Matthew Reed wrote:
"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:It seems that once an artifact passes some "impracticality" threshold it may become an object of desire. This always goes through my mind when I see a 700MHz Pentium III system being thrown out--a lot more computing capacity than any Apple II, but much less interesting to play with. ;-) Perhaps it's simply that we always have access to much better "modern" platforms that do all that the older "modern" systems do, but better, while "vintage" systems run hardware and software (and evoke emotions) that modern platforms don't.My theory is that standardization of computers stifled their collectibility. If you think about it, computer platforms used to be celebrated for their differences. An Apple II was very different from a TRS-80, an Atari, or a Commodore 64. They all ran different software and had different communities. You had to leave behind everything you knew and make a clean break if you switched platforms.But the only difference between that 700MHz Pentium III system and a current computer is power (speed, memory, and so on). There is nothing that it could do that a current computer couldn't duplicate exactly, only faster. That doesn't exactly inspire loyalty or fond memories.
Exactly. And isn't it ironic that the very standardization that made the PC pervasive in modern life (as opposed to a hobby), essentially rendered it a soulless commodity. It seems that the choices are niche machines with personality or "standard" machines without. Talk about a Hobson's choice! Of course, I guess that *we* now have *both*. ;-) -michael NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."