Dang, I just have a few text funnies I downloaded in 1992... why do I still have it? I honestly didn't realize I still had them until I just looked now. They consumes a grand total of 1.1 mb. Which while significant back then is anything but now.
Great timing - I just discovered an old microSD card of mine taped to the side of an old external hard drive that I had in storage. The card was originally installed in my Motorola Razr from ~2006. I think the oldest picture that survived on there from several cleanups and phone swaps is from 2008. Tons of pictures from my junior and senior year of high school, so now I’m just figuring out a more permanent storage solution in my tiny home lab.
Ninja edit to be a buzzkill: my birth certificate ;)
I think I've got a few Amiga floppies with OctaMED, Fantavision and other early teens experiments on somewhere. They'd be early 90s but reading them would be anyone's guess.
I'd have a heap of stuff from the late 90s and on and probably a copy of the anarchist cookbook that got passed around highschool. I don't know anyone that actually used anything in it and I should probably delete it.
I think physical media is kind of cheating, but if that counts I have X-Wing on a stack of floppy disks somewhere.
The oldest files I have that are currently in my filesystem are my copies of my homework assignments from highschool. Not sure why I kept them, but maybe one day I will read them for fun. They have been transferred across many disks/systems over the years through. The oldest file still in active use is probably my /var/log/pacman.log that has been there for the ~15 years my Arch system has been up.
Every time I get a new computer, I make a point of installing my favorite childhood games, SimCity 2000 and Civilization II. I also transfer copies of some original save files from the time, since I think they're cool time-capsule artifacts. A few were re-saved after they were originally created, but the oldest I can find right now are some SimCity saves from June of 2000 (though the most interesting to me is the Civ 2 game I played the evening of 9/11 to try to take my mind off things).
It's a tie between either my high school assignment work or a copy of a fanmade music video for Lateralus by TOOL. (both circa 2012-ish.) I count that one even though I downloaded it more recently since the video upload date was further back (and as a bonus, said video is near-impossible to find since TOOL's label went -hard- against copyright for a time.) I was always a data hoarder, but my hardware and choice of software backups didn't always agree with me.
My copy of Diablo 2 I think is the oldest of my own files.
I also have an Amiga 500 with a whole box full of games and a hard drive expansion. I’ve booted it up a couple times to test out the games, but the hard drive is untouched since my dad’s friend unplugged it 30+ years ago
I personally? Have high school classwork from 2004 backed up. My parents have backups of files dating back to the mid '90s (though I made those backups years ago, and they haven't been checked since, so their viability is an open question at the moment).
I keep this stuff around because backups of old files are negligible in terms of storage load, and it would be more effort to triage and clean them up than just to store them forever. Am I ever going to have a good reason to reread that essay about The Catcher in the Rye from 10th grade English? No, absolutely not (in fact, I'll definitely be happier if I don't), but I can't say that with confidence about everything in there, and there's too much of it for it to be worthwhile to sort through it all.
Do scanned photos and documents count? If they do, the scans that my wife and I have from going through our parents' stuff are the oldest. That's what I see when I scroll all the way back in Google Photos.
Although, technically I've taken photos of much older things at museums. I didn't try to file them under their original dates, though :-)
Actual files: perhaps some of the floppy disks from the Commodore 64 at my Mom's house are still readable? I won't know if I still have them unless I take them to a service to be scanned.
I have a copy of Witchhaven II: Blood Vengeance from 1996 on disc that I'm certain still works, as well as a floppy disk we got from sending in cereal box tops that has a bunch of classic PC games like ski free, pipe dream, jezz ball, chips challenge, etc. I'm not sure what the year is on that one.
A “Half-Life Compendium” CD that was a pirated copy of Half-Life, Opposing Force and bundled a heap of mods like They Live and Action Half-Life, bought off a random street shop in Southeast Asia around 1999 or so.
A copy of Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, long ripped from the CD. Introduced me to Rom Di Prisco’s game soundtracks.
Red Hat Linux 6, alongside an issue of Byte magazine that featured it and pondered the future of desktop Linux.
If we count physical files, the in-lore magazine that came with Crusader: No Regret.
I have some old family photos taken on one of the early digital cameras that used large memory cards or sometimes floppy disks. I also have schoolwork from mid-00's, most amusingly including the very first programming I did, using Karel J Robot
I took a backup of my MS-DOS box when I finally shut it down decades ago. It contains some very old files from very old games and programs. The oldest file that I think is believable has a 'Date Modified' of Thu 23 Apr 1987 6:19:42 AM MICPRINT.ESI It is from a very old command line based (if I remember correctly) family feud game.
A pirated CD I received on my birthday, circa 1997 or so. It has several games on it:
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Z
Blood
Red Alert 1
To name the ones I recall off the top of my head. Loaded this in a DOS emulator on my Mac and got a few of these to work.
PunchTunnel | 5 hours ago
I've got an entire MUD I worked on in 1992, still readable on a zipdisk as of last check a few months ago.
Exemplary | 3 hours ago
Dang, I just have a few text funnies I downloaded in 1992... why do I still have it? I honestly didn't realize I still had them until I just looked now. They consumes a grand total of 1.1 mb. Which while significant back then is anything but now.
kru | 4 hours ago
What was the MUD?
Shevanel | 5 hours ago
Great timing - I just discovered an old microSD card of mine taped to the side of an old external hard drive that I had in storage. The card was originally installed in my Motorola Razr from ~2006. I think the oldest picture that survived on there from several cleanups and phone swaps is from 2008. Tons of pictures from my junior and senior year of high school, so now I’m just figuring out a more permanent storage solution in my tiny home lab.
Ninja edit to be a buzzkill: my birth certificate ;)
Super fun question!
json | 2 hours ago
To use a different context to everyone else so far: I inherited some of my grandpas tools, which included several files from a long time ago.
I also have an old Black & Decker heat gun that was made in England. I doubt they make them there anymore.
vord | 5 hours ago
I've got a copy of Windows 3.11 still in shrink wrap.
lostwax | 4 hours ago
I think I've got a few Amiga floppies with OctaMED, Fantavision and other early teens experiments on somewhere. They'd be early 90s but reading them would be anyone's guess.
I'd have a heap of stuff from the late 90s and on and probably a copy of the anarchist cookbook that got passed around highschool. I don't know anyone that actually used anything in it and I should probably delete it.
streblo | 2 hours ago
I think physical media is kind of cheating, but if that counts I have X-Wing on a stack of floppy disks somewhere.
The oldest files I have that are currently in my filesystem are my copies of my homework assignments from highschool. Not sure why I kept them, but maybe one day I will read them for fun. They have been transferred across many disks/systems over the years through. The oldest file still in active use is probably my /var/log/pacman.log that has been there for the ~15 years my Arch system has been up.
Jordan117 | an hour ago
Every time I get a new computer, I make a point of installing my favorite childhood games, SimCity 2000 and Civilization II. I also transfer copies of some original save files from the time, since I think they're cool time-capsule artifacts. A few were re-saved after they were originally created, but the oldest I can find right now are some SimCity saves from June of 2000 (though the most interesting to me is the Civ 2 game I played the evening of 9/11 to try to take my mind off things).
Froswald | 4 hours ago
It's a tie between either my high school assignment work or a copy of a fanmade music video for Lateralus by TOOL. (both circa 2012-ish.) I count that one even though I downloaded it more recently since the video upload date was further back (and as a bonus, said video is near-impossible to find since TOOL's label went -hard- against copyright for a time.) I was always a data hoarder, but my hardware and choice of software backups didn't always agree with me.
VoidSage | 3 hours ago
My copy of Diablo 2 I think is the oldest of my own files.
I also have an Amiga 500 with a whole box full of games and a hard drive expansion. I’ve booted it up a couple times to test out the games, but the hard drive is untouched since my dad’s friend unplugged it 30+ years ago
whbboyd | 3 hours ago
I personally? Have high school classwork from 2004 backed up. My parents have backups of files dating back to the mid '90s (though I made those backups years ago, and they haven't been checked since, so their viability is an open question at the moment).
I keep this stuff around because backups of old files are negligible in terms of storage load, and it would be more effort to triage and clean them up than just to store them forever. Am I ever going to have a good reason to reread that essay about The Catcher in the Rye from 10th grade English? No, absolutely not (in fact, I'll definitely be happier if I don't), but I can't say that with confidence about everything in there, and there's too much of it for it to be worthwhile to sort through it all.
skybrian | 2 hours ago
Do scanned photos and documents count? If they do, the scans that my wife and I have from going through our parents' stuff are the oldest. That's what I see when I scroll all the way back in Google Photos.
Although, technically I've taken photos of much older things at museums. I didn't try to file them under their original dates, though :-)
Actual files: perhaps some of the floppy disks from the Commodore 64 at my Mom's house are still readable? I won't know if I still have them unless I take them to a service to be scanned.
PraiseTheSoup | 2 hours ago
I have a copy of Witchhaven II: Blood Vengeance from 1996 on disc that I'm certain still works, as well as a floppy disk we got from sending in cereal box tops that has a bunch of classic PC games like ski free, pipe dream, jezz ball, chips challenge, etc. I'm not sure what the year is on that one.
overbyte | 2 hours ago
Toss up between:
1338 | an hour ago
I have some old family photos taken on one of the early digital cameras that used large memory cards or sometimes floppy disks. I also have schoolwork from mid-00's, most amusingly including the very first programming I did, using Karel J Robot
plutonic | 28 minutes ago
I took a backup of my MS-DOS box when I finally shut it down decades ago. It contains some very old files from very old games and programs. The oldest file that I think is believable has a 'Date Modified' of Thu 23 Apr 1987 6:19:42 AM MICPRINT.ESI It is from a very old command line based (if I remember correctly) family feud game.
Paul85 | 19 minutes ago
A pirated CD I received on my birthday, circa 1997 or so. It has several games on it:
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Z
Blood
Red Alert 1
To name the ones I recall off the top of my head. Loaded this in a DOS emulator on my Mac and got a few of these to work.