WHY DO THIS?
In my spare time, I head over to Archive.org in search of newsletters from back in the 1980s, when the 8-bit computer ruled, inspiration was gold, and curiosity fueled a thousand dreams.
I have looked at quite a few newsletters by this point. I think only Kay Savetz has looked at more. I kid.
I decided to recreate a few newsletters from one of the user groups from back then, just to see if I could make them easier to read. The goal was not to remake them in the Atari Insights style, but to keep their original form, clean up the text with today’s technology, and perhaps even clean up some of those hand-drawn illustrations.
So far, I have recreated a few newsletters from the ACE of Eugene group, starting with the group’s beginning back in 1980. After finishing them, I found myself excited to read them again. It was fascinating to read about the struggles and excitement of those days, from hardware and code problems to the anticipation of what software or hardware might come next.
WHY DO THIS?
A few years back, I was looking at genealogies. I could usually find when someone was born and when they died, but not much about who they really were. These newsletters give us at least a little bit of that. We get to see what interested them and what they cared enough about to write down.
The digital archives will keep these memories in their raw form, but if no one reads them, then what is the use? I am not trying to replace the originals. The originals are the history. I am only trying to make them easier for us to read, so we can share in that excitement one more time.
Maybe you can sit down with one and enjoy their words again, just like I did.
— John
