Like Bill, I started when ice fishing gear was simpler... I used a wooden jigging "rod" which was really just a line-winder with a small extension at one end, cut out of plywood. You were in for a struggle and likely, disappointment, if you hooked a big lake trout while jigging for perch!
If you knew someone who was a metal worker, you could get a nice spud (ice chisel) made up from premium materials. Lots of guys used a spud made with a big old file or rasp, annealed, sharpened and crudely welded to the end of a piece of steel pipe.
Tip-ups were all home-made contraptions of all sorts. Serious ice fishermen built a portable shanty out of scrap building materials. It usually included a small kerosene stove for heat.
The sky is the limit for modern gear, from underwater cameras to GPS-equipped SONAR. But it can still be done the old fashioned way!
I was out today with some current gear... a small flip-over shelter and an older "flasher" type SONAR.