[chucker]

Optical discs were a fun phenomenon for a decade or two.

Around 1995, we had an Apple (I think?) external SCSI CD-ROM drive… I remember it eventually developed an imbalance, perhaps because it had fallen.

Then those got a lot faster. 4x! 16x! 52x! And burning discs and sharing those CD-Rs started to happen.

[psmith2.0]

I actually loved that period. This was all pre-Internet/iTunes, for the most part (at least the Internet as we know it now). Many of us still on dial-up, so "downloading" music was still a brutal, time-zapping affair.

But, over the course of several months, I ripped the bulk of my 300+ CD collection and put it all into iTunes. And then, when the disc-burning stuff was riding high, I was making awesome mix CDs for myself to drive around with. I'd make jewel case inserts in Illustrator with the track listing and some sort of little stylized illustration to tie in with the bulk of music contained (surfing stuff, or 60's British Invasion imagery). Never listened to local radio. Didn't need to. I had all the good music I actually loved, at my fingertips.

When someone was riding shotgun with me, on a day trip or whatever, I'd say "reach into that console and flip through and see if any of those CDs sounds good, and, if so, pop it in!" At one point, I had 9-10 discs, all with 12-15 songs on them of a related sort. Early 60's surf instrumentals, mid-late 60's California/Bakerfield country/honky tonk (Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart, early Merle Haggard, etc.), 60's British Invasion, 90's power pop-punk, mellow 70's "AM gold" ("Chevy Van", "Seasons in the Sun", "Afternoon Delight", etc.), 80's one-hit new-wave cheese, late 70's/early 80's Stones, The Knack, Tom Petty, etc. (hooky, guitar-based favorites), etc. All good, (mostly) up-tempo "driving music".

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by Yontsey I remember as a kid my grandfather getting the CD-Rom external Add-on with speakers for the LCII (I believe?) and it was like $500. Insane what that stuff cost back in the 90s and how far technology has come. Especially now that cds are dead.

Yeah we paid a lot for an external 500MB hard drive back in 1990. I don't know the exact figure, but it was north of $300.

[Yontsey]

Just got my new machine. This Space Black is damn sexy.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by PB PM Yeah we paid a lot for an external 500MB hard drive back in 1990. I don't know the exact figure, but it was north of $300.

Way higher.

We paid 1,000 DM (~500 USD) for 120 MB in 1992.

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by chucker Way higher. We paid 1,000 DM (~500 USD) for 120 MB in 1992.

I honestly don't know what ours cost, I was too young to know. I just remember my folks saying it was over $300.

[turtle]

I really owning something like a 20MB (or maybe 40MB) half-height HDD that is the size of CD drives in desktops. I have no idea what it cost, but this was back in the late 80's or early 90's. Before I joined the Navy while I was still in high school too.

It is wild how far things have come. I'm looking forward to seeing how far they go!