End Of A Computing Era
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tourmalineAs part of The Great Loft Clearout Of 2012, my parents are disposing of my old Acorn Electron computer, which I received for Christmas in 1985. Dad has tested it and it works (on the equally old TV that will be junked because no-one wants TVs that old & analogue any more), so it's going to the people at the hospice charity shop who know someone who specialises in obsolete electronics and can take it off our hands.
While I know I'd last about five minutes if I tried it out again, I'm a bit sad at the thought of it leaving. I've been thinking a lot about all the fun I had on it in my early teens, all the games I had - mostly by Acornsoft (the in-house producer, it's best names were clones of classic arcade games), Superior Software (very appropriately named, their stuff was awesome) and Software Invasion (a budget software house whose products were either excellent or pointless). I'd love to have some of these games for my laptop if they were available for standard contemporary computers - I have a version of Repton on my iPhone.
I think my favourite games were Snapper (the Pac-man clone), Arcadians (a space invaders-esque game, so addictive) and Super Pool. I also bought the monthly Electron User magazine, which had those long programs you could type in and then get cross with because it was so difficult to find the typos. I did buy a back copy of a tape of all the games from one edition, I remember this one had Robin Hood Archery as its lead game, which I quite enjoyed even though I was rubbish at it, until I figured out where I was going wrong and then I really loved it.
I know there are such things as emulators about that recreate the experience of these old-school computers, but it's not something I've seriously looked into and I'm not sure it wouldn't just be a brief phase if I did. But then, I get nostalgic for the early days of our first Packard Bell PC, with the explorer interface (or whatever it was called) where the programs were on a bookshelf in the study, the kid's games on Thinking Things 2, and Microsoft Encarta 95. But it's so long now since I last plugged in the Wii, even though I love playing it when I get it set up, I haven't felt the urge for ages, so I don't think I'll be moving from my laptop in any significant amount.
While I know I'd last about five minutes if I tried it out again, I'm a bit sad at the thought of it leaving. I've been thinking a lot about all the fun I had on it in my early teens, all the games I had - mostly by Acornsoft (the in-house producer, it's best names were clones of classic arcade games), Superior Software (very appropriately named, their stuff was awesome) and Software Invasion (a budget software house whose products were either excellent or pointless). I'd love to have some of these games for my laptop if they were available for standard contemporary computers - I have a version of Repton on my iPhone.
I think my favourite games were Snapper (the Pac-man clone), Arcadians (a space invaders-esque game, so addictive) and Super Pool. I also bought the monthly Electron User magazine, which had those long programs you could type in and then get cross with because it was so difficult to find the typos. I did buy a back copy of a tape of all the games from one edition, I remember this one had Robin Hood Archery as its lead game, which I quite enjoyed even though I was rubbish at it, until I figured out where I was going wrong and then I really loved it.
I know there are such things as emulators about that recreate the experience of these old-school computers, but it's not something I've seriously looked into and I'm not sure it wouldn't just be a brief phase if I did. But then, I get nostalgic for the early days of our first Packard Bell PC, with the explorer interface (or whatever it was called) where the programs were on a bookshelf in the study, the kid's games on Thinking Things 2, and Microsoft Encarta 95. But it's so long now since I last plugged in the Wii, even though I love playing it when I get it set up, I haven't felt the urge for ages, so I don't think I'll be moving from my laptop in any significant amount.
