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WHY ARE YOUNG PEOPLE EMBRACING 8 BIT COMPUTERS "RETROCOM


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As you read this realize that I write software for the C64 ...Believe It or Not ! I will also acknowledge that I have spent as much or more time on "Fastfingers2" then the 1985 version which I released over 34 years ago. IT IS TIME TO MAKE MUSIC NOW !

 

WHY ARE YOUNG PEOPLE EMBRACING 8 BIT COMPUTERS AND "RETROCOMPUTING"

 

It is because the young people want to get into the "nuts and bolts" and touch the hardware directly rather than wade through layers of bloated code. Many 8 bit computers only had 100 "commands" or "instructions" whereas modern computers have VOLUMES of LIBRARIES for "higher level" languages.

 

When I was "done" with my C64 back in 1986, and bought my first Amiga , I noticed a big departure from this. All of a sudden, instead of a single manual with address of video sound etc. I needed to spend over $100 On the Amiga "Intuition Manual" ,"Rom Kernel Manual"s including "Libraries and Devices" which was the most scary of all, with hundreds of pages of "Functions" to implement. Not only that, but the compilers each had their own functions. I saw at least 3 versions of Open_Window, with at least 20 ways of implementing each version.

 

And what the heck is an "Intuition Manual" anyway. Sounds more like magic to me.

 

.....to be continued

 

DAN

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The Amiga error message was something like "Guru Meditation X8dTHL45." Then again, at least that was more fun than the Microsoft error messages - 8x000700h04.

 

There are a lot of people getting into Arduino tech, probably for the same reason: ordinary mortal human beings can do things with it :)

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Probably a mix of nostalgia and just curiosity about technology and other stuff from a time before they were born. - like other millienials (and younger folks) who got into collecting vinyl recordings of 60s pop, "Northern Soul", etc. and others in their age group who started collecting vintage dresses and fashion accessories.
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Not quite as retro as the Commodore, but I just set up a computer with Windows 98 to work with an Audio Precision System 1 test set. The previous setup was a PC running DOS 3.3 with a motherboard that has an ISA slot to accommodate the AP's interface card. Win98 supports a custom driver that lets the computer and the hardware talk through a standard parallel "printer" port.

 

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FWIW, I'm a member of a Facebook group created around retro computing and gaming, I feel like most of the group is my age (late 40s) and that it has more to do with nostalgia. But it's interesting to me if a younger generation who didn't experience it the first time around is legitimately interested.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Speaking of obsolete computers, does anyone have a suggestion of how I can go about finding a USB WiFi adapter that works under Win98SE? I've checked with a few current manufacturers (Linksys, TP-Link, Belkin, Netgear) and all they know about is their current products, none of which are supported below Win7 or XP. Call me lazy, but I'd rather send plots and data from my AP test set in my shop back to my "writing" computer over the network rather than copy files to a USB thumb drive and carry them down the hall.

 

I have an old Netgear USB-WiFi adapter that has a Win98 driver on their web site, but it doesn't work. I know the hardware is OK because it works with WinXP with the proper driver loaded.

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Hmmm...I recall there were differences between win 98 and 98SE that were fairly significant and if inrecall hen I was working on 2000 server, it was interchangeable with 98SE but not 98. I could be wrong. Anyway; was the offending driver a 98 driver or a 98SE driver)

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Hmmm...I recall there were differences between win 98 and 98SE that were fairly significant and if inrecall hen I was working on 2000 server, it was interchangeable with 98SE but not 98. Anyway; was the offending driver a 98 driver or a 98SE driver)

 

I don't remember about the driver, but it was the only one that looked like it might work. I had a Win95 system that I upgraded to Win98, and then to SE because with SE, they finally got USB working pretty well.

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