Early 80s parts are a bit of a sweet spot combination of low price, enough challenge to be interesting but not so much as to be frustratingly difficult, and an interesting turning point in computing history as the first single-IC CPUs became popular.
Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now. Back then there were many small hardware/software vendors competing and in many cases helping each other advancing. Now, everything is vanilla and controlled by Large Corps.
Me, I miss the days before GUIs, I always thought plain text interfaces were and still are the better in many cases than point/click.
What else could you be into? Computers pre the IBM 360 sucked. Personally I have some nostalgia for the 1970s PDP-11 and PDP-10 but not enough to really put a lot of time into setting up emulators. (The PDP-11 has the awkward bit that it has a 16-bit user address space, running RSTS/E you basically get a BASIC environment (or something like a CP/M environment) which is just slightly better than what you get with a 16-bit micro. I’d used installations where 20 people could enjoy that at once but for an individual hobbyist you might as well use or emulate a micro… But those GiGi terminals beat the pants off the Apple ][ and such)
Mass producing 8-bit micro hardware has tough economics today (can’t beat RasPi) but it is possible to make a computer of that era with mainly or entirely discrete components. (Even a 6502 or display controller!). Forget about making an IBM PC clone or an Amiga. (An FPGA can get there if you have enough $$)
If I wasn’t already overloaded with side projects I’d like to deeply explore the 24-bit world of the eZ80, like the old 360 and a place where micros never really developed a comfortable ecosystem. You could have more memory than the IBM PC that is easier to code for; you could run Linux with X Windows and Win 95 in 16GB of memory back in the day so such a system could kick ass. The AgonLight 2 has a programmable display controller based on the ESP32 and it should be very possible to make a more capable sprite-based graphics system than most contemporary game consoles, maybe even as good as the coin-op systems that supported games like Street Fighter
Not that there isn't opportunities like peak of DOS gaming with Gravis Ultra Sound and some Sound Blaster. Or early 3d gaming.
I don't think future generations are going to be very interested in tinkering with a C64 or an Apple II, but the 6502 will live on for a very long time.
This maverick era produced all kinds of innovation that simply doesn't happen today with one-fits-all computers that are controlled remotely by operating systems and cloud services. Modern machines bear no resemblance to 80's home computers except in their purity as computing machines, Turing machines, with simple I/O and programming.
Once you find out "how it all works" and that all computers are the same, one develops a certain interest in how we got there and perhaps a wistfulness for what things might have become. Home computers of the early 80's is where that answer lies.
But one factor I think not mentioned yet is the film industry: I think (aside from feed-in popularity) the 80s gets outsized attention in TV & film because it's before modern technology was quite so prolific - plot lines that don't work with mobile phones, the web, etc.
And then that feeds people's interest too. Like, you can be born after WarGames or Ferris Bueller's Day Off for example, watch them, and then it's appealing because it's different and interesting, and you want more.
Then there is the practicality. The machines from that era were small. If you get your hands on the actual hardware, you can have it at home, set up in a small nook somewhere. Not so easy with some IBM 709 or something.
The stuff is easy to work on, and many components are still easily available.
Imagine, sales of commodores and consoles achieved millions annually.
What also important, fortunately, 8-bits was good enough and (mostly) enough fun for tech level of that time (VHS, AM radio).
Previous computers was extremely expensive, so limited to military/science or business. Later computers become boring commodity.
Assuming it's true, though, then I would imagine there are several contributing factors:
The 80s is when computing arrived for the masses - and most of those masses were children at the time; the first computer I owned was a ZX81 and I was 9 years old when I got it. That lends it powerful nostalgia value. For later generations computers were likely more part of the background.
That generation of people is also now entering their late 40s or 50s. They probably have some income (especially if they got into IT) and their outgoings are likely tailing off - if they have kids then those kids are leaving the nest or have already. So there's spare cash to spend on all the bits and pieces that they couldn't afford back when they owned them the first time!
It's all far enough in the past that you can see it through rosy spectacles. Ram Pack wobble, slow tape loading, limited memory and primitive graphics all become features instead of limitations.
Then for younger generations who are getting into this the above points mean that there's a background of somewhat knowledgeable people to propagate information about these machines.
Add on top of that the limited nature of the machines meaning that one can have a complete-ish (or illusion of such) understanding of the machines. That's always been appealing.
Personally I find the 1970s minicomputers far more fascinating! But my dad worked with some of those and I adore Unix culture so I'm probably atypical.
I've painted a bit of a skewed picture here, but not by much. You can still collect later computers, and people do, but it's understandable that most people are drawn to the "cambrian explosion" of the whole line of history, no? Variety is the spice of life, and plenty its staple food to be spiced.
In the future I bet we will see a wave of nostalgia around Windows XP (in fact we’re already seeing it)
The 90's was more about software (NT, Linux), and connectivity (dialup Internet goes mainstream, the first home broadband connections, etc.) Hardware felt mostly incremental: faster CPU, more RAM.
Right now there's an extra boost because of the "that's what I used as a kid" factor. In the future the DOS era will still be studied, as that time when collaborative development had not yet been invented.
Personally, I see the most interest in "Windows 98 era" retro computing (winamp, age of empires 2, millenium aesthetic), and rarely see 80s stuff anymore, but the people I follow the interests of are probably younger. 10 years ago I would have said 90s, and 10 years before that, 80s, so perhaps you're 20 years older than me? Just a guess.
We still get games with "pixel" aesthetics, and they look just as good as Zelda did back in the day. We don't get low-poly games like Tomb Raider 1.
For electric guitars, the 60s wasn't the decade where they were invented (30s) or the decade where they found their "final form" (50s), it was when they entered the cultural zeitgeist.
Despite popularity of the 50s guitars/amps and later decades slowly rolling in to "retro" status, the era of the Beatles, the who, hendrix, the rolling stones, etc. will always be the most popular.
A curious part of this is a sort of generational nostalgia transfer, where (for example) the popular bands from the 90s had this nostalgia of the 60s, so they used old guitars and amps and were influenced by 60s music which caused their fans to have the same view.
2. Software for some 80s systems is ubiquitous.
3. Sound blaster hell/IRQ hell is a real thing and DOS is frustrating more than fun.
4. Prior generation computers were made for work and fun was a rare side effect of letting off steam.
5. Since Windows 2000 modern computers run the same software, so your retro is limited to beige boxes with flaky capacitors.
6. Non-wintel 90s+ computers are interesting and are indeed becoming a focus of retro computing. Power PC Macintosh, Acorn, BeBoxes, NeXT, SGI, even HP and DEC RISC computers are finding enthusiasm.
I wonder, now that the market is slowly shifting to arm and RISCv architectures, we might see a similar trend 30 years from now, with people starting to procure x86 chips with similar interest.
I found about this [1] amazing live coding session by lftkyro on YouTube showing how to build a live music pattern editor on the C64.
Although one of the benefits of them is that you can still play and program for them (and even on them.) They’re simpler and more immediate.
So basically,the 80s is the earliest easily accessible period.
My guess is “retro” moves on roughly as fast as we do.
I’m 41 and the reason for this is that people born in the mid-1970s to late-1980s are old enough and wealthy enough now to have nostalgia for that time period and the time to pursue that hobby.
Also, people who were teenage hackers in that era are now middle-aged and beyond, and nostalgia.