93-272

reel #93
aspen, colorado, 1977

dewolf home - meeting of aspen computer society
gathered around a homemade computer in nick's mad lab

set includes photographs of events, activities and sights in and around aspen, colorado; including skiing at buttermilk, the wintersköl festival, the pointer sisters and the dirt band in concert, and aerial shots of aspen and the roaring fork valley. part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    BlazerMan, Sibad, gregoreverb, ellynkocher, and 25 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. BlazerMan (69 months ago | reply)

    This photo really gets to me. There is such an intense amount of concentration. In 1977 I would have been about the same age as these kids. I never found such an opportunity to touch and interact with a computer until they came out in the Radio Shack stores. Even then, I was often quickly shooed away by a paranoid salesperson. I find it hard to relate to kids today how rare and unusual computers were in those days.

  3. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (69 months ago | reply)

    tiny, monochromatic monitor, 2D "graphics", no mouse, no sound, no disc drive...
    and still, back in '77, i'll bet this was the fastest machine on the block...

  4. stovak (68 months ago | reply)

    i'm a geek. I would have been concentrating equally if not more :-)

  5. Sibad (68 months ago | reply)

    Roll forward 30 years and compare with our kitchen in Birmingham UK on a Saturday evening www.flickr.com/photos/sibadd/357163290/
    Sunday evening in 2007

  6. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (68 months ago | reply)

    excellent contrast, sibad.

    the 30-year evolution of a "social" experience...from a group of excited children interacting with one another and engaging a single primitive computer, to, well, something completely different...

  7. ellynkocher (63 months ago | reply)

    what a timewarp photo! i was about the same age as these kids in the 1977 photo but i didn't have access to a computer until probably 1982, and then it was only in my school lab. unless of course you count atari....

    and check out that towhead in the back with the shirley jones hair!!

  8. Ivan_DeWolf (56 months ago | reply)

    I believe it was a kit computer from a denver company, if I recall correctly they were called "digital group". I soldered the memory boards.

  9. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (56 months ago | reply)

    thanks for the background info, ivan!

  10. Ivan_DeWolf (56 months ago | reply)

    also, I'm pretty certain that the standing kid with the striped sweater is Juan Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson's son...

  11. d_wangateur (52 months ago | reply)

    Oh yes that is Juan and Me too
    Brad

  12. d_wangateur (52 months ago | reply)

    Z80 S100 digital group Nova with a huge 16 Kilo bytes of ram and a 24 X 64 character screen a tape deck for loading prorgamms
    don't for get the Quartz window on the Z80...
    Brad

  13. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (52 months ago | reply)

    thanks for the comments and additional info, brad...

  14. d_wangateur (52 months ago | reply)

    My mom wants copies of these shots what do I need to do???
    Brad

  15. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (52 months ago | reply)

    i have added you as a friend/contact, brad, which will allow you to download nick's photos.

    click on "all sizes" up above, and you should be able to download the largest version of this image. let me know if you need any help with this...

  16. Photomage (49 months ago | reply)

    Great photo!

    My first computer was a Z80 based Sinclair ZX Spectrum. These were first produced in 1982, but took me about a year to talk my parents in to buying me one!

  17. Nick DeWolf Photo Archive (49 months ago | reply)

    thanks, Photomage...
    this set of photos brings back good memories for a lot of us...

  18. Le Bernard (38 months ago | reply)

    fine hair cut! :-)

  19. Ivan_DeWolf (31 months ago | reply)

    I believe %100 of the kids in this photo have made their living off of computers....

  20. Chris Maytag (31 months ago | reply)

    I love this photo. Takes me back!

    Right around this point in time, I was learning basic programming concepts by modifying BASIC apps on a Commodore PET located in a broom closet at my school in Santa Barbara. I was one of about three people who ever even touched the thing.

  21. TJ Simpkins (30 months ago | reply)

    I am one of them who has made a living with computers, building flight simulators...
    TJ Simpkins

  22. Chris Bloom (26 months ago | reply)

    Fascinating, both Nick's and Sibad's photos

  23. This photo was invited and added to the Computer Engineering group.

  24. LeeZer_UK (16 months ago | reply)

    Awesome pic. I love thinking about the evolution of computer groups. I was born in 84 in birmingham UK. I unfortunately missed the birth of the home computer. My first was a spectrum closely followed by a bbc, that'd have been around 88. i soon went to 286's and 386 dx 266's. in the 90's i went regular to computer meets and fairs. buying and selling gear. 2000 hit and i was in london studying computer science. I continued to goto computer meets and fairs upto about 2003. I went to Lan parties for a few more years. Move to current times and i don't go anywhere to meet other computer geeks really. I've got a few mates locally but the community is much more online :-(. I sit in my living room with i7's in both mac and pc variety. I learn loads online and work but it's not the same as trying to fix a server thats blown in a lan. or marvelling at some technical marvel at a fair. thank you for the pictures they're great

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