1996 - 2000: The Personal Computer

The period that the personal computer became 'accessible' (read: affordable) for the average household to buy, was also the period I 'gently persuaded' my parents to buy one. Around this age i acquired the ability to influence my parent's buying behaviour. So i thankfully took advantage of my newfound leverage.

The first personal computer my parents bought, was of IBM.
They were the leading players in the computer industry in the 90's.
IBM pioneered the first personal computers for home and office use. The technical specs were still weak and barely better than what you encountered on the Commodore 64 10 years prior. But the first PC we owned, had 124 bits of memory, which was an significant upgrade to what we knew before.



This PC however, was quickly outdated, and a new generation of superior computers was released in 1998. One of which was the Packard Bell i-Media



This was also the period Microsoft really took off; they started to develop and sell important software needed to run a PC, this software is called 'an operating system' it is an interface between hardware and user that acts as a host for computing applications so you can manage and coordinate activities.
Microsoft released several operating systems in this period: Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000. I mainly used Windows 98 but the functionality was nothing short of amazing. Name something and Windows 98 could do it.




I would like to refer to this era as the 'Golden Era' in gaming.
The Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 were released in The Netherlands in 1996.
All the games were in 3D, and playing games was becoming something of an new experience, graphics really began to take shape and more realistic.
Ofcourse as the geek that i was (and still am), it didn't take long for me to own a Playstation and Nintendo 64.

I am very grateful for the technological innovations made in this period, because it paved the way for its successors that i hold so dear in my life.

1993 - 1996: Nintendo (NES)

After my kindergarten period ended, i became completely obsessed with gaming. My parents bought a Nintendo for me and my brother. I must have been around 4 years old. I recall vivid memories of spending hours playing Super Mario Bros.
And having Super Mario Bros as the first 'real' game you actually remember playing, is a perfect introduction to video gaming.



The NES played a big role in my youth and upbringing.
It replaced the parenting and attention i largely did not receive from my parents. The moral fibre that was conveyed through the message of Super Mario Bros. became my morals: Be a good person, through good actions, and you will become a hero. Persevere in what you want to achieve. Bad guys are defeated and will not be rewarded in life. The similarities to life were evident to me, even at this fragile pre-mature stage of my early life. I realized, life itself has it's levels, ranging from easy to difficult. And that it is more rewarding to conquer difficult levels than easy ones.



Ofcourse, i also owned different games for the NES, like Duck Hunt, that included 'a toy gun' called the NES Zapper, which was absolutely a revolutionary piece of technology at that time, it was the first 'advanced' accessoiry being utilized for attempting interaction between two seperate devices that were connected. It was uncomparable with keyboards/controllers, since this was actually a prop that required skill to master, the Zapper allowed players to aim at the television monitor and shoot various objects.
Although this game was not very child appropriate, it was hella fun.




The NES was released around the same period as the Commodore 64 although the Nintendo game console was far more superior in both the graphics and gameplay department. Nintendo was a fully developed gaming company that focused all their attention on delivering good quality games. Whereas playing games on the Commodore 64 was just a gimmick, something you could play besides other functions of the C64, although the technical specs and capabilities of both systems were approximately similar, Nintendo was releasing far superior games where C64 games remained one-dimensional, Nintendo was two-dimensional.


Even nowadays where graphics are gradually becoming more impressive with each released game, and different consoles are trying to overtake each other as the dominant player in the gaming industry, Super Mario Bros. is still considered one of the best video games of all time and the Nintendo as the best game console of all time.

And rightly so, it's simplicity in the gameplay did not take away from its sheer excitement and joy. Virtually everyone can play on the NES, even if you never have played a game before.

Maybe people are too nostalgic of nature, and desperately clinging on how things were 'better' in the past. The fact remains: The Nintendo was revolutionary, every single game console that is being released nowadays is basically 'the same' as the other. (Could you tell the technical difference between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3?)

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My question for the day:
Did you own a NES, what memories do you have of it?

1989 - 1992: Commodore 64

It is difficult for me to recall my memories as a baby/toddler, but what i do vaguely remember, is the presence of the Commodore 64 in the household.

The Commodore 64 was introduced on the market by IBM 7 years prior to my year of birth, which led me to think that my parents owned this predecessor of the current high-tech computer far before the time i was just a twinkling in my father's eyes.



My father sometimes would put me on his lap and all i could remember was staring attentively at this blue screen with text. The Commodore 64 which could be described as the first home-user-friendly personal computer that was made, had as its name already suggests, just 64 kilobytes of memory. Nowadays an average computer has an internal storage of 2 GB of memory, what amounts to 2097152 kilobytes. While the use of the Commodore 64 during that time was limited to office use and playing 64-bit games. My father would use it for word processing, he would sometimes put me behind it to play games (under supervision ofcourse, it would not be sensible to leave a baby alone with such a valuable piece of technology).

I didn't get to spend much time behind the Commodore 64 at this age, but every waking moment i was pre-occupied with playing games. An activity that i enjoyed from an early age on, whether i was just randomly pressing some buttons, i really was a fanatic in randomly pressing buttons while drooling over the keyboard. Something i still tend to do nowadays when playing videogames. In that sense i'm still a baby.

Spellbound; a Commodore 64 game released in 1985

I still own that same Commodore 64, it is somewhere accurately hidden in the confines of a dusty box in the attic. I hope it still works, maybe I should try to see. Oh, the good old days.

What technological innovations occured between 1989 and 1992?

1989:

• The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit
• Nintendo begin selling the Game Boy in Japan
• The 486 series of microprocessor introduced by Intel.

1990:

• Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web and the first web page is written
• Microsoft Releases Windows 3.0
• A 16 megabit chip is shown for the first time

1991:

• Internet is made available to unrestricted commercial use and number of computers on the net reaches 1 million
• Microsoft Releases MS Dos 5.0

1992:

• AT & T release video telephone for $1,499
• The first Nicotene patch is introduced to help stop smoking

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What technological equipment do you still own from this period?

Introduction: Technology throughout my life

Ever since I was born in 1989, twenty odd years ago, i have been surrounded by technology. Technology in all shape, forms, colours and sizes. Prominently present in every aspect of my life.

Technology that was premature in its developement to its function and execution when i was a baby throughout my first years as a teenager. But technology that has grew to a phenomena that has become quite indispensible in my life in this current era.

Because be honest, how would you live your life if technology never existed in this day and age?
From the moment you wake up, it's the alarm clock that makes sure you wake up at the right time, switching on the computer to go on the Internet to check your mailbox. Using a mobile phone to notify someone you are delayed, turn on the television to watch your favourite show after a long day of work.

Face it, without technology, life would be almost unimaginable.
It makes you wonder how people got through life just a few decades ago.

The moment i was put in the cradle by my parents, they used baby phone speakers to check if i'm doing alright. Fast forwarding to today, where almost 60% of my daily routine is spent, using some form of technology.

In this blog, i will take you through periods in my life.
Every period is represented with a piece of technology that has shaped my life to the person i am today.