I guess it’s a mix of

• Nostalgia (when using devices dating back to one’s youth/childhood)

• Just liking old tech like some people like old trains, e.g. admiring the know-how needed (to create something like this even with the limited ressources of those days)

• Having fun at futzing around with tech/electronics (aka. making/hardware-hacking) which can include liking to fix technical problems and creating something based on what others believed to be trash/unuseable