A couple of lines from the article:
THEYRE HOVERING AROUND the Commodore 64, the Atari 2600, the Amiga, and the Apple II: the vintage machines from the 1970s and 1980s that, in their minds, arent just sources of nostalgia but platforms for exciting and new software. They are retro coders, writing fresh programs for old hardware.
Though some of these programmers sell their work, its primarily a labor of love-and logic. They do this to prove their worth as programmers,says John Hardie, director of the Classic Gaming Expo.Its incredibly hard to write for these systems because of their limitations, their lack of space. When youre working with 4 kilobytes of RAM, its the ultimate challenge.
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The important thing back then was that because the computers didnt have fancy graphics, the programmers had to make them fun to play,says Albert Yarusso, editor of Atari Age, an online magazine for fans of the early Atari systems.Thats why theyre still fun today.`
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The simplicity of the Atari 2600s programming environment makes it highly accessible when compared to todays elaborate, and expensive, console systems. The 2600 has barely any display hardware, Mika says. You have to time triggers to turn the pixels on and off as the raster beam in the television sweeps across the screen. You have to create elaborate timing tables just to get an ounce of decent resolution. Also, you can download an emulator, assembler, and debugger for free from the Internet and just make a game. The soul of an old machine comes from a sense of both nostalgia and surprise. It is like going back in time, he says. You discover something new every time you work with it.
I know, geeky ;0)