# RETRO COMPUTING ? WHEN COMPUTERS HAD PERSONALITY

Before cloud computing...

Before smartphones...

Before Wi-Fi...

Before Windows...

There was a glorious collection of beige boxes, blinking cursors,
floppy disks and screaming modems.

============================================================================== REMEMBER THESE?
===============

COMMODORE 64

Released in 1982, the C64 became one of the most famous home computers
ever created.

64 KB of RAM.

Yes. Kilobytes.

And people made incredible software with it.

APPLE II

One of the machines that helped put personal computing into homes,
schools and businesses.

For an entire generation, seeing an Apple II in the classroom was their introduction to computers.

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer arrived in 1981 and helped establish the
architecture that eventually dominated personal computing.

COMMODORE AMIGA

Graphics.
Sound.
Multitasking.

The Amiga could do things in the 1980s that made other computers look primitive.

ATARI ST

Another legendary 16-bit machine, particularly popular with musicians
thanks to its built-in MIDI support.

============================================================================== STORAGE!
========

Remember when this was impressive?

```
360 KB floppy disk
720 KB floppy disk
1.44 MB floppy disk
```

Then you got a computer with a...

```
40 MEGABYTE HARD DRIVE!
```

And wondered:

```
"HOW COULD I EVER FILL THIS THING?"
```

============================================================================== THE MODEM
=========

300 baud.

1200 baud.

2400 baud.

9600 baud.

14.4K.

28.8K.

33.6K.

56K.

Every upgrade felt like someone had installed a direct fiber connection
to NASA.

Then came the sound...

```
BEEEEEEP... KSHHHHHHHHH...
KRRRRRRR... DING DING...
SHHHHHHHHHH...

CONNECT 33600
```

Beautiful. :)

============================================================================== THE BBS EXPERIENCE
==================

Before social media, there were Bulletin Board Systems.

You dialed another computer directly.

And once connected you could:

Read messages
Send private mail
Download files
Upload files
Chat with the SysOp
Play door games
Read bulletins
Join message networks

No algorithm decided what you should see.

No infinite scrolling.

No advertisements following you around the Internet.

Just people, computers and communities.

============================================================================== LEGENDARY DOORS
===============

And then there were the games...

Legend of the Red Dragon
TradeWars 2002
Barren Realms Elite
Solar Realms Elite
Usurper
Operation: Overkill II
LORD II
Planets: TEOS

You didn't need 16 GB of VRAM.

You needed ANSI support. :)

============================================================================== RETRO ISN'T DEAD
================

Old computers are still being restored.

Old software is still being preserved.

People still write software for machines older than some of their users.

And incredibly...

```
BBSes STILL EXIST.
```

You can connect to one from a modern Linux machine, Windows PC, Mac,
Raspberry Pi, tablet or even a phone.

The hardware changed.

The connection changed.

The community survived.

============================================================================== WE'RE STILL ONLINE
==================

Somewhere right now...

A cursor is blinking.

A modem is sitting on a shelf.

An ANSI screen is being drawn.

And somebody is playing a door game that was written more than
30 years ago.

```
LONG LIVE RETRO COMPUTING!
```

============================================================================== --- ANetBBS
* Origin: ANetBBS - A Modern BBS System (1200:1/1)