[JSR_FDED]

This resonates so hard with me! Except in my case it’s the Apple ][.

I’ve decided it’s completely unnecessary to justify this retro computing passion, there’s nothing wrong with venerating the ingenuity, ethos and craftsmanship of the time.

The excitement we felt at the breakthroughs that were coming fast and furious back then, the community and camaraderie of fellow nerds, the realization that those massively constrained systems with 10,000 to 100,000 times less power than we have today still managed to offer massive value to us as users and programmers - that’s pretty amazing.

Another reason to love that era was that there was still genuine idealism in the industry and everything was far less corporate than today.

[decryption]

Totally agree. I recently re-read Revolution in the Valley (Andy Hertzfeld's memoir of working on the Mac) and I absolutely got same same vibe you described. It's also hard not to be in awe of someone like Bill Atkinson - RIP legend. I just wanted to experience first hand the work this team made, rather than just reading about it, looking at screenshots or using it via an emulator. Maybe I'll learn something, or worst case, just a sense of appreciation of the shoulders of the giants we stand on.