Spinning Discs with VGA256

Mages & Modems is a memoir by writer-podcaster-developer vga256, and one I enjoyed very much. As soon as I began reading it, I could tell that the author and I had come from similar places, in spirit if not geography. I could relate to so much of what I read in his stories. He and I were among the young people watching the PC industry explode—from a distance, but still swept along by the promises it offered, and longing for what came next. In the book, vga conveys that feeling in a deeply personal, funny, and often bittersweet way, drawing thoughtful connections between the computers he used in his youth and the people who influenced him as he grew. I was one of the kids who, by way of Something Dad Brought Home From Work, first got my hands on a personal computer keyboard around age seven or eight. I had no idea back then what a marker of middle-class privilege that machine—a discontinued TI-99/4A older than I was—would reveal itself to be. But 10 PRINT “BRENDAN IS COOL” 20 GOTO 10…