What does retro computing mean?

I have an interest in nailing down what exactly is meant by "retro" or "classic" computing. A few years ago I started a small internet club for people interested in old computers called INetCC whose stated goal was creating a network of classic computers. However, this soon gave rise to the question of what counts as a classic computer. At the time, I decided that anything made before 1998 counted, as that was the year when the Pentium II processor was introduced, bringing modern processor features like speculative execution into the mainstream, as well as a couple of other things which I felt were a departure from computing before then. Still, it is always dissatisfying to draw a line at a specific year rather than capture the philosophy of classic computing in a rigorous definition. After all, there are brand new computers like the Commander X16 which are built to capture the spirit of classic computing, and obviously it fails the date test.

To try and shed more light on what the retro community thinks, I put out a survey on the Level 29 BBS asking everyone what they thought retro computing meant, and I also asked some friends directly. I got some pretty interesting responses!

Level 29 BBS

In no particular order, these are the answers I got:

• Retro computing is close to the hardware. Users were expected to write their own programs from scratch in order to get the most out of the machine.
• No multitasking. The user was focused on one thing at a time, and indeed most computers were only capable of running one task at a time.
• Retro computing is characterized by limitations: slow processors, cramped memory, and costly networking forced people to be very careful about how exactly they used their computers.
• Singular purposes. Software was created to serve one purpose well. On 8-bit machines there often was not even a real general purpose OS underneath the user application.
• Classic computers are simple enough to be understood completely by a single human being from the bare metal to the user application level.
• Retro means anything that fell out of use before I was born.
• Retro computing is the exploration of forgotten or abandoned technology and contemplation of how things might have turned out differently.
• Retro computers are characterized by using physical media: punch cards, paper tape, floppy diskettes, and cassettes.
• B E I G E

I appreciate each of these answers and in some way agree with all of them, even though some are mutually incompatible or haphazardly exclusive. Still yet, I think my own motivations for messing about with old computers don't fit into any of these:

• Retro computing is about breathing life into otherwise obsolete technology.
• There is joy in making old dogs learn new tricks.
• Retro computing is about proving that old does not mean obsolete.

I got my first taste of retro computing the way I think a lot of folks around my age did: installing Linux on old PCs that were collecting dust and being impressed by how capable they still were if equipped with appropriate software. The computers I started doing this with are decidedly not retro computers, but the joy I got from bringing purpose to these things which were destined for the landfill motivated me to see how far I could go. I even started listening to music on cassettes again just because I could!

This spirit has bled into other aspects of my life for the better. Being motivated to keep things running and useful for as long as possible staves off the temptation to acquire new junk for marginal benefits. I'm seriously considering downgrading my primary computer just because I think it's more than I need.

I'm still not entirely sure how to nail down a definition for purposes of my computer club. Maybe I shouldn't even try. If you've got more time to think about it than me, I'd love to hear your ideas.

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