4 ms·

What was it like before PC? The very first computer I ever touched had windows 3.1 and also I think was 286DX. Then 386 And some time later I found an Atari at

by Exuma 3y ago

What was it like before PC? The very first computer I ever touched had windows 3.1 and also I think was 286DX. Then 386 And some time later I found an Atari at a garage sale. I’ve always how much I missed out getting in when I did. Kind of like kids these days in frontend frameworks not ever know ie conditional comment tags or csszengarden

bitwize 3y ago
Before the PC dominated there were lots of idiosyncratic machines with idiosyncratic architectures. Most of them were useless to the average consumer. Computers were used by businesses and scientists; and unless they had a small business, the average person was unlikely to want or need one. The uses that did take off involved children: education and gaming. Many "home computers" were basically video game consoles in terms of hardware, but they had keyboards and could be programmed. People sold commercial games for these systems, but they were also the first systems for which kids got interested in making their own games. You had to have an interest in programming the machine to a very low level in order to make a game; there was no Unreal or Unity to hold your hand. But the machines were simple and well documented; every bit of hardware (graphics chip, sound chip, joystick port, etc.) had info on how to program it in the manuals that came with the machine (at least for common machines like Commodore ones). Some of them, most notably the Apple II (US) and BBC Micro (UK), were purchased by schools for educational purposes. Special "edutainment" programs would be run on them to teach kids things like math, reading, and geography. The most famous such program was The Oregon Trail, which simulated an expedition across the western United States before it was settled, but there were hundreds of such programs across the many different computing platforms. In the 8-bit PC era, because it was unclear what people would use PCs for, it was also expected that they would come up with their own applications and to that end almost all of them came with the programming language BASIC, allowing the user to get started with programming right away. This was considered something of a high point in computing history, because it gave the notion that computers were there to be programmed and to do exactly what their users wanted. As 16-bit and 32-bit machines took their place, programming tools became optional add-ons and it took more and more time and cost to write useful programs for them. Some of the non-IBM-compatible 16-bit machines, like the Atari ST and Amiga, retained some of the "game console" architecture and had amazing graphics and sound capability. With the right tools you could do some really impressive things with them. PCs didn't become common consumer products until the mid-late 90s when the biggest consumer killer app emerged for them: the internet. This corresponded nicely with the release of Windows 95, the first end-user Windows OS that could run full-fat 32-bit applications. Now that they had a primary purpose for the average consumer, interest in marketing them as programmable devices waned over the next three decades to the present day, when the idea is to prevent the end user from running any but preapproved software, especially on the PC's replacement as internet gateway: smartphones. We had much more fun with our janky little machines back then, even if we couldn't do nearly as much. We've reclaimed a little of that with open source operating systems like Linux and BSD, but it's still not quite the same.
pjmlp 3y ago
The same experience that you only get on Apple devices nowadays, or something like Raspberry Pi 400, an integrated vertical experience of hardware and software designed to work together, and the related ecosystem. It felt that the computers had a soul, while the PC felt like a pile of hardware stuck together with duckt tape. that happened to work.
- Exuma 3y ago
  Darn, sounds like I missed quite the experience then by a few years. I've always been bummed about that when I hear people just a FEW years older than me talking about their apple II , amiga or whatever it is or whatever it is
harel 3y ago
I disagree that the experience is like today's Apples, but do agree that the Raspberry Pi tried and somewhat succeeded capturing that spirit. In my view; it was absolutely glorious and completely magical. Keep in mind I was a kid when I started. My first english words were words like "PRINT" and "GOTO". The machine came with restrictions that did not appear as such back then. It booted immediately into a programming language. It had games but also you could program it (which in itself is like a game). You had to figure it out yourself. Either by somehow acquiring books or by trial and error. No Google. To exchange software we put ads in the paper and random people of all ages would come to our house (or I'd go to them). It didn't look weird back then. We used tapes and later floppies. They were terrible at keeping the data in a stable way but it worked. Hard drives and modems were a dream. Rich people had those. Graphics were beautiful. Especially on the Amiga. The PC kids used to come and crumble from the weight of jealousy looking at my graphics or making MOD music on Modtracker. I suppose a lot of this was true for the early PC days as well. Just with inferior graphics and interfaces. After I sold my Amiga to get driving lessons I brought home an ancient 286 and made a text-adventure on it using TADs. The magic wasn't excluded from the PC world, it was just less colourful.
- Clubber 3y ago
  The books that came with the C64 were pretty decent and could take you a pretty long way. Once I got a modem, the world really opened up. We traded software via BBSes and had monthly meetups at a local library where someone would rent out a conference room and everyone would bring their C64 rigs and meet and greet (and copy software). I agree, Apple is nothing like it. Apple is the opposite because you don't need to know anything about how it works to use one, but that's their niche. With the Commodores, you boot up to a Microsoft BASIC prompt and crack open the manual.
  - harel 3y ago
    What I would have done for a modem in those days...
- Exuma 3y ago
  Damn, that sounds wonderful. It sounds like I really missed out there, but I AM very grateful I did get to experience the early magic of the internet at least, that I remember really well. My "hardware" experience wasn't quite like you described at all because we had no money, and it was a junk computer, where basically the only thing I could do was draw things in MS Paint. I see sort of the energy you are talking about though ... and I envision that would have been truly awesome. If what you are talking about is a 10, and today is a 0, my hope is that I at least got to experience a 7
tiborsaas 3y ago
It was a bit different, but the C64 really made it feel like I have my own machine I can do anything with. After flipping the power switch and instantly booting the OS, I could start typing a BASIC program. But typically it was: LOAD "*",8,1 and my game started loading :) Getting software was more or less like the PC era, people copying stuff on disks and cassettes. In 80's Hungary they experimented with full program trasmissions over radio. What was interesting to see is the immersion you can get with only 320x200 pixels. I only realized this after running an emulator on a PC and I got suddenly teleported back to HD land. It was quite neat that I was able to play with these machines, but after getting a PC there was little desire to go back.

by Exuma 3y ago

bitwize 3y ago

Before the PC dominated there were lots of idiosyncratic machines with idiosyncratic architectures. Most of them were useless to the average consumer. Computers were used by businesses and scientists; and unless they had a small business, the average person was unlikely to want or need one. The uses that did take off involved children: education and gaming. Many "home computers" were basically video game consoles in terms of hardware, but they had keyboards and could be programmed. People sold commercial games for these systems, but they were also the first systems for which kids got interested in making their own games. You had to have an interest in programming the machine to a very low level in order to make a game; there was no Unreal or Unity to hold your hand. But the machines were simple and well documented; every bit of hardware (graphics chip, sound chip, joystick port, etc.) had info on how to program it in the manuals that came with the machine (at least for common machines like Commodore ones). Some of them, most notably the Apple II (US) and BBC Micro (UK), were purchased by schools for educational purposes. Special "edutainment" programs would be run on them to teach kids things like math, reading, and geography. The most famous such program was The Oregon Trail, which simulated an expedition across the western United States before it was settled, but there were hundreds of such programs across the many different computing platforms. In the 8-bit PC era, because it was unclear what people would use PCs for, it was also expected that they would come up with their own applications and to that end almost all of them came with the programming language BASIC, allowing the user to get started with programming right away. This was considered something of a high point in computing history, because it gave the notion that computers were there to be programmed and to do exactly what their users wanted. As 16-bit and 32-bit machines took their place, programming tools became optional add-ons and it took more and more time and cost to write useful programs for them. Some of the non-IBM-compatible 16-bit machines, like the Atari ST and Amiga, retained some of the "game console" architecture and had amazing graphics and sound capability. With the right tools you could do some really impressive things with them. PCs didn't become common consumer products until the mid-late 90s when the biggest consumer killer app emerged for them: the internet. This corresponded nicely with the release of Windows 95, the first end-user Windows OS that could run full-fat 32-bit applications. Now that they had a primary purpose for the average consumer, interest in marketing them as programmable devices waned over the next three decades to the present day, when the idea is to prevent the end user from running any but preapproved software, especially on the PC's replacement as internet gateway: smartphones. We had much more fun with our janky little machines back then, even if we couldn't do nearly as much. We've reclaimed a little of that with open source operating systems like Linux and BSD, but it's still not quite the same.

pjmlp 3y ago

The same experience that you only get on Apple devices nowadays, or something like Raspberry Pi 400, an integrated vertical experience of hardware and software designed to work together, and the related ecosystem. It felt that the computers had a soul, while the PC felt like a pile of hardware stuck together with duckt tape. that happened to work.

Exuma 3y ago
Darn, sounds like I missed quite the experience then by a few years. I've always been bummed about that when I hear people just a FEW years older than me talking about their apple II , amiga or whatever it is or whatever it is

harel 3y ago

I disagree that the experience is like today's Apples, but do agree that the Raspberry Pi tried and somewhat succeeded capturing that spirit. In my view; it was absolutely glorious and completely magical. Keep in mind I was a kid when I started. My first english words were words like "PRINT" and "GOTO". The machine came with restrictions that did not appear as such back then. It booted immediately into a programming language. It had games but also you could program it (which in itself is like a game). You had to figure it out yourself. Either by somehow acquiring books or by trial and error. No Google. To exchange software we put ads in the paper and random people of all ages would come to our house (or I'd go to them). It didn't look weird back then. We used tapes and later floppies. They were terrible at keeping the data in a stable way but it worked. Hard drives and modems were a dream. Rich people had those. Graphics were beautiful. Especially on the Amiga. The PC kids used to come and crumble from the weight of jealousy looking at my graphics or making MOD music on Modtracker. I suppose a lot of this was true for the early PC days as well. Just with inferior graphics and interfaces. After I sold my Amiga to get driving lessons I brought home an ancient 286 and made a text-adventure on it using TADs. The magic wasn't excluded from the PC world, it was just less colourful.

Clubber 3y ago
The books that came with the C64 were pretty decent and could take you a pretty long way. Once I got a modem, the world really opened up. We traded software via BBSes and had monthly meetups at a local library where someone would rent out a conference room and everyone would bring their C64 rigs and meet and greet (and copy software). I agree, Apple is nothing like it. Apple is the opposite because you don't need to know anything about how it works to use one, but that's their niche. With the Commodores, you boot up to a Microsoft BASIC prompt and crack open the manual.
- harel 3y ago
  What I would have done for a modem in those days...
Exuma 3y ago
Damn, that sounds wonderful. It sounds like I really missed out there, but I AM very grateful I did get to experience the early magic of the internet at least, that I remember really well. My "hardware" experience wasn't quite like you described at all because we had no money, and it was a junk computer, where basically the only thing I could do was draw things in MS Paint. I see sort of the energy you are talking about though ... and I envision that would have been truly awesome. If what you are talking about is a 10, and today is a 0, my hope is that I at least got to experience a 7

tiborsaas 3y ago

It was a bit different, but the C64 really made it feel like I have my own machine I can do anything with. After flipping the power switch and instantly booting the OS, I could start typing a BASIC program. But typically it was: LOAD "*",8,1 and my game started loading :) Getting software was more or less like the PC era, people copying stuff on disks and cassettes. In 80's Hungary they experimented with full program trasmissions over radio. What was interesting to see is the immersion you can get with only 320x200 pixels. I only realized this after running an emulator on a PC and I got suddenly teleported back to HD land. It was quite neat that I was able to play with these machines, but after getting a PC there was little desire to go back.