. . . and yet the inspiration for most of that was firmly rooted in the Flash Gordon serials of the 30's & 40's. So it's not quite as straightforward as all that.
It's not 1976 technology, nor is it 1940's technology, but 1940's idea of future technology filtered though some 60's graphic design aesthetics, 50's & 60 industrial aerospace sensibilities, with a more roughed up, lived in weathering pass. It's a pretty weird alchemical mix, which is partly why it's so distinct, recognisable, and oddly timeless. If it were just straight up modern 70's tech and art-design, then it would have looked like 'Logan's Run', which of course it does not.
For me, probably the biggest clue as to the retro-tech aesthetic is Artoo's scomp link (usually just called a "computer arm" in the scripts.) It's clearly as much of a physical mechanism as it is just a data port. Even by mid-to-late 70's standards that's an almost quaintly naive piece of electro-mechanics. Of course the real reason it looks like that it to give visual interest, and evoke somewhat the intricate inner workings of retro-sci-fi elements such as Robbie the Robot's inner workings.
It was probably actually a WEG RPG thing. That's where Zahn and most of the early 90's authors were told to use as the main lore reference source outside of the movies.
Regardless; again it's almost always portrayed as about as much akin to hot-wiring as it is to code hacking as we understand it. Again; there's a clear mechanical component to it. So again, that circles back to what I said before about keeping it within the bounds of what could be at least described in 40's terms.
Probably one of the only times they've dipped out of that was the inclusion of nano-droids, but even that just barely fits within those bounds.
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