For those of us who remember the ’70s, chances are good you are familiar with the boom of wood paneling on just about everything in sight, holding down reset on an Atari 2600 with Space Invaders to gain 100 “guys” instead of the default number, along with the world of BASIC and the computers that supported them.

Today I wanted to share something fun that those of you in your late thirties and older will find both memorable and entertaining at the same time. Flash back to 1978 and consider for a moment what life might have been like with a Nintendo DS, laptop, or iPod like device at your disposal. Thanks to this fictional gallery, now you can relive some of the coolest devices that never existed!

My own personal favorites include the laptop showing off some old school BASIC commands, along with the arcade styled roller ball to act as a track-ball. And the Atari 2600 wood-like panels… classic stuff. I was a master of games such as Space Invaders and combat. Later on in the ’80s, I was addicted to Pitfall.

I digress. So what life had been like if we could go back and have access to LPs on an iPod like device or perhaps, portable computing to create and run our own BASIC programs? Saved to cassette tapes, of course. I think that marvels such as Merlin, at the time, were pretty darned advanced, everything considered. But where would all of this leave today’s tech — if we had variations of today’s tech — in the ’70s?

Perhaps we’d finally be enjoying those Jetsons-like amenities that we were all banking on back in the late ’70s. After all, outside of working for Mr. Spacely, the Hanna Barbera future was looking pretty bright. Well, at least until the early ’80s when Thundarr the Barbarian aired. It was clear that the ’70s had a more innocent outlook back then, despite sharing some of the same challenges that we do now.

What say you? Today’s tech, back then? Or are we better off with the way things progressed instead? Hit the comments and share your perspective on this.

[awsbullet:Alternate Histories]