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Were Computer Console Like In the Past?

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facattack

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Based on a skype convo I had:

[7/14/2016 9:00:34 PM] computers used to be machines that did productivity stuff but was pretty much rigged into simple units like consoles. An apple 2 was an apple 2 and an apple 2 gs is light years more of an improvement over 3ds to new 3ds
[7/14/2016 9:01:14 PM] you could upgrade, but that didn't change them much rather than somewhat more RAM or whatever.
[7/14/2016 9:02:10 PM] computers these days are PARTS assembled. its confusing. one PC is never equal to another even from same manufacturer.
[7/14/2016 9:02:57 PM] oh, you think you love Doom? well DOOM 2016 is gonna kick your expectations in the arse!
[7/14/2016 9:04:45 PM] do you need to buy the latest games? no. I just bougth the 2ds so I could fill it with quick virtual console purchases of games I could not get on Wii or Wii u like gb and gbc .... mainly because my GBC unit is futzy.

With the exception of being used with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse most of the time when you weren't gaming, IBM compatibles and the other computer types were pretty uniform within a brand.
 
Do you want to revise your thread title? It doesn't parse correctly.
 
Unless one bought an Inboard or similar accelerator, or got a system from Sharp, even IBM got into the act with the PCJr and JX. Commodore and Sinclair were renowned for having many unconventional variations on their standard designs.
 
This is a computer console:

7030.sigma.tkishi.jpg
 
This is a Tandy.
tandy-1000sl2_1s.jpg


This is Spectrum.
zx_spectrum_casemod_pc.jpg


This is an Apple II GS.
175186apple-II-gs.system.jpg


The common factor with these and a console is that they are small machines that play games. Today's consoles also have apps. You notice I am using a simile here. "LIKE." I'm not saying computers ARE consoles, in metaphor form or literal. Its a box. There is no tower. .

What makes them separate from a console is the use of a keyboard and mouse. Computers also hook up to monitors rather than TVs in most cases. And have productivity stuff like printers. You can say a lot when saying to a store clerk "I want a Tandy 1000!" back in the 80s. It was distinct from the other computers of the time as each one was.

You cannot in today's age just buy a computer. Here's a typical computer, broken down part by part. I'll steer away from a prebuilt.

Let's say it's a Intel i7, with 8gb of RAM, a GTX graphics card, and its got some generic mobo. With a DVD-RW drive. Mini tower. No special water cooling. 1Tb hard drive

Again, going by my original point, PCs are just the sum of their parts. To buy one wisely, you eschew simplicity and have to be specific. The devil is in the details. Many newbs can be lead astray by just buying any old prebuilt PC. You must know EXACTLY what parts in are in it and what connectors might be.

EDIT: Forgot to mention a part. :D
 
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Chuck showed the only console I've seen.
What are we talking about?
Consoles or just keyboard monitor combinations?
Dwight
 
Yes, computers were console-like in the past. Computers were standardised platforms and as a result there was a guarantee that any given machine could run the vast majority of all software produced for it, no hardware upgrade necessary. As a rule anything that did need additional hardware in order to function made it perfectly clear exactly what was required and the hardware itself was compatible with every machine the software could run on. As an example, the biggest selling computer ever, the Commodore 64, was unchanged from a software perspective over its entire 12 year lifetime.
 
cthulhu said:
Yes, computers were console-like in the past. Computers were standardised platforms and as a result there was a guarantee that any given machine could run the vast majority of all software produced for it, no hardware upgrade necessary. .
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was trying to say. :D Thx for agreeing.
 
I'm kind of indifferent about building a computer today. "Back in the day..." IE: when I was a teenager, I used to build my own computer (where I could) from parts that I would select. Many of you probably remember the huge magazine "Computer Shopper." I would buy parts from there and have them shipped to me, or I'd buy them from CompUSA (where I worked during the summers and after school). Through my early teens... it was largely upgrading from a 386 to a 486... and then swapping parts to make the 486 more powerful. I first went with the AMD 386 DX-40... because it was 7Mhz faster than Intel's 33MHz chip, and $5 cheaper! I then went the Cyrix 486 DLC chip... and eventually we all started getting into the DX2s and stuff. Then, the Pentium 60 came out, and we were all over that. There was a trend, at least in my circles, that the bigger and badder your computer got, the more awesome it was. This was a lot of fun for "LAN" parties (when we would network using Linksys cards to play network DOOM).

After a while... this got "OLD"... and at least me, I started wanting a smaller computer, and less hassle. You guys are going to rag on me, but at least for the past ten years... every computer that I've owned has pretty much been a Dell. I no longer bother building computers from scratch. I typically upgrade the ram to faster ram and a nice graphics card. Off-the-shelf PCs are good enough at this point, that I don't honestly see a huge difference in performance from one motherboard to the other. Granted, I don't really play "new" games anymore.

I'm well into my 30s, and with responsibilities and stuff, I don't have the same time I used to. I think the newest games that I've played have been the Bio Shock games, Civilization 5, Sim City 5, and X-COM... basically, re-releases of the old games I used to play when I was a kid... (and System Shock 3 whenever it comes out). So maybe the games I play don't really tax my system.

I have a Dell 990 w/ Core i7 3.4MHz, some NVIDIA GForce card with DDR5 ram on it... don't really remember. I've got an SSD, and 16 gigs of ram. I've had this computer for about 5 years now, and I haven't run into a single game that it can't play! heh...
 
Dwight Elvey said:
Chuck showed the only console I've seen.
What are we talking about?
Consoles or just keyboard monitor combinations?
Dwight
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been puzzling over the use of "console" in this one. I know about floor-standing TVs-as-furniture, sometimes called "consoles" (I had an 27" Zenith once) and "control consoles" that aerospace folks and studio people sit in front of, and this type:

buffalo.jpg


(whose use predates any of the others). In general, I visualize a large piece of equipment, standing on the floor, that one sits at to operate.
 
I'm thoughroughly confused.

I don't know what 4ds is.

I know what consoles are, and so do several others here, but the definition sure doesn't fit the context of the discussion.

I can't for the life of me imagine CompUSA selling an S100 backplane, or TTL DIPs.

Were computer console(s) like what in the past?
 
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