Museum of Obsolete Media

21/01/2024

The Prinztronic Tournament VC6000 was a cartridge-based video game console introduced in the UK in 1979. Prinztronic was a brand name used by the Dixons chain in the UK from 1972 to 1983, for electronic products such as calculators and video game consoles.

The console is a member of the 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System family, all of which are software compatible, but some of which use different shape or size cartridges. Cartridges for the Prinztronic system would also work in the Acetronic MPU-1000 and Radofin 1292 consoles in the family.

This is cartridge 15 - 'Soccer'.

For more information, visit the Museum at https://obsoletemedia.org/prinztronic-tournament-vc6000/

20/01/2024

The Kinora was an early means of viewing moving images by using a flip-book technique on a series of black and white still photographs on card. They were used in a viewer machine that was designed for home use by one person at a time, and a lens enlarged the image for viewing.

Introduced in France by the Lumière brothers in 1895, it was launched in Britain in 1902 by The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Ltd. and eventually 600 reels were available before it was discontinued in 1914.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/kinora/

14/01/2024

The Amstrad GX4000 was a video game console that used ROM cartridges, and was released in Europe in 1990. This was Amstrad's first and last attempt to enter the video game market.

It came bundled with the Burnin' Rubber racing game, but only 27 game titles in total were released during its lifetime and the console was a commercial failure with just 15,000 sold before being discontinued in 1991.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/amstrad-gx4000/

06/01/2024

Here's something to cheer up a dark January day, Kraftwerk's Neon Lights 12-inch EP from 1978 on green luminous vinyl.

The turntable is a Technics SL-230, introduced around the same time.

03/01/2024

Advanced Disc for Archive was a Panasonic product that used blue laser technology (like a Blu-ray Disc). The disc offered storage of 25 GB or 50 GB depending on whether it was single or double-layer, and phase change recording promised a long life. The use of the caddy prevented scratches and fingerprints.

The system seems mainly to have been marketed to the medical sector, for example the archiving of medical images such as CT scans, but doesn't appear to have been widely used and disappeared from the Panasonic website in 2014.

For more information visit https://obsoletemedia.org/advanced-disc-for-archive/

10/12/2023

Kodak 828 film was introduced in 1935 for the Kodak Bantam camera, and used 35 mm film but with a single sprocket hole per frame to give a larger image. Rather than a cartridge, it came on a spool.

Despite being available in black and white, colour and reversal (slide) versions, it was not a success and the last cameras were sold in 1963 with Kodak discontinuing the film in 1985.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/828-film/

29/11/2023

29/11/2023

Akai VK was an early consumer video cassette format introduced in 1977. Initially B&W only, colour was introduced later but only one tape length - 30 minutes - was produced. It was geared toward home movie making, and the first recorder came with a camera.

Facing competition from Betamax and VHS, Akai VK didn't last long but the cassette design went on to be used for Akai MK multi-track audio recording tape.

For more information visit https://obsoletemedia.org/akai-vk/

19/11/2023

One of the the least successful handheld consoles of the 1990s, the Tiger Electronics Game.com system from 1997 offered a touchscreen and internet access (via an optional dial-up modem) for text-only web browsing.

Only 20 game titles were produced, and the monochrome display was considered very poor. It was discontinued in 2000.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/game-com/

12/11/2023

The Action Max was introduced in 1987 and was one of a handful of games consoles that used VHS video cassettes for game play. Although the Action Max offered live action footage for shooter type games, it offered little interactivity and only five titles were released for it.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/action-max/

04/11/2023

W-VHS (Wide VHS) was an analogue video tape cassette format for the Japanese consumer market. Its main difference over VHS and S-VHS was its ability to record and playback in high-definition (up to 1035i) but it also used metal particle tape, and had a sliding write-protect tab.

It was introduced by JVC in Japan to allow home recording of high-definition programmes that used the Hi-Vision broadcasting system.

Visit the Museum website for more information https://obsoletemedia.org/w-vhs/

29/10/2023

Iomega’s ‘Bernoulli Box’ of 1982 was a high-capacity removable magnetic disk storage system, using the Bernoulli law in physics to pull a fast-spinning PET disk towards the read-write head, but keep it separated from it by a cushion of air to make the system crash-proof.

At a time when 5.25-inch floppy discs held a maximum of 1.2 MB when used in the IBM PC AT of 1983, the Bernoulli Box’s choice of 5, 10 or 20 MB capacity seemed enormous.

https://obsoletemedia.org/bernoulli-disk/

26/10/2023

Probably the smallest hard disk drive ever commercially produced, the 0.85-inch 2GB drive was introduced by Toshiba in 2004 and used in the Nokia N91 mobile phone and the Cowon iAudio 6.

There were 4GB and 8GB versions but by 2007 it fell out of use, replaced by flash memory.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/0-85-inch-hard-disk/

01/08/2023

The Psion Series 3 range of personal digital assistants (PDAs) introduced in 1991 came with two slots for optional memory expansion packs for backup of data (marketed as ‘Solid State Disk’) or software modules with a capacity of up to 4 MB.

The earlier memory expansion packs used a button cell to keep memory stable, whereas later ones used flash memory so didn’t require this.

For more information, visit https://obsoletemedia.org/psion-series-3-solid-state-disk/

30/07/2023

This is a roll for a small barrel piano for children - the Reig Verbena Organ No. 728. The rolls were interchangeable and provided four tunes, selected by moving a lever to shift the position of the roll.

As the roll turned, the plastic pins moved hammers to strike the tuned metal rods or the percussion, which included cymbals and bells.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/reig-verbena-organ-no-728-barrel-piano-roll/

27/07/2023

The Barbie Karaoke Cam Music Video Maker was a karaoke machine that had a built-in camera and came with a wireless microphone.

Introduced in 2003 by Mattel, the unit connected to a television set to allow kids to watch themselves as they sang along to the music provided on a choice of three cartridges.

Since it was also possible to connect the unit to a video recorder, it came supplied with a Barbie-pink VHS video cassette for recording performances.

Find out more at:
https://obsoletemedia.org/barbie-karaoke-cam-music-cartridge/

23/07/2023

This IBM 274 portable dictation used Magnabelts - as the name suggests these were belts with a magnetic coating. Magnabelts were available in 3-inch or 4-inch form, and were used in a number of IBM desktop and portable dictation machine models.

Introduced in 1961, the devices using Magnabelts seem to have been fairly successful judging by the number still around.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/magnabelt/

16/07/2023

An obscure floppy disk format from the mid-1980s, the Casio Disk Sheet SD-1. It was used in the CasioWord HW-120 word-processor via a built-in drive, plus some other models via an external drive, the MD-10.

It's one of a handful of disks that shared a 2.6-inch form factor.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/2-6-inch-micro-disk/

09/07/2023

In 1981, the BBC released what it called the 'World's First Videobook'. This was a LaserDisc that used CEEFAX (the BBC's version of Teletext) to provide text information about the 70 British garden birds covered by the disc, in addition to video of birds in flight and birdsong.

The use of data on a home video format was said to have been significant in the development of the BBC Domesday project on LV-ROM disc.

Thanks to AVAVSystems for donating this disc.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/laserdisc-with-teletext/

19/06/2023

Super Video Recording (SVR) was a European video cassette format and a variant of VCR-LP, developed by Grundig and introduced in 1979.

Chrome-dioxide tape was used that allowed slower tape speeds so SVR tapes could offer up to four hours recording time.

The only SVR video recorder made was the Grundig SVR4004, along with a rebadged ITT 240.

The format didn't last long and was replaced by Video 2000 later in 1979.

For more information, visit https://obsoletemedia.org/super-video-recording-svr/

04/06/2023

In 2000, Sony made a special edition of the miniDV video cassette called the DV2000. Claimed to offer higher quality, it came in a specially padded box, and each silver coloured cassette had it's own serial number (this one is 005986).

See https://obsoletemedia.org/minidv/ for more information on miniDV.

27/05/2023

An updated version of the 'Floppy Disk Museum on a Floppy' is available, with added entries for the Sony PD-1 and Olympia Micro-Disks.

The entire microsite with details of 32 different types of floppy disk will fit on one 3.5-inch HD floppy.

https://obsoletemedia.org/data/floppy-museum/

26/05/2023

One for the posh kids that owned a BBC Model B microcomputer - Frak! on cassette tape (1984).

25/05/2023

RCA's TCR-100 was a video playback and recording machine that used multiple cartridges of 2-inch Quadruplex video tape. Introduced in 1969 by RCA, it was designed for broadcasters to manage the playback of television commercials, or short pieces such as news items.

The tape cartridges held anything from 10 seconds to 3 minutes worth of tape, and the machine held 22 cartridges.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/rca-tcr-100/

18/05/2023

Another rare floppy disk format - the Olympia Micro-Disk. It was seemingly used by several Olympia electronic typewriters, from 1977 onwards, and offered 8 KB of storage.

Find out more at https://obsoletemedia.org/olympia-micro-disk

13/04/2023

A rare floppy disk variant, the Sony PD-1 (also labelled as a 2inch DataDisk) was a floppy disk design introduced in 1987 for the Sony PJ-100 Personal Word Processor, a portable device that incorporated a detachable dot-matrix printer.

The PD-1 disk used the same form-factor as Sony’s Video Floppy, and in fact the PD-1 disc has the VF logo stamped into the shell. The PD-1 could store 47 documents when used with the PJ-100, or 1 MB.

Read more at https://obsoletemedia.org/sony-pd-1/

10/04/2023

A cardboard disc for the Ariston 24-note organette, to play the song Daisy Bell.

Organettes were a family of mechanical reed instruments, first introduced in the late 1870s. They were hand-cranked, and designed for tabletop use in the home. Different models used different means of storing music, including paper rolls, metal discs and organ cobs.

The perforations allowed a lever to lift off the relevant valve and the length of the perforation dictated how long a note sounded for.

For more information, visit https://obsoletemedia.org/organette-cardboard-disc/