Old things

Edit: Fixed the title of one of the tv-shows.

I like old things.

Old things are cool. But thinking about old things can make one feel old. Because when I was young, those old things were not old. They were (mostly) new or at least not as old as they are now.

I enjoy those old things that used to be new things when I was young. For example, I like to play around with old computers. I used to say that I play with retro computers, but then I read somewhere that they are not retro computers if they are actually the original old computers. Not sure what one should call them then though. Vintage? Or is that just a fancy way of saying old? If so then I am a vintage human. Though I suppose I am not that old yet, just barely past 50. When I was young, 50 was ancient though.

Anyway, so these old computers are not retro. Retro is something that is like something old, but not (necessarily) actually old. Although I suppose there is no rule to say that a retro thing couldn't also be old thing in its own right. Anyway... So these remakes like TheC64 and TheVIC20 and TheA500 are retro. Likewise if I would create for example a game that looks and plays like the old 80s computer games, that would be considered retro. But the actual old game is just old, not retro. There are other people who disagree with this, though, and to these other people using old computers is retrocomputing and playing old games is retrogaming. So I guess the question of what is or is not retro, is something about which many people could spend a lot of time arguing, while others might just agree to disagree with each other.

Another example of old things I like is old TV shows. Shows like Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica (the original one, though I think by now some might already consider the remake old too), Knight Rider, Star Trek. For me the old Star Trek includes the original series, the Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager in the context of this post - I do not include Enterprise, partly because I didn't watch it when it was new, and partly because it just doesn't feel old enough to me. One could also argue against including DS9 and Voyager because I wasn't strictly speaking a kid anymore when those were out, but it's my list and I reserve the right to be inconsistent in what is included if I feel like it. Other shows inclde Monthy Python, The Saint, The Persuaders!, Streethawk. Also mustn't forget the animated series called Once upon a time .. man, space, life, those three shows I really enjoyed as a kid.

I am not listing A-team, which is a classic many would bring up, because I never saw it when I was a kid. Which seems to be perhaps somewhat unusual. The Prisoner is another one I saw too late, and just wasn't interested. I did like Sapphire and Steele though, but recently realised I probably saw less of it than my memory suggests, and can really only remember one episode as well.

Space 1999 I can hardly remember. (Evidently so, I couldn't even remember the correct title. In my defence, the title in Finnish was Avaruusasema Alfa, which translates to Space Station Alpha.) Another one I did enjoy was Alias Smith and Jones, though again can remember very little about it. Another that left a lasting impression was Happy Days. And for a while on Sundays I remember watching a show which I recently found out was called Nobody's House. Again memories are vague, more like a feeling of a moment when I was watching the show rather than actually remembering much of anything of the show itself.

I think this topic deserves some follow up posts, but for now this will do. After all, it's been a while since I posted anything.