Digital archaeology of the microcomputer, 1974-1994

[Adrian Graham]

On 17/1/07 19:15, "Ray Arachelian" <ray at arachelian.com> wrote:

> 
>   Digital archaeology of the microcomputer, 1974-1994
> 
> By Steven Goodwin <http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/user/39>
> 
> /Online on: 2007-01-05/
> 
> /(Or, how to prevent the Dark Ages of computing through free software)/
> 
> In a few years time, it will be impossible to study the history of home
> computers since everything at the time was proprietary; both in terms of
> the physical hardware, and all the software that ran upon it since most
> of it is encumbered by software ³protection² to prevent copying.

I love it when someone publishes an article without doing any proper
research. Is he saying that no copy-protected software of the late 70s and
80s hasn't already been reverse engineered and/or broken many years ago? So
what if the hardware was proprietary? Has there been a home computer that
hasn't been recreated in some form or another, either by a hardware rebuild
or emulation of some sort? (MESS springs to mind).
 
> To compound the problem, the hardware is dying (literally) and (being
> proprietary) can¹t be rebuilt in any equivalent manner. In some cases
> the software is physically disintegrating too since, in the case of many
> 8-bit micros from the 1980¹s, the storage medium was cassette tape; a
> temperamental mechanism at the time, let alone now. It¹s not that no
> computer innovation took place in the 1980¹s, just that none of it will
> be recorded.

Now I *know* he's done no research! Aside from my own BinaryDinosaurs
website how many other home computer museums are there online? Books by the
likes of Gordon Laing and others?

Meh, sloppy journalism.

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?