Reviewing old computers magazines of yore is a pastime most often associated to retrocomputing enthusiasts. It is part of that feeling of bliss that comes with the realization that there used to be a different world, when software was simpler, when corporations did not have that much power, and when programming languages were more approachable; in short, a more innocent time.
Old computer magazines, many of which are available for free on websites such as the Internet Archive, have various uses these days. Some video content producers use those PDF files to compare prices of old equipment; this is the case of “This Does Not Compute”, a favorite YouTube channel of mine, where the author repairs old hardware, trying to make it work again. Reviewing the cost of old hardware, particularly when taking into account inflation rates, can quickly show how expensive computers used to be forty or even thirty years ago.
For others, the exploration of old computer magazines brings the possibility of running old software. Many computer magazines, and not only the programming kind, used to bundle reams of source code listings across their pages, and many an enthusiast would painstakingly type those code bits by hand, in order to have a new utility, to learn a new programming language, or to enjoy a new game.
This is the case of today’s Vidéothèque video: “Remember typing code from old gaming magazines?”, by the Retro Gaming Museum channel from Iceland.
The description of the channel states its purpose:
The Retro Gaming Museum is going to be a small museum located in Iceland, and it’s the first of its kind here. It is going to include everything related to computer gaming from the start of the gaming industry to current date. The idea is that people can visit and have a hands-on experience with different consoles and machines at the museum.
Sadly, however, the last video on the channel is dated March 2020, and the “retrogamingmuseum.com” domain does not appear to be active. You know that we love computer museums, and we find it terribly sad to learn that this one in particular might not be active anymore.
Despite this news, we particularly enjoyed this month’s Vidéothèque video, which reviews the August 1989 edition of the Amstrad Computer User Magazine, also known as “ACU”, and featuring content related to the Amstrad CPC 8-bit personal computer of the 1980s. For the curious among you, many issues of this magazine are available on the Internet Archive, including the very edition reviewed on this video.
The core question asked by the author of the video is “are these codes any good”? The author literally types a few code snippets on a computer; or is it on the WinAPE or the CrocoDS emulator? We will never know, and it most probably does not matter at all.
The interesting part in all this is the work required to get from A to Z; copying those bits and pieces of code, in particular the last one shown starting minute 3:52, where he tries to enter a rather long game, involving quite a bit of seemingly random numeric data to represent sprites on screen.
In the words of the author,
Typing in this game took a very long time, but it was an interesting process. And somehow, in the middle of coding this, I was actually beginning to understand the logic behind it. I also understood that in the last section of the code where I just typed in some random numbers and characters that I was actually typing in the graphics of the game. So now I was pretty curious what the game would actually look like.
Older generations, thanks to the requirement of actually having to type the code of a game or a utility from the printed page into the computer, performed a (nowadays) rare feat: as the information flowed from the eyes of the programmer, towards their fingers, the code would imprint itself into the memory of the programmer, and as such, it would generate a blueprint which would, in time, yield more creativity and more knowledge.
Repeat this process once and again, and what happened during the 20 years between 1975 and 1995 was an outstanding thing: generations of programmers learning, page after page, how to create software, and getting that information solidly stored in their brains.
In the age of LLMs and copy-paste, we can only imagine what those mechanisms looked like–or watch videos like this. Of course, there was a lot of GOTO statements on the mix, and Dijkstra might have objected to their existence, but hey! I still believe it was a good exercise for our neurons, and a whole generation of programmers followed this path.
But such times are no more, and we still ask ourselves how to best teach programming to younger generations.
Today’s Vidéothèque video is titled “Remember typing code from old gaming magazines?” and it is available on YouTube for your watching pleasure.
Cover snapshot from the video chosen by the author.