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I had the exact same childhood. Somehow I feel that the limited resources of the computers back then made the games more fun and original. There was a lot of cr

I had the exact same childhood. Somehow I feel that the limited resources of the computers back then made the games more fun and original. There was a lot of creativity. People would come up with new concepts all the time, you never knew what the next cool games would be like. Another notable point is that not everybody had a computer (at least where I lived). Something like 10-20% of the kids were actively using their computer, so you could be part of a tribe. It was also easy to get into programming. The OS presented itself as a basic interpreter, and any manual that you would buy with your computer would explain how to write simple programs. It was definitely a particular era. I wonder if there is something equivalent today. What do 8-years old kids do nowadays? besides watching youtube videos.

UncleSlacky 7y ago
There's quite a big community around Scratch, also with Python on Raspberry Pi (at least in the UK), but nothing on the scale of the 80s.
- walkingolof 7y ago
  Sure, but it's hard to compare that to the home computer era, we were the first generation with a computer of our own, and grown-ups had literally no clue. The systems where very limited and the gaps had to be filled by the imagination. It was a magic time in history that won't return.
  - Razengan 7y ago
    > It was a magic time in history that won't return. That is such a true and sad realization.. I guess it applies to other fields of technology which have rapid progress at the start and there's a lot of room to explore and few visible boundaries. Like seafaring. When people first invented boats they had literally the entire world made open to them, that they could previously only imagine. Personal computers were like the invention of seafaring for the mind. I guess the next frontier like that is space, where literally the entire universe is waiting to be discovered. :)

UncleSlacky 7y ago

There's quite a big community around Scratch, also with Python on Raspberry Pi (at least in the UK), but nothing on the scale of the 80s.

walkingolof 7y ago
Sure, but it's hard to compare that to the home computer era, we were the first generation with a computer of our own, and grown-ups had literally no clue. The systems where very limited and the gaps had to be filled by the imagination. It was a magic time in history that won't return.
- Razengan 7y ago
  > It was a magic time in history that won't return. That is such a true and sad realization.. I guess it applies to other fields of technology which have rapid progress at the start and there's a lot of room to explore and few visible boundaries. Like seafaring. When people first invented boats they had literally the entire world made open to them, that they could previously only imagine. Personal computers were like the invention of seafaring for the mind. I guess the next frontier like that is space, where literally the entire universe is waiting to be discovered. :)