In the computer industry, the late 70s early 80s was the wild wild west. No one knew what to do with personal computers, and even more people assumed they were a passing fad, like disco. In 1977 Apple released the Apple II, and it was the most important computer Apple ever released. This machine was so monumental that it almost derailed the release of the Macintosh. At the time, companies would want to hurt their cash cow by competing against themselves, but Steve Jobs was different. If someone was going to take Apple sales, it was going to be Apple. With the success of the Apple II (followed by the Apple //e), Apple didn’t want to hurt the sales of the II line with the Macintosh. But, Steve knew better.
Rocky Bergen has released free papercraft models of retro computers. Download, print, assemble and glue to get your own Apple II. And since we’re on an Apple II kick, how about running a program to re-create the scene from a View to a Kill and an Apple //c?
I’ve noticed a bunch of virtual art exhibits being put together online, and here are two of my favorites. One is an homage to the vehicles used in Nintendo 64 games while the other allows you to view pictures from Reddit in 3D.
Memories
To computers, a byte is basically a character, so writing a demo in 256 bytes is quite impressive. Twitter gives you more space for a tweet. The Memories demo is really amazing, especially the write up on how it works.
Game machines are very limited to multipurpose computers, so they rely on programmer tricks to get the most of of the systems.
Seinfeld – The Unofficial Pitch
It’s not an actual game…. Yet.