8 Oct
2016
8 Oct
'16
3:13 p.m.
corey cohen
u??o? ???o?
On Oct 8, 2016, at 5:17 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at
sydex.com> wrote:
Actually a lot of late 70's and early 80's computers were bought by a lot of ham
radio guys for their setups.
The only people I knew in the late 70's or early 80's doing "Business"
things at home with personal computers were doing word processing and spreadsheets from 9
to 5 and video games from 5:15 till midnight.
Sure if you were rich enough to have a PDP or System 32 for your home business you never
ever played games, but no matter what their tax return said they bought a personal
computer for, they were used for games after hours. Heck we did the same thing in the
early 90's. the moment 5:00 came around the company intercom and conference lines
were used for group chats while we all played network doom as teams for an hour or two
until we went to the bar for a couple of beers.
Games have always been part of detoxing after a long day of business on personal
computers.
Cheers,
Corey
On 10/08/2016 09:46 AM, js at cimmeri.com wrote:
I think the people who complain about "Altairs just sitting on
desks" might be doing so for at least one reason being because a
particular purpose seems to violate the original spirit, intent, and
purpose behind the creation. I hear that a lot eg. "it's a shame
it's just sitting there, not being used."
It's when other purposes come in, and begin to make this hobby
purpose more difficult to engage in and "unobtainium", that the
hobbyists lament. If there were enough for everyone, then there'd be
no complaining.
I have to confess to a certain amount of bemusement when I witness the
phenomenon of game-obsession with early PCs. With the exception of
"home" systems, such as Commodore and perhaps Apple and the like, I knew
very few people who *purchased* a PC for game playing. Did people play
games on PCs? Sure--but that was rarely the reason that anyone ponied
up for a 1970s or 80s multiple-kilobuck system. Mind you, this was
around the time that one could purchase a Porsche 914 for little more
than $3000.
Most of the people I knew purchased a PC to do business applications
(AR, AP, GL, inventory, payroll or word processing) or worked with
spreadsheets. Yet, very little of this is ever discussed on fora such
as the Vintage Computer Federation site.
Indeed, I think it's safe to speculate that the bulk of Intel Inboard
cards were sold to those running Lotus 1-2-3.
After we're all gone, what will future generations think of us? That we
developed new hardware and software solely to play games?
Wow.
--Chuck