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Retrocomputing events: A Sysop's view of a trip down memory lane
Flavio Bessa - 4:801/188
For some of us, it's been 30 or more years already since the dawn of
our golden age. However, the retrocomputing scene, where groups of
aficionados get together to set up some really old computers and
remember about the good old days, seem to be growing, at least here
in South America.
I have been able to attend a few of these events and the experience
has been the best possible. Please allow me to try my best on
describing it here.
Brazil was a particularly tough place for computer hobbysts. Years of
military dictatorship created a closed market, where it was nearly
impossible to be in line with the greatest releases in computer
hardware. Nonetheless, the idea for a national computer industry
grew alongside our rulers.
And, it started... as a "Market Reserve Policy", where only
Brazilian-based factories could produce computers to be sold at the
local market; Foreign computers could be procured, but the
bureaucracy alongside it would be horrendous. That lead to the
development of several "clones" of the ZX-81, TRS Model III, Apple
II e, and others. However, the most popular was the MSX.
Very popular in Japan, the MSX standard appeared in Brazil around
1985, and ruled the market up the 1990s. The general population
was introduced to floppy disks: before that, most of the
software was available on cassette tapes only.
With that background explained, I was taken into an event of those
MSX aficionados by a friend some time ago. Man, what a trip down
memory lane! I could see several Experts and Hotbits (local clones)
and some interesting Japanese computers and even an Arabic clone!
They were all playing games and doing some neat hardware projects
to adapt them to this current day and age, just like we did with
BBSing. I had a blast there, and started to participate more on
the scene.
I have had some interesting experience on the next events, and
even brought a "mobile" version of my BBS into it, where people
could play some nice games and try to log in using some very old
MSX or Commodore system. I even was able to find a fellow Sysop!
He will shortly join Fidonet now.
I would encourage all of you to reach out to these retrocomputing
events (they happen everywhere), after all, BBSing is retro these
days. Let's share some of our fun and knowledge on these events
as well, we might be able to get back the users that were lost
long ago.
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