9 Retro Gadgets That Deserve A Second Chance

Now the cassette tape has been revived with 180 terabytes of storage, could the Beeper be the next Twitter?

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In the past week tech sites have been a-buzz with news of Sony's revolutionary storage device - the cassette tape. Holding 180 terabytes of data, that's up to 62,914,560 hours of audio right into your eardrums. And while commercial use for the storage is unclear and probably unlikely, it might inspire a rejuvenation of the 80s teen rom-com classic, the mixtape.

But what other retro gadgets could find a new lease of life in digital age?

MIDI Files

MP3 ringtones are just so bland. Plus, it's sometimes when you're out and about it's super hard to figure out if it's your phone ringing or the radio's on. This is where your trusty old friend the MIDI comes in, bringing you the best of both worlds; your favourite song mutated enough so you don't confuse it with human singing.

Low Tech Board Games

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We may never know the truth about how they managed to get so many eligible bachelors in one place, and while the men of Dream Phone are now probably middle aged alcoholics who haven't had a call in over a decade, there is a nice kitschy quality to gadgetry gimmicks in games.

Please, it's not fair if we're the only generation who were dumb enough to be scared of Atmosfear at 2pm with the curtains closed.

Fax Machine

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What's the best way to plan a business coup right under someone's nose? Correspondence by fax! But not one of those fancy internet fax machines, no you have to go into the darkest depths of your mail room and use the original fax machine, the one that now only gets random spam fax messages from stationary companies. Alternatively, you can just mess around with it for a few hours to waste time if you just hate your job.

Sega Games Consoles

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Sega, please come back, we miss you. I can't help but think a budget console with back catalog fully loaded, or stream-able like Playstation Now, would be a moderate hit and enough to propel Sega back into the game. I guess in the meantime I'll have to settle for impulse buying from ebay.

Pagers / Beepers

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Available with up to a 240 character limit, pagers are the perfect outlet for those who find twitter a bit constrictive. Plus, you can get ones that only send messages one way - I'm sure there's a practical joke that can be done with that somehow.

Pagers still serve a practical purpose for emergency services where mobile networks are overloaded or just don't have coverage. There's a chance they could become essential emergency backups for wanderers and explorers for years to come.

Macs in Different Colours

Who didn't dream of a G3? Did anyone even own these or were they just used in tv shows to make young people look like edgy urbanites? Either way, according to this advert they look cool and can dance, so what more do you need?

Relaunching hardware with colour options is a tried and tested Apple marketing strategy - we've seen it with the original macs, ipods, ipod shuffle, ipod nano, ipod touch and iphones, so will the next few years bring pink Macbook Airs?

Talkboy

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I don't really remember these every being on sale in the UK, but a gadget that enables you to record incriminating sounds bites, and then use them for blackmail seems like the perfect training for a career in the NSA or GCHQ. Take note, jobseekers.

Nokia 3310 with Snake

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So, so, so, so much better than Candy Crush and the Lumia combined, and provides the perfect balance of fun and practicality if you are a drug dealer/spy/adulterer. I feel like there should be somewhere you can buy these in bulk.

AOL

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Just kidding, no one wants this back.