Member
Posts: 223 
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
June 6th, 2005, 05:24 PM
This weekend I got a Commodore 64 emulator going on my Linux box.
Oh, the memories just came flooding back!
http://photos10.flickr.com/17149992_a9a46efcdb_o.jpg
It's great to think back to a time when computing was a lot more fun; and was a very unique past-time.
The time of 300 baud modems and BBS sub-cultures. Seeing how much power you could squeeze out of each bit of memory a computer had back then. And the fun of trading C=64 games on 5-1/4" floppies and cassette tapes.
Them were the days!
This weekend I got a Commodore 64 emulator going on my Linux box.
Oh, the memories just came flooding back!
http://photos10.flickr.com/17149992_a9a46efcdb_o.jpg
It's great to think back to a time when computing was a lot more fun; and was a very unique past-time.
The time of 300 baud modems and BBS sub-cultures. Seeing how much power you could squeeze out of each bit of memory a computer had back then. And the fun of trading C=64 games on 5-1/4" floppies and cassette tapes.
Them were the days!
Steven Hawking's Tutor
Posts: 5,380
Location: Kamloops BC
Location: Kamloops BC
June 8th, 2005, 12:52 PM
My first was 300 with16 megs and it was free :P My next was this one thats only 800 but its got 512 and it only cost me 100$
I got a 1.2 and 2.0 that I'm working on know and they were 100$ a piece the 2.0 has a128 vid card in it A few more parts and it is going to take this ones place.Moral of the story is don't waste your money on the newer models wait a couple of years and you can save yourself huge bucks
My first was 300 with16 megs and it was free :P My next was this one thats only 800 but its got 512 and it only cost me 100$
I got a 1.2 and 2.0 that I'm working on know and they were 100$ a piece the 2.0 has a128 vid card in it A few more parts and it is going to take this ones place.Moral of the story is don't waste your money on the newer models wait a couple of years and you can save yourself huge bucks 
Moderator
Posts: 798
June 8th, 2005, 03:09 PM
My first 'computer' was an Atari 400 complete with cassette drive, 16Kb RAM and joysticks. ( still have this puppy and used it on & off until mid 90's when MAME came out
)
First PC was 8088 running at a screaming 8Hz(in Turbo mode) w/ dual 5.25" floppies and CGA graphics w/ orange monochrome monitor. (later added 10MB HDD, yes MB)
First home-built was 286/12Mhz, 16RAM, 40MB HDD, SVGA w/ paperwhite monitor.
Ugh, I'm old.
Currently running 1.8Ghz P IV, 1GB RAM, 60GB HD, 128MB Video(Radeon)
My first 'computer' was an Atari 400 complete with cassette drive, 16Kb RAM and joysticks. ( still have this puppy and used it on & off until mid 90's when MAME came out
)First PC was 8088 running at a screaming 8Hz(in Turbo mode) w/ dual 5.25" floppies and CGA graphics w/ orange monochrome monitor. (later added 10MB HDD, yes MB)
First home-built was 286/12Mhz, 16RAM, 40MB HDD, SVGA w/ paperwhite monitor.
Ugh, I'm old.
Currently running 1.8Ghz P IV, 1GB RAM, 60GB HD, 128MB Video(Radeon)
Member
Posts: 223
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
June 8th, 2005, 03:59 PM
If your first computer had megs of RAM, then you've missed out on a lot of the fun of early computing.
My first exposure to a computer was with a Commodore PET. Our elementary school had one on loan for a week from the near-by high school.
We played tournaments of Space Invaders among the class. If I recall correctly, it had a cassette deck as well.
Maybe a year or two after that, my parents bought me my Commodore 64. Didn't even have a cassette or floppy drive at first. I remember sitting for hours in front of it, typing in a machine language program out of the manual that cam with the computer. Then, playing it for a while and having to turn it off in the end.
Gee, I really had to think carefully as to what game I wanted to run, as it would be an hour or so after I had the code entered in before I could play it.
It was a glorious day when I finally got my 1541 floppy disk drive. Ah, the good ol' 1541. I can still hear the rat-tat-tat of the drive head as it prepared to load a file from the floppy disk.
If your first computer had megs of RAM, then you've missed out on a lot of the fun of early computing.
My first exposure to a computer was with a Commodore PET. Our elementary school had one on loan for a week from the near-by high school.
We played tournaments of Space Invaders among the class. If I recall correctly, it had a cassette deck as well.
Maybe a year or two after that, my parents bought me my Commodore 64. Didn't even have a cassette or floppy drive at first. I remember sitting for hours in front of it, typing in a machine language program out of the manual that cam with the computer. Then, playing it for a while and having to turn it off in the end.
Gee, I really had to think carefully as to what game I wanted to run, as it would be an hour or so after I had the code entered in before I could play it.
It was a glorious day when I finally got my 1541 floppy disk drive. Ah, the good ol' 1541. I can still hear the rat-tat-tat of the drive head as it prepared to load a file from the floppy disk.
Newbie
Posts: 44
Location: Nova Scotia
Location: Nova Scotia
June 8th, 2005, 04:31 PM
Yup, I remember playing on my Commodore 64. Mine had a floppy drive, and all the games had the command lines written on them. I think I must have wasted half my time playing Winter Olympics, and trying to master the bobsled course. Of course, you needed a joystick for that one. Good times.
After that came a P1 133mhz, 16 mb ram, 3 gb HDD. Now it's a P4 1.4ghz, 256 mb ram, 40 gb HDD. I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to upgrading computers, so I'll wait a few more years before this one winds up on my curb.
Yup, I remember playing on my Commodore 64. Mine had a floppy drive, and all the games had the command lines written on them. I think I must have wasted half my time playing Winter Olympics, and trying to master the bobsled course. Of course, you needed a joystick for that one. Good times.
After that came a P1 133mhz, 16 mb ram, 3 gb HDD. Now it's a P4 1.4ghz, 256 mb ram, 40 gb HDD. I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to upgrading computers, so I'll wait a few more years before this one winds up on my curb.
Time Out
Posts: 4,194
Location: Vancouver
Location: Vancouver
June 8th, 2005, 05:20 PM
My first computer was a pentium 100 with 8mb of ram,1.01 gig hard drive 19,2000 modem, win 3.1 that came with I think 12-15 floppies. no cdrom but a 3.5 and 5.5 inch floppy. I do not know how I even functioned back then. Actually I do not know how I functioned running any microsoft operating systems..........
My first computer was a pentium 100 with 8mb of ram,1.01 gig hard drive 19,2000 modem, win 3.1 that came with I think 12-15 floppies. no cdrom but a 3.5 and 5.5 inch floppy. I do not know how I even functioned back then. Actually I do not know how I functioned running any microsoft operating systems..........
Member
Posts: 99
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
June 8th, 2005, 05:36 PM
I was working for Radio Shack Canada when we just started to carry computers 8 kilobyte and 16 kilobyte units from tandy , monochrome (green) monitors and cassette storage drives all which sold for well over a thousand dollars. 5 1/4 inch drives were considered a luxury and we never heard of a Hard drive "whats a megabyte?". Later it was massive upgrades to dual 5 1/4's , 64 Kilobytes of memory and 8 and 16 color monitors. WOW we were rock'n, no one would ever need anything bigger than that...........
I was working for Radio Shack Canada when we just started to carry computers 8 kilobyte and 16 kilobyte units from tandy , monochrome (green) monitors and cassette storage drives all which sold for well over a thousand dollars. 5 1/4 inch drives were considered a luxury and we never heard of a Hard drive "whats a megabyte?". Later it was massive upgrades to dual 5 1/4's , 64 Kilobytes of memory and 8 and 16 color monitors. WOW we were rock'n, no one would ever need anything bigger than that...........
Time Out
Posts: 4,194
Location: Vancouver
Location: Vancouver
June 8th, 2005, 09:56 PM
I remember those computers with Green writing on blck from high school. I thought doing hangman was amazing at the time. But how times have changed.
I am glad hi speed came along as I could not stand all the zip files.....................
I remember those computers with Green writing on blck from high school. I thought doing hangman was amazing at the time. But how times have changed.
I am glad hi speed came along as I could not stand all the zip files.....................
Hall of Fame Member
Posts: 10,505 
Location: The Evil Empire
Location: The Evil Empire
June 8th, 2005, 10:02 PM
Funny, I did a search and found a picture with my first computer.
http://obsoletecomputermuseum.org/electron/
I hope Jay doesn't see this.
Funny, I did a search and found a picture with my first computer.
http://obsoletecomputermuseum.org/electron/
I hope Jay doesn't see this.
Member
Posts: 223
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
June 8th, 2005, 11:51 PM
A whopping 4K of programmable RAM, and ran BASIC.
The beauty part of that was, my high school and college teachers never knew what it really was, other than calculator. So, they always allowed me to use it in tests and exams.
The thing about BASIC is, you can write any string of code as a comment line, if you label it as a REMark
Hey, and being able to write a little mathematical program to handle all of the tricky statistical calculations really helped me in my mathematics exams! :P
Or, when sitting in history class, I'd just run my little game of hang-man I happend to have programmed in the night before and I didn't have to be bored for the entire 45 minutes!
You could even hook it up to a little printer and tape drive, but I didn't have the cash to spring for those at the time.
Ah, the golden age of computing... when it really was magic to a lot of people not "in the know."
Quoting
Do you remember the Pocket PC Tandy used to carry? I still have mine and it still works great.
I was working for Radio Shack Canada when we just started to carry computers 8 kilobyte and 16 kilobyte units from tandy
A whopping 4K of programmable RAM, and ran BASIC.
The beauty part of that was, my high school and college teachers never knew what it really was, other than calculator. So, they always allowed me to use it in tests and exams.
The thing about BASIC is, you can write any string of code as a comment line, if you label it as a REMark
Hey, and being able to write a little mathematical program to handle all of the tricky statistical calculations really helped me in my mathematics exams! :P Or, when sitting in history class, I'd just run my little game of hang-man I happend to have programmed in the night before and I didn't have to be bored for the entire 45 minutes!
You could even hook it up to a little printer and tape drive, but I didn't have the cash to spring for those at the time.
Ah, the golden age of computing... when it really was magic to a lot of people not "in the know."
Member
Posts: 99
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
June 9th, 2005, 01:31 AM
Quoting
A whopping 4K of programmable RAM, and ran BASIC.
The beauty part of that was, my high school and college teachers never knew what it really was, other than calculator. So, they always allowed me to use it in tests and exams.
The thing about BASIC is, you can write any string of code as a comment line, if you label it as a REMark Hey, and being able to write a little mathematical program to handle all of the tricky statistical calculations really helped me in my mathematics exams! :P
Or, when sitting in history class, I'd just run my little game of hang-man I happend to have programmed in the night before and I didn't have to be bored for the entire 45 minutes!
You could even hook it up to a little printer and tape drive, but I didn't have the cash to spring for those at the time.
Ah, the golden age of computing... when it really was magic to a lot of people not "in the know."
In all the years I worked for them 16 over all, we constantly got asked for those units, they had some very special capabilities that no other unit could touch, like basic programmimg. Very cool you still have a working unit.........
Quoting
Do you remember the Pocket PC Tandy used to carry? I still have mine and it still works great.
I was working for Radio Shack Canada when we just started to carry computers 8 kilobyte and 16 kilobyte units from tandy
A whopping 4K of programmable RAM, and ran BASIC.
The beauty part of that was, my high school and college teachers never knew what it really was, other than calculator. So, they always allowed me to use it in tests and exams.
The thing about BASIC is, you can write any string of code as a comment line, if you label it as a REMark
Hey, and being able to write a little mathematical program to handle all of the tricky statistical calculations really helped me in my mathematics exams! :P Or, when sitting in history class, I'd just run my little game of hang-man I happend to have programmed in the night before and I didn't have to be bored for the entire 45 minutes!
You could even hook it up to a little printer and tape drive, but I didn't have the cash to spring for those at the time.
Ah, the golden age of computing... when it really was magic to a lot of people not "in the know."
