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#236: Retro

Whether you’re generation Tetris, Tamagotchi, or Tomb Raider, I bet there’s some kind of video game or console that reminds you of your childhood. I hope, too, that we all still know of vinyls, cassette and VHS tapes, and floppy disks, even if they’re past their prime.

I’m not usually very sentimental about technology, but there’s something fascinating about obsolete tech. Something nostalgic and sad and full of mystery and untold narrative. In that spirit, let’s pay a visit to our inner attic, dust off some forgotten hardware, and see where it takes us.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character finding a retro piece of tech they don’t recognize.

Mystery – 33 stories

Write a story about someone finally gaining access into their family’s very old computer.

Mystery – 36 stories

Write a time-travel story where a character from the present finds themselves in the 80s or 90s.

Historical Fiction – 37 stories

Write a story about a grown-up sharing their favorite childhood video game with their child.

Funny – 20 stories

Write about a character who isn’t nostalgic about their past at all, and show readers why.

Angst – 54 stories

Stories

“State of the art.... When I bought it.” by D.C. Reed

Submitted to Contest #236

213243 Finally. I’ve learned better than to yell or curse out loud. The first few times people understand, the next dozen you get looks, after a few hundred you are an outcast, and the thousandth, well, at that point you’ve moved past the place of caring that people think you have leprosy. Only cursing the gods a few thousand times is praiseworthy, considering how many password tries it has taken to crack this ancient tomb described to me as: “state-of-the art… when they bought it.” Since the summer of my sophomore year, I’ve spent ...

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“What Happened to Riley White?” by Emily M. Reiser

Submitted to Contest #236

I was intrigued when I found the dusty computer in the attic. My parents claimed they had never laid eyes on it. I brought it back to my room, wondering what a mysterious computer was doing in our house. After plugging it in, the screen lit up right away. The background remained black with words trickling across the screen. The same word in green filled the entire screen in seconds. Adams. It took a quick internet search on my phone to pull up a few people with the last name Adams that lived in town. Curiosity fully engulfed me as I...

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“If Only. M.C.” by KellA Frioli

Submitted to Contest #236

The Cooper family. The best family in town. The family way always happy. The family with the brown eyes and dark hair who never fought.No problems. No secrets. Nothing. Right? “Charlie! Get out of my room!” Yelled Mary, the middle child. She had the worst relationship with all of them. Even her parents. She just couldn’t wait the day to leave that house. Those people. And she would do what ever it was required to just not have a single fight.With her brothers, or parents, or friends, or anyone. She would do anything for peace. Anything. “You...

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“Chronos Ex Machina” by Ajene Amenti

Submitted to Contest #236

"You don't do this unless you have the strength of spirit, boy!" The captain slurred his words and stank of rum, but that wasn't enough for me to turn back. Truthfully, I had tried to leave but the thought of seeing my father again held me in a vice-grip. If I left now the entire journey would be all for nothing. This was his last request, after all. I look around and see the surrounding men staring into the crevasse, waiting anxiously and eager to start. "I've paid you the deposit." I replied. "The rest of the blueprints will be paid on...

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“Backwards” by Deborah Alexander

Submitted to Contest #236

“Can you pinpoint a moment in your life where you lost something that would have changed the outcome of your future?” This therapist was stupid. Who hasn’t had one of those moments, or many of them throughout their lives. “People make choices everyday that affect their outcomes. I suppose I am no different than anyone else,” I respond. I am beginning to wish I had never agreed to come here. But Will made me. It was an ultimatum to our relationship. Get help, or he’s gone. Some...

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“I'll Win For You” by Jane England

Submitted to Contest #236

We lived in Tennessee. Despite its obvious beauty, it definitely has its downsides. Tornado warnings, extreme temperatures, some storms. Even so, nothing swayed my parents into changing their minds about this place, especially my dad. They both grew up here, and after my mom died, he didn’t see any reason to leave. To be fair, I didn’t want to leave either. I was only 4 when she passed away, but our house seemed to hold beautiful lost memories of her, and especially remind my dad that everything was going to be okay. May 18, 1998. A t...

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“Princess, Pickles, & Pixels: A Super Mario Love Story” by Dr. Stephen A Salaka

Submitted to Contest #236

The Rescue on the Yamanote Line I guess my whole life can be split into two categories: Before Mario and After Mario. Everything that came after jumping on my first Goomba at the age of eight paled in comparison. School? Boring. The real world? Too slow. By the time I hit my thirties, "After Mario" felt awfully stale. I wasn't going to get any taller, faster, or better looking, and video games didn't cut it like they used to. Then, the unbelievable happened. I didn't find Mario; a real-life Princess Peach found me. Tokyo trains are al...

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“No School Like the Old School” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #236

As far as I can work out from Mom and Dad’s stories, growing up in the 1980s was crazy. No one wore bike helmets or seat belts. Candy cost 25¢. And pinball machines and upright console video games were everywhere. You could find them in any public space, from hotel lobbies to gas stations to Pizza Hut. In Dad's hometown alone, there was a Scramble in the Holiday gas station, Centipede at the bowling alley (now burned down), a handful of arcade games in a bar’s back room with a side door on the street, through which Dad and two of his fr...

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“I've Tried Before” by D'Spencer Luyao

Submitted to Contest #236

Trigger Warnings include: Mental health issues, implied trauma, parental neglect, substance abuse (alcoholism), withdrawal, suicidal thoughts, mentions of implied suicide, mentioned parent/spouse death. Please read with caution. This story is a continuation of I Don't Know What to Tell You and The Fucking Ugly Truth which are on my profile, but can be read on its own. Evan had seen what trying looked like while his mom was still alive. With her, trying was a dark cloud that hung over every step she took. She smiled and laughed, an...

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“The Wife Experience ” by Natalia Medeiros

Submitted to Contest #236

(Note: contains sex and violence sensitive themes )“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned,” he mumbled over and over under his breath in a repetitive chant, as he rolled the worn oak wood rosary beads around in the palm of his left hand. He stared long and hard into the fiery orange flames as the sunset hues turned blurry through his tears of agony. Her perfect slim yet curved silhouette danced in the flames as her raven hair flowed like velvet silk, bewitching him all over again. He had paid to light so many votive candles tha...

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“Vacationland Turned Femicideland” by Cryn Johannsen

Submitted to Contest #236

TW: Substance abuse, violence, and sexual violence People from all over the world pack up to go to Maine, or "Vacationland", as it’s dubbed and slapped on every state license plate, for their getaways. Southern New Englanders, which, we, Mainers, consider anyone living south of the Piscataqua River, are the biggest suckers for Maine (although it’s a tight tie between them and the Canadians just north of us). They – mostly the southern New Englanders – haul all their shit up for summertime and, oftentimes, stay as “peepers” for the leaves ...

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“Kleine Schwester” by HC Edwards

Submitted to Contest #236

“My first day was at the reception center. I was only sixteen but I wasn’t the youngest,” he said in that deep raspy voice that sounded like two stones rubbing together, his accent so thick it was almost a parody.“Uh huh,” Penny replied, perusing instagram videos on her phone. She hated being here. Spending her Sunday afternoon at an assisted living center was far from her ideal circumstance. Several rationalities came to mind. First of all, it smelled. The scents were hard to discern. Rather Penny labeled them ‘old people’ smells, a co...

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“Through the Eyes of the Innocent” by Scott Wells

Submitted to Contest #236

Through the Eyes of the Innocent I It was a lovely late spring afternoon when 11 year old Casey Johnson was walking home from school. Every day on her walk through her hard working blue collar community, she would pass through her local downtown area. It wasn’t a bustling town in the least, with many storefronts having empty windows. Businesses had a hard time staying afloat there. It was a community that focused on the essentials of living rather than the finery that most...

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“The Liver Killer” by Leah Cartlidge

Submitted to Contest #236

It had been ten years since Sophie Langdon’s parents were murdered. The culprit was left unknown and at large. He was known as the Liver Killer, for his trademark cutting out of the liver of all his victims. Middle-class families in London were the target and there had been at least twelve victims. There was nothing that she could do except sweep the rosewood floors of her master's manor in silence. She relied on the police to catch the man responsible, something that looked bleak with the little amount of evidence they had. ‘Cut that out,...

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“For the First and Final Time” by Malcolm Dutton

Submitted to Contest #236

The basement was dark, even with the lights on. Of course it was, the lights were old. In the whole time Alex had lived there, and the seven years after, her father had never changed them. They barely functioned, but they weren’t broken, so he didn’t change them out. The lights weren’t the oldest thing in the basement, just about all of her dad’s old junk was in here. Books on information years out of date, computers filled with software that hadn’t been useful in decades, and a dozen other types of old clutter. She hadn’t thought about cle...

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$250

Prize money

180

Contest entries

80

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 09, 2024 EST

Won by Jennifer Fremon 🏆

Title: Frozen Lemonade

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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