SvennoJ said:
Yes and we even still have some BBS you can dial up. All that is not the same experience at all though. There was a certain energy or wonder all around, everything seemed to be possible and your wildest dreams came true on a yearly basis. (until it finally all stumbled on VR) Computer games were used in game shows on TV. Teachers at school basically told the kids to show them what a PC was all about, bring your games, animations or other creations. The transition from written essays to word perfect, better printers yearly, first time printing graphics in text. Handing in schoolwork became a marvel at what was possible each time with new tech.
Then in university the internet slowly became alive. MUD, IRC, birth of IMDB, the internet oracle, playing Tron with 20 people in the Mac room. Ascii art, making your own software to make stereograms, first programmable robotics in the form of Lego mindstorms. Imagine bringing that to work today, yet that's what we did. I actually had done some research for it at university, basically had playing with Lego on my resume.
It was much much more than just the games with nostalgia glasses. Everything seems to be possible, if not this year, then next year. I'm amazed at all the skepticism VR gets nowadays, completely different mindset, pretty much the opposite to how it was in 80's and 90's.
Btw free was more of a joke cause of the rampant piracy which didn't seem to hamper all the innovation at all. I, ahem, didn't pay for games until I was 18 :/ My parents bought some MSX games when I was around 10, yet the rest was all copied. My dad used to bring PC games back from work, pretty ironic as he worked as a software developer himself (business solutions though). Which did mean we always had the latest PC at home. 'Sharing' games simply seemed the norm.
But sure, you can get all the great old games working again nowadays, emulated, remade, or played on vintage hardware with vintage displays. However we never looked back back then, always forward. New stuff was always better.
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