Vintage Macs Instagram Page

[ww2_1943]

Hi all,

I hope it’s okay to post here. All of the computers I reference in this post are PowerPC of that helps! So many of you have been helpful and I’m impressed by and appreciate the knowledge you all openly share.

I want to share an Instagram page I recently created. I’m not sure if I’m going to expand to YouTube or anything. Before I ask you to follow I thought I’d give a little background.

I’ve always had interests and hobbies that seem to be far from mainstream. I listed my hobbies in my 5th grade yearbook as “collecting antiques” 🤣

One thing many of my hobbies have had in common is that they usually involve collecting and using items that are outdated and forgotten. I liked and still like to try and recreate things in an attempt to connect with the past.

I spent many years trying to fit in. I hid hobbies and interest. Even into adulthood I kind of hid what I liked and really, what I consider my identity. Lately, I’ve been making an effort to just be me and do things that make me happy without hiding it.

Lately, I’ve been very nostalgic for the 90s. They were my prime development years. I stated high school in 1999. So, I really did grow up in the 90s. My nostalgia led to me getting back into a card game Star Wars CCG. I reconnected with an old friend and we have been buying and playing that game, plus old video games. Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Nintendo 64, etc. Last summer I decided I wanted to buy a vintage computer. My entire adult life I used Windows but the first computer I ever used was a IIGS. My school district used mostly Apple computers. I decided I wanted to buy something that with classic Mac OS. I started with an iBook G3. Now, I own 13 or 14 vintage Apples!

Last week I took one of my Pismo’s to Starbucks and used it to complete some minor work. I ended up getting some fun reactions from people. I got the biggest kick out of sitting there with a 22 year old computer and connecting to the wifi just because I could. I snapped a few pictures which I posted in an earlier thread.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of making YouTube videos. I decided I’d like to record my use of vintage technology, especially old Apples in contemporary settings. I want my interest and sense of humor to come through. Last night I created VintageTech.ModernWorld

I hope to post more content next week as I will have more free time. I’m not sure if this will garner any interest, but I guess that’s not the point. The point is to have fun in my own way and not hide it!

Thanks for reading my long story and I hope you enjoy!

Instagram

instagram.com

 

[eyoungren]

I'm not on Instagram so I won't follow, but I can commiserate with you. My time period was the 80s and my own hobbies were odd enough that I was negatively labeled at the time.

I've always liked computers and that alone in the early to mid-80s was enough to mark me as weird. Computers weren't as big a thing back then nor used as heavily as I used them. When Bulletin Board Systems came about and I discovered I could interact with people all over the country (and the world) via my Commodore 64 I was hooked. I was running my own BBS from 1986 to 1992.

When Robotech hit big in the summer of 1985 I was hooked on Japanese animation as well. Robotech was the single biggest event that changed everything in the American market. Without Robotech you don't have what we have today where you can find all these OVAs, films and series so easily. Getting a hold of stuff like Appleseed and Macross and this and that was extremely hard back then. Most of the time it was copies of bootleg.

Fantasy/sci-fi books and comics came a bit later for me, but I've been a very big fan since discovering David Eddings in the late 80s.

But the single biggest thing of mine is traditional roleplaying games. It's not a hobby for me, it's a way of life. It's who I am and what I do. I got started in 1983 and have never looked back. At first it was Dungeons & Dragons and then AD&D and finally what is for me the ultimate…Rolemaster. Mechwarrior dominated in 1986 and beyond and ShadowRun in 1990 and beyond. I dealt with all that judgmental satanic garbage being pushed in the 1980s firsthand (concerning D&D/AD&D).

And now look where we are! People Youtube their gaming sessions! Professional GameMasters who are paid to run adventures! Celebrities with invitation only gaming sessions. Yeah, it's cool NOW to be a gamer, LOL.

In the mid 90s to late 90s when you were in grade school and moving up I was getting off work at 2 or 3am, coming home and planning my gaming sessions for the gaming group I played with. Fun times!

So go on and be you. Anyone telling you that isn't cool is stuck in the 80s.

PS. I'll be 52 in September.

 

[ww2_1943]

I'm not on Instagram so I won't follow, but I can commiserate with you. My time period was the 80s and my own hobbies were odd enough that I was negatively labeled at the time.

I've always liked computers and that alone in the early to mid-80s was enough to mark me as weird. Computers weren't as big a thing back then nor used as heavily as I used them. When Bulletin Board Systems came about and I discovered I could interact with people all over the country (and the world) via my Commodore 64 I was hooked. I was running my own BBS from 1986 to 1992.

When Robotech hit big in the summer of 1985 I was hooked on Japanese animation as well. Robotech was the single biggest event that changed everything in the American market. Without Robotech you don't have what we have today where you can find all these OVAs, films and series so easily. Getting a hold of stuff like Appleseed and Macross and this and that was extremely hard back then. Most of the time it was copies of bootleg.

Fantasy/sci-fi books and comics came a bit later for me, but I've been a very big fan since discovering David Eddings in the late 80s.

But the single biggest thing of mine is traditional roleplaying games. It's not a hobby for me, it's a way of life. It's who I am and what I do. I got started in 1983 and have never looked back. At first it was Dungeons & Dragons and then AD&D and finally what is for me the ultimate…Rolemaster. Mechwarrior dominated in 1986 and beyond and ShadowRun in 1990 and beyond. I dealt with all that judgmental satanic garbage being pushed in the 1980s firsthand (concerning D&D/AD&D).

And now look where we are! People Youtube their gaming sessions! Professional GameMasters who are paid to run adventures! Celebrities with invitation only gaming sessions. Yeah, it's cool NOW to be a gamer, LOL.

In the mid 90s to late 90s when you were in grade school and moving up I was getting off work at 2 or 3am, coming home and planning my gaming sessions for the gaming group I played with. Fun times!

So go on and be you. Anyone telling you that isn't cool is stuck in the 80s.

PS. I'll be 52 in September.

Thanks for sharing your story! I’ve heard several stories about BBS opening up a whole world for people. For my friends and I it was probably AOL chat rooms!

My family didn’t get a computer until 1998 when I was in 8th grade. It was a generic 233mhz clone. We never had internet service. School, the public library, and friends houses were my access to the internet.

Even my doctor plays D&D! But he was playing since the 80s. I remember my mom forbid my brother and I from playing. She bought into the whole D&D is evil thing. That is actually part of the plot of the current season of Stranger Things.

I just turned 37 and I realized it’s time to be unapologetically myself!

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks for sharing your story! I’ve heard several stories about BBS opening up a whole world for people. For my friends and I it was probably AOL chat rooms!

My family didn’t get a computer until 1998 when I was in 8th grade. It was a generic 233mhz clone. We never had internet service. School, the public library, and friends houses were my access to the internet.

Even my doctor plays D&D! But he was playing since the 80s. I remember my mom forbid my brother and I from playing. She bought into the whole D&D is evil thing. That is actually part of the plot of the current season of Stranger Things.

I just turned 37 and I realized it’s time to be unapologetically myself!

My dad brought home a TRS-80 COCO in 1980. I was 10. Or rather 9, but I turned 10 later that year. Anyway, my mom was a teacher (started teaching in 1965 I think) and by 1980-1981 she was teaching Computer Science. So, starting in 1980, there was a variety of computers that came through by the time I moved out.

But yeah, BBS was my lifeline. That naturally developed into online forums in the early 00s.

I didn't have always on-internet until 2004. It was all dialup before that.

I'm aware of the Stranger Things plotline despite never having seen an episode. That was one of the reasons I brought it up. It's not evil, or satanic, or whatever they want to label it. It's how it's used. Just like anything else. And their non-creative minds are unable to separate a character you play or persona you take on from the real person. Throw in a few bad people who WERE using it wrong and it just reinforces their belief. People make it what it is.

I have Psoriasis, which is a skin condition that causes my skin cells to die in half the normal time. Having that forced me to learn to just be myself and ignore what people think. Because with the condition I have, lots of people tried to deny things to me and said vile things to me. I got it when I was 5 and it's a good thing too, because I learned that early.