Hacker News with Generative AI: Nostalgia

Kids Love Landline Phones (rnz.co.nz)
Four years ago, Summer Haycock reinstalled a landline in her Auckland home. It was a grey corded phone reminiscent of a bland 1990s office.

Technology, Nostalgia, Family Life, Parenting

70 points by 1vuio0pswjnm7 1 day ago | 68 comments

The 88x31 GIF Collection (dabamos.de)
A collection of 4540 classic 88x31 buttons from the 1990s, 2000s, and today in GIF format.

GIFs, Nostalgia, Digital Art, 1990s, 2000s

98 points by vladde 1 day ago | 35 comments

An early social un-network (paperstack.com)
With one thing and another I’ve recently been feeling quite nostalgic for the technology landscape of my early university days (around 1990) and so I wanted to write a little bit about that.

Nostalgia, Technology, Social Media, 1990s

89 points by dcminter 3 days ago | 21 comments

Why is there a screen that says "It is now safe to turn off your computer"? (2016) (microsoft.com)
I don’t know whose idea it was, but Windows 95 added a screen that appeared when you shut down Windows.

Windows 95, Operating Systems, User Interface, Technology, Nostalgia

93 points by susam 4 days ago | 93 comments

Nostalgia for Physical Media (sicpers.info)
While I have access to streaming services that offer most of the music that the labels the services deal with still publish, I also have a significant collection of music on physical media, and do most of my listening to prerecorded music by playing entire albums, in order, from a physical format. I recently shared a not-entirely-serious overview of the nostalgia for physical prerecorded audio formats with some friends, and here’s the annotated version.

Music, Media, Nostalgia, Technology

38 points by ingve 4 days ago | 43 comments

If you ever stacked cups in gym class, blame my dad (defector.com)
Every few months, in different corners of the internet, someone asks a version of the same question: Why did we all stack plastic cups in elementary school PE class?

Nostalgia, Education, Physical Education, Childhood Memories

318 points by nonoobs 6 days ago | 47 comments

Ghosts in the Shadow of the Mouse (fiddlersgreene.substack.com)
You can't go home again, but you can never really leave it.

Nostalgia, Writing, Substack

10 points by paulpauper 9 days ago | 6 comments

Rediscovering Plan 9 from Bell Labs (itsfoss.com)
During a weekend of tidying up - you know, the kind of chore where you’re knee-deep in old boxes before you realize it. Digging through the dusty cables and old, outdated user manuals, I found something that I had long forgotten: an old Plan 9 distribution. Judging by the faded ink and slight warping of the disk sleeve, it had to be from around 1994 or 1995.

Operating Systems, History, Nostalgia

10 points by naves 9 days ago | 1 comments

Mac(OS)talgia (swallowmygraphicdesign.com)
Since COVID-19 hit us by storm, working from home has become the new normal for many, including me. Mac(os)talgia is exploring my 2020 work-from-home routine with an added touch of nostalgia. How would have the same workflow looked like with the tools of today and the limitations of yesterday. Unreliable internet, little disk storage, macOS 9 and much more...

Nostalgia, Mac OS, Design, Technology

125 points by mgrayson 11 days ago | 78 comments

Beyond the golden age: reflecting on 12 years at Google (pnote.eu)
I joined Google in 2012, in the middle of what turned out to be its long golden age of post-IPO growth. The company was doing great, steadily expanding both its revenue and the engineering footprint.

Google, Technology, Business, Personal Reflections, Nostalgia

3 points by kerneis 11 days ago | 2 comments

The Good Old Days (goodolddays.net)
Investigating our computer and video game culture. Read more

Gaming, Nostalgia, Culture, History

4 points by myth_drannon 13 days ago | 0 comments

Something's wrong when Clippy fills you with nostalgia for simpler times (theregister.com)
There are some things that can't be unseen, including Microsoft posting a hand-drawn image of the company's infamous assistant, Clippy, on social media.

Nostalgia, Microsoft, Clippy, Social Media

9 points by rntn 15 days ago | 0 comments

I still like Sublime Text (ohdoylerules.com)
I still get people asking me why I use Sublime Text in 2025 given there are soooo many other great editors out there.

Text Editors, Software, Personal Preference, Nostalgia

1184 points by james2doyle 23 days ago | 601 comments

Recreating Delicious Library in 2025? (dingyu.me)
It’s been so long that I don’t even remember exactly how I discovered Delicious Library. But as one of the rare Mac users back then (at least where I lived), I was definitely among the first to know about it—and I couldn’t wait to tell everyone I knew. Even when Mac OS X was still young, and third-party apps had a personal, playful character that made them so much fun—unlike the dull, flat designs we have today—Delicious Library still stood out.

Mac Apps, Design, Software, Nostalgia

64 points by felixding 23 days ago | 57 comments

Ask HN: Why doesn't Microsoft bring Clippy back instead of Copilot? (ycombinator.com)
The Copilot icon is confusing and doesn’t convey anything. I only discovered it was Copilot when I clicked on it out of curiosity.<p>Clippy, on the other hand, is very charismatic.<p>They are focusing in enterprise customers?

Microsoft, Software, User Interface, Artificial Intelligence, Nostalgia

26 points by delduca 25 days ago | 19 comments

Show HN: I recovered one of my earliest ZX-Spectrum games from an audio cassette (ycombinator.com)
Recently, I managed to recover some of my earliest work from the ZX Spectrum era from an old audio cassette.

Retro Gaming, Programming, Nostalgia

49 points by codeguppy 27 days ago | 17 comments

Brood War Korean Translations (sourcedive.net)
As work slowed down during the last couple of weeks of 2024, I decided to redirect some of my energy to hobbies instead of work. One such hobby is StarCraft: Brood War (or BW for short), a classic, highly competitive RTS from '98 that still has an active community today.

Gaming, StarCraft, Nostalgia, Community

314 points by todsacerdoti 34 days ago | 102 comments

Watch Bob Ross' the Joy of Painting Start to Finish: Every Episode X 31 Seasons (openculture.com)

Television, Art, Nostalgia

6 points by bookofjoe 34 days ago | 6 comments

Your brain is lying to you about the “good old days” (vox.com)
The science behind why we think the past was better than the present.

Nostalgia, Psychology, Cognitive Bias

15 points by lr0 36 days ago | 13 comments

Personalized voice recordings by Elwood "You've got mail!" Edwards (2024) (jgc.org)
If you're old enough to have ever used, seen or overheard the once ubiquitous AOL software you'll have heard the voice of Elwood Edwards.

Voice Acting, Internet History, Nostalgia

96 points by fzliu 37 days ago | 33 comments

I will never need to buy a new computer again (82mhz.net)
If you’re in your early thirties or older, you remember the breakneck pace at which computers were improving in the 90s and 2000s.

Technology, Personal Computing, Nostalgia, Moore's Law

146 points by ecliptik 39 days ago | 181 comments

The mistake of yearning for the 'friendly' online world of 20 years ago (elpais.com)
In the visuals of María Escarmiento’s concerts, as in those of many other figures of the urban scene, iPods, Blackberry phones and screenshots of Fotolog, Messenger or Tuenti appear often.

Nostalgia, Online Culture, Social Media, Technology, History

172 points by geox 39 days ago | 221 comments

I Sang Along with Peter Yarrow in 1972 (wsj.com)
On hearing of the death of Peter Yarrow, who co-wrote the iconic tune “Puff the Magic Dragon,” I thought back to Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1972.

Music, Peter Yarrow, Nostalgia, Folk Music

6 points by bookofjoe 41 days ago | 4 comments

"Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" – A 40-year book-quest (davidallengreen.com)
This post is about finally finding a book from one’s youth forty years later – and after nearly thirty years of searching.

Books, Nostalgia, Personal Stories

183 points by ColinWright 42 days ago | 55 comments

An abandoned ship held a treasure for 30 years: 50 arcade machines (jasondeegan.com)
Hidden away on a rusting, forgotten ship in Wales lay a gamer’s dream: 50 vintage arcade machines, untouched for decades.

Gaming, History, Nostalgia, Treasures, Wales

45 points by speckx 45 days ago | 9 comments

A swashbuckling tale of Italian software piracy – 1983-1993 (2022) (genesistemple.com)
Everyone had a favorite videogame shop as a kid, where plenty of happy – or perhaps, not-so-happy – memories took place. Maybe it was EG or a Game, if one is UK based, or perhaps a Gamestop, Blockbuster or a mom-and-pop shop even. As for me, well, most of my games, as a child, I bought them at newspaper kiosks.

Video Games, Piracy, Italy, History, Nostalgia

115 points by alberto-m 45 days ago | 47 comments

A man keeping hope, and 70-year-old pinball machines, alive (arstechnica.com)
The pastime of pinball has lived a fraught existence. Whether due to public sentiment, hostile legislation, or a simple lack of popularity, the entire silver ball industry has repeatedly teetered on the brink of collapse. Yet it has always come back, today again riding a wave of popularity driven by the successes of high-tech machines capitalizing on familiar brands like X-Men and Godzilla.

Pinball, Nostalgia, Entertainment, Gaming, History

58 points by dangle1 45 days ago | 30 comments

Nostalgia, Web Development, The Simpsons, Fan Sites, Personal Projects

198 points by zebomon 46 days ago | 81 comments

Show HN: A remake of my 2004 PDA video game (nicollet.net)
In 2022, I found an archive DVD with the C++ source code, sprites, sounds and music of my 2004 video game Darklaga Cannonball Symphony. It could no longer be built (due to missing proprietary dependencies), so I decided to re-implement it as a late evening hobby project.

Video Games, Retro Gaming, Programming, Nostalgia

106 points by victorNicollet 51 days ago | 23 comments

A Tricycle of the Mind (marcusb.org)
This Christmas, my daughter and I are building a computer together. The sheer power of what will be her first computer, compared to the computers I used when I was her age is staggering, as is the capability of the software she’ll have access to. Still, I can’t help but think that for all this power, the kids coming of age today have lost something that I took for granted. That I didn’t even begin to understand that I had.

Technology, Education, Nostalgia

53 points by walterbell 52 days ago | 27 comments