I've been addicted to computers since I was small enough that I needed to use the thumb and middle fingers of my hand as a splint to make my index finger stiff enough to push the buttons. It certainly wasn't the colorful graphics that attracted me: we're talking about the dawn of the 1980s here, and I later had a TRS-80 Color Computer for years without ever seeing its video output in color.
No, it was the idea that these things could be programmed that captivated me. The other objects I knew of tended to do just one thing, but computers could be made to do anything you wanted. That was sheer, unmitigated magic. (In theory, of course. My desires and imagination far exceeded my budding programming talents, and I was far better at creating instruction screens for games that sounded cool than actually finishing them.)
And it was more than just that you could program these things yourself: there was a culture associated with microcomputers that seemed to be all about showing off what you'd gotten your computer to do and sharing that expertise with others. I witnessed that culture first through magazines (99'er, Compute!, Rainbow, Hot CoCo, Timex/Sinclair User, I miss you all) and delightfully gonzo books from TAB, Sams, and Hayden Press, as well as tagging along with my father to innumerable amateur radio shows. (I actually enjoyed laboriously typing in BASIC program lists from these magazines -- waiting for the inevitable corrections in the next month's issue, not so much.)
In 1986 or so, I got my hands on a modem for the first time: a 300-baud Volksmodem that ran off a 9-volt battery and couldn't autodial, but a modem just the same. I was soon spending as much time as I could get away with calling local BBSes, which were full of other people fascinated by these marvelous things (as opposed to the other kids at school, who largely regarded even having a computer as somewhat suspect). That culture involved not only showing off and sharing your own knowledge, but also other people's knowledge, whether they liked or not -- which is to say, it was also my introduction to cracking, warez, reverse-engineering, etc. Eventually, I got Usenet access through a local business that ran a dialup BBS on its VAX, figured out how to drop to shell, and began to explore the Internet... but I digress.
The purpose of this blog is to celebrate both the culture that surrounded these early micros and the hardware itself -- and hopefully to spread more of that anything you want spirit to a wider audience.
So, yes, this is yet another retrocomputing blog, but with a bit different emphasis than usual. I'm not interested in reminiscing over the great 8-bit games we all remember -- Seven Cities of Gold and Impossible Mission were great, but that territory is well-covered already. I'm more interested in writing about these topics:
- Digital preservation: We're not likely to lose the commercially successful programs of the 80s, but what about the hodge-podge of quirky, off-beat, and bizarre amateur productions that make up the long tail? Short-lived disk magazines, graphics demos, text adventures in BASIC... these are a window into history and culture just as much, or more, than the big-budget productions. I want to preserve that long tail and make it discoverable.
- Technical details: I love reverse-engineering, disassembling, and otherwise pulling things apart, and I've got a hankering to analyze some of the classic games of the era down to the assembly-language level. Ultima III was a wonderful game -- so let's study its code, not just look at its screen shots!
- Retro projects: It's probably no surprise by this point that I'm into emulation of classic software and hardware, and I plan on blogging about the progress of my various projects here. (For example, I'm working on a multi-player engine for the classic Scott Adams adventure games, written in Go.)
- Sharing technical knowledge: I also hope it's clear by now that I don't much cotton to a priesthood of information: programming, computers, and DIY culture are for everyone, and everyone is worthy. I've taught introductory programming at the college level with some reasonable success, and I hope to use this space as a forum for spreading how-to knowledge about hacking microcomputers to anyone who's interested, including folks who didn't grow up with these computers.
- Building community: I can be long-winded, but I wouldn't be writing these words if I didn't hope to help connect retrocomputing enthusiasts to one another and meet other Makers. There's no NIH syndrome to be found here, and I'm more than happy to highlight other people's spiffy projects, solicit guest tutorials, etc. Commenting is both encouraged and welcome -- please be good to one another, is all that I ask.
So, dust off that old Commodore 64, CoCo, Apple ][, Atari, TI-99/4A, Sinclair, etc., and let's go on a journey together!
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