15 forgotten tech sounds you just don’t hear any more
Wallow in the beeps and buzzes of yesteryear, with these extinct sounds of tech
The tech graveyard is a dark, vast and scary place, littered with outdated hunks of plastic and tangled cables belonging to kit whose time on this Earth was cut short by something faster and shinier.
It’s all too easy to forget how primitive things were back in the day. Mechanical arms, analogue clicks, barbaric beeps – there’s a whole host of sounds that have all but been exterminated from our everyday lives.
Here’s our tribute to some of those ghostly sounds faintly echoing in the mausoleum of the tech of yesteryear:
Nokia kick ringtone
No, not that Nokia ringtone. We’ve gone all hipster on you by choosing another one, though it’s equally as recognisable.
Nokia’s classic mono ringtone takes us back to an era where thumb cramps from Snake marathons were a daily occurrence and luminous phone covers meant you were cool.
Game Boy power-on beep
As Nintendo’s pixellated black logo confidently dropped in from the top of the original Game Boy’s monochromatic screen – marking its arrival with an unmistakable ding – you knew you were in for a good time. Bonus colour intro thrown in for good measure.
Apple iPod click wheel
Apple’s click wheel served our fingers well throughout all its iterations – now that we’re all using touchscreen devices, we rather miss its soothing clickety-clack as we navigated through thousands of tracks in awe. "Look at how many CDs can fit inside this tiny white box!" we’d scream. Sadly, our cats were never too impressed.
56k dial-up modem sound
beeeeeepdeeeeeeepzghhhhhhhhgarblejhfchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzzz. It took us five hours of repeat listening to come up with a way of expressing that infamous 56k dial-up modem screech in words – about as long as it took to connect to a website back in the day, incidentally.
Dot matrix printer
Painfully slow and using the most fragile paper imaginable, we’ve still got a soft spot for the clunky (not to mention loud) dot matrix printer. Mostly because printer ink these days is seven times more expensive than Don Pérignon.
Obligatory bonus footage of a dot matrix printer playing Eye of The Tiger.
Typewriter
Click click clickety click click clack clack click clickety click click ding! Sigh. It’s just not the same. As much as we love the latest and greatest tech, no keyboard can offer the satisfying smash of a typewriter key. Just ask Tom Hanks – he’s an avid collector, don’t you know.
ZX Spectrum loading
What might sound like Optimus Prime screaming in rage as he stubs his toe repeatedly to you, was the joyous sound of anticipation for veteran gamers as Sinclair’s legendary 8-bit home computer loaded up a fresh game. Kids these days with their instant-on play time have it so easy.
We haven’t forgotten the other consoles either, don’t worry.
Telegrams (morse code)
Sending a telegram was expensive STOP It was tedious STOP And worst of all, you had to share your pick up lines with an operator STOP We’ll stick to emails and/or Tinder thank you very much STOP
Rotary telephone dial
Oh the agony of dialling on a rotary telephone. Finger in, rotate, rinse and repeat. For each number. And may the gadget gods have mercy on your soul if you got the last digit wrong and had to repeat the process again.
Windows 3.1 boot sound
Some sounds emit such strong memories that they really do take you back to another time and place. The plucky Windows 95 boot sound sends us straight back to a chair in front of a gigantic beige PC, complete with an even bulkier tank-like CRT monitor, and, of course, an awful mechanical mouse.
While we’re at it, why not procrastinate with some more Windows and Mac OS sounds?
Floppy disc drive
We’re not sure why we feel even the slightest amount of love for these low capacity, clunky, slow and loud squares of tech, but we do. Maybe it’s because we had so much fun smashing them to pieces with chair legs at school, exposing their naked flimsy interiors to the outside world.
Bonus Darude Sandstorm floppy disc ensemble.
VHS tape rewinding
Manually rewinding and fast-forwarding through a movie feels like something a caveman would do, but that’s the harsh reality VHS users were faced with. Don’t even get us started on mangled cassettes and tapes, and the finicky ‘pencil method’.
BBC broadcast transmission end tone
The staring girl and creepy clown from the BBC’s test card that appeared after the day’s broadcasts were terrifying. But couple it with the eerie end tone, and it was truly the stuff of nightmares.
Camera flash charge whine
Resembling a pair of night vision goggles but far less hi-tech, the high pitched whine of an old school point and shoot camera signalled when it was time to sip your drink in between shots.
8mm movie projector
There’s nothing quite like the relaxing whirr of an 8mm projector beaming a classic flick onto your wall, especially with a comfy couch propping you up and freshly popped popcorn in your lap. Until the reel jams, the movie is ruined, and you’re swearing and cursing loud enough to make even the dog abandon ship.
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Esat Dedezade
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