#16 - The rise of Retrocomputing

We are celebrating that the good old ZX Spectrum microcomputer becomes 40. It was first released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982 and was soon established as a mainstream product and a flagship for the British information technology industry.

Most of the Generation-X guys working in the IT industry today can tell you how the love for computers started when a Commodore-64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, or any MSX computers available entered their homes. They all learned to code BASIC, and only the bravest tried Z-80 or 6502 assemblers. Some of them will go further and passionately explain how later they bought a new 16-bit Atari ST or Amiga, remarking how they tried to tame those beasts (and how they failed, of course!).

A generation of middle-aged men is more interested in retro computers -digital machines made in the '70s through '90s- than a muscle car or a convertible. Many of them look for an original Amiga 500 like the one they had in their teens. Or the one that their parents could not afford to buy. They are buying these machines for the satisfaction they get from rebuilding them. It’s a trend it’s been gaining traction for years. This hobby is called Retrocomputing.

Building a retro-computing platform in 2022 is as simple as booting up a software emulator for your favorite old computer. Computing is so powerful and cheap nowadays that even a Raspberry Pi can do the job very well. A well-known variant of Retrocomputing is retrogaming: emulating an old arcade machine or console with modern hardware. Retropie is a great example.

A new trend in retro-computing is the arrival of FPGA-based platforms that can emulate dozens of micro-computers and hundreds of arcades. My favorite project is the MiSTer board, a DE10-nano board with an Altera Cyclone V SE plus an ARM Cortex A9 dual-core CPU. I bought a MiSTer with several expansion boards, and I can run Atari ST, Amstrad, Spectrum, Oric, and arcade emulators. The community is vibrant, and they are always eager to help you.

The idea of pure-software-based emulation or FPGA offends the purists. They think that nothing compares to the experience of the original hardware. And I agree; it’s impossible to compare how you feel playing Ghosts'N Goblins emulated on a flat-screen versus the original arcade with a CRT display. The appeal of the original hardware is undeniable, and if you get hooked on this hobby, the next step is vintage stuff. There is a flourishing market for original machines and spare parts to repair old digital devices. New needs, new businesses; some hobbyists become entrepreneurs selling new peripherals for old stuff to adapt modern hardware to vintage computers.

My favorite variant of retrocomputing is retro programming: when programmers develop software for those old machines. There is a community of programmers developing games and demos for ZX Spectrum, Commodore-64, Atari ST, Amiga, old consoles… They use modern development tools like VSCode and cross-compiling software on top of their modern hardware, and they deploy the solution in retro computers. Thanks to the Internet, the productivity of these tools, and the easy access to information, some games and demos are better than those developed at that time. They don’t have the flavor of the old stuff, but some of them are awesome.

But why is the Retrocomputing booming? Some say it’s due to the boredom of the pandemic quarantines, but it started way before. The explanation is probably nothing more than nostalgia. These computers remind middle-aged men when we were happy and without responsibility as teens or early youngsters.

Another explanation is Retrocomputing help us to escape from the overwhelming complexity and neverending change in tech. Working with an obsolete computer makes you forget about goals linked to milestones and deadlines. You can invest your time fixing, learning, and tinkering with it. You are in control.

As a side effect of the Retrocomputing scene, hobbyists are collaborating to guarantee that the digital legacy of the seventies and the eighties is not lost in dusty tapes in basements that modern hardware cannot process. Thousands of games and other software developed by companies may not exist anymore. It’s always worth maintaining this digital legacy before it becomes in digital archeology.

The music snippet

I spent countless hours playing Pole Position when I was a teen. Like the kid in the video.