When did you last resurrect technology waiting in the deepest corners of a closet or attic?  How did it go?  Hopefully the experience brought nostalgic elation, and some appropriate reflective time.  Was it still relevant?  Did it even work?  Some experience like go better than others, but the Apple IIe was energized, revived, and it bounced back!

This machine informed the image of a computer in my mind.  Strange, flexible disks went in, and the screen came alive.  Boxes of disks with labels not always understood accorded realms of investigation to things yet to be seen.  Everything required some effort, and remembering which cryptically typewriter labeled disk could be tough on the four year old.  However, gaming and learning brought excitement of exploring what unknown programmers did in unknown places.  Software licensing and the concept of an operating system were a bit unknown.  Being this close to the metal delivered excitement in knowing just the program!

 

How does this compare with the computing experience compare with those learning about computing today?  Kids touch something in a menu, and a program comes from outer space or somewhere more unknown to them.  I mean no old man indignation by this, but it is a genuine inquiry.  They have a program, and I had a program.  Their scope is limited to what they card-holder’s willingness is to pay, and mine came only by what box of disks I accessed.  The graphics and performance vary greatly, but computing still requires an element of exploration to accomplish an end goal.

Yes, the direction keys were not well arranged.  The joystick required potentiometer calibration.  Sometimes menus were not obvious.  Pac-Man gave excitement.  Dig Dug almost worked well.  I look forward to my son interacting with this relic, and my iOS device to see how his perspective develops on both.