Interesting. I read this in The Record yesterday. I like the idea for the kids. It will get them doing things that kids today don't understand. (though my son can easily disconnect himself, not the same with my daughter)
Is it me, or does that dude seem to look a lot older than 26? (in the paper article, they chose that 1986 date as it was both the year of their birth)
Does this dude not realize they had laser discs and compact discs back in 1986? So why is he going to 1983 technology? Not even sure if you could still buy floor TV's back in 1986. And why rotary phones? That's like 1970's technology. I remember when touch tone become the norm around here, 1976. That's 10 years before he was born? Perhaps his parents were Ludites?
I only ask because it seems that his experiment is really all pre-1986. We had an answering machine in 1986.
Anyway...as I said, I like his experiment, but he should stick to 1986 technology, so get a CD player and toss the cassette. Get a touch tone phone. And pick up a Commodore 64 and a Nintendo. If we're doing a 1986, at least make it a little more legit.
Actually Atari had its own version of the internet back then, a huge BBS where you could communicate and share code on 300 baud and that I believe was in the early 80's. Delphi was pretty big around then too.
The problem is that many of the services around in 1986 (BBS or CompuServe or whatever) isn't around anymore. As such, I think it would be permissible to connect to the Internet as a replacement so long as the technology used on the consumer side was all 1986 technology.
Of course, this means you're limited to v.32 (9600), because V.32bis (14.4) was only standardized in 1991. But that should still work with a modern dialup Internet provider. Still, there are lots of projects out there that can get 80s-era equipment usefully using the Internet. I'm going to suggest that modern software on the 80s-era hardware is OK as it's a workaround for 80s services that don't exist.
The NES game selection by the end of 1986 would be somewhat limited. You'd get Zelda and Dragon Warrior, for example, but not Final Fantasy.
i heard him call into a radio talk show, any one have a picture of the guy with a mullet? no not a digital picture attachment cus thats not allowed, more like anyone got a poloroid of him? i wanna see his kentucky waterfall mullet
There were no web browsers back then, but since I'm saying you can use the internet and a browser that would run on 1986 hardware to compensate for 1986 services that no longer exist (like CompuServe), it'd be allowable under my imaginary rules :P
Keep in mind that the sort of web browser you'll get running on a machine from the mid 80s isn't going to be very advanced. You'd be unfortunately just three months too early to use a Mac SE, so you'd be stuck with a Mac Plus (if you want to get as modern as possible with what was available in 1986). Still, the Mac Plus supported up to 4MB of RAM and could run Mac OS 7.5.5, although it would probably run terribly slow. A 1986 software limit puts you on System 3.2...
There are web browsers available for any platform you can imagine. Commodore 64? Yep. Apple II? Sure. IBM PC? Of course. But they will be very limited. Limit image support (if at all), for example.
I used a Compaq Deskpro as my PC in 1986 running some version of DOS (3.1?) and Crosstalk VI as a terminal program. The modem was a genuine Hayes Smartmodem 1200. I was never on Compuserve or Datapac or anything like that, just a few local BBS's run by friends of mine.
Touch tone phones were definitely around as we're cordless phones. Cellular phone service was just starting up in our area and the cutting edge device was a car-mounted phone at a cost of around 2 grand. Our main tv was a $1200 28" RCA my family had just picked up to replace an older 19". Also got my first Sony Walkman.
If we wanted news we either watched the tv, listened to the radio or read the newspaper.
Hah I remember using Datapac thru Calgary Vax on an IBM clone with just black screen monochrome displaying lime text and a telephone coupler to dial in a ridiculously long number to get connected. I think I paid like $99 for a block of 500MB worth of data, and just had to top that up once it was depleted, we ordered and paid for those through the mail via money order heh. I was living in Nova Scotia in those days.
Well at least there's still computers. I had an Atari 800 XL in 1986 and an active subscription to Compute! magazine...
I predate you.... In 1982 I was typing in Apple computers in my science class and programming a robot using coordinates with the same PC. Awww I remember all those green characters and the 5.2 floppy disks.
Want to impress me, go a single month with NO electricity in your home of any sort other than heat, light, fridge and stove and a rotary phone. Nothing at all other than those that use any form of electricity portable or otherwise.
Books for instance. Theatres if you want to watch a film. Live entertainment if you want music. Manual typewriters (I remember using one).
Playing outside, bicycles and trucks and dolls and climbing trees and playing in fields and streams. Fresh air and exercise.
1986 is not the key, it is the exclusion of doodads and devices and electronics of any sort that makes the difference.
I don't require a person to forsake modern lighting and heating, and I don't think there is a reason for avoiding using a car. But we likely have too many doodads in our day. I know I sure do.
The NES game selection by the end of 1986 would be somewhat limited. You'd get Zelda and Dragon Warrior, for example, but not Final Fantasy.
Break out the Atari!!! You'd have a plethora of games available, such as Dolphin, Combat, Baseball, River Raid, and my personal favourite, Megamania!!
You could choose colour or B&W....my first tv, I feel spoiled as an only child, but it was my parents old hand me down 19" RCA black n white....my parents had upgraded to a I believe 19 or 20" colour TV...this was in 1986 in fact lol, I used to try and stay awake and watch Johnny Carson late at night with the volume low, I think I only ever got to watch it once, otherwise, used to play Atari ....had the TV until I think 1990...my parents upgraded to a beautiful 27" Toshiba with 3 Video inputs, and S-Video!!...I think it set them back more than $1200 dollars at the time...TV was good until about 2005 when I had it when one day....it'd turn on, but there was no picture...and no sound....so it went to the scrap heap unfortunately...but it was a great tv.
In terms of 1980s tech, you'd be stuck I believe in the 386 days?....I don't believe 486's were commercially available....or practical for that matter...I think that's why he's sticking with cassettes, while CDs were available in 1986....none of my friends had CDs or a CD player until the 90s at the earliest as I recall, we all had walkmans because CD players were about $800 bucks...