I got my first computer in 1999. It was a Pentium 133 mHz, with, if I remember correctly, 32 MB RAM and around 800 MB hard drive. It was running Windows 98 and there was a wallpaper of a black Mercedes-Benz. My parents bought the PC from a family friend who spent the madness of the 90s with his son in Switzerland. I was blown away when I saw it in my room for the first time. The PC even had a TV card with a remote, so I also could watch TV, all in one device.
Soon after I discovered that I could hook up the VCR to the video input on the TV card, so I could watch VHS tapes on my computer. Man I felt like Richie Rich. I was also the first one to have a PC in my school. Being an only child, and considering that my parents were working full time, I spent a lot of time on the computer. I had a few games: SimCity 2000, SimCopter, Microsoft Monster Truck Madness, Grand Prix 2, and my favourite, Q-Rac Rally, which had an excellent soundtrack. You could even pop the CD into an Audio CD player and listen to the songs. How cool is that?
But the most fascinating CDs that I had were Encarta Encyclopedia and Encarta Atlas 96. I spent so much time exploring it, especially the Atlas. There was just so much information, music, pictures. It looked so very serious but still approachable for a child. The design of the UI was just so intuitive. The cover art was so warm. There is a name for this aesthetic, it’s called “Utopian Scholastic.” It really represented the optimism of the pre-9/11 world.
So why am I suddenly interested in this theme?
As a father of a 2 month old girl, I am very much against giving her a tablet later like so many parents do today. They hook their kids immediately on stupid YouTube videos. You know the ones, where a fat man in a Spiderman suit is fighting Captain America or whatever.
There are also countless studies of the negative impacts a tablet can cause to a child's development. A tablet, with its closed and simplified system, discourages tinkering and prevents kids from developing a real understanding of how computers work. This is evident in much of Gen Z, who grew up with touchscreens and are often just as computer-illiterate as the boomers, despite being surrounded by technology. I also believe that it is very important that a PC has a fixed place, so when you get up from your chair, you disconnect. It's a clear boundary. It's also ergonomically important to sit in a proper chair and look straight ahead, compared to slouching on a couch while looking down at a tablet. (Truth be told, we also spent our early years slouched in front of a Game Boy, and I don't know anyone who suffered any real harm from it.)
So it is decided, she will get a PC when she is a bit older. But it won't be connected to the internet. That’s why I wanted to check out if there is any comparable offline-only software like Encarta or the Magic School Bus today, and I must say that surprisingly there isn't. This whole edutainment CD-ROM industry collapsed and faded away with more accessible internet. Essentially it moved to the web, but with horrible illustrations, advertisements, and content locked behind a paywall.
Considering all this, the PC doesn’t have to be new. It basically has to run 30-year-old software. So why not a 30-year-old computer? The CRT monitor with an aspect ratio of 4:3 is more suited for the software that I look for anyway.
I couldn't find any studies on why 4:3 is better than 16:9, so this is just my personal opinion. But while I use two 16:9 monitors for my daily work, I do think that 4:3 gives you a more narrow and focused view for learning. There is just less space for distractions.
I'm still not sure what to get for her. There are a few suitable candidates but none of them convince me 100%. There is an Apple iMac G3, and there are also a couple of really interesting Sony Vaio all-in-one PCs. The other option would be to get a nice CRT monitor and a retro computer case and run everything on modern hardware with a virtual Win98 machine.
Whatever the case, I want her to learn and explore on a computer as much as possible, without her being tracked, analyzed, shown ads, or being brainwashed with whatever the newest sociological trend is. That is only possible with yesterday's software.
Luckily, most of the stuff is still around on the Internet Archive.