Honest and Elitist Thoughts on Why Computers Were More Fun Before

Summary

Honest and Elitist Thoughts on Why Computers Were More Fun Before Spring 2025 When they saw that I had aficion, and there was no password, no set questions that could bring it out, rather it was a sort of oral spiritual examination with the questions always a little on the defensive and never apparent, there was this same embarrassed putting the hand on the shoulder, or a "Buen hombre." But nearly always there was the actual touching. It seemed as though they wanted to touch you to make it certain. - Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises There's a lot of discussion about why retro computing has become so popular and why - or even if - things where more fun in the golden era of home computers. Those of us who subscribe to the notion that things were indeed better before usually give a few standard reasons as to why, all of them true in their own right: Old hardware was simpler. This meant that a single person could learn all, or at least most, of its features by heart. Old hardware was limited. Slow processors, low resolutions and cheap sound chips impose restrictions that are fun to overcome with creative problem solving. Old computers were offline. No attention economy, no SaaS subscription models. You could learn a piece of software and keep using it for as long as a decade without experiencing any major overhauls. The Internet was mostly text-based. Things were comparably snappy and focused on human-to-human communication rather than passive content consumption and bloated advertising. Old gits like yours truly where younger back then. We were, believe it or not, at the forefront of technology, instead of struggling to keep up. As a counterpoint to this kind of reactionary reminiscing, a common list of positive developments are usually presented: Hardware is cheaper and faster than ever. There's a plethora of software for even the most gimmicky of occasions. The Internet is open to everyone, cheap and easy to access. Easy to use interfaces have made advanced compu...