Just yesterday I opened my mailbox to see a white padded envelope addressed from Germany with Maz's name on it. My Mindcandy DVD had just arrived!
I promptly went to my PC and stuck in the Old Skool demos side and the trip down memory lane just kept going one great hit after another...
It reminded me of what the scene meant to me as one growing up in the age of computers... I'm not young, but I'm not old. At least I don't feel so. At a ripe age of 26...
To me this DVD confirmed every bit of passion I have and for these machines, the computer, as back then, I learned more and more about what they could do.
I think one key reason that each and every one of you is "into computers" is this implicit hope and excitement that they can be used as a tool for great things. This could range anywhere from displaying something really "kewl" to actually solving some sort of problem.
Demos and all the applications that came out within the scene were all about pushing these little boxes to the max. There was something challenging and even mysterious about making this little box display these "beautiful" pictures and play these fantastic sounds.
In fact, demos were how I became interested in coding altogether. I wanted to do it too. I not only wanted to make demos, but I was so excited that this drab, tan box (a Tandy 1000 TX to start, and a Zeos 386/20 + Gravis Ultrasound 1MB later on...) could do these amazing things. It confirmed... computers were fun - and didn't just do "business stuff", life could be better.
Demos essentially took the challenges and limitations of old PCs of the growing PC revolution and developed applications that have directly and indirectly affected where we are today. Namely, in computer gaming, but also in graphics hardware.
One thing that any of us with any "age" in us can do is look back over the years and talk about those limited, constrained little boxes that we all desired, and pushed, to do amazing things.
I guess for me, that's what computers are all about. It's a machine that ultimately does amazing things for me every day, and because it's constantly changing and there's always new stuff coming out, it keeps me excited, and I keep going...
It's great to look back at where we've come from to excite us and challenge us with what lies ahead.
I completely recommend this DVD to anyone who was using PCs back in the late 80's, early 90's and can remember one of those moments where you just said, "Wicked." (or more likely, "Cool.") because you couldn't believe it was actually on that screen in front of you.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like something Hotline's been doing for years.
It's interesting this post hits slashdot today.
Just yesterday I opened my mailbox to see a white padded envelope addressed from Germany with Maz's name on it. My Mindcandy DVD had just arrived!
I promptly went to my PC and stuck in the Old Skool demos side and the trip down memory lane just kept going one great hit after another...
It reminded me of what the scene meant to me as one growing up in the age of computers... I'm not young, but I'm not old. At least I don't feel so. At a ripe age of 26...
To me this DVD confirmed every bit of passion I have and for these machines, the computer, as back then, I learned more and more about what they could do.
I think one key reason that each and every one of you is "into computers" is this implicit hope and excitement that they can be used as a tool for great things. This could range anywhere from displaying something really "kewl" to actually solving some sort of problem.
Demos and all the applications that came out within the scene were all about pushing these little boxes to the max. There was something challenging and even mysterious about making this little box display these "beautiful" pictures and play these fantastic sounds.
In fact, demos were how I became interested in coding altogether. I wanted to do it too. I not only wanted to make demos, but I was so excited that this drab, tan box (a Tandy 1000 TX to start, and a Zeos 386/20 + Gravis Ultrasound 1MB later on...) could do these amazing things. It confirmed... computers were fun - and didn't just do "business stuff", life could be better.
Demos essentially took the challenges and limitations of old PCs of the growing PC revolution and developed applications that have directly and indirectly affected where we are today. Namely, in computer gaming, but also in graphics hardware.
One thing that any of us with any "age" in us can do is look back over the years and talk about those limited, constrained little boxes that we all desired, and pushed, to do amazing things.
I guess for me, that's what computers are all about. It's a machine that ultimately does amazing things for me every day, and because it's constantly changing and there's always new stuff coming out, it keeps me excited, and I keep going...
It's great to look back at where we've come from to excite us and challenge us with what lies ahead.
I completely recommend this DVD to anyone who was using PCs back in the late 80's, early 90's and can remember one of those moments where you just said, "Wicked." (or more likely, "Cool.") because you couldn't believe it was actually on that screen in front of you.