Hondo's Cabin http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl The Cabin >> 8 Bits and Beyond >> Old Computers Making A Comeback! http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1530904960 Message started by Fernando on Jul 6th, 2018, 3:22pm

Title: Old Computers Making A Comeback! Post by Fernando on Jul 6th, 2018, 3:22pm Being on several Old Computer Groups on Facebook, Youtube and various forums, I am noticing that a lot of people out there finding dead machines and bringing them back to life. But some of their motives for doing so can rather be selfish – for profit means, and thus will not put in the required work to get a dead machine properly working again, just barely. Case in point, I’m seeing Apple II and II+ going for $2000 to $5000 on ebay! Except for that, people are setting up and working on the older machines. Though when one gets down to it, if just doing basic work of wordprocessing, spreadsheet calculations, and a simple database, one does not need to have giga-hertz machines with 8 or more gigabytes of RAM and Terabytes of hard drive space! And those bringing back their old machines, are using them for such basic work! So what are being brought back? PowerPC and 68K Macintoshes, and 8086 – Pentium System PCs abound and are still useful to this day. But to some this is not old enough. 16 and 32 bit processing is just a generation or two away from the mainstream machines of today, and require a complex and bloated OS to run such software. And often more than enough, system crashes or freezes were all too common. Though these systems fit the category of “vintage computing,” purists think this is not “vintage” enough. They believe that 8bit systems are only the way to go. Apple, Atari, Commodore, Acorn, Sinclair (Timex/Sinclair in the USA), Kaypro, Osbourne, TRS/Tandy, and many more names filled the ranks of the 8Bit realm of computing. Prices of these systems varied from $100 to over $5000 for such a system. But first, what comprised a system? A Basic System comprised of the System Board, keyboard for input, and a monitor (or in many cases, a TV) for output. Cassette Tapes were the used to store one’s data. RAM depended on what system you had, most had 4 or 8 KB of RAM in the beginning of the computer revolution. 16K to 64K became popular a few years later in the mid 1980s. Software was loaded in from tapes or disk, with many of them typed in by hand by the computer owner. I remember spending hundreds of hours typing in many programs by hand from various books and magazines. “Speedscript” was a wordprocesor I used in my late high school and into my college years, created by the famous Commodore Guru Jim Butterfield. It took me 2 months to type up that program though the original 4K machine language core was typed in less than 12 hours; I had to wait for the program corrections to be published a month later on “Compute!” magazine. “PETGraph” was a plotting and medium resolution program for the Commodore PET, also by Jim Butterfield, which allowed me to print out mathematic graphic functions on a screen that only allowed text to be printed. When I completed this program for the BTHS Computer Club, my friends thought I was the ultimate hacker! Graphics on a Commodore PET? Impossible! But there is was. But enough of the Old Days... what is going on today? Believe it or not, people are still writing software for the old systems. Many are games, more than half are games rewritten and improved upon from 30+ years of research, hacking and secrets found. There are still some utilities and productivity software being created. ADPT Pro (for the Apple II systems) allows Apples to load software from a PC through the PC’s sound output and the Apple’s Cassette input; this allows a “New Generation” Apple II users to create system and utility disks when they have none, and transfer software they find on the internet from the PC to the Apple II with ease! Diagnostic software has been built on both magnetic media and hardware cartridge for systems like the Commodore Vic 20, C64, C16/Plus4 and Atari systems to help aide in their system repairs. New games have been and continue to be created. “Cheese & Onions,” “Pet Rescue,” and “Planet X” series are just a few example created within the past couple years. For whatever the reason, people are coming back to the older systems. There are many emulators for the modern system to run the older system on them, but like many and I believe, nothing beats running on true hardware. Emulated systems feel fake in my opinion. Though to many there is no other option, an emulator can give the simulated feel of how things used too be. But nothing can replace sitting down in front of the machine and turning on the switch and “BAM!” less than 5 seconds later your system is on, up, and running! Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) are making a comeback with Internet connected BBSes accessible on the web. Serial to Ethernet or Wifi converters are connecting old 8bit systems to the internet and to these BBSes. Many sites like Wikipedia still have Text Versions of their websites for older machine owners to still access their information on text based browsers like “Links” and “Lynx” (both for the Apple II). What was a dream 30 years ago, is now a reality today on these old systems. In preserving the past can we appreciate what we have today. We can see and study the history these machines hold, listen to the legends and lore of past achievements. Did you know that the notorious hacker Capt’n Crunch created the “AppleScript” wordprocessor while serving his prison sentence, and thus made his first million dollars while in jail? It’s true. Before Apple Inc. created AppleWorks for the Apple II, “AppleScript” was the most popular wordprocessor used on the Apple II system. Continuing to build on these systems teaches hardcore Logic for these systems rules had to be absolute. Coding had to tight and multifunctional as routines must be shared rather than duplicated because of memory limitations. Whatever the reason, old systems are making a comeback. Information on these old systems abound on the internet, and groups were formed to help each other on system one has. If one is interested in acquiring an older system, it is best to join such a group, gather as much information as possible before getting a system to work on, and then enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.

Title: Re: Old Computers Making A Comeback! Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Jul 6th, 2018, 9:07pm extremely interesting! I will be following this closely

Hondo's Cabin » Powered by YaBB 2.1! YaBB © 2000-2005. All Rights Reserved.