Here are six retro tech items guaranteed to evoke nostalgia

FROM the very first Sony Walkman to one of the most popular schoolyard toys of the 90s, here are six classic retro tech items you will love.

TECHNOLOGY is quickly evolving, with products becoming smaller, faster and more advanced than we would have ever imagined.

While the future is exciting, there is something special about tech from days gone.

In an attempt to evoke some serious nostalgia, we decided to take a look back at six classic tech products that were once at the forefront of innovation.

1. THE FIRST SONY WALKMAN

Long before smartphones and wireless headphones, there was Sony's first personal stereo cassette player.

Released in 1979, the astonishing product was the brainchild of Sony’s legendary chairman, Masaru Ibuka.

After growing tired of lugging Sony’s TC-D5 stereo tape recorders with him on international flights, Ibuka tasked his then-deputy Norio Ohga with creating a solution.

Using elements from other devices, Ohga was able to develop the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 — a blue-and-silver portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones, a leather case and dual earphone jacks so two people could listen at once.

Impressed by the product, Ibuka pushed to create a version of the device the company could sell to consumers.

Just four months later, the Japanese tech giant had developed 30,000 units for sale, with the device costing $A200.

With Sony only managing to sell 3,000 units in the first month, concerns were raised about the appeal of the product.

However, when Sony representatives took to the streets of Tokyo to showcase the product, word quickly spread and the Walkman sold out just one month later.

Released in 1979, the astonishing product was the brainchild of Sony’s legendary chairman, Masaru Ibuka.

2. TAMAGOTCHI

If you looked at schoolyard during the late 90s, there was a pretty good chance you would have seen a Tamagotchi.

Flaunted as the “the world’s first virtual pet”, the product has sold more than 76 million units worldwide since its 1996 release.

The keychain-sized simulation game saw players begin with a tiny egg, which hatches a virtual animal.

Players were tasked with caring for the animal with various functions — feeding it, playing with it, disciplining it and cleaning up its waste.

The level of care given to the virtual pet directly influenced the stages of growth.

If there was a high level of care given to the creature, it would develop into a smart and happy adult, which would require less overall attention.

Alternately, neglecting the animal would result in it becoming ugly and unruly.

Eventually, all of the animals would die, although nurtured animals lived longer than neglected ones.

Once the animal passed away, players reset the device and started again with a brand new Tamagotchi egg.

The Tamagotchi was a small, egg-shaped, handheld LCD video game that was created in Japan in 1996.

3. GAME BOY

It might seem like a lifetime ago, but the 1989 Game Boy revolutionised portable gaming forever.

The original 8-bit handheld device had a 2.6-inch screen and was capable of displaying four shades of olive green.

Weighing nearly 400g, the Game Boy ran on four AA batteries, which allowed for 15 to 30 hours of usage.

As the handheld game consoles were developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo, the device had the operation buttons found on the NES controller.

Despite its low-tech, monochromatic display, the Game Boy immediately sold out of its 300,000 units when it was launched in Japan on April 21, 1989.

Costing $A130 at the time, the device became highly popular with Super Mario Land and Tetris among the most purchased games.

The Game Boy also included a built-in networking Game Link port designed for players to play head-to-head two-player games, with the technology becoming highly popular during the reign of the Pokemon video game series.

Hours of entertainment from something so simple.

4. MINIDISC

You might not remember, but between the Walkman and iPod was a nifty little device known as the Minidisc.

Emerging on the market in September 1992, the MiniDisc was a magneto-optical disc-based data device offering 74 minutes of storage.

While Minidiscs were very popular in Japan, the rest of the world failed to grasp the technology.

The failure of the MiniDisc was attributed to the limited number of prerecorded albums available on the device, with many record labels refusing to embrace the format.

Low uptake aside, one benefit MiniDisc had over portable CD players was the fact it had an anti-skip feature to prevent mistracking from vibration and shock.

This feature worked by storing the data into a memory buffer at a higher speed than was required, which meant it would play smoothly regardless of the conditions.

After struggling to gain any real traction, Sony announced it would no longer ship Minidisc Walkman from September 2011.

While the last of the players were sold in March 2013, Sony still offer repair services for the product.

The Minidisc music player was a short-lived concept.

5. PORTABLE TELEVISION

There was portable gaming devices and music players, so it only made sense that someone would create a portable television.

The obvious benefit to the product was the fact it allowed people to watch TV without having to be confined to a home — think of having to attend a wedding during the Winfield Cup finals.

Most of the small handheld models, came with traditional CRT or LCD screens.

The products used an antenna to receive a signal, with users required to manually search for the broadcast channel they were hoping to watch.

During its early days, the television screens were only in black and white, although colour screens were introduced a little later.

While the products were very innovative for the time, those without a digital tuner were rendered useless following the analog signal being killed off in February 2009.

Thankfully, we can now just stream anything we need on our phones.

Nothing says innovation quite like a portable TV.

6. MACINTOSH SE

Designed, manufactured and sold by Apple from 1989 until 1991, the SE was the fastest and most expandable of the original black-and-white compact Macintosh series.

The SE was the first Macintosh designed to accommodate either one or two floppy drives, or a floppy drive and a hard drive.

Additionally, the SE was the first compact Macintosh with an expansion slot.

What made the SE one of the most versatile Macs around was the fact it was able to read and write all industry standard floppy disk formats at the time.

As the SE included internal fan for cooling components for greater life expectancy, it was very noisy to operate.

While offering decent innovation for its time, the SE was overshadowed by the technically superior Mac II, which was released at the same time and claimed to be the first Mac to support colour.

Did you own any of these products? Continue the conversation with Matthew Dunn on Twitter or Facebook.