this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Cassette Futurism

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Welcome to Cassette Futurism Lemmy and Mbin Community.

A place to share and discuss Cassette Futurism: media where the technology closely matches the computers and technology of the 70s and 80s.

Whether it's bright colors and geometric shapes, the tendency towards stark plainness, or the the lack of powerful computers and cell phones, Cassette Futurism includes: Cassettes, ROM chips, CRT displays, computers reminiscent of microcomputers like the Commodore 64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD displays, and other analog technologies.

See this blog to know more.


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Source of the image: elle mundy: "this is the future they stole from us" - Mastodon

Some info, pictures and screenshots: Sony HB-201 - MSX Wiki

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Those things were lame even at the time they came out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They got an amazing amount of mileage out of an 8-bit design based on off-the-shelf parts late in the 8-bit era. You can build a MSX-compatible machine from parts even today.

I suppose that's the power of an open standard: it's doubtful it would have flown if it was just a Sony (or Casio or Spectravision or...) design, but uniting basically every notable Japanese electronics manufacturer who didn't have a solid platform already (like NEC) made it viabl.e

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

That doesn't change the fact that the computers were underpowered and technologically obsolete when they came out. Which is why they never got any traction outside of Japan.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So was x86. The strength was that it (accidentally) became the standard, which is what MSX was trying to do. If it had caught on outside of Japan, we'd probably still be running derivatives of that architecture.