#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market.
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@fluidlogic I had access to 8 and 16 bit computers when I was growing up but now I’m enjoying getting to know the 8/16 bit computers that I didn’t have access to and have no nostalgia for so… kind of both?
@stilvoid @fluidlogic Same, I lusted after Amigas, Macintoshes, etc that I basically didn't touch, and a big part of the hobby for me was exploring those once they became obtainable (though they're rapidly becoming unobtainable again)
Re: the poll question: we had a C64 *fairly* early (84-ish?) but then the 80s hit my family hard and we upgraded from a C64 to a 386 just before the Pentium released, and skipped 16 bit home computing altogether.
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@fluidlogic I had access to 8 and 16 bit computers when I was growing up but now I’m enjoying getting to know the 8/16 bit computers that I didn’t have access to and have no nostalgia for so… kind of both?
@stilvoid yeah, likewise. Constructing polls is a science!
I missed the 16-bit generation due to changed family circumstances. In the last couple of years I got hold of a beautiful example of the 16-bit machine I lusted after in 1985.
Answer in whatever way makes sense to you, and thank you for the comment adding nuance!
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@Foritus it sure was! And that's also retrocomputing as far as I'm concerned!
I was thinking of doing a poll for 32-bit and up consumer home/personal computers. What do you think?
@fluidlogic I imagine that there are a *lot* of people in the community whose first machines were 32bit W95 or 98 machines. 8bit and Win9X-era-hardware feel like the two biggest camps in the PC retro space from my casual observation - although XP-era fans are rapidly aging into the hobby
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@fluidlogic I imagine that there are a *lot* of people in the community whose first machines were 32bit W95 or 98 machines. 8bit and Win9X-era-hardware feel like the two biggest camps in the PC retro space from my casual observation - although XP-era fans are rapidly aging into the hobby
@fluidlogic also the MSX people are precious and I admire their passion
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic The first microcomputer I had access to was an Altair 8800 that my high school computer club put together the year before I got there. The year after that my parents bought a Commodore Pet and things were never the same. I still have the pet but it doesn't work any more, sigh...
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@fluidlogic The first microcomputer I had access to was an Altair 8800 that my high school computer club put together the year before I got there. The year after that my parents bought a Commodore Pet and things were never the same. I still have the pet but it doesn't work any more, sigh...
@AdrianRiskin thank you for sharing that story. The PET is probably repairable for not much money!
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@fluidlogic also the MSX people are precious and I admire their passion
️@Foritus yes! I never had an MSX but I remember finding them intriguing at the time. I still do. They were popular in Europe, the Middle East and South America, if I remember correctly.
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic you got a lot of masto olds here
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@fluidlogic you got a lot of masto olds here
@quinn it's more of a mix than I expected!
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R ActivityRelay shared this topic
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@fluidlogic alas my first computer as a kid was 32 bit and supported protected mode, how opulent
I couldn't afford to buy the Gateway with the math co-processor!
Also I played #HammurabisCode when it was a new game! And #Pong on the TV when it was a blast to play! -
#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic my parents bought an Apple //c in 1985 when I was in kindergarten.
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic I was mostly a roadside-find and garage/yard sale bits type
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic
I had an 8088 PC clone in that time, and a little later got a secondhand TI-99/4A. The PC was pretty cool, top of the line for its day with *two* floppy drives (no swapping disks for WordPerfect!) and a full 640k RAM. We upgraded it Theseus style until it was a Frankenstein 386 in the massive grey desktop case with the classic Big Red Switch. -
@fluidlogic my parents bought an Apple //c in 1985 when I was in kindergarten.
@bthylafh ...and you got to use it at that age?
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@fluidlogic I was mostly a roadside-find and garage/yard sale bits type
@howtophil so post-heyday? The machines were considered obsolete by the time you got your hands on them?
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@howtophil so post-heyday? The machines were considered obsolete by the time you got your hands on them?
@fluidlogic Eyup. To the point that people were giving them away or leaving them out for "trash curb day"
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic access to trs80 and original Macintosh in high school
Worked with VAX and Honeywell mainframes, 8088, 286, 386, an onward
Current collection is of Thinkpads, cheese grater and Mac pro/air with some tablets, taking retro computing and make them usable for today.
Along with my NES
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@fluidlogic Eyup. To the point that people were giving them away or leaving them out for "trash curb day"
@fluidlogic I do recall the days of "Doctor Dave" who had hardware and "totally legit software on 3.5" diskettes" to sell out of his garage...
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic You will take my TRS-80 Model III from my cold dead hands
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#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into retrocomputing today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!
(I'll ask the same question about minicomputers. This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.)
@fluidlogic My mother worked for IBM so of course rather than a normal computer we had to get a 5150 (version 2 system board, so it could hold up to 256K RAM), which she paid for through payroll deduction. A few summers later I went to a "computer camp" where I was the only kid with a PC in a sea of TRS-80s and C-64s and Apple IIs. It was upgraded over time; the second floppy drive broke and was replaced with a 20M hard drive, and we got a better (non-Epson) printer and a color monitor.
