RIP Dr. Gary Kildall, a name that might be forgotten nowadays but had an undeniable, groundbreaking impact on what we now call computer technology, an unfortunate miss of ingenuity and talent in tech advancement.
Why? Suits and ties look ridiculous. It’s a holdout of a bygone era. These days I have less respect for people in suits as they’re typically lawyers or politicians.
Well, I agree that today it's pretty silly, but back then it was completely different. Any professional person needed at least a tie to be taken seriously, if not a jacket as well.
But more generally, this was a time where the sales person would tell you the benefits of the software and its requirements instead of trying to sell you on subscriptions and useless warranties.
Well it was a different era. One thing is the computer industry wanted to be taken seriously. It was forged on the backs of a lot of people that were considered part of the counterculture of the '70s. When the '80s struck and cocaine was the big thing, everyone wanted to be Wall Street ready. So you see the transformation of someone like Steve Jobs being a showerless fruit eating Hippie, to a suit wearing boardroom goblin.
I highly suggest looking into some of the classic documentaries. Check out triumph of the nerds.
That show ran for 20 years and Stuart Chiefet was in every episode. You can see how his wardrobe evolves over the years from the suit and tie in the 80s to more casual business wear in the early 90s, to a golf/polo shirt by the late 90s.
Actually, this is a bit of technical issue. Logic from modern point of view doesn't work for it. :)
CGA (a less powerful predecessor to VGA) had two outputs: composite and RGB.
RGB was used to connect to monitors of the time, but was limited to palette of 4 colors.
Composite was used to connect to color TVs and NTSC artifacting (color bleeding) could be used to implement more than 4 colors (like in this particual video).
Also important is genlock. In order to see a 60hz NTSC CRT on a 60hz NTSC camera properly you need to sync everything to a reference source or you'll see banding artifacts.
I was wondering why they brought out the ol’ 19” from the gameroom for that. Like if dad wouldn’t buy a “real” monitor because it’s the “same thing” as the TV that’s already in there.
I had that on 5" floppies. It sparked my curiosity as a child on how you could encode the surface of the planet and fit it onto a floppy. Databases, arrays, compression, all interests later in life that had nothing to do with flying.
FS was fun. I ran it on a the family's first computer, a 386 and it had a much smoother framerate.
It's astonishing to consider that the GPU in my phone (let alone my home PC!) completely crushes the performance of a 1982 milspec aviation trainer supercomputing cluster.
The only difference between then and now is I crashed my plane in my brothers back garden on the new sim :-)
I had a neighbor who spent thousands to keep up to date with the FS evolution, force joysticks, pedals etc. he gave me one of his MS force joysticks when he upgraded, anything that looked like it could up his frame rate and he'd buy it.
edthesmokebeard@reddit
Had this game on the Apple //e. Kickass.
Amirrezatahersoltani@reddit
RIP Dr. Gary Kildall, a name that might be forgotten nowadays but had an undeniable, groundbreaking impact on what we now call computer technology, an unfortunate miss of ingenuity and talent in tech advancement.
Low-Charge-8554@reddit
OMG - they looked soooo serious back in those days. Almost laughable today :) Suits+ties....
Good old MS-DOS
Bear_Made_Me@reddit (OP)
Man, it was a different time!
I kinda miss the days when you'd go into Babbage's and the guy selling you King's Quest had to wear a tie.
blissed_off@reddit
Why? Suits and ties look ridiculous. It’s a holdout of a bygone era. These days I have less respect for people in suits as they’re typically lawyers or politicians.
Bear_Made_Me@reddit (OP)
Well, I agree that today it's pretty silly, but back then it was completely different. Any professional person needed at least a tie to be taken seriously, if not a jacket as well.
But more generally, this was a time where the sales person would tell you the benefits of the software and its requirements instead of trying to sell you on subscriptions and useless warranties.
p47guitars@reddit
Well it was a different era. One thing is the computer industry wanted to be taken seriously. It was forged on the backs of a lot of people that were considered part of the counterculture of the '70s. When the '80s struck and cocaine was the big thing, everyone wanted to be Wall Street ready. So you see the transformation of someone like Steve Jobs being a showerless fruit eating Hippie, to a suit wearing boardroom goblin.
I highly suggest looking into some of the classic documentaries. Check out triumph of the nerds.
hpstr-doofus@reddit
I don’t know if this might help you regain the respect, but remember that all your dead relatives and friends were buried wearing a suit.
Independent_Shoe3523@reddit
Even in the early 90s, some places had their computer guys in white jackets.
BobBelcher2021@reddit
That show ran for 20 years and Stuart Chiefet was in every episode. You can see how his wardrobe evolves over the years from the suit and tie in the 80s to more casual business wear in the early 90s, to a golf/polo shirt by the late 90s.
Independent_Shoe3523@reddit
Gary Kildall, so probably DR-DOS
LeChiffreOBrien@reddit
lol right? Not a huge amount of time between this suit and tie era and the John Romero era.
Savings_Art5944@reddit
TIL that the BIOS is his invention as well.
Independent_Shoe3523@reddit
I'm sure there were decent color monitors back then. Kind of dopey having a color TV.
astrohound@reddit
Actually, this is a bit of technical issue. Logic from modern point of view doesn't work for it. :)
CGA (a less powerful predecessor to VGA) had two outputs: composite and RGB.
RGB was used to connect to monitors of the time, but was limited to palette of 4 colors.
Composite was used to connect to color TVs and NTSC artifacting (color bleeding) could be used to implement more than 4 colors (like in this particual video).
weirdal1968@reddit
Also important is genlock. In order to see a 60hz NTSC CRT on a 60hz NTSC camera properly you need to sync everything to a reference source or you'll see banding artifacts.
https://www.reddit.com/r/broadcastengineering/s/Vh2mEBYYTj
pm_me_bra_pix@reddit
I was wondering why they brought out the ol’ 19” from the gameroom for that. Like if dad wouldn’t buy a “real” monitor because it’s the “same thing” as the TV that’s already in there.
Savings_Art5944@reddit
I had that on 5" floppies. It sparked my curiosity as a child on how you could encode the surface of the planet and fit it onto a floppy. Databases, arrays, compression, all interests later in life that had nothing to do with flying.
FS was fun. I ran it on a the family's first computer, a 386 and it had a much smoother framerate.
Savings_Art5944@reddit
MS FS 3.0
2 5.25 floppies. One was the program and the other the scenery.
I always wanted the expansion packs but never got around to it.
RolandMT32@reddit
5.25"? I don't think there were any 5" floppies.
I think a lot of the scenery was auto generated. You had to buy expansions to get the actual scenery for various places.
octahexxer@reddit
The tvshow is on youtube its such a goldmine.
lplade@reddit
It's astonishing to consider that the GPU in my phone (let alone my home PC!) completely crushes the performance of a 1982 milspec aviation trainer supercomputing cluster.
Admirable-Fail1250@reddit
i absolutely love watching this show. seeing the advancements each year is so fun. great historical material.
Terrible-Bear3883@reddit
The only difference between then and now is I crashed my plane in my brothers back garden on the new sim :-)
I had a neighbor who spent thousands to keep up to date with the FS evolution, force joysticks, pedals etc. he gave me one of his MS force joysticks when he upgraded, anything that looked like it could up his frame rate and he'd buy it.