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If you could relive an era of vintage computing?

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lyonadmiral

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If you could go back and relive through a period of time of vintage computing, what would it be and why?

My own answer to that question is 1975 to 1985 because I feel that period of time was when the "big bang" of the real in home personal computer took place.
 
1989-1995 or so.

Reasons:
Explosion of software of all types before major standards brought on by Windows 95 and consolidation.
The birth of the video editing on computer era from still captures to full blown AVID editing hardware.
Evolution of bus designs (ISA/VLB/Nubus/EISA/MCA) to consolidation by PCI.
The revolution of CAD on the computer.
Rise and death of the BBS, the beginning of the internet

While I lived through this era it would have been nice to go back and see it from a different perspective of people designing and pushing the hardware and software, trade shows, and end users making it all work. The later 90's and beyond (outside of the 3D game recolution) pretty much got boring with everything being a standard forcing many companies out and killing inovation. Many people got burned betting on the wrong horse during this time and major money was made and lost. Interesting times tend to be times of rapid changes that are best seen better from the outside.
 
Early 1980s. This would've been a great time to get my foot in the door of the games industry on a simple 8-bitter, and move onto Amiga development a few years later :)
 
1978-1988 era

1978-1988 era

I chose this era because back then computers were just fun machines, not so much as appliances.
Nowadays we use computers for their vast abilities which is great - but less fun, in the sense that it's used for work, and a myriad of other 'tasks'. I kind of wish my computer was just a straight games machine. (Maybe I should buy a PS3 :)
I use my main computer for mail, shopping, watching video, weather and news info, research, reading, music, and games. I'm sure we could find another dozen necessary uses too. The point is, it's an appliance, a tool, and although I'm 'totally into it', I'm kind of wondering if it should envelope so much of my life. Computers have ingrained themselves so much in our daily lives, that I just wonder what we would do if we woke up tomorrow and computers and electronics were just . . . gone. Hard to conceive, it would be like stepping back into the 1800's, I suppose.
Back in the 60's the auto industry started producing 'muscle cars' which were great fun and much more than 'just driving around'. Computers can be drawn in the similar parallel. The cars (and computers), today are vastly improved, but are they as much fun? Well, maybe if you have a lot of money for a Porsche :), but back in the day, you needn't be rich to own a muscle car. I paid $3,300. out the door for my 396SS Chevelle back in 1966. Also, I had 10 years worth of fun from my old Commodore 64 that I paid $149.95 for back in the eighties.
 
I assume we get 10 years, so 1985->1995. I wasn't alive for 1985->1989, so that'd be me getting to enjoy the C64 and early PC era. I was born in 1990, and would love to relive the Win3x era without being so young as to barely comprehend what was going on. I have *one* fuzzy memory of Win3x back then. :p My favorite DOS games almost all fall between 1990 and 1995, so I'd get to see them come out without being so young as to not fully appreciate it.

If I get more than 10 years, then 1979->1999.. this way I get to enjoy home computers coming into their own, the full sweep of the 80s, and all of the stuff I remember from the 90s once again, up through the expansion pack for StarCraft in 1999.

My brother was born in 1977 and I've always wished I was, because I would have just become cogent in 1979 and would have lived through all of that evolution firsthand. He isn't a computer enthusiast (doesn't hate them, plays games, but isn't an enthusiast), either.
 
I don't have the most interesting answer but agree with Daniel. 1975-85 would have been my choice to be of working age, although earlier would still be quite neat as well watching history take course as computers find their place in the industry as well. I need to find my short recordings of the folks working on the LINC system during VCF 10 prior to donating it to the digibarn. I mean, so many neat things going on with folks using, tweaking, and showing off their systems at their booths. All of it was fun to watch but that one in particular I just ended up hanging out and watching them run some diagnostic routines that one of the gentleman wrote for it back in the day.

But in general I agree the computer wasn't really useful for the home market, and the number of opportunities for being a pioneer back then would have been awesome. I would have loved watching it unfold though and being in any homebrew computing group. The trick would be having the money to buy those toys back then.. I imagine it's sort of like having the money for a personal robot assistant for the last 10 years and trying to justify the expense and lack of features.

Yay! I knew someone would take better video than I did (only some short clips of me watching them troubleshoot the system). Here's some digibarn footage of the LINC running some neat demos these guys wrote. One huge thing to point out as I wasn't initially aware when I first saw the system until I saw them open it up with a huge (map sized) book of address mappings to troubleshoot as he hinted at earlier this is just the interface you're looking at mostly.. the computer is that huge rack to the right of this monitor.
 
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If we get 10 years, 1982-1992 is perfect. 1982 was the beginning of the C-64, which was a great computer in so many regards. It was dirt cheap, great to tinker on, fun to program, and had tons and tons of great software. Then in 1985 comes Amiga, and with it, the birth of modern desktop computing with multitasking and everything. And to boot, it was reasonably priced, great to tinker on in its own right, and had lots of interesting peripherals and software.

And cutting things off at 1992 eliminates Commodore's bitter demise. And that timeframe captures the golden age of BBSing too.

Of course, there were interesting things going on with PCs during that time too. But I'd love to relive those early days of the 64 and Amiga. I had a 64, but got it in 1984. I had an Amiga too, but got it in 1991. So I missed some of the beginning with both of those machines.
 
The late 50's and 60's were fun, if you had access to the equipment because computers were invading many areas of life and there was a lot of investigation of computer architecture. The 70's were interesting in that they brought in not only the idea of a "personal computer" but also supercomputers. The 80's were interesting because the PC went mainline. 90's saw the introduction of the internet and web into the general population. The 00's were less interesting in my opinion. Would I want to relive any of them? No.

It's truly wonderful today when you can buy a 32-bit microcontroller development kit for less than $10. That much power for so little just boggles the mind.

On the other hand, I find the web and mobile devices in general to be least interesting. And I never could get interested in gaming.
 
I'd pick the "early mass-market GUI" years. 1984-1993 (roughly: from intro of the Macintosh to intro of Windows 3.0, OS/2 2.0, Macintosh System 7, CDE)

Those were the years that the computer went from "that tough to use thing" for niche markets to something that nearly everyone in the developed world had at least used, if not owned. Lots of interesting machines and GUIs out there, before Windows completely dominated. (DOS had mostly taken over, but there were still multiple graphic shells for it up until Windows 3.0 really took over.) And alternate OS machines (Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST,) still had a fighting chance.

It also happens to coincide with the main "BBS culture" and the very early mainstreaming of "the internet".
 
I'd have to pick the late 1990's. I'd love to have worked at 3dfx. Some reason I cant get enough of the stuff. It was an amazing time. 3d games finally becoming "mainstream" at home.
 
To me 1971 is the magic year for personal computing. This was the year that 4th generation computing started, the 4004 arrived, as well as the Kenbak, electronic calculator, first e-mail, and floppy disk. The PDP-11 had just come out a few months earlier, and started a whole new world of 16 bit computing, specifically the first version of UNIX, which is probably the most influential software that year as far as the computing that most of us are doing these days.

However, it took a while for all that to work it's way through to where it would really make a difference to someone on my level, so to me the years 1985-1990 would be what I would want to do over. With what I know now it'd be a gas.
 
Gee,

A hard question to answer as every period had its themes and developments. I'm not sure if I want to actually "relive" any of it as I can get a nostalgia fix with my collection, then go back to using a modern computer (+software+connectivity) I know is reliable, easy to use and does almost everything I want quickly and efficiently.

As far as personal interest in the hardware itself is concerned though, it would have to be the years 1977 to 1986. All sorts of different models, lots of innovation everywhere, lack of standards, larger than life characters, a young industry that was chaotic and also new and exciting. A time when the personal computer was something special (and very expensive) rather than the throw-away appliances as they are now.

Of course if I was just a straight USER of computers (having no interest in the machines), or someone who had to make purchasing decisions, or someone who worked in IT support, then those years may well have been ones of pure HELL for the same reasons outlined above! :D

Tez
 
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