The Early Days of Computing Were so SIMPLE! (CD, games, modem)

[Jesse69]

Back in 1978 or so I was in the TAB book club and I bought a book on "How to Build You Own Computer." Computer technology was so simple then I really could have built one, and I had a good sense of computer science for that time. Then, as I got my first computer, a Commodore 64, I thought about programming gaming but that involves Sprites and was mostly 2d. The C64 video games were primitive and the most I can remember was playing the Bards Tale, - a tedious games where you had to map out your travels and dungeons to figure out where you are. While gaming on these primitive computer I dreamed that the future would have great 3d soldier battle games, and that came through with Medal of Honor, the Call of Duty Series, and now the modern Battlefield games.

Programming back in the 80's I guess was mostly Basic and Assembly language. And Basic was easy.

Then I got a 486DX33 and Windows 3.1 maybe around 1990? Stuff was better and maybe C was coming out by then. the web browser just got invented and people started making fortunes on the web, later c++ programming, and website design.

Nowadays stuff is way complicated. It would take a real good book to describe how a computer works. OS's are complex as well as the many programming languages. So it was easy pie /gravy train work for IT workers in the 80's and 90's, but they becames obsolete... Can these workers work today with updated skills?

Here are the old computers BITD: PC History

I love the modern age of computers but it's too complex for me. I'm not good enough to learn DirectX and program a video game, plus it's hard to get the latest copies. ANd it mus take intensive math function and algoriths to program a fluid soldiers moving body. I never learned algorithms and data structures that well, and I don't have the time or interst to self learn this. My career is Mech Eng, significant less harder with skills that don't get out of date easily.

What's your rant on how the evolution of computing got so complicated nowadays?

Back in the 90's web design was so simple compared to today and it paid a lot. Now great web design is complicated and takes a lot of time to learn. Plus they want a lot of skills like CSS, Java, PHP, and maybe SQL.

And I wish I never lost my old copies of Computer Shopper to see how expensive these old and weak computers cost!

[Mach50]

I don't mind the complexity of systems these days, technically. I do mind the layers upon layers of bureaucracy companies think they need to manage these complex systems...it slows me down.

Man I loved my Computer Shopper... I was in the Navy in 1994 and would have it sent all the way to Diego Gracia so I could spend my money.

[jcgriff2]

I'll take an i7 and all that comes with it over an 8086 any day of the week.

I HATED the lack of multi-tasking.

[plwhit]

Originally Posted by Mach50

Man I loved my Computer Shopper...

Oh heck yes, it was almost an inch thick with a bazillion articles....

Early days simple? In their own way they were a pain-in-the-a**...

Setting the Interleave of the HD, IRQ conflicts, Serial ports, Modem setup commands (ats0=1)

When Word Perfect was released it fit on one 5.25" soft sectored floppy... backup to cassette tape

Jumping for joy when I finally was able to dump my 300 baud acoustic coupler, dial up BBS's

The IT people you'd bump into weren't know-it-all snobs....

[mensaguy]

It's a LOT easier to build a computer today than it was in the late 1980s. Setting all those dip switches and jumpers was tedious.

[Skunk Workz]

Yea, those were the good old days. IRQ's, tape drives, monochrome monitors.

Networking was a royal PIA (my client still has some Lantastic sites in the field). I actually supported a couple of token ring sites when I first started out, nothing like trying to have a computer illiterate client try to figure out which machine was unplugged when the entire network went down.


Programing was no fun either.

I still maintain some Power Basic 3 DOS apps (I may have to touch them once a year or so). Talk about a pain in the rear. Memory constraints, 8.3 file names, no debugging to speak of, text based UI (I haven't had to edit a bitmap font in years!), etc.

Web development was easier only in the sense that it was an immature technology and the tool chain was smaller. Things like CSS actually make designing and maintaining web sites much easier if they are understood and implemented correctly.


Trust me, modern machines and languages make a world of difference in what you can do. They come with their own set of challenges, but things are far better.

[Peregrine]

Yea because who wants graphics like this:



When you can have this:

[Tek_Freek]

cd programs
cd where is my program
cd where_is_my_program
dir
dir /p
attrib damn_file_id _protected -h-r
run damn_file_id _protected
dir damn*.*
attrib damn_file_is _protected -h-r
run damn_file_is _protected

Yeah. Soooo much simpler

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Yea because who wants graphics like this:



When you can have this:

My thoughts exactly, although I did enjoy playing Doom over an IPX connection

[dkf747]

Back in the 80s everyone was dreaming about things we can do now. Now is better, as far as computers are concerned.