Twiggys [was: Re: ka... ching!]

[Corey Cohen]

corey cohen
uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ
> On Oct 8, 2016, at 5:17 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
> 
>> 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
> 

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