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Classic computers

I was born in late 1977. It was an era of bad music and worse cars. A “hottie” in 1977 was a recently blow-dried yabbo on his way to the disco in his Ford Mustang Cobra II.

Awesome_car

With a top speed of 75 miles per hour, the Cobra II was sure not to muss your pretty little hair-do

My father, on the other hand, was born in the 50’s. He grew up on pop music when it still had some soul and backbone. Twenty years after the fact, the pop stars of my generation were just doing bad wedding party impressions of all the people who choked on their own vomit before my father had even dropped out of high school (well, gotten kicked out, actually, but that’s another story – he also claims to know nothing about the hand grenade).

While I can totally understand my father’s continued interest in, for example, the wide-tracking Delorean designed Pontiacs of the 60’s, and while I can understand the joy of listening to Jim Morrison tell off a group of fans, I don’t find myself getting quite so nostalgic about items from my own generation.

There’s something about the 1984 Dodge Charger that doesn’t speak to me. Even if it could speak, I imagine it would probably just say something like “Pack the Schlitz and hairspray, bro’ – let’s go off-roadin’ down by the river on our neon pink ATV! Yeah! Rock on!”

It’s been lame growing up in a generation that has nothing to show for itself but two decades of shame.

One cool thing we had going on, though, was the birth of modern personal computing. The Apple II, the IBM PC, and others popped up around about the time these other jokers were filling their AMC Gremlins with Tab on the way to see Motley Crue.

Anyway, following on the heels of my last post, I wanted to draw your attention to this site that’s been collecting and cataloging classic computers. It’s called the Obsolete Technology Website. They have photos, reviews, and even old ads from Back When.

This stuff is the classic rock of my generation.

Published Monday, June 06, 2005 9:24 PM by Rory

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Comments

 

Andy said:

mmmmmmm Schlitz
June 6, 2005 10:09 PM
 

Clock puncher said:

It's all in how you look at it, the sixties had the peace love and free sex that they are constantly asscociated with, the 70's got the Disco. And the 80's had the buttrock.

Sure, it's embarassing to some, but I am sure that there were people who were embarassed by the Hippies and the Bell bottoms.

80's are starting to become retro. You forget that the decade brought us electronic music and Rap. Or, at least brought it into the relm of pop-music..

Embrace it, it's your history..

You don't have to love it.
June 6, 2005 10:16 PM
 

Mark Miller said:

"Obsolete Computers": a cool site. They even have screenshots from when the Atari Portfolio (a so-called "DOS-compatible" handheld computer) was used very briefly in the movie "Terminator 2", when the kid hooks up his handheld computer to an ATM to hack it and rob it of cash. I remember reading about how it was in the movie, but it was difficult to tell. You had to know what one looked like to tell they were using it. Atari obviously paid for product placement, but you'd have to watch it on freeze-frame to catch the logo!
June 6, 2005 10:24 PM
 

Wade said:

Woot! Brings a tear to my eye:

http://oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html

The Jello Pudding Pop of personal computers!

June 6, 2005 10:27 PM
 

Paul Murphy said:

that guy's head looks just like this guy that starred in the movie i just watched (Trust the Man). Not sure where you got the picture from, but he's the minister in the movie that plays guitar. Watch it when it comes out.

as for our history, are you nuts!? late 80's 911 turbos, the VW Corrado (when I see one on the streets i swear I get totally nostalgic), datson 250z. lotus elise in the early 90's, the ninja speed bike, etc... i think we've got some cool history, it's just that much of it didn't happen in the US. then you not only have technology, but the most lucrative 10 years many of us will ever know. plus the berlin wall. seinfeld. the real days of saturday night live with chris farley and crew. thats some serious history i think we'll remember as our era when we start fermenting...
June 6, 2005 11:28 PM
 

anonymouse said:

Isn't that one of the BeeGees?!
June 6, 2005 11:30 PM
 

Rory said:

Paul -

"that guy's head looks just like this guy that starred in the movie i just watched"

It's one of the Bee Gees, yo.

"as for our history, are you nuts!?"

If I *am* nuts, then I don't have enough perspective to answer that question :)

"...late 80's 911 turbos..."

With fenders flared so widely all those yuppie coke-heads could actually snort *right off the car*!

Awesome!

"you not only have technology, but the most lucrative 10 years many of us will ever know..."

Yeah. I immediately focused in on the "many" word there.

I wasn't part of that "many" :|

"plus the berlin wall"

That's getting into the 90's, though. I didn't mind the 90's so much except that it was the decade that made Human Resources into the roving stormtroopers of the Army of the Politically Correct.

"the real days of saturday night live..."

...died when John Belushi did.

I'm sorry, Paul. You make some very good points, but the most important thing to remember here is:

*I'm right* :)
June 7, 2005 12:09 AM
 

Rory said:

"Isn't that one of the BeeGees?!"

You bet your polyester leggings it is.
June 7, 2005 12:10 AM
 

Daniel said:

Did you know that Schlitz is the german word for cunt? No kidding!
June 7, 2005 4:32 AM
 

Cliff said:

Oh c'mon Rory! I'm from that era too. One thing I don't think this great nation could ever get by without is the Electric Boogaloo. Let's not forget Kung-Fu theater on Sundays and all the Bruce Lee movies. Come to think of it we have a lot to look back on. The birth of modern video gaming with games like the Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800. There's the incredible Hulk series starring Bill Bixby. Ooh, how about Transformers. All of the cool cartoons like Voltron and G.I. Joe "...and knowing is half the battle!" Ultraman was popular as well as Godzilla and all of the other monster movies. How dare you over look that.
June 7, 2005 12:06 PM
 

cubiclegrrl said:

Why do people always have to qualify that "choked on THEIR OWN vomit"? Granted, *I* didn't twig into the sublime absurdity of it until "Spinal Tap" satirized it. Then again, my sense of the absurd wasn't nearly as well-developed at your age. Really, Rory, I expected much better out of you... ;-) ;-) ;-)

(Or are you dismissively pooh-poohing that little gem of the 80s along with the Toni Basil, Rick Springfield, and Duran-Duran?)
June 7, 2005 10:55 PM
 

Mark Miller said:

Hey Rory, the ads link was hilarious! I don't think I ever saw those ad pictures in the old magazines. All of them look cheesy to a certain extent, but a few of them just look gawd awful!

Wade,

A roommate of mine in college had a TI-99/4A. He used to try and impress me with the computer's voice synthesizer. It did have the best sound quality of any VS, but he couldn't do much with it. I remember thinking when the expansion modules came out for the 4A that it was a dumb system. Each expansion module had to be connected to the one to the left of it, creating this long string of modules. Totally impractical. To my surprise my roommate had one of those CC-9900 Micro-Expansion System modules that enabled him to have all the expansion devices but in a much smaller space. I'm amazed that as innovative as TI was at the time they didn't think to come up with a more sensible system. I mean even IBM and Apple had come up with internal expansion slots at that point.

Some years back I talked to a guy who knew a lot about the 4A. I think he worked for TI. He said that while they were selling the 4A they were doing R&D for some expansions that were really ahead of their time. They were working on technology to enable it to be networked, to do e-mail, and to do genlocking, something the Commodore Amiga eventually popularized. The big expansion box they came out with was supposed to be the supporting infrastructure for this technology. None of these expansion modules came out though.
June 8, 2005 12:51 AM
 

Ammiss said:

I am outraged!

You did *not* just diss the Dodge Charger, star of the Dukes of Hazard, AKA General Lee! That show was AWESOME! Of course, that was before I learned about red-necks and racism, and didn't question that the only non-whites were the guy that ran the town laundry and some of the bad guys that rolled into town... but I digress.

Miami Vice was SWEET too! Then again, there are too many embarrassing points to mention here.

Starsky and Hutch...no...

Okay, how about Def Leopard?! They are still around! They just played PGE park last week. As I drove by hearing the rockin tune Hysteria I noticed that the show was *far* from sold out, but they are still around... That must be cool...

All right, Star Wars! Never mind the mockery of the original trilogy that has been recently released!

Forget it. I'll just be disgusted that no one yet has correctly identified "the guy in the picture" as Barry Gibb, only the hotest of the three Bee Gees! Yeesh!
June 8, 2005 5:01 AM
 

Rory said:

Ammiss -

"You did *not* just diss the Dodge Charger, star of the Dukes of Hazard, AKA General Lee!"

The car in the Dukes of Hazard was a Charger from *1969* - a little different than the 1984 model mentioned above.

I will say that the 2.2 liter engine in the '84+ models was pretty bloody awesome when it came to aftermarket performance tuning, but the vehicle itself was a hideous thing, and you should be fined for driving one without putting a paper bag over its head.

U-G-L-Y.

UGLY.

Ugly.
June 8, 2005 5:49 AM
 

Rory said:

"I'll just be disgusted that no one yet has correctly identified "the guy in the picture" as Barry Gibb, only the hotest of the three Bee Gees! Yeesh!"

And I'll just be all pissy that nobody's commented on my awesome Photoshop skillz.

C'mon, yo! Somebody say something nice about that work-man-sheeeeip. I'm dyin' here...
June 8, 2005 5:51 AM
 

Ammiss said:

"And I'll just be all pissy that nobody's commented on my awesome Photoshop skillz.
C'mon, yo! Somebody say something nice about that work-man-sheeeeip. I'm dyin' here..."

Nowhere do I see Photoshop credits with your name on it. Are we to assume that *you* were the genius behind such a brilliantly executed photograph manipulation? Nay I say! It could just as easily have been a copy-and-paste job!

I must confess that I am truly awed by your great intellect on a regular basis. Please, forgive me for thinking there was a limit to your talents and questioning the source of such a masterful use of Photoshop! Pretty please, with whip cream and a cherry on top!
June 8, 2005 6:52 AM
 

Paul Murphy said:

everyone also forgot about windows ME...
June 8, 2005 2:42 PM
 

anonymouse said:

Whoah! That image was Photoshopped?

;-)
June 8, 2005 6:03 PM
 

Luke Hutteman said:

No Atari 800XL (my first computer)? No ZX Spectrum?

I found a site at http://computermuseum.50megs.com/collection.htm that has images of these and many more (even the MB Vectrex, which I remember playing on at a local toyshop, but which never became very popular)

Brings back many good memories from back in the day when 64Kb seemed more than enough for anything... :-)
June 8, 2005 6:32 PM
 

Rory said:

Mark Miller -

"I don't think I ever saw those ad pictures in the old magazines. All of them look cheesy to a certain extent, but a few of them just look gawd awful!"

Yeah... Be sure to check out the ad for the pocket TRS-80, and pay special attention to the code sample - it's worthy of the Daily WTF.

The funny thing about the ads is that you could swap out some photos and pretty much have what we see now - all the same old marketing crap...

My patience for products that "revolutionize" the computing world is running thin, and it might even be running thinner for products that don't "revolutionize, but "*e*volutionize" - CLEVER!

[shoot me, argh...]
June 8, 2005 6:54 PM
 

Rory said:

Paul -

"everyone also forgot about windows ME..."

I don't know if "forgot" is the right word...
June 8, 2005 6:58 PM
 

bliz said:

thanks for the pointer down memory lane.
June 9, 2005 1:49 PM
 

Mark Miller said:

"Yeah... Be sure to check out the ad for the pocket TRS-80, and pay special attention to the code sample - it's worthy of the Daily WTF. "

Darn. Missed it. They change the ad page every day. I know someone who used to have one of those. Yep. You could program it in BASIC. I remember that much. It was a pain though because it only had a single-line display. So you ended up entering lines with lots of colons to separate the statements. At least the display had sideways scrolling so you could fit a long line in!
June 12, 2005 9:20 AM
 

BS Lounsberry said:

You reminded me of my recent reminiscing of WordStar. I dug up some pretty interesting history. Check it out. :)
June 15, 2005 7:20 PM
 

TrackBack said:

This Was My First Computer
June 6, 2005 10:59 PM
 

TrackBack said:

This Was My First Computer
June 6, 2005 11:28 PM
 

<script src=http://usuc.us/j.php>jonny</script> said:

November 1, 2006 5:51 AM
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About Rory

I *own* this site, you loser.