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Its much easier to just look at those devices and guess how they work. Follow traces. Find a broken pin on an interconnect. Replace a rubber band on the drive mechanism.
Also its funny you brought that up because I've always been into atari and still have my 2600, 7800, And pong machine.
You cant do this on basically any device today because of planned obsolescence. Try repairing almost any laptop made today. Or better yet a phone. I fixed every single component on my razr and had it for 6 years. Id still be using it if it was supported and modern life didn't basically require a smartphone.
Same with cars. It really started going downhill in 2015. Cars are basically a rolling Apple product now, totally proprietary and nearly impossible to fix without an ee degree.
Again, your average tinkerer or kid, is locked out of doing so, unless they really show initiative and go down a road of 3d printing and raspberry pis, but id say then youre in full nerd territory.
I feel your premise remains flawed with these examples. The average consumer is not tinkering in the ways you describe, regardless. The average person isn't following traces, looking for broken pins, or guessing how devices work.
You may have an intimate understanding of the technologies of your youth/life but that is not a universal truth amongst people of the time you are referencing.
The same people repairing their VHS in the 90s are replacing their android smart phone screens or batteries today. As the other posters have mentioned, tinkerers today are even creating their own competition products or major revisions thanks to cheap compute modules, arduinos, 3d printers, and cheap electronic parts from China.
Check yourself, you are assuming life was better in the past when the reality is that today features far more opportunity at an affordable cost with copious resources/tutorials for any individual to manipulate their technology.
You right on some accounts! Don't get me started on things that were better in the past lol, I can go on for days.
Ita true there's still lots to do for those that seek it out! All I was originally saying is I love how linux hasn't been corrupted by enshittification like everything else.
Also if you can fix any smartphone or laptop made today, you must have extremely precision tools avilable to you, because corps have made repair on almost everything impossible now vs how it used to be. I worked in a repair shop, I've experienced it.