Computer Hobby Movement in Canada

mewse-hn

"We will examine this movement by looking at Toronto, the only city in Canada"

Yhippa

I didn't grow up in Canada, but I miss these days where the universe of knowledge about computer tech and hardware wasn't impossibly large. It was possible to meet with people in meatspace and have real discussions with them. It's possible now, but it doesn't have the same vibe.

cf100clunk

Sad that there is no mention or depiction of Canada's own magazine of that era, ''Electron''. It was commonly found alongside the big U.S. electronics periodicals like those shown here. Electron was a mainstay right up to the mid-1970s when it suddenly transitioned to ''Audio Scene Canada'', laden with glossy ads and a tight focus upon HiFi music products but no longer catering to the hobbyist or general electronics fields. I cancelled my subscription.

buescher

I got a VIC-20 when I was about 12? Jim Butterfield loomed impossibly large over all things Commodore at that time. One of the first things I typed in on it was his TINYMON, a <1kbyte “monitor” (for some reason resident debuggers were frequently called monitors in early microcomputing) before I had any idea what it was.

TheCycoONE

Toronto still has a Pet User Group (TPUG) which runs the World of Commodore conference every year. https://www.tpug.ca/ It might be the closest thing remaining; though unfortunately I was too young to participate in the hay-day of computer hobby clubs.

teunispeters

All of this was so very inaccessible from North Western Canada. (mind, still is, but Internet makes vast gulfs of space seem so much smaller) When I could get there, Heathkit (~1200km south) or Radio Shack (wow do I ever miss them carrying electronics!) were go-tos. These days, it's order online or ... nothing, really.