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Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

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Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#101

Post by wkat4242 »

INTPenis wrote: post #98

Sorry for being a pessimist but it's easy for us old farts to have a limited perspective and think that if we just present a young person with a system similar to what we had they will figure it out. The problem with that perspective is that we didn't have anything else. A c64 was literally all I had. It was either that, or go out and play in nature. So we had a much greater incentive to figure things out.

Some will be literally driven to know everything about it though. But a smaller percentage than us.

I agree though that I learned programming mainly because it was so hard to find programs for my computer :)

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#102

Post by flipcoder »

I've seen a number of posts like this usually wanting a specific device that is good for kids that has the appeal of old computers. The answer is that any laptop loaded with creativity app works great if you have an attitude shift that it is a creative device rather than a consumption device. Choose your apps and get used to building things with it. Avoid social media, youtube, netflix, and the fun will come back.

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#103

Post by wkat4242 »

boringalterego wrote: post #86

Well simh was listed a couple days ago on HN. That and virtualization will get you just about all the old software experiences that you could want. As for hardware . Visit a regional vintage computing festival. There will be people very enthusiastic about what they have got working from that era.

Why would kids go back to old platforms? That's for us nostalgics. They should look at the future.

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#104

Post by ilaksh »

rerdavies wrote: post #89
ilaksh wrote: post #3

Modern: Building games in Roblox? You could get a Raspberry PI (or any computer with an emulator) or a real 80s computer. Set the PI up with whatever emulator. And maybe a book like this one https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Manuals/Hard... Getting Started With Extended Color Basic. Or set up a normal Linux without installing a GUI. Or set up an emulator with DOS Box. Or install nothing but Unity/Unreal…

Why?! Most particularly with respect to Extended Color Basic. The horror! The horror! Why would you cripple your child, when doing the real thing is so much easier? Build a website. Write a game. Make your own really cool alarm clock. Make a demo. Write a voice-driven app. Steer them toward something that has relatively decent bumper-rails and ecosystems. Python. React (with typescript enabled). Or a good web framewo…

I was answering the thrust of his question which seemed to be aiming for a restricted retro environment that would force some kind of technical problem solving skills without allowing kids to just run Steam or something.

That BASIC book is a really excellent intro to programming for a kid.

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#106

Post by jetti »

rapjr9 wrote: post #87

A music synthesizer. It's a pathway to learning electronics, music, and the nature of sound. There are cheap kits, cheap synths, lots of kinds of synths, and there are much more complicated and expensive systems you can grow into. You can get software synths also, VCV Rack is a free though complex one: https://vcvrack.com/ However I'd recommend an inexpensive hardware one with real knobs you can turn, like one of the…

I started to get into music synthesizers and actually got all the parts to create the Atari Punk Console [0]. An analog synth is super fascinating to me and being able to get all the parts needed to make a basic analog synth for under $20 was too enticing to pass up.

[0] https://sdiy.info/wiki/Atari_Punk_Console

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#107

Post by creer »

Scratch is amazing. https://scratch.mit.edu/

And a slightly different direction than what you describe. Nowadays a complete "basic environment" on a computer (say a Raspberry Pi, sure why not, but perhaps simply a used laptop) feels too complicated. Far more complicated than DOS was.

Scratch is actually both interesting for kids and a seriously competent programming environment. They can explore; they can implement basic games; they can implement ambitious games or other directions like story telling. And possibly (but not all that easily) open for cooperation, cooperating on larger projects with others.

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#109

Post by SkyMarshal »

Build a PC, install Linux on it, then figure out how to play Windows games on it with Wine (or Lutris). Show them what total ownership of their computer really feels like (or at least as close to that as possible while playing 3rd party games). I think that feeling of ownership of your computing environment is the real analog between what you describe back in the 80s and today's equivalent.

Good place to start: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

Re: Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?

#110

Post by rcy »

creer wrote: post #107

Scratch is amazing. https://scratch.mit.edu/ And a slightly different direction than what you describe. Nowadays a complete "basic environment" on a computer (say a Raspberry Pi, sure why not, but perhaps simply a used laptop) feels too complicated. Far more complicated than DOS was. Scratch is actually both interesting for kids and a seriously competent programming environment. They can explore; they can implement b…

100% agree with this. I grew up on a TRS-80 and so much wanted to share my nostalgia, or a some modern form of it with my daughter. Turns out using Scratch gives her the same core excitement, empowerment and wonder I experienced typing out games in BASIC but in an environment that allows so much more with so much less toil. That feeling of being able to create things, to get a machine to do what you want to do is captured so well. To top it of there is a community of creators and people sharing tutorials. The source code to every project made and shared by others is just a click away... the learning opportunities are endless. I am so grateful for this platform!
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