What I consider old skool computing
The URL of this site is OldSkoolComputing.com and the blog is called “Old Skool Blog“, so it’s best that I define “old skool computing” right up front.
For me, “old skool computing” primarily refers to Home Computers - 8-bit computers, typically with BASIC in ROM, from a variety of manufacturers in the 1970s and 1980s. While Amiga and Atari ST computers were not 8-bit but are included here and represent the end of a “golden age” of home computing when there was plenty of diversity in the market and it was still possible for a dedicated person to truly understand the whole machine without having to learn countless APIs. Hacking away on these machines was within reach of just about any kid with the time to learn BASIC and/or Assembly Language.
In addition to home computers, I am also intending to cover early video game systems - specifically “pre-crash” games and systems. These systems come in two flavours: PONG clones (and variants) and cartidge based systems. The most famous of the pre-crash cartridge-based systems is of course the Atari 2600. By focusing on pre-crash systems, my definition of “old skool gaming” cuts off just before the appearance of the NES.
Hopefully that gives you an understanding of what I hope to be covering here. 
June 15th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
yo arb! nice site. sorry for checking it out late–been busy. ah, me old atari 2600. i love air-sea battle myself. my first computer was an Apple IIc as a surprise gift one christmas morn from an eccentric NEIGHBOR of all people.
wasn’t an 8-bit though, but it’s a similar idea. also loved playing around with the IIe and the Commodore before that. (never had those)
gonna keep up with this place!
June 15th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Howdy ho Smoochy!
The Apple IIc was an 8-bit dude. 65c02 CPU - a member of the 6502/6510 family which drove many an 8-bit wonder! The IIc was a cute lil machine, weren’t it?
I think I’ve got a IIc buried away in my back room somewhere…
June 16th, 2006 at 1:03 am
oh shoot, i thought it was a 16 bit. i didn’t think of such things much at that point…
it was, and so portable with that handle.
June 16th, 2006 at 2:33 am
ah so, the atari st *is* considered old school. see, i didn’t think it would be. what a cool machine that was, i mean, built in MIDI! how rad is that? plus the operating system (TOS) was pretty cool too… mostly like early MacOs, but also very unix-like (even before i knew what unix was).
i remember what a huge big deal it was when my parents bought me a 20mg external HD for it (it cost nearly $400). i was like “wait? i can put my floppies on that thing?”
June 16th, 2006 at 10:57 am
I’m sorely tempted to leave the Atari ST out of the definition because I absolutely detested the ST back in the day. As a die-hard Amiga fanatic, I think it was mandatory to hate Atari.
My favourite trick on the Amiga was to have multiple screens at differing resolutions (it was so cool how you could pull a screen down - why has no-one implemented multiple desktops like that on Winders or Linux?) with a PC emulator, Mac emulator and Atari ST emulator running while playing SimCity.
Built-in MIDI? Feh! Nothing exciting about that. The hoopy, advanced graphics and true multi-tasking capabilities of the Amiga? Much more worth getting excited about. IMNSHO.
I used to have so much fun on that machine…