History Main / CassetteFuturism

* In ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'', the [[TimePolice Time Variance Authority]] used highly advanced time-travel technology that looks like tech from the 70s, including bulky monitors and analog media.

* In ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'', the [[TimePolice TVA]] used highly advanced time-travel technology that looks like tech from the 70s, including bulky monitors and analog media.

* ''[[https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/images/e/e8/JnJ_Modempunk_rightways.pdf Modempunk]]'' is a simple role-playing game made by the [[Website/FourChan 1d4Chan]] community about a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] [[{{AlternateHistory}} alternate history]] 1980s where the 1990s internet boon came a decade early, owning a computer without a license makes you an outlaw by the [[{{OppressiveStatesOfAmerica}} police-state]], and most kids are [[{{HollywoodHacking}} cool, savvy hackers]]. Players are encouraged to make clever uses of commonly available electronics from the 1980s, altered for hacking and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking "phreaking"]] by the characters. The game was inspired by the 1995 movie ''Film/{{Hackers}}''.

* ''[[https://1d4chan.org/images/e/e8/JnJ_Modempunk_rightways.pdf Modempunk]]'' is a simple role-playing game made by the [[Website/FourChan 1d4Chan]] community about a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] [[{{AlternateHistory}} alternate history]] 1980s where the 1990s internet boon came a decade early, owning a computer without a license makes you an outlaw by the [[{{OppressiveStatesOfAmerica}} police-state]], and most kids are [[{{HollywoodHacking}} cool, savvy hackers]]. Players are encouraged to make clever uses of commonly available electronics from the 1980s, altered for hacking and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking "phreaking"]] by the characters. The game was inspired by the 1995 movie ''Film/{{Hackers}}''.

As the name implies, a good way to judge if this trope is present is the frequent use of cassettes, which were used in the decades named above to house magnetic tape ubiquitous in technology of the period, and later on often contained ROM chips for game consoles and occasionally add-ons for computing hardware. Other technologies to look out for are boxy CRT displays, computer systems reminiscent of microcomputers like the UsefulNotes/Commodore64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD or monochrome green CRT displays as opposed to full-color screens, [[MagicFloppyDisk floppy disks]], reel to reel tape drives, VHS or Beta videotape, dot matrix printers, dial-up modems and loads of analog technologies. TheInternet or [[TheAlternet some analogue]] may exist, but if it's used more frequently than physical media to exchange large files, chances are that the work isn't using this trope. Optical CD disks may also be present, but no [=DVD=]s.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}": Downplayed as the computer screens are more modern, but the actual design of the ships draws heavy inspiration from the "Space Race" era of technology in the 1960s. Executive Director Todd Howard calls this type of design "NASA-punk".

* ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}': Downplayed as the computer screens are more modern, but the actual design of the ships draws heavy inspiration from the "Space Race" era of technology in the 1960s. Executive Director Todd Howard calls this type of design "NASA-punk".

* "VideoGame/Starfield": Downplayed as the computer screens are more modern, but the actual design of the ships draws heavy inspiration from the "Space Race" era of technology in the 1960s. Executive Director Todd Howard calls this type of design "NASA-punk".

* Videogame/LethalCompany: The game features a lot of the aesthetics of this trope, from the very '80s-inspired computer appearance and interface, to the ship and architecture of the various moon buildings being very blocky and industrial.

* "Videogame/LethalCompany": The game features a lot of the aesthetics of this trope, from the very '80s-inspired computer appearance and interface, to the ship and architecture of the various moon buildings being very blocky and industrial.

* "Videogame/LethalCompany: The game features a lot of the aesthetics of this trope, from the very '80s-inspired computer appearance and interface, to the ship and architecture of the various moon buildings being very blocky and industrial.

A technological aesthetic reminiscent of mid-1970s to late 1990s tech (regardless of the real-time setting of the media) as [[TropeCodifier codified]] by early microcomputers like the Altair 8800 and the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer, Cold War-era technology, the iconic imagery of the mid to late space race, or the post-Cold War "end of history" period in the 1990s, which was characterized by a fascination with virtual reality technologies (such as helmets) and 2D computer animation.

A technological aesthetic reminiscent of mid-1970s to late 1990s tech (regardless of the real-time setting of the media) as [[TropeCodifier codified]] by early microcomputers like the Altair 8800 and the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer, cold war era technology, the iconic imagery of the mid to late space race, or the post-Cold War "end of history" period in the 1990s, which was characterized by a fascination with virtual reality technologies (such as helmets) and 2D computer animation.

* The video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo "Scream"]] epitomizes this trope, depicting Music/{{Michael|Jackson}} and Music/JanetJackson in a monochromatic video of them dancing aboard a [[AsceticAesthetic minimalistic]] spaceship that looks like something out of the ''{{VideoGame/Fallout}}'' franchise. In several scenes they are shown playing a futuristic version of ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}''.

* Done to a limited extent with the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games. While the vast majority of the series' technologies, aesthetics, and [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar geopolitical backstory]] are [[RaygunGothic retro-futurist throwbacks to the science fiction and culture]] of TheFifties, the designers recognized that this wouldn't fly for ubiquitous personal computers (which didn't really exist in '50s sci-fi). And so, the game features '80s-style computers with monochromatic, green, text-only displays, and "holodisks" being the main medium of transferring data. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' adds games with simple graphics that pay homage to classic real-life games from the '70s and '80s like ''VideoGame/MissileCommand'', ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}'', and ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', whose holodisks resemble old-fashioned Atari and Nintendo cartridges.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'' CRT monitors are everywhere (including [[TVHeadRobot on the robots themselves]]), and electronics in general give off the feel of TheNineties. More of a gritty UsedFuture like in the Walled City itself, and a cleaner version of the same in the Control Room.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' is set in a very '80s/'90s vision of what the year 2077 would look like, in keeping with the [[TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} pen-and-paper RPG]] that it is based on. The angular cars look like they came out of ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' or an '80s Detroit assembly line, UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion (on the ascent in TheNineties after the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar) is an economic superpower whose "euro-dollars" are the global currency, and even with all the high-end computer technology around, the primary means of electronic data transfer is through an evolution of USB drives rather than anything resembling the internet (which, in the ''Cyberpunk'' universe, collapsed during the [[GreatOffscreenWar Fourth Corporate War]]).

* ''Videogame/Prey2017'' Takes place on a space station that looks like a ritzy 1960's hotel and has computer interfaces that look like they were designed for a B-Movie. This was an intentional choice of the designers; the station was originally a joint project between the Kennedy Administration and the KGB, meant to research alien bio-technology together in the hopes of one day ending the Cold War and becoming full allies. [[WhoShotJFK That... didn't work out]][[note]]Prey takes place in an alternate timeline where Kennedy survived - but the project utterly failed.[[/note]]. When a mega-corporation bought out the station decades later, they discovered that virtually no further progress on the aliens had succeeded. Seeing as the station froze in time, in terms of its technological and political goals, they decided to re-brand it with the styles that were popular at the same time period that everything halted, as if to show that if they were alive then, they could succeed where Kennedy and the KGB failed. You'll find the occasional 21st-century technology lying around.

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' and ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' has this, everywhere on Mobius.