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<!DOCTYPE html> | |
<html lang="en"> | |
<head> | |
<title>Vintage Home Computers</title> | |
<meta charset="utf-8"> | |
</head> | |
<body> | |
<article> | |
<h1>1980's Home Computers</h1> | |
<p>In early 1980's, home computers became mainstream. For the first time, computers could be | |
purchased by an average family household.</p> | |
<figure> | |
<img src="images/computer.png" alt="A computer with a monitor"> | |
<figcaption>Photo: Piotr Siedlecki, public domain via <a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net">http://www.publicdomainpictures.net</a>.</figcaption> | |
</figure> | |
<h2>Novel uses</h2> | |
<p>The main usage for a home computer was, of course, games. As cool games may not be a valid reason for purchasing an expensive gadget, | |
a wide variety of potential uses were invented to satisfy those family members who might otherwise be sceptical. | |
</p> | |
<p>Some reasons often mentioned were:</p> | |
<ul> | |
<li>learning to write computer programs</li> | |
<li>managing family finances</li> | |
<li>keeping track of freezer contents</li> | |
</ul> | |
<p>While some of these use cases are perfectly valid, it is still unclear how many families actually used | |
their brand new home computer (duly equipped with a cassette drive) to actually record every food item they removed from the freezer.</p> | |
<h2>Legendary computers</h2> | |
<p>The three most memorizable 1980's home computers, in subjective order of importance, might be:</p> | |
<ol> | |
<li>Commodore 64</li> | |
<li>Sinclair ZX Spectrum</li> | |
<li>Commodore Vic-20</li> | |
</ol> | |
<p>Read the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocomputing">Wikipedia article for Retrocomputing</a>.</p> | |
<h2>Key concepts</h2> | |
The hardware charateristics of a home computer could be defined by its graphics and sound capabilities, CPU, and amount of memory. The types of memory were: | |
<dl> | |
<dt>RAM</dt> | |
<dd>Random access memory. The memory usable by programs. The amount was typically in the ballpark of 20 to 64 kilobytes. However, the Basic interpreter by default consumed a part of this.</dd> | |
<dt>ROM</dt> | |
<dd>Read-only memory. This was normally smaller in size than RAM and roughly corresponded to the hardware implementation of the operating system.</dd> | |
</dl> | |
</article> | |
<hr> | |
<p>Disclaimer: <em>All opinions in this page reflect the views of their author(s), not the organization.</em></p> | |
</body> | |
</html> |