4 ms·

Well - kind of. PC gaming is bigger than ever before, and PC gaming was how a lot of my generation got into computers. My nephew for a while was very much one

by RajT88 2y ago

Well - kind of. PC gaming is bigger than ever before, and PC gaming was how a lot of my generation got into computers. My nephew for a while was very much one of those "grew up on devices" kind of kids - until he got off of gaming on phones and tablets, and got a gaming PC. Now he's reading about technology and tinkering and stuff.

blueflow 2y ago
Its not the same. Nowadays you press a button in steam and the game is installed for you and just works. It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did.
- mardef 2y ago
  It's not the same, but I don't know if it's worse. My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. But I've seen genz kids do incredible things with Minecraft mods and the like that make me reminisce about quake modding. The masses are just blindly using devices, but the masses didn't even have a PC at home 30 years ago.
  - neuralRiot 2y ago
    It used to be that if you wanted to do gaming on a PC you started by building the PC.
    - dingnuts 2y ago
      That hasn't changed. Of course there are pre builts but there were twenty years ago, too. I should know -- I had one. I built my third gaming PC myself.
      - tharkun__ 2y ago
        There were pre builts many years before your 20 years ago too. I used to build my computers myself as well 30 years ago and my dad did 40 years ago ;)
    - RajT88 2y ago
      I dunno... My C64 required very little assembly.
  - CapitalistCartr 2y ago
    (Smile) 30 years ago was 1995, when most people did. You're thinking 1985. Forty years ago.
    - k1t 2y ago
      In 1995 around 1 in 3 US homes had a computer.
      - amatecha 2y ago
        Yeah in Canada it looks like about 28% of homes had a personal computer in 1995, according to Stats Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/56f0004m/2005012/c-g/c1-eng.htm https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/56f0004m/2005012/c-g/c1-...
  - EvanAnderson 2y ago
    > My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. Your ability to meticulously solve a problem using a systematic troubleshooting approach is always useful. You just happened to hone the skill w/ IRQ conflicts and himem.sys.
    - tharkun__ 2y ago
      Agreed. And while what we did to get into the details and discover are different some kids still do. Heck I did the same. Dip switches galore. Did I know what an IRQ actually is on the OS level while solving IRQ conflicts as a kid? Heck no! Only years later when I no longer needed to did I understand what those actually are/were. The today equivalent of learning about autoexec.bat and config.sys to not load the cdrom driver because else this one game wouldn't start because it did not have enough memory is figuring out what's behind the Steam "Start" button and where the games "live" and how you can get what you want instead of doing everything through steam. The kids that are the today equivalent of us in the old days do exist.
  - jeffwask 2y ago
    I think coding skills don't lag as far behind with those who enjoy coding. It's a hell of a lot easier to learn and more accessible than it ever was. Plus applications like modding make learning fun. It's more systems, networks, OS fundamentals... i.e. how you pull all the pieces together and make them work especially among your "non-technical" user set.
    - RajT88 2y ago
      I code more for fun now, because the proliferation of higher end languages and libraries for practically everything drastically reduces the time to that first "wow cool!" moment. I'm sure it's the same with young people.
- driverdan 2y ago
  > It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did All that did was result in extreme frustration. My knowledge of creating game-specific boot disks to eek out 1k more memory did nothing for my ability to write software, except perhaps to appreciate having more RAM and good UX.
- pajko 2y ago
  Many older games are shipped in a full DOSBox setup with preconfigured config.sys. The question is that is there any will to "conquer the past" and poke around, or not.
starkrights 2y ago
I've seen both sides- my nephew is large into pc gaming, but is woefully unaware of how to operate a computer in most capacities. I only realized this when trying to help him troubleshoot and realizing he didn't really understand the concepts of archives or even folders. I don't even know how that's possible because he plays modded versions of some of his games- how you get by without knowing what a zip file works at the surface level is a mystery to me lol.

by RajT88 2y ago

blueflow 2y ago

Its not the same. Nowadays you press a button in steam and the game is installed for you and just works. It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did.

mardef 2y ago
It's not the same, but I don't know if it's worse. My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. But I've seen genz kids do incredible things with Minecraft mods and the like that make me reminisce about quake modding. The masses are just blindly using devices, but the masses didn't even have a PC at home 30 years ago.
- neuralRiot 2y ago
  It used to be that if you wanted to do gaming on a PC you started by building the PC.
  - dingnuts 2y ago
    That hasn't changed. Of course there are pre builts but there were twenty years ago, too. I should know -- I had one. I built my third gaming PC myself.
    - tharkun__ 2y ago
      There were pre builts many years before your 20 years ago too. I used to build my computers myself as well 30 years ago and my dad did 40 years ago ;)
  - RajT88 2y ago
    I dunno... My C64 required very little assembly.
- CapitalistCartr 2y ago
  (Smile) 30 years ago was 1995, when most people did. You're thinking 1985. Forty years ago.
  - k1t 2y ago
    In 1995 around 1 in 3 US homes had a computer.
    - amatecha 2y ago
      Yeah in Canada it looks like about 28% of homes had a personal computer in 1995, according to Stats Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/56f0004m/2005012/c-g/c1-eng.htm https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/56f0004m/2005012/c-g/c1-...
- EvanAnderson 2y ago
  > My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. Your ability to meticulously solve a problem using a systematic troubleshooting approach is always useful. You just happened to hone the skill w/ IRQ conflicts and himem.sys.
  - tharkun__ 2y ago
    Agreed. And while what we did to get into the details and discover are different some kids still do. Heck I did the same. Dip switches galore. Did I know what an IRQ actually is on the OS level while solving IRQ conflicts as a kid? Heck no! Only years later when I no longer needed to did I understand what those actually are/were. The today equivalent of learning about autoexec.bat and config.sys to not load the cdrom driver because else this one game wouldn't start because it did not have enough memory is figuring out what's behind the Steam "Start" button and where the games "live" and how you can get what you want instead of doing everything through steam. The kids that are the today equivalent of us in the old days do exist.
- jeffwask 2y ago
  I think coding skills don't lag as far behind with those who enjoy coding. It's a hell of a lot easier to learn and more accessible than it ever was. Plus applications like modding make learning fun. It's more systems, networks, OS fundamentals... i.e. how you pull all the pieces together and make them work especially among your "non-technical" user set.
  - RajT88 2y ago
    I code more for fun now, because the proliferation of higher end languages and libraries for practically everything drastically reduces the time to that first "wow cool!" moment. I'm sure it's the same with young people.
driverdan 2y ago
> It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did All that did was result in extreme frustration. My knowledge of creating game-specific boot disks to eek out 1k more memory did nothing for my ability to write software, except perhaps to appreciate having more RAM and good UX.
pajko 2y ago
Many older games are shipped in a full DOSBox setup with preconfigured config.sys. The question is that is there any will to "conquer the past" and poke around, or not.

starkrights 2y ago

I've seen both sides- my nephew is large into pc gaming, but is woefully unaware of how to operate a computer in most capacities. I only realized this when trying to help him troubleshoot and realizing he didn't really understand the concepts of archives or even folders. I don't even know how that's possible because he plays modded versions of some of his games- how you get by without knowing what a zip file works at the surface level is a mystery to me lol.