I was late to start public school (started halfway through 4th grade and a year older than my peers) and had zero idea how to be cool or fit in with the other kids. I was also obsessed with computers but my family was very poor, so the only tech I could get my hands on was already considered totally obsolete. Case in point: my Macintosh Plus (found on the sidewalk) and my IBM PC (purchased for a few dollars from a junk store).
My science project was to determine which computer was “smarter” by having them play chess against each other. One would play white, the other would play black, and I would manually enter each machine’s moves into the other. It was fun to do and the results were very clear-cut: the Mac (running ChessMaster) wiped the floor with the IBM (running Sargon II, I think), winning every match and making its moves considerably faster. Obviously it wasn’t a scientifically-rigorous test (two different chess programs) but it felt very sophisticated to me at the time… and I won the blue ribbon award!
I’ve shared these pics once before and it cracked me up to see a bunch of comments assuming I must’ve been a rich kid to have all this stuff, when in reality everything I owned was considered obsolete and worthless at the time!
I’m happy to say that my love of doing silly things with retro technology never went away, and I kept finding and restoring whatever interesting gadgets I came across. Today my wife and I have turned my collection of vintage computers and classic gaming consoles into a pop-up museum so we can share them with the public. We have a bunch of free events coming up – if you’re anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area, you should come check us out!
by wowbobwow
22 Comments
This is super cool!
I count 7 faces that have no clue what exactly is going on. I think you’re cool tho.
“Showdown in Cyberspace” in that font goes pretty hard for the 5th grade science fair.
I think I did the fizzy baking soda volcano and couldn’t even explain it to the judges 😅
Man, you are cool 👏
Who won?
Making those tri fold posters was always so daunting but it felt SO GOOD when you finally had it done and it looked so professional and cool
Dude, that’s hardcore
https://i.redd.it/ze2ht9c79lkg1.gif
It was never the nerd part that was uncool, it was the being socially inept.
That blue award tag/ribbon… core memory unlocked
I would have been insanely jealous of you.
Point the first: I am super impressed. You presented hard results through a good framework and got a repeatable result. From there comes the boozing and arguing about exactly what you have proved, carousing, and its value.
Point the second: Neeeerrrrrd!
That’s a pricey science project!
Old? ✔️
School? ✔️
Cool? …. ✔️ (pending confirmation from the female delegation).
Are you a wizard?
Id rather game on my PC then go throw a pigskin around like a dork.
this is actually so cool. being ahead of the curve just looks nerdy until everyone else catches up 😭
C y b e r s p a c e
Little bit after that but the nerds in my school helped work on the school’s computers and were the gatekeepers of some that had games on them, so they were liked.
You were just a head of your time.
