The 8-Bit Way is the name of a book I am currently finishing. It’s a book of stories perhaps every other boy lived in the 1980’s and 1990’s, only names of the particular people, games and computers differed. A book on growing up with an 8-bit computer.
Games you had in your mind the whole day at school and didn’t find peace until you played them in the afternoon again (and then had a dream of them at night). Moments when the story, an impressive monster or music made you shiver – or burst out laughing. Trying to cover your monitor so that it couldn’t be seen from the outside that there was a mischief going on past your bedtime. Contacts with other enthusiasts first at school, then through magazine adds and finally via the Net. First steps in Basic and then in the machine language, own projects big and small. The decision whether to keep the computer or make it just an unforgettable past. And finally a great reason to meet long-time friends.
Fortunately, to me 8-bit computers haven’t been only beloved toys. They gave me friends across three continents. I visited 8-bit cons and in the end I became an MC and an organizer of two of them. Actually, I even wrote and delivered my first love poem on an 8-bit computer! All that and much more you will find in the book, too.
The 8-Bit Way is scheduled for publishing in February, 2013 as an e-book. It will be available at Amazon, iTunes Store and perhaps some other major distributors. The safest way of not missing it, however, is sending an e-mail subjected “8” to 8@wotnau.com and you’ll be notified when the book is out. (You can leave the body of the e-mail empty, or you can share your ideas of what you think shouldn’t miss in the book.) Other options are following me on Twitter or checking for updates of this very page (http://www.wotnau.com/the-8-bit-way/), e.g. for a sample chapter which I am going to post soon.
5 November, 2012 – Launch of The 8-Bit Way’s page.