I feel like I’m kind of alone in this. I was born in 2004 so the two retro computers I tinker with the most (a C64 and a 486 clone) are way older than I am. Are there any other younger retro enthusiasts who never grew up with the hardware but are into it now?
Also this is my first post on Lemmy, so I’m sorry if this is out of place here.
Born 2001, I work at a local charity shop that handles a lot of older tech. Usually nothing too fancy but I spend a lot of time testing older stuff that’s dropped off. I picked up an old Apple PowerBook a couple years back which was a lot of fun trying to get usable.
I was born After 2000s and yeah I love Retro Computing! Before I really got into the Looks and aesthetics of Retro Computers Like the Commodore PET, so when I saw one in an Auction for surprisingly Little Money I took a Bid on it, thinking I’d get outbid anyway… I didn’t!
Once I had this Massive Historic Machine in front of me, my Passion was set in stone. I got into History Videos and Technical Analysis of Old Hardware and got a Small Collection together!
Due to Budgetary issues as of recent I’ve had to Cool on this Hobby of mine tho. Hope I get to expand my Collection with an Amiga or any of the Atari Systems later this year hopefully!
Nope, sadly most of these retro things are younger than me. 😆Guess that makes me retro too. Anyhow, always good to see younger generations enjoying the classics.
90’s kid and the earliest system I remember using is WinXP. Hate it now, but I love Win98FE, Win2K, Vista and, from the little I have used it, Macintosh 7. I still want to get a NEC PC-98, but any of the models are as expensive as a cheaper car. 🥹
Absolutely. I was born in 1996 but got into retro games in 2007 thanks to AVGN, after which retro computers came shortly after. I learned how to program in BASIC during covid and made a text adventure RPG that I then translated into Python to learn that language.
I still think BASIC is a great programming language to learn for a beginner. It gives you the blocks of what you’ll need to tackle a modern language rather than being overwhelmed.
1990, so not really ‘young’ anymore, but we’re compatriots in thinking computers older than us are cool. By the first time I touched a computer, the machines I like to tinker with now were very obsolete.
That first computer I touched, by the way? It was a 70s model Apple II.
Try out Desqview/X on that 486 if you get a chance!
Definitely will give that a try.
I think there is a good number of people who are interested, it’s just harder to get involved in it as a hobby without having time/money to throw around.
Also this is my first post on Lemmy, so I’m sorry if this is out of place here.
Nope you’re good, and welcome :)
Older young person here, I very much enjoyed the vintage computer festival I recently attended. Definitely worth a visit if you can make it.
With that said I have mostly modern technology, except some audio stuff. I was impressed by the Atari and C64 exhibits at the VCF and might get into the “new” C64 stuff when they come out
I don’t know how young being born in 1996 is, but I definitely got into retro computing when I was in High School. Between watching JonTron, LGR, and a field trip to a retro computer museum with working computers, I fell in love. I ran DOSbox on my school laptop and FreeDOS off of a USB stick. My senior year, mostly playing solitare on Windows 3.1 through DOSBox on my windows 7 school laptop in class.
In terms of physical hardware, I have a Win98/XP KVM setup with a Trinitron monitor, which I love immensely, especially getting to using 3 1/2 floppy disks. Before I found out about KDE Plasma, I loved to do everything through the retro computers more than the modern ones.
Also check out protoweb. It brings the late 90s internet back to life on real hardware.
Although I have never used a commodore 64, now you got me wanting to buy one. I just need to find a way to fit it in with what I have.
can confirm there’s at least a few of us
Vogager gives you a baby icon (the new account indicator), which makes you seem very young indeed
lol. i moved from lemmy.sdf.org because their servers had issues too often. seems like it’s back now tho @hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
I think maintaining two accounts is sensible as servers/instances die all the time. I’ve got my subscriptions synchronised between this account and one on infosec.pub.
i’ll be fully migrating, tho i still occasionally login to the old instance due to muscle memory… lol gotta setup a redirect
Kinda sorta. I’m firmly in the millennial generation, so there aren’t as many computers older than me. But I can tell you about my dad bringing home a brand new 486 (25MHz) and temporarily setting it up for the first time on the kitchen table, before it was officially set up downstairs.
In high school I got a handful of leftover computers to play with. Some early Pentiums, a really weird 486 tablet (still have that in my crawlspace!), and stuff like that. Great to learn hardware on, do some homework in my room, listen to Winamp, etc.
Then college came and I had less time and space. Then I bought a home a couple years later (when they were all on sale!) and had a kid. Most of my time and money goes to those things.
But! I hate where technology is going now. I remember things being fun and innovative, rather than yet another thing weirdly integrated with an app on your phone (likely with a subscription 🙄 ). So I’ve spent some time restoring antique radios, and put together some fun projects I’ve found that use a 3D printer and Raspberry Pi, including a working mini computer that runs a Dosbox instance with my favorite games from that 486.
Tl;dr not that young by Lemmy standards, but I get it!
