🖥️ 🧸 a new (old) approach for 21st-century kids using computers… chronological order
as our kiddo gets older we are going on a journey with her, focusing on the evolution of computing from where it started, and using each one, in order.
our adventure begins with retrofitting a 1998 littletikes/ibm playset to house the early computers, providing her with a tangible way to interact with these machines. might need to do emulators for some of these, but trying to see if we can get many of these, build/re-build, or borrow -
some of the plans will be to explore the hardware - on how it all worked before computing moved to sealed black rectangles that's mostly used to buy things or pay subscriptions services.
here's the "playlist" so far - have any suggestions?
altair 8800 (1975) apple i (1976) commodore pet (1977) apple ii (1977) atari 400/800 (1979)
commodore vic-20 (1980) ibm pc (1981) commodore 64 (1982) apple macintosh (1984) amiga 500 (1987)
next computer (1990) sun sparcstation 10 (1992) compaq presario 425 (1993) sony vaio pcv (1996) apple imac g3 (1998) dell dimension xps t500 (1999)
this approach also seems like it could be a kid's book - a book for parents to follow along with their kids on the history of computers with how-tos on building, or emulating them. maybe even a "build-a-bear" - style workshops / classes for kids and parents, but for making their first computers together…
more later!
🕹️ this was inspired by andy baio's approach of guiding his son through the chronological history of video games (2014)
For the last ten years, Andy Baio has been performing an experiment on his son. It is equal parts cruel and fascinating. Rather than let him
An experiment in forced nostalgia and questionable parenting