Gray Hill · Mar 6

My school days in the UK were the 90s and early 2000s, but in that time we learned on BBC Micro, various Acorns, old Macs, and just occasionally Windows PCs (Encarta 95 was mind blowing!) There wasn't just one kind of computer and I think that helped. Even without coding, there was still 'tinkering'

Adam Hay · Mar 6

I thought that owning the 'wrong machine' (C16 and later an Archimedes in my case) drove creativity. Kind of left you in a position where more often than not if you wanted something there was only one way you were going to get it...

Dave F · Mar 6

I can't speak from the UK perspective, but I think early micros did encourage creativity. The engineers behind them were designing products they'd want for themselves. The ability to add things to them was something they wanted, and many of those add-ons were going to come from hobbyists at first.

Jari Heiska · Mar 6

I'd imagine that tinkering spirit was partially due to necessity, there just wasn't all that much, stuff you could do without knowing something about, say, Z81. Bog standard PC can do so much stuff, without the user really needing to know anything about the hardware or software. 🤔

steadjonat (48) · Mar 6

computing was something special for want of a better word you had to seek it out now its harder to get away from than use. what was once the preserve of a relatively small number of people is for most of the western world at least just stuff that's there

Robb from 8/16/32bit · Mar 6

I think so, yes. Limited CPU power, limited RAM, limited sound & graphics pretty much forced game designers & coders to get creative.

Jonathan Pallant · Mar 6

Nah, there was nothing open about a Conmodore 64. It was just a product and everything we know about it was reverse engineered over the last 40+ years using more modern technology.

@weirdo95.bsky.social · Mar 6

I was so excited when my first PI arrived. Was an early one. Then I plugged it all in at work and my boss said "you look disappointed". Yes, very. The problem was it was too good. It was a modern computer. Ok it's got better with the hats and things but still. And I have given several PI400s away.