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#vintagecomputers

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42 years ago, IBM released the successor to its very successful IBM PC. Dubbed the PC/XT, it added a hard drive and more expansion slots while still running at the same speed. And at a pretty steep price. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputers #1980stech #techhistory dfarq.homeip.net/ibm-pc-xt-mod

The Silicon Underground · IBM PC/XT Model 5160It was standard office equipment in the 80s but not until the price came down

A History of the Microcomputer Industry in 300 Adverts

nosher.net/archives/computers/

nosher.netA history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts In a private room at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in January 1977, Commodore showed the world's first complete "personal computer" - the PET 2001 - an "appliance" micro that for the first time could be taken out of the box, plugged in and used by regular people without a soldering iron. Soon, Tandy and Apple joined in and the market grew steadily, but then Commodore and Sinclair launched cheap home computers in the early 80s that changed everything. The market exploded from tens of thousands of machines a year to millions, as famous 1970s names like Cromemco, IMSAI, Nascom and MITS were swept away. Micro companies were suddenly worth $1 billion dollars and their employees were millionaires. Hundreds of companies launched hundreds of incompatible machines. Price wars were started, old scores were settled and companies were destroyed. Eight bits made way for 16 and 32 in the space of a few years. For a while Britain led the world in manufacture and adoption, with 80% of all computers sold in Europe being sold in the UK. The fate of many microcomputer companies. From a Business Operating Software advert in Personal Computer World, June 1986. Then the 8-bit market reached saturation and more companies imploded - Sinclair was sold for its name and assets only, Acorn almost didn't make it and a raft of also-rans fell by the wayside - Camputers, Dragon Data, Elan, Oric and Jupiter Cantab to name but a few. Even big names like Timex and Texas Instruments were burned. Meanwhile, the sleeping giant that was IBM launched its 5150 at the end of 1981 and watched as it slowly but inevitably over the next few years became the standard. Other companies cloned it, copied and improved it and soon the only game in town was the IBM PC. From the latter half of the 1980s, every micro company and its dog was building generic beige boxes, and people wanted the same beige boxes at home and work. The home computer as a concept was dead, and the "wonder years" were over. This collection of over 300 adverts attempts to tell something of that story...

Ehh... since new people are joining, I might as well update my old intro. Thankfully, my instance allows for a higher word count on posts!

I am Sinclair-Speccy, your resident computer nerd. I go by Sinclair, Speccy, Sinco, Altair, or even Alphonse. My primary interests are #RetroComputing, #OldTech, and #OStan. You’ll usually find me boosting retro tech content and occasionally posting it myself, mostly retro tech ads. I’m fascinated by vintage mainframes like the IBM 704, CDC 6500, and Whirlwind I as well as microcomputers such as the Altair 8800 and MK14, but I am not old enough to have ever used them in person.

I’ve moved around a bit online as I started on .art, then bitbang.social and now oldbytes.space. When not geeking out over computers I enjoy experimenting with older operating systems using emulators like 86Box, VirtualBox, Bochs, and QEMU or playing games such as the Sims 4, Sims 3, Arma 3 and Universe Sandbox. My interest in emulation all started when I managed to run Yggdrasil Linux from the '90s!

I also do 3D rendering in Bryce 3D which I mainly post on my account for my website (sakurajima.moe/@themainframe) which also hosts content on my 3 worldbuilding settings and I share some of my work on DeviantArt. One of my favourite niche fandoms is OS-tans which is turning operating systems and hardware into anime characters. I even have my own OS-tan universe that is hosted on my site.

Musically I vibe with #vaporwave, #synthwave, #darksynth,#phonk, and experimental music. Some favorite artists include Windows96, Dynatron, Carpenter Brut, KSLV Noh, and Frums.

As for some other stuff I enjoy #mythology, #transformers, #cats, #fantasy, #nature such as #flowers and #plants and #animals, #steampunk, a bit of #classicalmusic, #starwars, #photography, #art, #space, #cyberpunk and #scifi but you’re more likely to find that content on my other account.

You can check out my website here: sinclair-speccy.github.io/The- and I hope to expand it into a tech journalism platform someday, though motivation and its static nature kind of stop me...

Sakurajima (桜島)The Mainframe (@themainframe@sakurajima.moe)891 Posts, 9 Following, 43 Followers ·

This is great. A reddit user found a box of 3.5-inch floppy disks at a thrift store and brought it home mainly due to the nice letter from 1993 found inside the box -- a glimpse back at a simpler time.

"... I also sent along a neat little shareware game called Wolfenstein 3D. It's purely arcade, but can get the adrenaline going. To load that one, just type INSTALL (it's in a compressed format), then WOLF3D to run."

i.redd.it/lqcu7iukhrce1.jpeg