New Old Technology

Being an older Frontier, there needs to be a list of devices that are not as developed as what you see in the SF books. Equipment is going to ether look really simple, or funny and bulky. In most cases, simple tools will be like modern equivalents. That is, tool kits will still look like a mechanics' tool belt.<br /><br />Computing may not be as reliable or compact to be mounted on ships, so spacers might rely more on slide rulers - this is it in keeping with classic sci-fi, plus that is as basic as you can get, and it would make the characters look like savvy spacemen. Until gyrojets get developed, simple chemically propelled slug-throwers (basically, modern guns) are used. An energy weapon is nothing more then a crude blunderbuss of raw energy projection (like a heat-ray). Armor is typically simple ablative plating. The Vrusk-developed Polyvox was originally made to communicate with Dralasites, but still has to be programed manually.<br /><br />I would love to hear any additional ideas or suggestions about this.