On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Andy Sy wrote: > To this day, the magic they were able to do with those 'dinky' > microprocessors blows my mind (remember Choplifter?). You don't > see the same kind of wizardry nowadays. PDAs have far far more > power than an 8-bit 6502 + 64KB RAM + 280x192 display (Apple ][), > but I don't see the same kind of creativity and innovation that > was present in the 'good old days' of 8-bit computing.
I think that part of the reason for this dearth is that PDAs aren't as widely deployed as the classic 8-bits were. This, coupled with the fact that by and large, more PDA owners are consumers/end-users than tinkerers like the 8-bit hobbyists were. There's little incentive for the PDA user to learn to program whereas in the golden age of 8-bits, almost everyone who had one dabbled a bit in programming, be it in BASIC, 6502 Assembly, Forth, what have you. But there are gems out there that demonstrate that kind of wizardry. I remember playing some Doom-like game, a Diablo like game, an F1 racing game, Karateka, and some other really well done games on the PalmOS platform. -- ___ Eric Pareja ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | Information Management Service [IMS] \@/ Network and Systems Administrator | University of the Philippines Manila v "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." -Galadriel _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
