Product Description

Compatibility? Forget it! Each of these computers was its own machine and had no intention of talking to anything 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155220 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

What Laptop, February 2005
The book is packed with glossy photos and reams of fascinating trivia.

PCW Magazine, January 2005
Full of pictures and descriptions of classic machines, a fascinating trip down memory lane.

Synopsis
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 corporate giants clashed with machines that appeared to have been knocked together in a backyard by an eccentric inventor. Compatibility? Forget it! Each of these computers was its own machine and had no intention of talking to anything else. This book tells the story of the classic home computers that paved the way for the PCs we use today - from 1977's pioneering MITS Altair to the latest swivel-screen designs of the iMac and the Tablet PC. The 1980s were the golden decade - they saw an explosion of technological and design creativity, and were the heyday of such great names as Apple, IBM, Atari, Commodore, Osborne, Sinclair, and NeXT. Digital Retro is an essential book for anyone interested in these machines and the origins of the present-day PC.

Customer Reviews

Wow
This is s real high quality book with beautiful images, i wasn't fortunate enough to live when these machines were the dominant computers but it was still worth the read.

Good but lacking depth
I liked this book a lot, brought back memories as I lived through this era of computing and owned a fair few of the machines listed.

Trouble is I think they spent more time on presentation then content. A few paragraphs and picture captions cannot suffice for anybody interested in the underlying technology. There were very scant specs on each machine.

Why was there no screenshots of the machines working. For all the photographs there was none of the output. For instance, saying the Apple Lisa was the first with a GUI, with no detail is bad enough put not showing a photo of the GUI is frankly an omission I cannot condone.

This book is more of a coffee table book for the 'yuppies' to flick through at the 'dinner party' than a proper retrospective look at computers of old.

Best book I have ever bought
As the above says if you had a computer in the 1980's then buy this book - absolutely amazing trip down memory lane. It would also be extremely interesting to any IT person interested in the history of the personal computer (PC) it describes the evolution of the entire IT industry we know today all the way from Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates pottering about in their garages at home to the world we know today...a book to be read from cover to cover - enjoy!