4 ms·

The Oregon Trail Generation: Life Before and After Mainstream Tech

2 points by kposehn 12y ago

dalke 12y ago
Something is a bit off by that description. I was born before 'the tail end of the 70s and the start of the 80s', so by rights I am supposed to be "feeling slightly alienated from [computers] the way Gen X did". This is because "Gen X individuals were already fully-formed teens or young adults when computers became mainstream." But that's not true. The 1977 introduction of the Commodore PET, TRS-80 and Apple II marks the start of the home computer generation. I had a computer starting when I was 12, as did many others in the neighborhood. By 1982 and the Commodore price wars, a home computer cost ~$200, which is under $500 in 2015 dollars. I remember reading magazines directed towards schoolchildren which include BASIC programs to type in and run. So I'm pretty sure that computer were "mainstream" before I even became a teen. Also, Oregon Trail was first written in 1971. But the specific characterization is: > If you can distinctly recall the excitement of walking into your weekly computer lab session and seeing a room full of Apple 2Es displaying the start screen of Oregon Trail The Apple //e came out in January 1983. By definition, anyone born in 1969 would be a teenager when it came out. But it would lose a period cachet to say this was simply "Apple //" generation. And for some reason the sort of people who write about their early involvement with computer prefer to talk about Oregon Trail, even though "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" from the same era made Brøderbund tens of millions per year. Quoting from http://www.filfre.net/2014/08/apple-carmen-sandiego-and-the-rise-of-edutainment/ http://www.filfre.net/2014/08/apple-carmen-sandiego-and-the-... : > Together Oregon and Carmen became the twin icons of 1980s edutainment, still today an inescapable shared memory for virtually everyone who darkened a grade or middle school door in the United States between about 1985 and 1995. Carmen is more strongly tied to that specific generation than Oregon Trail, no?

2 points by kposehn 12y ago

dalke 12y ago

Something is a bit off by that description. I was born before 'the tail end of the 70s and the start of the 80s', so by rights I am supposed to be "feeling slightly alienated from [computers] the way Gen X did". This is because "Gen X individuals were already fully-formed teens or young adults when computers became mainstream." But that's not true. The 1977 introduction of the Commodore PET, TRS-80 and Apple II marks the start of the home computer generation. I had a computer starting when I was 12, as did many others in the neighborhood. By 1982 and the Commodore price wars, a home computer cost ~$200, which is under $500 in 2015 dollars. I remember reading magazines directed towards schoolchildren which include BASIC programs to type in and run. So I'm pretty sure that computer were "mainstream" before I even became a teen. Also, Oregon Trail was first written in 1971. But the specific characterization is: > If you can distinctly recall the excitement of walking into your weekly computer lab session and seeing a room full of Apple 2Es displaying the start screen of Oregon Trail The Apple //e came out in January 1983. By definition, anyone born in 1969 would be a teenager when it came out. But it would lose a period cachet to say this was simply "Apple //" generation. And for some reason the sort of people who write about their early involvement with computer prefer to talk about Oregon Trail, even though "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" from the same era made Brøderbund tens of millions per year. Quoting from http://www.filfre.net/2014/08/apple-carmen-sandiego-and-the-rise-of-edutainment/ http://www.filfre.net/2014/08/apple-carmen-sandiego-and-the-... : > Together Oregon and Carmen became the twin icons of 1980s edutainment, still today an inescapable shared memory for virtually everyone who darkened a grade or middle school door in the United States between about 1985 and 1995. Carmen is more strongly tied to that specific generation than Oregon Trail, no?