I don't really know anything about how schoolchildren are using computers for fun, when gathering together now a days. I only remember how we did it back then. Back in the day's when only a handfull of people were using computers. A time when the most exciting technology in the home, was turntable's, cd-player and vhs recorder.
At my school, well in every publich school's, there was something called "The youth school". Wich were an offer from the state in wich the older schoolchildren could learn a skill during evening time. Mostly children in 8'th to 10'th grade. One could learn stuff like making photograph's, repairing moped's or learn different computer skills.
I signed up for the computer course. Wich I never ever regretted doing. It was so much fun.
It was around 1990, and all the gamers had Amiga 500's, and the more tech oriented geeks had Pc's.
The day I showed up for the first time, I quickly learned about the Amiga VS. Pc battle that raged on at that time. (some readers might actually remember this)
This "Data-Club" as it was known, held a big event a couple of times each year, wich was known as "Data-Weekend", were we would lay down our arms and gather in a big hall. For a whole weekend.
We would sleep whenever we just fell asleep from exation. We would eat whatever we wanted, and we would play games all weekend long. Not just computer games. Competitions like basketball and stuff like that were held too.
When computers and outdoor activities were not enough, there were an improvised theatere in wich we could watch all the hottest blockbusters. (On VHS of course)
And finally. If we needed something to keep us awake. Then the kitchen was open 24/7 if a fresh cup of coffee was in need. Yeah... It was totally awesomme drinking 5 cup's of black wakeup-juice at 4am in the morning.
Other activities back then, was participating in sensual soccer competitions. Gaming with other people around their's or your computer. Or my favorite... Body crashing. Sounds wierd? Well... Just watch the following little clip, and you will see what I am talking about.
Another nice activity, was disc-throwing, in wich you had to throw a 5'25 inch floppy. It then evolved to 3.5 inch disks, then to floppy drives and I think they use harddrives now.
I have to remind you now, that this was a different time back then. When there were no real copy protection, no drm (thank's for the shit), no police raid's, no extra tax on blank media's (thanks for the shit again) and absolutely NO morale regarding piracy. It was like... Well. To say it bluntly and square. It was a time, much like "the wild west" back then.
We copied everything and anything. Shure we have heard about police raid's in places like England, Germany or any other major city. They were just words for us young punks. We simply did not care, and even the adult's encouraged us to copy all we could. They just yelled "Copy time", and we all knew that every other activites were put on standby for one hour. Mmmm.... Good times, good times. Hehe.
I might get some comments now, regarding lost revenues and lost earnings and stuff like the industry are loosing money. And I must remind you readers, that this was in 1988 to 1992 and well... The industry did survive.
We see new games every day, don't we? Yeah... We were just punks, giving game makers a hard time.
On sunday, the party was over. We packed all our machines. All floppy's were put away and we started to clean. We all went home and slept untill monday. And it all became normal grey every-day again.
The thing I liked most about Demos was that they make your crappy computer look like it's really awesome.
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