The Sounds of Nostalgia

Thesnipergecko · 5 Jul 2018 at 16:13

HDD's spinning up.. RAM/BIOS beeps on boot up... The sound of Sonic collecting his rings... the clinking and clattering of buttons in the local Arcades...

What are some of your favourite sounds from the past?

SEEEEEEEEEEGA!

almoststew1990 · 5 Jul 2018 at 17:42

The clunk with a hint of a spring as an "aftersound" when you put a floppy disk in. A CRT "crackling" when you turn off a CRT monitor!

I much prefer the quietness of modern PCs though tbh

Thesnipergecko · 5 Jul 2018 at 19:43

almoststew1990 said:
The clunk with a hint of a spring as an "aftersound" when you put a floppy disk in. A CRT "crackling" when you turn off a CRT monitor!

I much prefer the quietness of modern PCs though tbh

Ah remember the sounds they used to make when you pressed that button "degaus" was it?

jsmoke · 5 Jul 2018 at 19:58

Not sure if favourite but dial up modem was a sound from the past. Croaking HD's would have been common. Also the Spectrum loading, sort of, dssssssss eep dsssssssss eeeeeeeeeeeee. Screeching away.

lakitu · 5 Jul 2018 at 20:40

Everything you have mentioned and also the click when you turn a SNES power button on, hearing my brother play SWOS with his Quickshot joystick when I was trying to sleep and the constant WTF's when he let a goal in.

brendy · 5 Jul 2018 at 23:19

The metallic squeal of the spring when you pushed the NES cartridge down until it "caught".

Amstrad cpc 464 tape squeal when loading too. Thems were the days.

picnic · 6 Jul 2018 at 07:52

jsmoke said:
Not sure if favourite but dial up modem was a sound from the past.

I thought of that too, here it is with graphics

DEL 707 · 6 Jul 2018 at 09:31

Many a night as a kid, sleepingly listening to this, while waiting on a game to load.
Find it strangely soothing.

SickAsAParrot · 6 Jul 2018 at 09:35

There was a computer shop on Deansgate, Manchester in the 80's which I can't remember the name of (Mamelok I know was a music shop but it was similar sounding and nearby).

Anyway, every time I went in there was an Atari computer running a continuous music loop with a synthesised voice saying 'Pro Sound Designer' every time it looped. That voice has been stuck in my head ever since.

The only reference I can find was for an Atari ST version, which it could have been, the ST came out in '85 and I left Manchester summer '86, but I'm sure it was an earlier Atari running it, I stand to be corrected.

Edit* I got my memories mixed up, after a bit of research (looking on YouTube) I worked out the music loop was the Atari 800 storefront demo. The Pro Sound Designer loop must have come later (I spent 95% of my life in computer shops in my 20's) there's a YouTube video of that and it's exactly how I remember it.

LewisRaz · 6 Jul 2018 at 12:46

That proper clunk from a pcs HDD when it was turned on.

actual PC speakers that made only awful noises and often no volume control.

windows95/98 startup sounds

Floppy Drives

I remember going from a 2x CD drive and getting a 52x and for some reason that sound reminds me fondly of the sims 1.

Modem dialing noise.

MSN messenger sounds

SEGAAAAAA

Jamesyboyjim · 6 Jul 2018 at 15:16

Canyon.mid

almoststew1990 · 6 Jul 2018 at 15:18

PC speakers can actually sound alright if they're A) proper speakers and not the little beeper things, and B) in a good location and touching a good surface (my PC Speaker is aimed downwards at the bottom of the case, at a wooden desk which removes the harshness of the tone. I'm going to give the case manufacturer the benefit of the doubt and say that it was by design!)

Ninco! · 6 Jul 2018 at 18:37

Modem dial up sound, just sums up retro in one sound.
Several game publisher title sounds and their splash screens (Valve) etc.
Windows 98/XP start/shut down chimes.
"Wild Eep!" sound. I used a Macintosh Classic at work during my first job; I was used to PC's so frequently stumbled across Mac errors!
WinAmp "It whips the Llama's ass". I always thought err... why does it say this?

Digital X · 6 Jul 2018 at 20:50

Dial Up on 56K Modem.

Duke · 6 Jul 2018 at 21:01

Agree with the above, love a bit of midi as well

Noxia · 9 Jul 2018 at 17:12

The playstation logo thing on the PS1.

smilertoo · 9 Jul 2018 at 18:11

The sound of zx48k manic miner loading, there was a time i could identify games by the loading sound.

Bubo · 9 Jul 2018 at 18:30

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Jul 2018 at 23:29

Hades · 10 Jul 2018 at 14:43

Dial up modem.
Monitor degauss.
Closing a 5 1/4 floppy drive (back when they were actually floppy)/.
Old skool keyboards such as the Commodore Amiga, C64, VIC20 , PET and slightly newer keyboards like an IBM Model M.

and...