Name: Digital Retro
ISBN: 9780782143300

Digital Retro

The late Seventies to the early Nineties was a wholly unique period in the history of computing. Long before Microsoft and Intel ruled the PC world, a multitude of often quaint home computers were battling for supremacy in a melting pot that would shape the IT industry for years to come. Products from established electronics giants clashed with machines which often appeared to have been knocked together in a backyard shed by an eccentric man from Cambridgeshire. Plenty actually were. Compatibility? Forget it! Each of these computers was its own machine and had no intention of talking to amything else. Much like their owners in fact, who passionately defended their machines with a belief verging on the religious. This book tells the story behind 40 classic home computers of an infamous decade, from the dreams and inspiration, through passionate inventors and corporate power struggles, to their final inevitable extinction, and subsequent worship by the nostalgic collectors market. Digital Retro is an essential read for anyone who owned a home computer in the Eighties.

What Hacker News says

PostOnceNov 2017

Extremely relevant book, https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Retro-Evolution-Personal-Comp...

(the refcode is from the authors site, https://www.cameralabs.com/digitalretro/ )

The interior of the book is much more beautiful than the cover, and sadly Amazon's look inside function is mostly the contents and index.

It's high quality photos of ~100 various computers from the Altair 8800 through iirc recent Apple stuff, from all angles, with text explaining that machine's importance & innovations. A great coffee table book. Even covers some Japanese-only stuff.

I also recall a really extensive and beautiful set of photo albums on flickr which I am currently trying to find the link for, it's in my logs somewhere. Will post that here when I find it tonight. Meanwhile, I found this while googling for it, and while it has some great stuff, it's not as uniformly amazing as the other stream I'm looking for: https://www.flickr.com/groups/vintagecomputers/pool/

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e1venJul 2009

I've been starting a personal collection of stories about the history of the computer industry- I'd love any suggestions of books that other people enjoyed or that I might want to take a look at.

Which books have you enjoyed? Which ones are worth avoiding?

I've included a list of some of the ones that I've found, but I'd love any thoughts.

Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made

Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date

Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970

High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer

The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet

What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation

Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution

Casting the Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and Beyond

Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner

The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company

Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer

Bell Labs: Life in the Crown Jewel

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ralphcMar 2014

I remember reading about MSX in Creative Computing magazine, there's also 4 pages devoted to it in the book Digital Retro.

In addition to the reasons listed here I'd say that what killed MSX is what killed everything else back then, the rise of the PC compatibles. In the early 80's there were "personal computers" based on 8-bit processors that were for the home hobbyist, and the IBM PC-type computers that were so expensive that they were mainly owned by businesses. Basically everyone wanted the PC compatibles to run all the available software, so when prices came down no one wanted the 8-bit Z80 and 6502 machines anymore.

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