1975: The beginning of home computing
Category: Home Computer
If you had to pinpoint the year when home computing really started, it would probably be 1975. This was the year in which MITS released the Altair 8800 computer kit (also available in assembled form.) As one of the earliest affordable personal computers, nerds were eager to get their hands on one. However, without heavy modifications and expensive extensions, the computer was not really usable. Code had to be entered byte for byte by flipping switches, output was returned on a number of LEDs. Soon, many hobbyist computer clubs were formed, and people tried to figure out stuff they could do with their Altairs.
Another remarkable thing happens this year: two guys approach MITS and ask if they would be interested in a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800. They are – the only problem is that the interpreter does not exist yet. Within a couple of weeks, Altair BASIC comes into existence. The names of the two programmers are Paul Allen and William Henry Gates III, called Bill Gates. Based on their Altair BASIC product, they would form a company called “Micro-Soft” later that year. Micro-Soft would build up a reputation as a provider of programming language environments over the next couple of years. Skip forward to 1981, when IBM tried to enter the personal computing market with a new product, to read what happened then…
1973: Lemonade Stand
Category: Mainframe, Home Computer
The first version of Lemonade Stand is developed by Bobb Jamison at MECC. This simple economic simulation lets players run their own lemonade stand, and have to estimate how much lemonade and advertising is needed for the upcoming day. The concept is easy to learn but a lot of fun, so the game was ported to other systems countless times, achieving particular popularity as Lemonade shipped with Apple II systems. You should have no problem finding a port you can play today. Below are a few links to get you started.
Play it
- Play a Flash remake directly in your browser at Geoffry Noles’ website.
- Find downloadable copies of a very nice remake for Windows and MacOS X systems at Codenautics.
- Get the text-based BASIC remake for DOS at Home of the Underdogs.
- Download the free trial of Lemonade Tycoon, a greatly expanded remake, at Shockwave.com.
1964: BASIC
Category: Home Computer
Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny develop the BASIC programming language (Beginners’ All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.) This simple language would enable a lot of people to design and write their own games, who otherwise probably wouldn’t have had the technical knowledge to do so. Games written in BASIC will be hugely popular during the home-computer revolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when commercial software was scarce and the idea was that most people would write their own.
BASIC code is usually interpreted instead of compiled to machine code. This means that most games were distributed in source-code format, often through magazines and books, and were therefore easily distributable. That, and the fact that practically every system of the day came with a BASIC interpreter, meant that these games could really become immensely popular, and travel the world. And so they did.
