If anyone cares about old shareware game source code, I used the opportunity of recovering some old code to create a number of disk images (that you can mount from a modern Mac emulator like Basilisk II for example). Here is one (I think you can find the other three or so from this one):

https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/SoftDorothy-UnfinishedTa...

The effect is similar for those of us whose exposure was earlier, but similarly devoid of computers prior.

In my case it was a 1996 Mac tower w/internal 28k modem, at which point I was seven. It was not only the first computer of any sort in the house (no game consoles either) but also our first CD player. Up until then, the extent of tech for me was a late 80s Sharp VCR and an even older faux wood console Zenith TV hooked up to a roof antenna (no cable). Anything beyond that existed only in TV commercials and movies.

It was such a huge shift that it’s difficult to articulate. It sparked a lifelong obsession.

Yes for some people who used these machines once, they might just think of them as old machines, the same way an ancient Roman still alive today might not think much of mundane Roman tech.

But getting into retro-computing as a hobby is more like being a historian or archaeologist. There is endless lore to discover, and restoring old hardware is an art. Some of these people were never old enough or even existed to lust after these machines.

Someday, all the people who used these machines will be dead, completely dead, and the machines will be all that remains. Blessed are those who keep them running in their memory.

But I think my current passion has more to do with the simplicity of it, and being forced (well, more or less) to learn 6502 assembly. (Oh, and Christ an original KIM-1 is a good deal more than $400 now, ha ha. But there are nice reproductions you can build yourself.)

What a breath of fresh air the thing is — having so little between its hex keypad and its six character display.

It's the people now with full time employment, who couldn't afford them when they were 16. Now they can, and the cars in good condition are more scarce.

But once I went through Vogons and had the impression that many of them lacked any taste. A lot of PCs (and Macs) were total shite back then. If you want to dink around, you can now get the best old stuff.