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

Posted in Mystery on Feb 2, 2024

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✍️ 33 stories

“The Mix Tape” by K.A. Murray

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #236

Side A, Track 1: “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by the Crash Test Dummies“Aunt Lill, what’s this?”My nine-year-old niece pointed to an electronic device that was unrecognizable to her, with a quizzical look on her face. It was a stereo - one that played CDs, tapes, and radio, which made it a showstopper gift in 1996.My older sister Miranda got that stereo for Christmas when she was 13, and I imagine she would have loved explaining to little Julia how it worked. However, Miranda is not here - the only Connor sibling not to show up this weekend.“It’s a ste...

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“Voyager 1 Down” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #236

Your Voyager mission to explore other worlds had to end at some point. But you knew that before your intrepid vessel accelerated out of the solar system and hurtled through interstellar space. No doubt Mission Command monitored Voyager 1’s interminable progress and you all cheered as it approached the Oort Cloud. Perhaps you prayed for a glimpse of intelligent life as it sped towards our asteroid and groaned when its signal died, and said, ‘Voyager 1 down.’* * *If your spacecraft had survived the crash with our dirty sn...

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“Testing the truth” by Claire Trbovic

Submitted to Contest #236

H I H I H I H E L L OH E L L O. HELLO. TEST TEST Test t e s t . Hello. Thiss is a test. A b c ...

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“Crosswired” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #236

“What’s this, Granddad?”“You’re joking, right?”“No.”“Wot’s it look like?”“Some form of cassette tape?”“It’s a video tape, Tommo. Slightly before your time.”“Doesn’t look like any video tape I’ve seen before.”“That’s coz it’s a Betamax.”“What’s that?”“It’s from the Format War.”“Format War? When was that?”“Before you was born, Tommo. In the early days of the Digital Age. ‘Cept it was more commonly referred to then as the Information Age – which was an oxymoron in its own right, because the only information being freely spewed back then was dis...

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“Your Own Personal Cell” by Kevin Marlow

Submitted to Contest #236

“My WORD! What is that?”“I don't know, it looks dirty.”“Are you going to take it?”“There is a.....what did they call those? Is it a switch?”“Let me access my database.” Closing his eyes, he stopped for a moment, “The bio-network says you can touch it and it will revive itself.”They watched in wonder as she squeezed the raised button on the side of the device and put her face closer to the screen. Images swirled in a colorful tornado, settling on a picture of a family in ancient garments clutching a smiling infant.“O...M...G...is that a baby?...

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“Johnny Be Goode” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #236

Johnny Be Goode“Hey, Dad. I brought the whole crew with me. We should be able to clean out the basement, the attic, and the garage all in one day.”“Great.”“Great”- often spoken with a tinge of enthusiasm, but even with a normal, nondescript voice, the word connotes something agreeable, pleasing, perhaps even wonderful. Spoken with a hint of sarcasm- not so much.The cleanup crew- son Dave, Dave’s wife Marci, and the three grandchildren: 16-year-old Tom, 14-year-old Debbie, and 9-year-old Ben. The mission- sort through a lifetime of artifacts,...

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“The Paper Clip Rebel” by Angela M

Submitted to Contest #236

A week after her grandmother’s funeral, Johana found a small package on her doorstep. The black box was about the size of a quarter with a note taped to the lid: “Use it well, Love, Gran” Inside the box was an underwhelming bit of silver wire. That’s all it was — a little curve of metal. Johana had never seen anything like it. But as unthreatening as it looked, she knew that it was contraband. The government had outlawed a number of items deemed destructive to society when Gran was a child, but the law didn’t stop her f...

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“Such Sights” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #236

The featureless plains of his eternal prison stretched out in all directions.Nirnasha screamed. He had always been screaming; time meant nothing inside the configuration. The professor had locked him in here a second ago. The professor had locked him in here an eternity ago. Endless nothingness, forever. Eternity was more prolonged than you’d think.There was no sky, only the colourless earth as smooth as a stone. It had no texture; it had no temperature. The ground faded into the not-sky in the distance, giving the impression that all was on...

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“Echoes of Analog Dreams: Unearthing Nostalgia in the Digital Attic” by Zahra Jamal

Submitted to Contest #236

As the rain kept falling on the library windows, Alex stayed in the library and looked at the old things that E. M. had left behind. The librarian touched an old camera that used film, something that people used a long time ago to take pictures. They had to wait for the film to be ready before they could see the pictures, and that made them more excited. Alex held the camera and looked at the old pictures that were in the box. The pictures showed happy people, school events, and summer nights with bright bugs. Alex understood something: the ...

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“The Typewriter” by Stacey Cooper

Submitted to Contest #236

A writer is cleaning out her basement and is sorting through some of her old boxes. She comes across a few boxes labeled “College Items” and opens one of the boxes. Underneath a few folders, she comes across an item in a plastic cover. She does not recognize it at first, but once she removes the cover, she sees it is the typewriter she used in college. She is not sure what to do with it. It is too old to sell, but she also knows that it has some value, and should not be thrown away.Underneath the typewriter, is a pac...

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“A Prized Fly” by Sarah Jo

Submitted to Contest #236

The small bell tinked in my ear, and I found myself stepping into the familiar dark, dusty entrance of Lady Theresa's Antique Store. The chime seemed to pull me out of a trance, and I couldn't even remember why I decided to stop by in the first place. I had the sneaking suspicion that I should just leave. My head felt cloudy anyway. I heard the flu was going around. Perhaps I was coming down with it. Though it's funny that I wound up here. And I definitely didn't need any more shit. I was pretty certain I'd spent at least a year's salary...

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“Shinomotchi” by Franco Lopez

Submitted to Contest #236

Gas tank? Full. Laptop? Check. Chargers? Check. Homework? Eh. I won’t do it even if I bring it, and it won’t bump my grades up even if I do it. Cigarettes? No, let’s leverage the long weekend to cut back. Well – just one for the drive. Anything harder will have to wait. The thought of mom finding out alone makes nauseous. Laundry? Check. Everything looks ready to go. I’m confident I can beat the sun out if I skip breakfast to maximize my time at home. Nothing on campus tastes quite like mom’s cooking. Maybe if I drive with the windows down...

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“Retro” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #236

Why cannot things stay the same? Lenora like many could not accept all what happend or not in some cases with modern tec if it decided to go "Awol". Like today for instance. Not being able to log into the site, with the codes she was given. Then to wait two days for a reply to say that it eas a world wide problem. There was the Retro cafe off Main Street ok if you liked dark red and lime green as a colour scheme. Liveable harmless where people spent hours on the net. Drinking endless coffee. At over three pounds a cup. You guessed it? Not al...

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“Pulling Strings: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #236

Chemical warfare in the Asian jungles. Man on the Moon. Data accumulating by the terabyte in a mainframe world; satellites taking up ever-more stratospheric real estate, prepped one day to ruin the neighborhood one strike, one leak, one tech sociopath at a time. “Oh my God,” I proclaimed, awestruck in the presence of a genuine ‘60s technological marvel. “Looka this.” A millennimom skirted away toward the chick-lit-heavy book box at the lip of the casita’s two-car garage. Sarah reluctantly abandoned the sheet-metal law...

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“Lens to the past” by Tasfia Tahsin Prokrity

Submitted to Contest #236

In the malevolent heart of the North Atlantic Forest, where majestic and elegant sunlight shines even through the dust like magic, green algae tore and spread from the thick trees like carpet clouds, and ivy grew through cracks in barks and branches, evoking a sense of antiquity and timeless beauty. The trees whispered of unspeakable horrors; their mottled form recalled forgotten stories of a bygone era, and each scent held a nostalgic memory of a distant past. That abandoned field and this forgotten one stood, a solemn tribute to the loss o...

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Contest #236

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This week's theme: Retro

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

Submissions are closed

✍️ 33 stories

“The Mix Tape” by K.A. Murray

“Voyager 1 Down” by Howard Halsall

“Testing the truth” by Claire Trbovic

“Crosswired” by Chris Campbell

“Your Own Personal Cell” by Kevin Marlow

“Johnny Be Goode” by Murray Burns

“The Paper Clip Rebel” by Angela M

“Such Sights” by Joshua G. J. Insole

“Echoes of Analog Dreams: Unearthing Nostalgia in the Digital Attic” by Zahra Jamal

“The Typewriter” by Stacey Cooper

“A Prized Fly” by Sarah Jo

“Shinomotchi” by Franco Lopez

“Retro” by Christine LW

“Pulling Strings: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

“Lens to the past” by Tasfia Tahsin Prokrity

🌟 Similar prompts

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

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

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

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

Contest #236

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

184

Contest entries

83

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: