Extinct Media Museum Tokyo • Hacker News Board

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#11

Post by goalieca » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 12:23 PM UTC

raddan wrote: post #10

Wow, a DAT Walkman [1]! I forgot that this existed, but I am remembering now that I heard about them in college and desperately wanted one. I was (and still am) an avid listener of music. Digital formats were such a leap over analog media at the time. There was an art to holding your portable CD player (on edge, cradled with your palm facing upward) so that the CD did not constantly slip as you walked. It always amus…

I remember a friend got one of the first mp3 players on the market. I think it was a Sony and could hold less than 10 highly compressed songs. Still, it was tiny and could fit in a pocket and didn’t skip!

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#12

Post by easyKL » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 12:53 PM UTC

tkgally wrote: post #7

Some other museums to visit while you’re in Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum https://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/top-e/ Small Worlds Miniature Museum https://smallworlds.jp/en/ Button Museum https://button-museum.jp/en/ World Bags and Luggage Museum https://www.ace.jp/en/museum/ Meguro Parasitological Museum https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top I learned about the Button Museum more than twenty-five years ago. I was taking a walk al…

Please allow me to add the following Japan Stationery Museum (Nihon Bungu Shiryokan) only in Japanese: https://www.nihonbungu.or.jp/shiryokan

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#13

Post by flir » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 12:56 PM UTC

If you like this, the Dead Media Project's working notes are fascinating, if they're still out there (90s project, Bruce Sterling-adjacent). I was on the mailing list, way back when.

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#14

Post by firasd » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 1:09 PM UTC

I think this nostalgia is useful for reminding us there are aesthetic forms beyond what Jony Ive et al happened to design and became the dominant form factor. The 2000s explosion of MP3 players had a lot of little ideas like the iRiver Clix had 'press the side of the device' as a navigation system

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#15

Post by dijit » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 1:17 PM UTC

firasd wrote: post #14

I think this nostalgia is useful for reminding us there are aesthetic forms beyond what Jony Ive et al happened to design and became the dominant form factor. The 2000s explosion of MP3 players had a lot of little ideas like the iRiver Clix had 'press the side of the device' as a navigation system

I think the irony was that Jony Ive's design was best when juxtaposed.

Sleek minimal material design on the device that grants you access to a skeuomorphic, bevelled and highly-three dimensional interface (on a flat surface) is complementary.

You "feel" the leather grain thats merely visualised because the device leaves nothing else in your mind, you just have the physical touch of a premium material in your hand and nothing else to distract you from the visual.

When that's applied to everything it turns into a bland nothing.

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#16

Post by wk_end » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

tkgally wrote: post #7

Some other museums to visit while you’re in Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum https://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/top-e/ Small Worlds Miniature Museum https://smallworlds.jp/en/ Button Museum https://button-museum.jp/en/ World Bags and Luggage Museum https://www.ace.jp/en/museum/ Meguro Parasitological Museum https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top I learned about the Button Museum more than twenty-five years ago. I was taking a walk al…

I really enjoyed the Ad Museum when I went a few years ago.

https://www.admt.jp/en/

These all look fascinating too. God, Tokyo's really an incredible city, huh.

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#17

Post by neuronexmachina » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

This reminds me of the episode of the old anime series Cowboy Bebop where the crew explore an abandoned museum in a buried city searching for a Betamax player: https://cowboybebop.fandom.com/wiki/Speak_Like_A_Child

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#18

Post by ck2 » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

I have a single-sided 8-inch floppy disk somewhere

I think it held 160K

But also TRS-80 cassette tape which would be oldest computer medium I have

You would have to save things half a dozen times because most would not load later

It made me realize I could "save" dial-up computer terminal connections to cassette and play them back later (300 baud was very forgiving)

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#19

Post by kasperset » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 3:51 PM UTC

This sort of reminded me of my visit to https://www.cameramuseum.ch/en/themuseum/mission/ Camera museum in Vevey, Switzerland.

It is not very big and was difficult for me to follow as I cannot read French. Even with those language barriers on my end, it was fun way to see how photographic media evolved.

Re: Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

#20

Post by marseysneed » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

wk_end wrote: post #16

tkgally wrote: post #7

Some other museums to visit while you’re in Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum https://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/top-e/ Small Worlds Miniature Museum https://smallworlds.jp/en/ Button Museum https://button-museum.jp/en/ World Bags and Luggage Museum https://www.ace.jp/en/museum/ Meguro Parasitological Museum https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top I learned about the Button Museum more than twenty-five years ago. I was taking a walk al…

I really enjoyed the Ad Museum when I went a few years ago. https://www.admt.jp/en/ These all look fascinating too. God, Tokyo's really an incredible city, huh.

I would second the ad museum. I really enjoyed it.