Whatever happened to our hobby?

[Franko]

Being in right from the start of what can truly be called the beginning of the "home computer experience" there's nothing "Rose Tinted" about it...

Way back at the end of 1980/ start of 81 when I purchased my very first VIC 20 things were indeed very different back then and I would say "magical" too...

It was a time when the vast majority of people (except geeks in university labs) had never seen or heard of devices such as the ZX80/81 or the VIC 20 the only thing we had up till then were the old black and white table tennis style consoles with one game on them...

There were indeed many friendly stores that popped up on every high street or down some shady allies were one could go and buy these amazing new fangled devices or even just spend hours chatting with the stores staff or all the other folks who crowded in these magical wonderlands...

Even all the big well known stores on the high streets had whole floors given over to all us spotty faced nerks who jam packed them every Saturday to chat and buy or just look at that weeks latest offerings which were plentiful and more than you could afford to buy each week as there were so many new releases of games & software...

It was a far cry from todays stores and their shift them fast and cheap way of doing things and generally staffed by people who can't work a till let alone tell you how to do anything with a computer other than how to switch it on...

It was like you say, lots of different systems to choose from each having their own followers & fans, magazines were plentiful and varied and encouraged folk to actually learn about the machines and program them...

It's something I'm glad I was a part of and sadly I doubt will ever see the likes of again. I could go on to explain why I think it's no longer this way but it's best not too as it would no doubt lead to the usual all out war...

Lets just say I'm happy I was a part of it and it has given me 30 years of pleasure and enjoyment and made me some lifelong friends along the way and if I had the chance to do it all over again I'd do so in heartbeat without changing a thing...

[Franko]

but why aren't there more of us? What happened to make people no longer become interested in computers, but simply treat them as another appliance?

To be honest I just look at my nephew and his friends all around the age range of 22 to 26, most of them have been to uni studying all sorts of scientific and even computer related subjects. All of them are just like each other, a bedroom full of consoles and PC's but not one of them does any sort of programming or creating audio / artwork etc... (well unless you count making MP3's)

All they do is play non stop all these modern 3D style games that all look and play the same to me, or just gibber absolute keech to each other on facebook and the likes about these games...

Whenever I used to suggest to them why not try writing you're own programmes or create some music or artwork, the answer I usually got back goes along the lines of "Why !!! when someone else writes the stuff for us and creates the music we like to listen too, why would I want to bother doing something boring like that and anyway I don't have the time..." (I don't bother asking anymore)...

To me it would seem that it's all down to the simple fact that since they were born and just kids, computers were already in most of their homes (usually the dads) and to them it's just taken for granted that these are nothing more than another passive method of entertainment just like a TV set or music system...

Of course it could also be that they're just lazy gits with no imaginations, but I wont go into that right now...

[Franko]

Doesn't everyone? :lol:

But yeah - i'm picking up what you are laying down.

Erm... nope...