Let’s journey back in time to when the Internet was just an idea and mobile phones were massive bricks carried around in the boots of cars. Let’s return to a simpler time when the world wasn’t constantly connected, and you weren’t constantly updated. Most people weren’t online except for big businesses, and the whole world was a very different place. How far back are we going? Not too far at all actually because it was less than forty years ago when the world was unrecognisable. The 80’s were the equivalent of the dark ages for computers and technology, so why should we go back there? By remembering what it was like, we’ll appreciate the tech we have today a lot more. So, what were computers like in the 80’s?
It’s a house, It’s a skyscraper, It’s a computer!
Yes, they were massive. Even the ones that existed in people’s homes were nowhere near the size that they are today. If you wanted a computer with the processing power of your mobile phone, it would have filled ten rooms. That’s not to say they didn’t exist; they did. The government and big businesses were using them, but they weren’t exactly what you would call cost friendly. The computers that people had in their homes were big plastic boxes that were heavy to lift and based on today’s standards, barely worked. But back then they were the tech dream.
Those Graphics Are Awful
If you go on almost any tech website, even ours, you’ll find at least one article complaining about graphics. If they had known what things were like back in the 80’s they probably wouldn’t bother. Even the most basic version of GTA hadn’t yet been invented. The closest you had to a home video game was something like Pong. This was praised as innovative and revolutionary as well as being great fun. If you don’t know, Pong was a video game of table tennis. Two lines knocked a ball from one side of the screen to the other and people loved it. So, next time you wish Call Of Duty looked more realistic remember what kids in the 80’s were playing.
What’s Touch Typing?
Touch typing did not exist in the 80’s. It wasn’t possible to type at one hundred words per minute because most computers had membrane keyboards. Due to limited tactile feedback it’s impossible to type fast on a membrane keyboard. Although, they certainly keep the dust and muck out and are easy to clean. That’s why to this day they are embraced by industrial businesses with open arms. They are the perfect solution to make sure tech is durable in a rough environment.
What’s Global Warming?
Finally, the idea of global warming didn’t come about until the 90’s. That mean no one was particularly bothered about energy saving in the 80’s. This tech devoured power and today would probably be seen as environmentally dangerous. But you can’t blame the developers. They had no idea of the problems tech was going to cause.