This isn't just for the nerds but I don't know how many people outside of nerd-dom talk about classic computing. Anyway, do you have an old computer system that you loved to use? That even now, with all of your modern hardware, you'd still like to own just so you could play with it every so often? I have one, though it's almost a tie, so technically I have two: The IBM PS/2 Model 30 The Apple IIe I would be thrilled to own either one of these. They're not useful in terms of modern computing, but they were fun, they were fascinating, and you could still do so much with them. Should I ever actually have money one of these days, I'd love to own one of each. What about you? If you own your dream classic system, feel free to share it! Or share classic games you played, old systems you used to own and loved, things you used to do with those PCs, like if you ran a bulletin board system like I did. Share the good old days when owning a PC felt special.
Mine's less about the machine, than the software it was running. There was just something about the way Windows 2000 worked (even with its habit of making a giant tmp file) that was better than every other version of Windows.
Windows 2000 was a much more refined version and step up from Windows NT, and as a result was quite stable. I had a friend who used Windows 2000 until Windows 7 came out, he loved it that much.
I think 2k was Peak Windows. Yes, XP, 7, and 10 were good, but ever so progressively less good than 2k.
I think part of that is because Microsoft started getting more into cramming stuff into the home versions of their operating systems to where they became bloated and unstable. Same. The Apple IIe was a little powerhouse, the best, most refined version of the Apple II, and the last to really inhabit the spirit of what the Apple II series represented.
I used to have an Apple IIc. It was, in theory, portable. Both the computer and the monitor had handles on them. If you had an external floppy drive, the standard usage was to keep your program disk in the built-in drive and use the external for file storage. If you didn't, you'd be constantly switching disks back and forth. It shipped with a demo disk that I think was programmed entirely in Applesoft BASIC, including a game called Lemonade Stand and a program called Sonata, which played a Mozart piano sonata. Because the computer and monitor both had RCA plugs in addition to VGA connectors, you could hook the computer up to a TV, hook your monitor up to a VCR, or chain them. I once programmed a short animated movie at 40x40 resolution in BASIC and recorded it onto a VHS tape. I have no idea what happened to it.
I remember using the Apple IIc in my senior year Algebra II class. That little green screen, the "portable" keyboard/computer combo. I died of dysentery many times on that little machine. It was fun to play around with, but it got replaced that year with the new PowerMac 5200/75 computers the school had just bought for the programming class.
I had PC back in 1996(?) or around that time, I bought a card for it that had a coax input on it along with RCA inputs. I could hook it up the a VCR, Nintendo, etc. I connected it to the coax coming into the house and it turned out having a cable tuner in it, I was able to watch cable TV. It let me do video capture at a really crappy resolution and capture images from video.
My very first computer was the Commodore 64c. I didn't have the breadbox, though I did end up getting one a few years later after finding it in the trash, but no, my first PC was the C64C, and it came with a floppy disk drive and a cassette deck, which had one cassette: Q-Bert, and it took 20 minutes to load.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Sinclair chose those touchpad keys. How anyone got anything done on them is beyond me.
Yep. It's just like what were they thinking? I mean, probably trying to save money, but still, anyone who got any coding work done on those things was a champ.
I love how retro computing has become a thing where they've brought back your favorite console/pc but tiny. That is a cool find!
My first computer at home was a Compaq something-or-other that I bought in 1998. Replaced a couple years later by an Apple G5 which I still have, tho it's not currently set up. Then in 2013 I bought a maxed-out iMac and that's what I'm still using. Altho in 2015 I bought an Asus WinDoze box to play MechWarrior Online. My first computer experience at all was timesharing on a PDP-11 at high school. Learned to program in BASIC on that.
I still think Apple reached their design zenith with the iMac G4. They really were designing computers that looked fantastic and exuded real artistry, especially compared to the beige and/or charcoal boxes which were still the style at the time. We still haven't moved much beyond that in the desktop arena. Now everything feels too corporate and sanitized.
Unless you're getting some Alienware gaming box, plain vanilla engineering is what you're getting. The juice is in the guts, not the shell.
True, but I think presentation matters. Apple used to cater to artists and other creative people, and now they're just one more corporate luxury brand, IMO. Yes, Steve Jobs was about the money, too, but you could tell when he was running things and what came out of Apple versus when others like John Scully or Tim Cook were heads of the company. It's a small thing, but it matters to me.
FWIW the consensus in my industrial design course at the time they first appeared was that they were a paragon of planned obsolescence and OEM indenturement. They may have catered to creatives, but they fell short of actually meeting the requirements of (soon to be) professional designers.
