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

[yakfak]

i have been writing music on a yamaha PSS-190 lately lol
it's an early 90s adlib synth keyboard

the pipe and jazz organ settings are still really sweet although if you press more than eight keys at once something's getting dropped

[Doom_Dude]

On 6/23/2020 at 6:52 PM, seed said:

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 had a huge CRT that my dad used for years until he ended up with a larger projection screen TV. One day I had it on and the picture tube died with a big snapping noise. My brother and I had to drag it outside, that thing was heavy as fuck. It seemed it was every bit as heavy as an engine block my buddy had me help pick up to put on his truck one day. haha.

 

16 hours ago, ChAoS PsYcHe said:

Great thread btw OP! Cool read.

 

Thanks. It's interesting reading all the older stuff people are using.

 

This morning I remembered that I have an old Baby Brownie Special that was made between 1939 and 1954. I have never used it but it's a neat item to have on a shelf. It's not worth much because they were mass produced and everybody had one, back in the day. It would be interesting to get some film for it....

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

20 hours ago, magicsofa said:

At one point I tried using FL studio to compose some midis for doom maps, and I just couldn't get it to work.

FL Studio is a DAW and not really optimal for MIDI sequencing in my opinion.  The Cakewalk sequencers have features that FL Studio doesn't even support as far as I can recall.  Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.03 for example supports saving to multiple MIDI formats (MIDI Formats 0 and 1, and RIFF MIDI [RMI] Formats 0 and 1), and has an editable event list.

Also, FL Studio inserts superfluous commands when it exports MIDI files, which needlessly increase the file size and can even cause other subsequent MIDIs to play incorrectly in a PWAD or such (this issue actually happened when users were submitting MIDIs for one of the community projects here).

 

There are some musicians who use FL Studio to create MIDIs for DOOM levels though, so it definitely can be done, but for me Cakewalk has all the features I need.  I haven't used Cakewalk Express, but I'd still say that would be much better for sequencing DOOM MIDIs than FL Studio is (Jimmy uses Cakewalk Express 3.02).

Edited June 25, 2020 by TheUltimateDoomer666

[Phobus]

Hmm... My previous car was 18 years old, which was probably some of the oldest hardware/machinery I had. Traded that (and a load of money) in for something a bit newer, so the current car is 12 years old instead. That's younger than my original generation XBox 360, which has to be from circa 2005 and ailing badly (so that'll be replaced soon).

 

If we're talking PC components, I've got an ex-laptop hybrid HDD in my PC from a gaming laptop that must be at least 10 years old, and a couple of carried over chassis fans and an HDD from the previous PC, which must be about 11 years old too. My mouse and keyboard are equally old, and I have no idea how old the Hitachi AX-M69 HI-FI stereo I'm using for speakers is, but I got it from my dad 10 years ago and he had it for a while before me.

 

Software that isn't games? Paint XP and FTP Commander are probably the oldest. XP came out in 2001, and who knows when they updated Paint since then? FTP Commander is probably from 2005 and I know for a fact I never updated that.

 

 

Saying all of that, I think I've got t-shirts and possibly some other clothes that date back to when I was 13-15 (15-17 years ago), so I must just be pretty good at keeping old stuff going!

 

My dad's got some ancient farm hardware (such as a stand-alone water-cooled engine) and an old-school film reel projector (which weighs an awful lot) that he gets use out of, so I suspect I've got a similar habit forming, but not the spare cash to really get into it.

[fraggle]

OpenBSD is probably the oldest software I use, since the codebase dates back to BSD Unix which was developed in the 80s.

[Martin Howe]

On 6/24/2020 at 10:59 AM, 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

Yay, +1 for the 310, I have 2+1 connected to my TV and even with bass on minimum, it shakes the entire room :)

My oldest computer is my main rig, Dell 490 (dual quad-core xeons and 16GB ecc ram, but with modern SSD and GFX card). Even the small-ish speakers I use with that are CSW too. I seem to remember they were the ODM for Creative in many cases, also.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Martin Howe : Forgot to mention Cambridge Soundworks speakers on my PC

[dr_st]

Now, if one talks about hardware, then my oldest working, still in use (occasionally) piece has to be the Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value (CT4520) card.

[Mr. Freeze]

As far as hardware goes I still have my Super Nintendo and games. I've had them for 27 years.

[NeedHealth]

Well my computer mouse is probably 20 years old at least. Actually by chance the other day the usb connection started acting up for the first time.

[Robo_Cola]

Excluding actual video games or video game consoles, the oldest hardware I have that is of any entertainment value besides my peavey ultra 60 amplifier is a sony trinitron kv 27s40 model from 1998.  It's an amazing tv for ps1 games in particular, the colors are very rich and have a pleasant natural bloom effect to them.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by STILES

[Doom_Dude]

On 6/25/2020 at 4:53 PM, NeedHealth said:

Well my computer mouse is probably 20 years old at least. Actually by chance the other day the usb connection started acting up for the first time.

 

I can't seem to kill keyboards but I wear out mice. I have two Logitech mice that the clickers went in. It's pretty damned annoying when your mouse is double clicking everything... The clicker parts can be replaced if I feel like ordering the parts and then doing a soldering job. Easier to just go buy a new mouse.

[seed]

2 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

I can't seem to kill keyboards but I wear out mice. I have two Logitech mice that the clickers went in. It's pretty damned annoying when your mouse is double clicking everything... The clicker parts can be replaced if I feel like ordering the parts and then doing a soldering job. Easier to just go buy a new mouse.

 

Yeah, same here. My current keyboard is over 6 years old at this point and still feels brand new, whereas my mice... I replace them yearly. The current one is due for a replacement...

 

Shitty planned obsolescence.

[CyberDreams]

On 7/5/2020 at 12:32 PM, Doom_Dude said:

 

I can't seem to kill keyboards but I wear out mice. I have two Logitech mice that the clickers went in. It's pretty damned annoying when your mouse is double clicking everything... The clicker parts can be replaced if I feel like ordering the parts and then doing a soldering job. Easier to just go buy a new mouse.

I had a logitech mouse that went bad too. It was a wireless one and it fell a couple of times (i used it on my bed actually) and the clicker just took a shit after a while, no doubt due to the falling lol. One of my other mice, which was a cheap no name brand, went bad too but that was just from normal use. Lucky they weren't expensive mice.

[VanaheimRanger]

I still use Winamp.

 

I hear it really whips the llama's ass...

[Chow Yun Thin]

Same here, I still rock the Winamp 5.56 albeit for videogame music.

 

I also learned Winamp's tagline was from this bizarre song.

 

 

[scalliano]

Software: Paint Shop Pro 5.

 

Hardware: Atari 2600

[Hypnotik]

For years I've had this old Mouse, It just hasn't seemed to die yet, It's been through hell and back with me.  It's a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical(?), I wanna say from around 2000-2001?  I still use it everyday, and love it, It's extremely comfortable, especially when your fraggin' on Deathmatch.

[Vic Vos]

I have at least two CRT TV's, a CRT monitor, an old PC (unconfirmed if working or not), some stuff and a VHS set in storage. Recently a relative gave me their busted cassette player, which I fixed and having a listen every now and then.

[Taw Tu'lki]

Nvidia TNT2 Riva