{"product_id":"home-computers-100-icons-that-defined-a-digital-generation-9780262044011","title":"Home Computers: 100 Icons That Defined a Digital Generation","description":"\u003cb\u003eA celebration of the early years of the digital revolution, when computing power was deployed in a beige box on your desk.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eToday, people carry powerful computers in our pockets and call them \"phones.\" A generation ago, people were amazed that the processing power of a mainframe computer could be contained in a beige box on a desk. This book is a celebration of those early home computers, with specially commissioned new photographs of 100 vintage computers and a generous selection of print advertising, product packaging, and instruction manuals. Readers can recapture the glory days of fondly remembered (or happily forgotten) machines including the Commodore 64, TRS-80, Apple Lisa, and Mattel Aquarius--traces of the techno-utopianism of the not-so-distant past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHome Computers\u003c\/i\u003e showcases mass-market success stories, rarities, prototypes, one-offs, and never-before-seen specimens. The heart of the book is a series of artful photographs that capture idiosyncratic details of switches and plugs, early user-interface designs, logos, and labels. After a general scene-setting retrospective, the book proceeds computer by computer, with images of each device accompanied by a short history of the machine, its inventors, its innovations, and its influence. Readers who inhabit today's always-on, networked, inescapably connected world will be charmed by this visit to an era when the digital revolution could be powered down every evening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlex Wiltshire is a writer and consultant for video games, design, and technology. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eMinecraft Blockopedia\u003c\/i\u003e and has written for such publications as \u003ci\u003eRock Paper Shotgun\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePC Gamer\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJohn Short is a photographer based in London. His work appears regularly in \u003ci\u003eWallpaper*\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50671155151122,"sku":"9780262044011","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ea5a3781-79db-4806-830a-712597455632.jpg?v=1733797064","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/home-computers-100-icons-that-defined-a-digital-generation-9780262044011","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}