I will take no arguments

I like how they threw a 2DS into the pile of late 90s, early 2000s tech.

Initially I agreed, but actually I think it stands. The design is similar enough, regardless of era. Honestly, I really do wish this kind of design would come back
Fun factoid of the day: The Nintendo 2DS only actually has one screen. Go ahead, open one up, you'll see...
- fun followup of the day: a "factoid" is something that isn't true, but is presented as being true. go ahead, look it up!

Well if you don’t like black rectangle, you can have silver rectangle.

Wrong, you can get colored and transparent shells for the Steam Deck. Design technology is still peaking.

)

I only got the backplate but man I'm tempted to do the front too.

Also transparent filaments are great. I 3D printed an olfa knife handle in transparent green (think Razer's green) and it looks fucking awesome.
- Got a picture?
I got one in 'atomic purple' because that is the most rad color.
- Still perplexed Nintendo hasn't released atomic purple joycons.
Literally just got a semi-transparent Xbox controller. My kid loves looking at the rumble motor moving inside.
Also cheap emulation devices like anbernic keeping atomic purple alive

That translucent blue plastic becomes about the most absolute brittle shit over time. When they say plastic lasts hundreds if not thousands of years, translucent blue plastic missed that memo.

When they say it lasts, they don't mean it stays in the exact same condition and shape.
- Most of it is in my balls now.
- Well, you're not wrong..
Plastic lasts thousands of years, most of it lasts tens of thousands of years but blue plastic singlehandedly brings down the average.
- Gold Plastic Syndrome has entered the chat

I guess it's very much a matter of taste.

Ten years or so earlier, you could still get a TV where the sides of the case were made of wood. Wood, metal and black plastic throughout. Physical buttons that went 'clunk', a physical slider to adjust the volume, a metal dial for tuning.

To me, that was peak design.

I actually took a busted one of those and fit a 32in flat into it. Blocks off a little of the edges with the frame and gives it that square screen look without losing anything important. Cheap soundbar sounds amazing inside the box, everything is plugged into a surge protector inside and fed through the antenna hole.

I really want to get a Vintage breadbox or radio to put the DVD player inside of.
- That sounds amazing. I'd love to see a photo. I'd planned a similar project with an old radio, but it's one of those things that's been on my "I'll get round to it eventually" list for 5 years :)

Eventually all of these products found a place in our hearts.

And our brains, our kidneys and for some of us, our balls.

RGB, plastic edition.

The original iMac being the device that kicked off the colored, translucent plastic craze of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

There was a translucent George Foreman grill!

I always thought it was a Nintendo thing first.
Translucent products had been around for a decade prior to those iMacs. If anything, they marked the beginning of the end for the trend.
Translucent George Foreman grill? For real?

Did it even have a power switch? Mine isn't translucent, but my OG George Foreman grill does not even have a power switch, you literally gotta unplug that mofo if you don't want your house to burn down.

That blue ps2 looks dope af

Never forget what they took from us

Games that HAD to be complete and bug free when released.
- They certainly weren’t

One of these is not like the others

It just looks so... technological

Hot take... This trend was just a modern (at its time) reimagining of the TRUE peak of tech design: 80s era clear cases with brightly colored interior components.

For example: https://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/retro-transparent-neon-phone/

Fun fact, you can relive the old days by going to prison and being on good behavior to get a transparent TV or radio/CD player in your cell very similar to this.

https://www.icswaco.com/RCA-SECUREVIEW-CLEAR-LED-TELEVISION
- 13" TVs for prisoners!?
  
  Talk about cruel and unusual punishement

Wii would like to chat

That blue light hit different

Technology design peaked here:

Later: We all have 8 different flavors of cancer from these

Did...did you eat your atomic purple N64?
- It was just a nibble!
- We were all tempted. It's okay.
?

There is one thing In here not like the others...

Honestly, I am really happy we passed that transparent bubblegum-toy style. My hope is that we move towards physical buttons again, at least where they make sense (cars for example).

Wish granted. Now everything comes with those cheap shitty bubble-like buttons that are incomprehensibly stiff and only work if you press at just the right angle with just the right amount of force, and there's a 50% chance they register twice.

I don't know why, but translucent colored plastic gives me "cheap garbage" vibes. Probably because knock off memory cards and controllers for the PS1/PS2 used exactly that design.

Yes, from roughly 1997-2013 according to that image. In that one brief 16 year moment, it peaked.

Imo the old Macintosh design is the 1969 VW Beetle/ bus of computers. ✌️☮️🌼

Give me translucent Game Boy Color any day :)

Graphite iMac G3 is perfection.

Yeah. Love that round fucking mouse, and that computer with a space heating, ESD producing CRT crammed into the same chassis. Those things were fucking garbage.
- Ok, fine, Graphite iMac G3 is perfection of form over function. That better?
  
  Never actually had one, always wanted one. I did use the hockey puck mouse at school, and agree that it was fucking terrible. Can't really speak to the esd issues from the CRT, didn't use it often/long enough for that to affect me, though I can certainly see how it could have been a problem. Most computers are some level of space heaters, as far as that goes, especially if you've got a decent GPU, so I'm not sure I'd really knock it too much for that unless it was just really super egregious.

I'm 'bout to bust

I always go for the clear plastic replacement shells for my electronics. I got a Dreamcast with a chewed up shell that is now clear blue, did my GBA SP in a clear green a couple of years ago, and I'm looking into reshelling my Wii too now.