4 ms·

Awesome stuff. Really nostalgic. An 8086 with yellow monochrome screen was my first computer. It ran Police Quest I, I think.

ksaj 6y ago
Have you used a green monochrome screen? I still remember the first time I got one, because it was cheaper than those newfangled amber screens. At first I thought it was a little stupid because of how slow the fade was when the cursor blinked, and it wasn't nearly as sharp or vivid. But within the first few hours of hacking around, I recognized how much easier on the eyes it was without the flickery amber that wobbled when you clacked your teeth together, and the weird random "snow" when refreshing the screen in a text "animation." If only fractals didn't take an hour or so to render back then, an animated one at modern speeds would have been quite soothing to watch that way. Fractint - I'm shocked I actually remember the name. Downloading it from a BBS is how I got my second computer virus! Exciting times. Nostalgic is right.
- dm319 6y ago
  Have you come across coolretroterm? It simulates the snow and wobble of those screens, and I think, does a reasonable job. Not sure if it would work with a graphical program though.
  - ksaj 6y ago
    I remember seeing it, I think from HN when I was still a lurker. I bookmarked it, but never got around to trying it. Some things are best left to the fond memories. I got an sdf.org account a few months ago, and that quickly demonstrated to me that nostalgia occurs when things happened so long ago that you forgot about all the not-great things like lag, terms that don't agree on what a backspace is, newsgroup spam, every program having completely different idioms, etc. My newsfeed config randomly disappeared after the third day, which was a very accurate representation of "back in the day" that I had forgotten about until that moment.
- thristian 6y ago
  It looks like the Linux port of Fractint was last updated in August 2020! https://fractint.org/ftp/current/linux/ https://fractint.org/ftp/current/linux/
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
  Do you know https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep ?
  - ksaj 6y ago
    First I've seen this. I'm surprised, because alife was my obsession for pretty much the entirety of the 90's, and I recently have been taking courses through Santa Fe Institute that touch on the subject. Thanks for the link!
    - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
      I share that obsession(at the times). Nowadays I wish I'd have the space for a room with at least a half dome, to project something like this at the walls like in a planetarium, to be immersed in. If I were to build a house, it would have this. My very own eternal lava lamp! :-)

ksaj 6y ago

Have you used a green monochrome screen? I still remember the first time I got one, because it was cheaper than those newfangled amber screens. At first I thought it was a little stupid because of how slow the fade was when the cursor blinked, and it wasn't nearly as sharp or vivid. But within the first few hours of hacking around, I recognized how much easier on the eyes it was without the flickery amber that wobbled when you clacked your teeth together, and the weird random "snow" when refreshing the screen in a text "animation." If only fractals didn't take an hour or so to render back then, an animated one at modern speeds would have been quite soothing to watch that way. Fractint - I'm shocked I actually remember the name. Downloading it from a BBS is how I got my second computer virus! Exciting times. Nostalgic is right.

dm319 6y ago
Have you come across coolretroterm? It simulates the snow and wobble of those screens, and I think, does a reasonable job. Not sure if it would work with a graphical program though.
- ksaj 6y ago
  I remember seeing it, I think from HN when I was still a lurker. I bookmarked it, but never got around to trying it. Some things are best left to the fond memories. I got an sdf.org account a few months ago, and that quickly demonstrated to me that nostalgia occurs when things happened so long ago that you forgot about all the not-great things like lag, terms that don't agree on what a backspace is, newsgroup spam, every program having completely different idioms, etc. My newsfeed config randomly disappeared after the third day, which was a very accurate representation of "back in the day" that I had forgotten about until that moment.
thristian 6y ago
It looks like the Linux port of Fractint was last updated in August 2020! https://fractint.org/ftp/current/linux/ https://fractint.org/ftp/current/linux/
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Do you know https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep ?
- ksaj 6y ago
  First I've seen this. I'm surprised, because alife was my obsession for pretty much the entirety of the 90's, and I recently have been taking courses through Santa Fe Institute that touch on the subject. Thanks for the link!
  - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
    I share that obsession(at the times). Nowadays I wish I'd have the space for a room with at least a half dome, to project something like this at the walls like in a planetarium, to be immersed in. If I were to build a house, it would have this. My very own eternal lava lamp! :-)