I like to hook up every so often to play older games on and just mess around with for a few days at a time which is a fun thing to do, but I'm not sure that really counts since it's not regularly used. Sega Genesis gets regular use though and it's hooked up to an old Philips crt. 

 

Software with regular use would have to be winamp 

[Biodegradable]

3 hours ago, kalaeth said:

it has to be the sound system, although it has been reduced to a 3+1 instead of 4+1 (a cable broke a few years back) :

  They still work well enough to wake the entire building if I want to :D

 

Oh hey, yeah, I completely forgot my computer speaks and amp is almost as old as I am too lmao I don't know the exact year, but we've had it forever and it still has POWER. I usually only crank up the bass when I'm watching a movie.

 

[unerxai]

My black Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical from the mid 2000's. I use it every day and I love it.

[Nekr0s1s]

Software-wise:

 

- Winamp v2.95 (from June, 24, 2003).

- Windows XP SP3 (I have a retro gaming laptop, see below)

 

Hardware-wise:

- HP Pavilion DV2760BR

 

Originally it came with Windows Vista pre-installed, but i downgraded it to Windows XP SP3 for performance reasons.

 

 

[frag enabler]

I have my old, 2009 low-mid tier PC sealed within my basement. It's the only thing that I know is still functional. I also have a Siemens C25, a GBC and a GBA stashed somewhere (Along with Pokemon Sapphire, FireRed, Warioland 4, Golden Sun, Rayman 3, Duke Nukem Advance and Doom 2) . Given how solid their design was I reckon I'd need to simply charge the phone and slot in new batteries for the gameboys... The internal batteries in the cartridges might be toast, though.

[magicsofa]

16 hours ago, TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

I still use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 to make and edit MIDIs.

 

Dude. At one point I tried using FL studio to compose some midis for doom maps, and I just couldn't get it to work. After much fiddling I gave up. And started wondering if I still had a copy of cakewalk express somewhere... Gotta go through the pile of hard drives in my basement.

 

I have a Dell desktop from like 2005 or something, that I still use once in a while. But I have a fair amount of bass equipment that's super old. I've got an old Peavey head from before bass amps were really a thing (says my old man). I still take it around as a backup, and I gig with a GK straight from the 80s. Had to be re soldered a while back but it works like a charm!

[ChAoS PsYcHe]

I grew up in the 90's so I'm a retro gamer. I have an old Super Nintendo. About a few years ago I discovered how great the Genesis library is. So many great games on that system...

 

I remixed a few Ninja Gaiden tunes years back using FL Studio. I remember not being able to do MIDI composition for some reason so I just used the native plugins .

 

Besides games, I have old CRT TVs and old computers. I use the CRTs for old gaming consoles.

 

Great thread btw OP! Cool read.

 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by ChAoS PsYcHe : Besides games