Absolutely. I was born in 1996 but got into retro games in 2007 thanks to AVGN, after which retro computers came shortly after. I learned how to program in BASIC during covid and made a text adventure RPG that I then translated into Python to learn that language.

I still think BASIC is a great programming language to learn for a beginner. It gives you the blocks of what you'll need to tackle a modern language rather than being overwhelmed.

Older young person here, I very much enjoyed the vintage computer festival I recently attended. Definitely worth a visit if you can make it.

With that said I have mostly modern technology, except some audio stuff. I was impressed by the Atari and C64 exhibits at the VCF and might get into the “new” C64 stuff when they come out

I think there is a good number of people who are interested, it's just harder to get involved in it as a hobby without having time/money to throw around.

Also this is my first post on Lemmy, so I'm sorry if this is out of place here.

Nope you're good, and welcome 😀

I don't know how young being born in 1996 is, but I definitely got into retro computing when I was in High School. Between watching JonTron, LGR, and a field trip to a retro computer museum with working computers, I fell in love. I ran DOSbox on my school laptop and FreeDOS off of a USB stick. My senior year, mostly playing solitare on Windows 3.1 through DOSBox on my windows 7 school laptop in class.

In terms of physical hardware, I have a Win98/XP KVM setup with a Trinitron monitor, which I love immensely, especially getting to using 3 1/2 floppy disks. Before I found out about KDE Plasma, I loved to do everything through the retro computers more than the modern ones.

Also check out protoweb. It brings the late 90s internet back to life on real hardware.

Although I have never used a commodore 64, now you got me wanting to buy one. I just need to find a way to fit it in with what I have.

1990, so not really 'young' anymore, but we're compatriots in thinking computers older than us are cool. By the first time I touched a computer, the machines I like to tinker with now were very obsolete.

That first computer I touched, by the way? It was a 70s model Apple II.

I was born After 2000s and yeah I love Retro Computing! Before I really got into the Looks and aesthetics of Retro Computers Like the Commodore PET, so when I saw one in an Auction for surprisingly Little Money I took a Bid on it, thinking I'd get outbid anyway... I didn't!

Once I had this Massive Historic Machine in front of me, my Passion was set in stone. I got into History Videos and Technical Analysis of Old Hardware and got a Small Collection together!

Due to Budgetary issues as of recent I've had to Cool on this Hobby of mine tho. Hope I get to expand my Collection with an Amiga or any of the Atari Systems later this year hopefully!

Born in 89, so "old" compared to you, but I really want to get into Amigas. They're slightly older than myself, but they were never sold in Brazil, not even as contraband.

I would try to get into PC-88/98 and Sharp X68000, but I can't overcome the language barrier yet

No worries, I don't think this is out of place. Funnily enough, I think this marks my first Lemmy comment lol.

I was born in the early 00s and I love retro computers. To be more specific:
* The practicality, or whether or not they can still be used today, e.g. permacomputing
* The art aspect, or how they're relatively simple and transparent
* The challenge of squeezing an impressive program into constrained hardware, e.g. demoscene

The oldest computer I have as of writing is a Fujitsu-Siemens K Amilo 7600 from 2004. The laptop's GPU lacks 3D acceleration via modern Linux/BSDs and struggles with period-accurate games, so I prefer to use it for studying and maybe a bit of ClassiCube and Quake 3. Most of my exposure to retro computers otherwise is via emulators like 86Box, MAME, and VICE.