History Main / CassetteFuturism

* Produced decades later, its reboot series ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' is initially vague about how advanced Colonial digital technology was, with a backstory alluding to the Colonists downgrading their digital tech deliberately to fight the Cylons, who as artificially intelligent lifeforms were really good at hacking their computer systems. When Helo and Starbuck are stranded on Caprica and rummaging through Starbuck's old apartment, the microcassettes from ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' show up in Starbuck's possession; they contain recordings of her father's piano music. Later the series seems to imply that Colonial computer tech is about a couple years to a decade behind present-day Earth, but as the ''Galactica'' is an old ship from the first war, she is deliberately lower-tech compared to newer, more digitally advanced ships like the ''Pegasus''. Various other Colonial tech (especially non-military tech) also has retro-stylings, like their art deco radios that wouldn't look out of place in a 1950s diner. The Colonists are HumanAliens, human beings from a parallel civilization who [[spoiler: eventually turn out to be our prehistoric ancestors]]. Their technological progression (pre-war) doesn't strictly have to follow Earth's, but they are meant to be roughly similar to us culturally enough that we might expect only minor variations, like the microcassettes and vintage-looking radios, which might have been technological dead-ends in their own civilization's history, but probably are more resistant to Cylon electronic warfare than digital technology. At least, Colonial space travel tech does seem to have advanced by the time ''Galactica'' is set, but the civilian radios still look like early and mid-20th century AM/FM models with art deco stylings, and other episodes imply that the ''A Clockwork Orange''-inspired microcassettes were a common storage medium for music, at least on Caprica, before the Cylon Holocaust.

* ''VideoGame/{{Signalis}}'' is set in a quasi-Eastern Bloc-esque polity called the Nation of Eusan which still relies on big, blocky CRT monitors, computers reliant on floppy discs, large and bulky radio transmitters that relies on cassettes, and screens that depicts vector monitors. All of this coinciding with propaganda posters that would fit quite well of its era whilst still having RidiculouslyHumanRobots.

* ''VideoGame/Signalis'' is set in a quasi-Eastern Bloc-esque polity called the Nation of Eusan which still relies on big, blocky CRT monitors, computers reliant on floppy discs, large and bulky radio transmitters that relies on cassettes, and screens that depicts vector monitors. All of this coinciding with propaganda posters that would fit quite well of its era whilst still having RidiculouslyHumanRobots.

* ''Series/Severance2022'': The central setting, the Lumon offices seems to run exclusively on CD-ROMs and bulky, convex computer monitors with trackballs instead of mouses.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The store in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', as well as the Café 80s, are in-universe examples. The whole 2015 segment in the same movie heavily features this kind of aesthetic, but it's implied that they also have some form of advanced digital technology (though we never see it directly in the movie itself).

* Seeing as he was abducted from Earth in the '80s, Star Lord from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' has a cassette player built into his spaceship. The movie in general takes a lot of aesthetic cues from '80s scifi movies like ''Film/TheIcePirates'', as well.

* ''Film/{{The Net|1995}}'' (1995) caught the tail end of this aesthetic in real time, showing it giving way to the Internet. As a sign of its times, a 3½-inch floppy disk was an important plot item.

* The original ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' is about as joyously 1970's-looking a space opera as anyone could ask for; or it was, until series creator Glen Larson took this trope [[ExaggeratedTrope even further]] with ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury,'' listed below.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. You have {{data crystal}}s and microtapes, [[ZeeRust solid state computers]] with BillionsOfButtons and esoteric talking AI's, clunky UsedFuture freighters and gleaming {{Cool Starship}}s.
* Despite being based on a comic strip from decades earlier, ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury'' is the most gloriously 1970's-looking piece of science fiction ever conceived.

* ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' is full of this due to its TwoDecadesBehind aesthetic, with examples including Cinco's commercials for impractical innovations such as the "Video Cube Playback System" (a large, cube-shaped storage medium for home video that actually has to be plugged into a VHS cassette to work) and the "Innernette" (a simulation of the Internet, all on one CD!). The recurring ''Uncle Muscles Hour'' sketches (hosted by a character played by Music/WeirdAlYankovic) similarly feel like a warped version of a cable access variety show from the 80's, and the spin-off ''Series/CheckItOutWithDrSteveBrule'' goes even further with this look.

* {{Vaporwave}} is a pretty new music subgenre of electronica. The genre was born from {{Plunderphonics}}, [[OlderThanTheyThink (which has been around since the late 80's to early 90's).]] Vaporwave is more-or-less this trope in musical genre/subculture movement form, and became to what it is now by numerous nostalgic internet users from [[TheNewTens early 2010s]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' has a very '80s (and later parts with some '90s) feel to it, despite being set in the [[TheNewTens then-present day]] and having one early episode where characters time travel to the actual 1980s. All video game graphics are 8-bit, the music is mostly Hair Metal or New Wave, some montages ape early-MTV music video techniques, Russia is implied to somehow still be the USSR, America's current president is very like Bill Clinton himself, and two of the oldest main characters' (Skips and Pops) backstories are have their high school years play similar to 1980s films set in high school.

Whether it be the bold colors and geometric shapes, the tendency towards [[AsceticAesthetic stark plainness,]] or the exotic-looking computers and proto-cell phones, it is clear that this is neither the RaygunGothic of days past nor the EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture aesthetic that would follow, but a bridging point that contains elements of both styles.

Compare and contrast EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture. Compare to ComputerEqualsTapeDrive, {{Retraux}}, RetroUniverse, ZeerustCanon and RaygunGothic.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has a very 1970s aesthetic, including computer files that look like long-playing records, which is appropriate since it is set in the '70s- the 2070s.

* ''Literature/LeftBehind'' of all things does this semi-unintentionally -- the last book in the series, Kingdom Come, was written in 2007, is mostly set in 2093, and features fax machines and DVD players as cutting edge technology, simply due to the need to keep continuity with the earlier entries.

* ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' takes place inside a Brutalist building full of deliberately outmoded technology. The Federal Bureau of Control specifically forbids "anything smart" (including cell phones) from being brought into the Oldest House, and there are even posters warning employees of the Bureau to be on the lookout for modern technology because it does not react well to the supernatural phenomena within. The desktop computers are big and bulky in the style of an early '80s "micro" or IBM PC, mainframes are absolutely huge and covered in analog switches and blinkenlights, the Bureau uses reel-to-reels and film projectors, data is transferred between departments via an immense pneumatic tube system (even if it does lose things sometimes), and even the firearms used by agents and rangers are outdated. Nothing can be seen in use that dates back to later than the 1970s or '80s.

* [[http://io9.gizmodo.com/12-futuristic-worlds-where-everybody-uses-obsolete-te-1646690502 This article]] lists several movies that feature that kind of aesthetics.

Expect many high-end electronics to come in beige box cases. When actually using the electronics or looking into the displays, expect that OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture, there will be TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects and some employment of {{Retraux}} by virtue of having said 3D consist of very simple geometry with stock textures. Odd hybrid setups echoing the experimental era of user interfaces are also common: one might find rotary dials and switchboards alongside a more modern keyboard, a joystick used in place of a mouse on an low-resolution icon-based GUI, or basic LCD readouts and indicator light displays with cryptic labels seemingly included as afterthoughts acknowledging that the user might like to know [[BlackBox what, if anything, a device might be doing]].

* The original ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' is about as joyously 1970's-looking a space opera as anyone could ask for; or it was, until series creator Glen Larson took this trope [[UpToEleven even further]] with ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury,'' listed below.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' is initially vague about how advanced Colonial digital technology was, with a backstory alluding to the Colonists downgrading their digital tech deliberately to fight the Cylons, who as artificially intelligent lifeforms were really good at hacking their computer systems. When Helo and Starbuck are stranded on Caprica and rummaging through Starbuck's old apartment, the microcassettes from ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' show up in Starbuck's possession; they contain recordings of her father's piano music. Later the series seems to imply that Colonial computer tech is about a couple years to a decade behind present-day Earth, but as the ''Galactica'' is an old ship from the first war, she is deliberately lower-tech compared to newer, more digitally advanced ships like the ''Pegasus''. Various other Colonial tech (especially non-military tech) also has retro-stylings, like their art deco radios that wouldn't look out of place in a 1950s diner. The Colonists are HumanAliens, human beings from a parallel civilization who [[spoiler: eventually turn out to be our prehistoric ancestors]]. Their technological progression (pre-war) doesn't strictly have to follow Earth's, but they are meant to be roughly similar to us culturally enough that we might expect only minor variations, like the microcassettes and vintage-looking radios, which might have been technological dead-ends in their own civilization's history, but probably are more resistant to Cylon electronic warfare than digital technology. At least, Colonial space travel tech does seem to have advanced by the time ''Galactica'' is set, but the civilian radios still look like early and mid-20th century AM/FM models with art deco stylings, and other episodes imply that the ''A Clockwork Orange''-inspired microcassettes were a common storage medium for music, at least on Caprica, before the Cylon Holocaust.

* Seeing as he was abducted from Earth in the 80s, Star Lord from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' has a cassette player built into his spaceship.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU Hackerman]] from ''Film/KungFury'' is probably this film's most representative example.
* ''Film/TheMatrix'': While the world inside of the Matrix mostly looks contemporary to the time the film was made (late '90s, when there were both readily available landline phones and trendy flip-phone and slider cell phones), the real world is much grungier, with monitors only showing text terminals and information stored on [=MiniDiscs=] which manage to both look very exotic to American audiences at the time (the format never caught on in the US) and incredibly dated within a few years with the adoption of USB flash drives.

* ''Series/Severance2022'': The central setting, the Lumon offices seems to run exclusively on CD-ROMs and bulky, convex computer monitors.

* ''[[https://archive.org/details/death-wore-endless-feathers-disk-1 Death Wore Endless Feathers]]'' is an animated AdventureGame inspired by Neal Stephenson's novel ''Literature/SnowCrash''. It takes place in a retro-Cyberpunk world which has 1990s-style computer technologies and VR, and is inhabited by both humans and {{Funny Animals}}s. The protagonists are a bunch of hackers who break open "ractives" (video game files) so that everyone could play them, and come across [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame a mysterious game that kills those who crack it]].

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 CRT displays, computer systems reminiscent of microcomputers like the UsefulNotes/Commodore64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD displays as opposed to full color screens, [[MagicFloppyDisk floppy disks]], VHS, 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 DVDs.

%%(ZCE)* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKT3Z8LBn6s First Contact]]'', the VR introductory game bundled with the Oculus Rift (not to be confused with the [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact Star Trek film of the same name]]), is dripping with this.

A technological aesthetic reminiscent of late 1960s to early 1980s 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, and the iconic imagery of the mid to late space race.

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 CRT displays, computer systems reminiscent of microcomputers like the UsefulNotes/Commodore64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD displays as opposed to full color screens, [[MagicFloppyDisk floppy disks]], 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.

* ''Series/{{Severance}}'' central setting, the Lumon offices seems to run exclusively on CD-ROMs and bulky, convex computer monitors.

* ''Literature/{{LeftBehind}}'' of all things does this semi-unintentionally -- the last book in the series, Kingdom Come, was written in 2007, is mostly set in 2093, and features fax machines and DVD players as cutting edge technology, simply due to the need to keep continuity with the earlier entries.

* ''Series/Severance'' central setting, the Lumon offices seems to run exclusively on CD-ROMs and bulky, convex computer monitors.

* ''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/GhostInTheShell'' or an '80s Detroit assembly line, UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion (on the ascent in TheNineties after TheGreatPoliticsMessUp) 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]]).

* Ron Cobb's set designs for ''Film/{{Alien}}'' made to bring the UsedFuture depicted by the film to life is perhaps one of the most influential takes of this style, setting up the environment and mood of the sequels that followed and inspiring other Science Fiction media.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqaJf5oBfVw This]] Creator/AdultSwim Gold Commercial.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1522100411045862700
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' has chunky computers without touch screens still in use in 2019. ''Partially'' justified by technology being held back by TheTokyoFireball and subsequent conflicts. Also, no digital cameras. Ryu at one point gives Nezu a roll of film to develop.
* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' (specially the 1995 movie) is generally pretty good at avoiding anachronisms, but it too has its moments - for instance, despite most people being connected to a global communication network ''directly through their brains'', apparently public phones are still a thing.
* The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise has a technological presentation that varies wildly, mostly because they are products of their time (and some like ''Victory'' justify their SchizoTech by happening AfterTheEnd), but in general it's quite a sight to see a universe in which HumongousMecha and space colonies are standard but computers still need floppy disks (''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is a good example of this).
* The original ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' is as '80s as it gets (thanks to, among other things, being a homage to ''Film/StreetsOfFire'') even if it happens in the 2030s. One example is that the "Data Units," (portable computer information storage units with hefty amounts of data on the KillerRobot Boomers and the Hardsuit PoweredArmor that are used via BrainUpload) which serve as an important MacGuffin in the backstory of two mayor characters, look like Betamax cassettes.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'', mainly in the classic manga-derived content made in the late 80s/early 90s, has become this: many of Bulma's inventions are decidedly 80s in design, and two of her more well-known inventions[[note]]the Shrink Watch and Gohan's Great Saiyaman outfit[[/note]] operate through devices that look like Casio watches. She also owns a futuristic pocket-portable capsule house... that has a CRT television inside. Flying cars exist alongside classic Porches and Beetles, and one scene pivots on Bulma's ability to build her own phone, as cellphones aren't a thing. Ultimately this is a ZigZaggedTrope: TechnologyMarchesOn even in-universe, so designs in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' look futuristic in a more modern sense compared to tech earlier in the series.

* ''Film/StarWarsANewHope'' opens on Leia downloading the Death Star plans off a wall-sized computer and storing them on a "datacard" (floppy disc). The prequels replaced such tech with the HolographicTerminal.

* ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' uses Brutalist architecture, which features stark, blocky and concrete shapes, to represent the future. Fashions are also very bizarre, with colorful wigs and bodysuits being fairly common. Alex plays music on a microcassette.
* ''Film/StrangeDays'' is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, in a dystopian society that was only a few years away from the time of filming. The future aesthetic is mostly conveyed with loud, shiny clothing and punk stylings amongst the hip and degenerate crowd. Information is distributed by hand on discs, without any mention of the internet.

* ''Film/SpaceMutiny'' has this aesthetic, with the space ship filled with CRT televisions, rows of computer keyboards stuck to walls, and New Wave fashions. The fact that much of the film was shot in an old factory makes the space ship seem technologically very analog and mechanical.
* ''Film/Cherry2000'' has a very 1980s view of the future. The main character is a MegaCorp executive for a cable television station, and his swanky apartment is very cassette futuristic.

* ''Film/{{Prospect}}'' features advanced, space-faring technology that has a design aesthetic from the 1970s and 1980s. Most portable devices are bulky and blocky, the protagonists use paper maps and notepads, and their spaceship features analog switches, keypads, tiny monochrome monitors and a general beige and earthtone color scheme.

* Seeing as he was abducted from Earth in the 80s, Star Lord from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' has a cassette player built into his spaceship.

* Creator/WilliamGibson's Literature/SprawlTrilogy features things as complex as human memories recorded on tape. Not to mention that three megabytes of hot RAM is apparently valuable enough to kill for.

* Creator/JacekDukaj's story ''Oko potwora'' (''Eye of a Monster'') is set in a deliberate throwback to Lem's stories. Apart from off-hand mentions to the Soviet Union, a spaceship's computer is a room-sized pile of analog electronics that requires the attention of a dedicated computer repair ship in case of damage, one of which features in the plot.[[/folder]]

* ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' is full of this due to its TwoDecadesBehind aesthetic, with examples including Cinco's commercials for impractical innovations such as the "Video Cube Playback System" (a large, cube-shaped storage medium for home video that actually has to be plugged into a VHS cassette to work) and the "Innernette" (a simulation of the Internet, all on one CD!). The recurring ''Uncle Muscles Hour'' sketches (hosted by a character played by Music/WeirdAlYankovic) similarly feel like a warped version of a cable access variety show from the 80's, and the spin-off ''Series/CheckItOutWithDrSteveBrule'' goes even further with this look.

* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' also had lots of CRT screens (not disguised) as well as [=CDs=] and other mid-nineties tech.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. You have {{data crystal}}s and microtapes, [[ZeeRust solid state computers]] with BillionsOfButtons and esoteric talking AI's, clunky UsedFuture freighters and gleaming {{Cool Starship}}s.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' is initially vague about how advanced Colonial digital technology was, with a backstory alluding to the Colonists downgrading their digital tech deliberately to fight the Cylons, who as artificially intelligent lifeforms were really good at hacking their computer systems. When Helo and Starbuck are stranded on Caprica and rummaging through Starbuck's old apartment, the microcassettes from ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' show up in Starbuck's possession; they contain recordings of her father's piano music. Later the series seems to imply that Colonial computer tech is about a couple years to a decade behind present-day Earth, but as the ''Galactica'' is an old ship from the first war, she is deliberately lower-tech compared to newer, more digitally advanced ships like the ''Pegasus''. Various other Colonial tech (especially non-military tech) also has retro-stylings, like their art deco radios that wouldn't look out of place in a 1950s diner. The Colonists are HumanAliens, human beings from a parallel civilization who [[spoiler: eventually turn out to be our prehistoric ancestors]]. Their technological progression (pre-war) doesn't strictly have to follow Earth's, but they are meant to be roughly similar to us culturally enough that we might expect only minor variations, like the microcassettes and vintage-looking radios, which might have been technological dead-ends in their own civilization's history, but probably are more resistant to Cylon electronic warfare than digital technology. At least, Colonial space travel tech does seem to have advanced by the time ''Galactica'' is set, but the civilian radios still look like early and mid-20th century AM/FM models with art deco stylings, and other episodes imply that the ''A Clockwork Orange''-inspired microcassettes were a common storage medium for music, at least on Caprica, before the Cylon Holocaust.
* In ''Series/{{Caprica}}'', taking place several decades before ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', the effect resembles SchizoTech, as the Colonial computer technology shown to exist ''before'' the war with the Cylons is clearly much more advanced than our own, or the tech that the Colonists apparently fell back on when they built ships like ''Galactica'' with no computer networks on board to make them more resistant to Cylon hacking. The people of planet Caprica (and presumably the other 11 colonies) have USB drives, flat touchscreens, fully immersive virtual reality and holotechnology, and artificially intelligent [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture robot butlers that resemble iPods]], but still make use of late 90s/early 2000s "flip phones" and even older rotary-style phones. This was probably more for stylistic reasons, as ''Caprica'' contains elements of {{Cyberpunk}} and TheFutureIsNoir that incorporate other retro aesthetics (Fedoras, cigarettes, etc).

* ''Series/Maniac2018'' is set in an alternative timeline 2018. The timeframe appears to have branched off from reality in the early 1980s, and technology is both more crude and more powerful at the same time. There are sanitation robots picking up street litter, VR pornography, and an AI capable of scanning and manipulating humans brains. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be an internet, and computers look like Commodore 64s, with small monochromatic displays and old 5 & 1/4" floppy drives.
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSlimGoodbody'': Despite taking place in a futuristic TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting with {{Teleportation}}, data and programming in this series get stored on magnetic tape, as it was produced in the late 70s and early 80s. The tapes are plot-relevant, too, as the resident RobotBuddy B-1 needs to have tapes inserted into a drive on his chest regularly, or else his programming crashes.
* The sci-fi elements of ''Series/Danger5'''s second season lean hard into this, sometimes with a little bit of a disco CrystalSpiresAndTogas vibe, in contrast to the first season's '60s RaygunGothic. Notably, Pierre is constantly handing out cassette tapes with "the perfect song" for the moment.

* ''[[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}}''.

* The miniatures game ''7TV'' from Crooked Dice is designed to recreate the action scenes from 1970s British sci-fi and espionage television series. The aesthetic absolutely follows, with supercomputers with faux wood paneling, big clunky robots, and a far future primarily distinguished by funky colorful jumpsuits.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series features this with Echo Logs. ''Borderlands 3'' even has the player blow into the tape like an NES cartridge the first time you pick one up.

* ''[[http://english.bouletcorp.com/2011/07/07/formicapunk/ Formica Punk]]'' is basically the PunkPunk version of this trope. The name inspired a [[http://formicapunk.tumblr.com Tumblr blog]] (in French). It’s also referred as Modem Punk after the tabletop game example above.
* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': During Linkara's ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'' reviews, the (Two-Thousand-and)Nineties Kid revealed that, by his time, people would be using USB drives stylistically molded to resemble floppy discs.