• 🅿🅸🆇🅴🅻@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The sound of a Pentium computer booting up.

    Learning DOS commands from an actual book I borrowed from a neighbor.

    The first days of learning programming.

    The sound of a dial-up modem while falling asleep on my desk waiting for a connection at a high usage hour (11 PM) when everybody was trying to get in on a lower tariff.

    Downloading code for 3D demos - they were called “4k intros” (the challenge was to make the most complex graphics in only 4 KB), and changing equation parameters without any clue of what they do, compile and see the effect. That’s how I learned. Good days.

    Prehistorik 2 with a “latest generation sound card” Creative Sound Blaster on cheap speakers.

    Coding in Pascal (and later Delphi) my own tools / projects while listening to 80’s music in Winamp.

    Being patient to download an mp3 in multiple sessions during 3 days, only to realize it’s a different song with the same name but by another singer.

    Ripping CDs and cataloging your collection in Where Is It?

    Hearing “who is the fox?” in an internet cafe room while playing Carmageddon.

    Magazines with demo CDs, like PC Gamer.

    The AltaVista search engine.

    Parties where 5 people had to bring their 1GB HDDs so there would be enough music diversity. Of course, using Winamp visualizations as disco lights.