HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
My brother had Spectrums. He was so jealous when I got my speed machine the Commodore 64 and a few years later he was even more jealous when I got the Amiga.
Pre- pc computers you have owned and loved (or hated)?
- Thread starter beanzontoast
- Start date
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Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Computing was an exciting hobby in the eighties, new machines by the month and the technology making huge advances year on year. None of them compatable with one and other of course and if you bought something that didn't catch on you were stuffed for software.
All much more efficient now, but one box is pretty much the same as the other and the buzz has gone.
All much more efficient now, but one box is pretty much the same as the other and the buzz has gone.
the_mikey
Legendary Member
- Location
- South Gloucestershire
I've only ever had the pleasure of owning Spectrums between 1985-1992
- Location
- The TerrorVortex
My first computer was a Vic-20. Mates had ZX81s and Spectrums, Dragon 32 and an Amstrad CPC.
My first job was using BBC micros.
Happy days...
My first job was using BBC micros.
Happy days...
- Location
- The TerrorVortex
Check this out for a bit of 8-bit nostalgia...
http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/
OP
OP
beanzontoast
Guru
- Location
- South of The Peaks
Tir Na Nog! What a gem that was!
Reminds me of another Speccy game I loved - Sorderon's Shadow. At the time it was really innovative - a huge mapped area of plains, swamps, mountains etc with things independently wandering around it (I should know, I was one of them) and coming after you at various points! It was a bit Lord of the Rings-ish and rather mysterious in as much as half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on. Didn't stop me spendingway too much time trying to get to grips with it though.
Reminds me of another Speccy game I loved - Sorderon's Shadow. At the time it was really innovative - a huge mapped area of plains, swamps, mountains etc with things independently wandering around it (I should know, I was one of them) and coming after you at various points! It was a bit Lord of the Rings-ish and rather mysterious in as much as half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on. Didn't stop me spending
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
What about Lords of Midnight? That cost me hours of my life guiding armies around and looking after the little runt who had to steal something. It was almost a copy of Lord of the Rings with the names changed.
And then there was "The Hobbit". How many people threw their tape recorder across the room over that one then....
And then there was "The Hobbit". How many people threw their tape recorder across the room over that one then....
OP
OP
beanzontoast
Guru
- Location
- South of The Peaks
10 PRINT "Hello"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
He he he ...
Those really were the days! 'Hello' was one of the more polite things that got typed IME!
Remember BBC Micro Live on tv in the 80's? They almost always seemed to end up saying something like "...and we can demonstrate this idea on the humble BBC B" before typing in a bunch of code and running some amazing program that made me (sitting with my rubber-keyed Speccy wired to my portable tv) envious beyond belief... I mean, the BBC B had a proper keyboard too. Whatever would they think of next?
And the magazine listings of pages of code for functions that you mainly didn't want to do, but which you typed in anyway on a wing and a prayer that it would actually work when you ran it?
Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
There was a scam going round for a while with Spectrums and keyboards. You could buy a full sized keyboard that had all the connections to hook up the innards of your standard Speccy. People used to buy a new Spectrum for about £120, then buy the aftermarket keyboard (£50) and fit that instead. The redundant Sinclair case then had weights placed inside it and was taken back to Boots/Smiths or wherever it had been purchased with a complaint that it didn't work and a demand for a refund. Refund duly obtained all the scammer now had to do was buy a replacement power transformer for around £15 and he had a full size machine for around half the cost of the original pregnant calculator one.Those really were the days! 'Hello' was one of the more polite things that got typed IME!
Remember BBC Micro Live on tv in the 80's? They almost always seemed to end up saying something like "...and we can demonstrate this idea on the humble BBC B" before typing in a bunch of code and running some amazing program that made me (sitting with my rubber-keyed Speccy wired to my portable tv) envious beyond belief... I mean, the BBC B had a proper keyboard too. Whatever would they think of next?
And the magazine listings of pages of code for functions that you mainly didn't want to do, but which you typed in anyway on a wing and a prayer that it would actually work when you ran it?
Quite a few went back to Sinclair before they discovered what was going on.
asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
DEC PDP 11? We used those at Manchester. Had to write a noughts and crossess program on one. Those were the days when students were just able to afford Amstrads and Windows hadn't quite made it. I was a useful DOS programmer (DOSser?) back then.
My first computer was an Acorn Electron.
My first computer was an Acorn Electron.
rh100
Well-Known Member
First computer in our house was my brothers ZX81 with a 16k rampack, on an old b and w telly with a twist dial to tune it.
My own first computer was a Sinclair (now Amstrad owned) +3, with the 3 inch disk drive. It had a proper keyboard and I also got a plug in multiface to freeze games and save them to disk, was brilliant as could buy the games on tape and load them once then just save to disk and load from there next time.
On the +3 I learnt BASIC from the surprisingly good manual that came with it, I also typed in the programs from the back of Your Sinclair - I remember one that sampled music played through the tape input.
My most favourite games were Elite, Bards Tale, Sim City and loads of text adventure games. Oh and f19 stealth fighter or something from Microprose along with Gunship. A remarkably capable machine all things considered. All these were played on a green screen monitor I bought second hand with a modified lead my dad made to connect to it
A few years later I bought a second hand ST which I played Elite 2 on all the time (is that the sun coming up? !)
Since about '94 I've built my own PC's - started with a 386 and DOS and Windows 3.11
My own first computer was a Sinclair (now Amstrad owned) +3, with the 3 inch disk drive. It had a proper keyboard and I also got a plug in multiface to freeze games and save them to disk, was brilliant as could buy the games on tape and load them once then just save to disk and load from there next time.
On the +3 I learnt BASIC from the surprisingly good manual that came with it, I also typed in the programs from the back of Your Sinclair - I remember one that sampled music played through the tape input.
My most favourite games were Elite, Bards Tale, Sim City and loads of text adventure games. Oh and f19 stealth fighter or something from Microprose along with Gunship. A remarkably capable machine all things considered. All these were played on a green screen monitor I bought second hand with a modified lead my dad made to connect to it
A few years later I bought a second hand ST which I played Elite 2 on all the time (is that the sun coming up? !)
Since about '94 I've built my own PC's - started with a 386 and DOS and Windows 3.11
