A Gen Z Marty McFly, who traveled back in time from 2022 to 1977, would be greeted by an alien landscape where instead of social media and smartphones, they would find bingo and rotary phones. Over the past 45 years, tech trends have come, gone and disappeared on the scrap heap of gadgets in the air. CD burners, fax machines, Blackberries, Tamagotchis and Furbys now look as dated as the Kardashians, but some old technologies (vinyl, books, Keith Richards, etc.) remain impervious to the ravages of time. Here’s a rundown of great tech moments – many gone, few forgotten – since the beginning of this magazine.
Atari 2600 (1977)
The birth of home gaming as we know it, the Atari 2600 saw a generation of kids in double denim with pan haircuts waste their lives on Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Frogger: iconic arcade titles that are still good for a whirl today.
Sony walkman (1979)
Before the Walkman, the only music you heard along the way was your father whistling Elvis. The Walkman changed all that. Insert a cassette, clip the unit to your belt, and merrily carry on until the player inevitably chews your tape to mush. The Walkman was a teen escape pod in the 1980s, so it’s fitting that he (and Kate Bush) saved Max from upside down doom in the new season of Stranger Things.
CD player (1982)
Early CD releases for Sony’s first commercially released player included The visitors by ABBA and a reissue of Billy Joel’s 52nd street. CDs took a while to take off; cassettes took longer to kill; vinyl bid its time for a 2010 renaissance.
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
After its release, the first mobile phone was considered a symbol of wealth and futurism. This stone-shaped lump of plastic looks like a crime scene exhibit.
Apple Macintosh computer (1984)
The home computing revolution had already begun with the introduction of machines like Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but the Apple Mac kicked in living room doors and created a generation of bedroom programmers and graphic designers.
Microsoft Windows (1985)
There’s more processing power in a modern car key fob, but the first Windows operating system set the computer template for decades to come. Plus, it was the first time you could have a mouse in your gaff without having to call pest control.
World Wide Web (1990)
In the early stages of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee built the first web server, web browser and website. A playground for geeky subcultures and niche chat rooms, the WWW and its concept of a global information medium was initially mistaken for another fad – the fools.
Playstation (1995)
With graphics capabilities that extended beyond Nintendo and Sega for years, the 32-bit PlayStation transformed video games. Titles like Tomb Raider, eraseand Resident Evil became as much a part of Gen Xers’ lives as Nirvana, Prodigy and Radiohead.
SONY DSCDVD players (1996)
Before DVDs, you had to watch movies on VHS cassettes, which had the graphic fidelity of a frog-filled pond. DVDs brought cinematic experiences and box set bing to homes.
USB sticks (1999)
Floppy disks deserve no mention in this article, because those little bastards inevitably broke after three uses, along with full university dissertations. USB flash drives were faster, more secure and remain a reliable storage medium to this day.
MP3 players (2001)
The music industry dropped the ball after the birth of MP3, as it posed a threat to their beloved CDs. But MP3, and the release of the first Apple iPod, proved that the customer—who wanted entire music libraries in his pocket—was right.
Twitter (2006)
At its launch, Twitter was a good-natured forum where people were usually pleasant to interact with. Today it is a colosseum of rage and screams and memes. Hey, that’s progress.
Apple iPhone (2007)
Steve Jobs’ promise to “reinvent the phone” paid off with the iPhone. 15 years later, the bones of its design can still be seen in just about every smartphone on the market.
Apple iPad (2010)
Again, Steve Jobs rewrote the rulebook with a new device, split somewhere between a laptop and a smartphone. With its multi-touch display and the abandonment of a traditional keyboard, the iPad was the stuff of the future.
Google Chromecast (2013)
With the advent of the streaming revolution, we needed a device that eliminated the need for VGA or HDMI cables. Google has provided that solution with the Chromecast. Cheap and easy to set up, it created a channel to send media from our devices to our TVs.
Amazon Echo (2014)
Despite the privacy concerns behind voice assistant technologies, the convenience of barking orders at Alexa — playing songs, communicating with friends, and getting beef taco recipes while driving — can’t be underestimated.
Apple AirPods (2016)
Airpods weren’t the first wireless headphones. However, their design, technology and Bluetooth connections made them the gold standard for wireless audio.
Nintendo Switch (2017)
Next to Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is the third tier in the Big Three of video games. PS5 and Xbox Series X are still heavy hitters, but the Switch — which can be played portable or plugged into a television — was the most innovative console of the 2010s.
Find out more in our new 45th anniversary issue, out now.
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