Off topic - geek nostalgia

[Chang Style Novice]

http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage/index.php3?p=0

I remember my first computer - a commodore VIC-20 with a cassette tape drive. The I upgraded to a C64 which was the baddest thing ever, with it's 64 K of RAM and a 5.25" floppy disc drive...

[MasterKiller]

I used an Apple IIe all the way up until my Jr. year of college (1993).

[Xdr4g0nx]

there was a computer with a cassette drive?

Now dont u feel old? :D

[chen zhen]

I still remember my Commodore 64..
it was shiet though

[Oso]

gotcha all beat...

In 6,7 & 8th grades some of us would go down to the "computer'' room and use a rotary phone to dail into the county "math & science" center. We had to slam the phone into the big double cup cradle quick after we heard the tones. Then we would play a Star Trek game on this typewriter controlled printer.

we were supposed to be doing science research.

[Chang Style Novice]

You were doing science research!

Ah, yeah, the days before video consoles - the keyboard was attached directly to a printer at the computer lab. At that time the school didn't have a computer lab, you had to go to a special site offcampus to mess with a computer...this was when I lived in Oakland, around 1980.

[chen zhen]

We only had one channel on tv when I was a kid.

Beat ya all:D

[SaMantis]

******, and I was gonna brag about my Trash-80.

[SevenStar]

I've got you all beat... TIMEX (yeah, the watch company) tried their hand at making computers back in the day. When I was a kid, my first computer was a TIMEX Sinclair. It had a tape drive also. From there, I went to the Atari XT, and from that to the Tandy 1000, which is when I used compuserve for the first time. Ah, the joys of the early 80's!

[Chang Style Novice]

http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage/index.php3?p=14

There's a Sinclair for ya, 7*. Dig the rubik's cube sitting on the desk behind it, too.

[Laughing Cow]

Hey, I used to own that one. ;)

Ditched my C-64 after I got it, had the early model without the tape-drive, had to plug it into my portable tape-recorder to download games.

First time I ever got on the NET it was all BBS and looong scroll menues, WWW was not even a wet-dream back then.

Also remember dialing, slammingthe received onto the cradle and doing a 2400bit transfer datatransfer at work.

Line used to die every so often and we needed to restart.

Seeya.

[CaptinPickAxe]

I used a Tandy 1500 when I was like 5. I used to love the games on it, Monkey Island was my favorite.

[Ming Yue]

Monkey Island was graphically advanced. :D

My first comp games were text games. I had my mom's Apple IIC with at least one of the text Zork games, and another one called Uninvited that was fun too.



>Go North

You enter a stone room with no windows. The door slams behind you and dissapears into the wall as your torch fizzles out.
It is dark. There are grues nearby.

>

[Oso]

sorry fellas, got you all beat still...I was in 6th grade in '78 when we first did this.

we were allowed to skip both science and math class because we were supposed to be accessing science and math files. One day someone, probably a teacher, left the info on accessing the games and that was all she wrote for the 'science research'.

learned basic on a TRS-80 C, a little cobal on the Apple II and one other language that's escaping me.

someone like Rogue or Old Jong will have to come up with a punch card and vacuume tube story to beat me.:cool:

[CaptinPickAxe]

Do you remember King's Quest? That was very advanced for its time...

[Oso]

bahh

MY, you're older but I still got you beat:p

[Ming Yue]

ahh, but I'm smarter and better looking.

However, I concede to the obvious fact that you are a much bigger geek.


:p
:D

[Starchaser107]

when i was a kid we had one channel, and a black and white tv.
also a primative videogame console that had a bootleg version of "pong".

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Oso
someone like Rogue or Old Jong will have to come up with a punch card and vacuume tube story to beat me.:cool:

How many to you want??

I learned to read punch-cards without the writing on the top-edge, needed it to operate the 12 button puncher.

Typewriter style punchers were a luxury back than. ;)

Largest JCL(JOB) I ever submitted came in 4 boxes, too 7 attempts till all the cards were read.

Or how about the infernal machine which you transfered Dat-tapes from data-capturing to Reel-tapes.
;)

[joedoe]

Originally posted by Laughing Cow


How many to you want??

I learned to read punch-cards without the writing on the top-edge, needed it to operate the 12 button puncher.

Typewriter style punchers were a luxury back than. ;)

Largest JCL(JOB) I ever submitted came in 4 boxes, too 7 attempts till all the cards were read.

Or how about the infernal machine which you transfered Dat-tapes from data-capturing to Reel-tapes.
;)

What machines/OS were you using LC? I used to have to write JCLs for HP3000 series machines using MPE/iX. Didn't need punch cards, but a pain nonetheless :)

[ZIM]

It's been a looong time since those days, but this might take you back. (http://www.romanm.ch/english/ascii-movies.htm) :)

Used the TRaSh-80 & some IBM miniframe [hahahaha- oooh, you mean I don't have to swap out the disk to type? WOW-OW] and sure, I remember lusting after the Timex Sinclair while building logic circuits on breadboards... oh, those stoopit days.... :p

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by joedoe
What machines/OS were you using LC? I used to have to write JCLs for HP3000 series machines using MPE/iX. Didn't need punch cards, but a pain nonetheless :)

Oh, mostly IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi & SIEMENS stuff(most of the hardware is the same), but used also an old Honeywell Bull DPS 7.

IBM OS went from DOS/VSE, MVS/SP, MVS/XA, MVS/ESA to OS/390(MP2000), BS2000 & BS3000.
We usually had atleast 3 or 4 Mainframes downstairs.
Oldest we I programmed was a IBM 4341(programming school) with 3330 Disk Drives and punchard reader.

Oldest machine I operated was the IBM 1400with 32Kb memory extension blocks.

Programming languages were Assembler, Assembler H, Cobol 74, Cobol 85 & Cobol II as well as a bit of PL/1, NATURAL/ADABAS.

Now mostly doing client servers stuff using Windows 2000, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris & Linux, C, C++, Java, etc.
with the occassional interface to the MP2000 for interfaces and database hookup.

I guess I have been at it for some time. ;)

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by ZIM
It's been a looong time since those days, but this might take you back. (http://www.romanm.ch/english/ascii-movies.htm) :)


That kinda looks the way Windows 1.06 should have looked.

;)

I think I still got some old MS-Dos 2.1 OS Disks lying, around any takes?

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by Ming Yue
Monkey Island was graphically advanced. :D

My first comp games were text games. I had my mom's Apple IIC with at least one of the text Zork games, and another one called Uninvited that was fun too.



>Go North

You enter a stone room with no windows. The door slams behind you and dissapears into the wall as your torch fizzles out.
It is dark. There are grues nearby.

>

You gotta play the jewels of darkness games (there were 3 that game with the set)

Also, anyone ever play Man-ENG: master of evil?

[Stranger]

I had an Atari 400, which had a flat key-PAD like a McDonald's cash register!

The best TRS-80 game was Asylum, but I never could escape.

[Oso]

LC, sorry, didn't realize you were in the 'old ****' category.;)

You Win !!! :)

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Oso
LC, sorry, didn't realize you were in the 'old ****' category.;)

You Win !!! :)

If I am old so are you. ;)

Naah, we just had some old equipment lying around that was still used.
The IBM 1400 was more of a novelty pet for the "old" programmers, cranked up every so often to play "music" and similar.

But, yes, I started to work early but I learned a lot of good valuable stuff on those old equipments.

Plus, it is fun talking rubbish with other guys that still remember those days and see the youngsters eyes pop out.

Computers got boring as far as I am concerned, too standardised, too easy to use, etc.

Seeya.

[IronFist]

For Christmas in 1987, when I was 6, I got a Tandy Color Computer 3 from Radio Shack. It had the cartridge slot on the side where you could put in games before you turned it on.

But other than playing games, if you wanted to use a program you had to code it yourself first. Or, you could code it and save it on a cassette tape and then load it from that later. The monitor was a TV.

Too bad I was only 6 and I didn't learn how to write the BASIC programs. It would have given me a huge head start.

Here's the games I remember. Anyone remember these?

Double Back
Shanghai (like Mahjongg)
Dungeons of Daggorath (or something like that)
Rad Warrior (this was also for Commodore 64 I think)
Rampage (like the NES one, except this one had the full three characters I think)
Baseball
Football
Mind Roll (? the marble game)
Thexder (awesome, but hard as hell)

That's all I can remember for now.

IronFist

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by IronFist
For Christmas in 1987, when I was 6 ...


Hmmm, I was already working than.
:D

[Oso]

LC, you have to be older than me by a bit to have been working w/ punchcards.

but, I'll agree...I'm old. feels like it today anyways...

[Laughing Cow]

Oso.

Check your pm.

BTW, you are my senior. :D

[Volcano Admim]

you guys are so geeks i want to point and laugh at you
you probably live on some place full of babes but are still virgins

i point my finger at you and laugh HAHAHA

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Volcano Admim
you guys are so geeks i want to point and laugh at you
you probably live on some place full of babes but are still virgins

i point my finger at you and laugh HAHAHA

Let me introduce you in order to:

1.) My Wife
2.) My son
3.) My Fist

:D

[Volcano Admim]

i point my finger at your son - just to scare him
i laugh at your fist
i touch your wife with my finger

HAHAHA

[Oso]

Volcadmin, I bet my girlfriend would kick your azz. She catches all my slack so I don't have to break a sweat. ;)

[Volcano Admim]

good

i like it rough chicks that spank for me

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Volcano Admim
i point my finger at your son - just to scare him
i laugh at your fist
i touch your wife with my finger

HAHAHA

What finger??

The one I just ripped off your hand. :P

And touching my wife ain't a good move either, we train and spar together.
:D

[Volcano Admim]

who said the finger came from my "hand area"?

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Volcano Admim
who said the finger came from my "hand area"?

In which case she would have keeled over and nearly died of laughter and than hit you repeatedly with her Motorbike helmet while still giggling.
;)

[Volcano Admim]

not true

she said it stingged so it was different

"It stings!"

[Volcano Admim]

"Its different, i think i like it"

"Stings good, i like it"

[Laughing Cow]

Yeah, she sez it felt like needle ***** and was about the same size.

She also said that you looked so desperate and lonely that she took pity on you. Pity, it was your first time.

:D

[Volcano Admim]

it stinged then i made her scream :D

edit: HEY! dont edit your post while im typing my reply u suckar!

first time with a mono-tited one yeah

[Laughing Cow]

Originally posted by Volcano Admim
it stinged then i made her scream :D


Of course she got a phobia of needles.

edit: HEY! dont edit your post while im typing my reply u suckar!
[/QUOTE]

I edit what I want to edit.

Wanna make something of it big (ahem small) boy. Hrrmmmphh :D

[Volcano Admim]

you big fat cow with lotsa milk

[Starchaser107]

wow.
i believe this is poetic justice for a thread about geeks.

:p

[Laughing Cow]

Geeks we are not geeks.
;)

Poor little teenie boy(VA) thinks he can come and play with the Big Boys.

Next time we let him play mommy and daddy with Bubba. :D

[Chang Style Novice]

Gabba gabba we accept you we accept you gabba gabba we accept you we accept you...

[Volcano Admim]

everybody just wants to be like me
im naked
and famous
:mad:


i still point and laugh at you geeks HAHAHA

[Starchaser107]

okaaay.

if it makes u guys feel any better, i wanted to have an atari 2600 so badly when i was a yute.

[Laughing Cow]

VA.

In case you haven't realised it is the geeks that got the hot women, hot rides and the well paying Jobs.

Hmmm, makes you think doesn't it.

[Volcano Admim]

booshyt, i am live proof of oposite HAHAHA
you will never know why though HAHAHA

[KC Elbows]

You know you're the ultimate geek when you recognize that this is not the first old computer geer OT thread on KFM. Since the original is probably gone, I'll recontribute what I did last time this thread lived: The Times Sinclair 80 had a chess game you could get for it, on tape of course, but the tape was very long, and because the computer had no cooling system, the time it took for the system to crash happened to be same amount of time that it took to load chess. Which was fortunate, as I am a better person for not having to experience the shame of having a toy computer beat me in chess.

[Chang Style Novice]

That's no way to invest in loss. For shame, KC Elbows, for SHAME!

[Black Jack]

C-64 but I remeber using my Intelavison much more.

I remeber the Chuck Norris game for Atari.

[MasterKiller]

I used to have a Magnavox Odyssey game system. It had a built-in keyboard, and you could customize some of the games, like the generic version of Pac Man, by building your own mazes. Couldn't save them, though.

[KC Elbows]

Originally posted by Chang Style Novice
That's no way to invest in loss. For shame, KC Elbows, for SHAME!

I know, I am a disgrace to Timex Sinclair owners. Of course, we're talking about a demographic whose benefactor felt that special keys were needed that would type words like "print" for them. I'm pretty sure a great number of sinclair owners are now on forums with their entire keyboards set up so that whenever they type a key, a word comes out. You know, they tap d and they get dead link, loser, they type n and they get Nice one rectacle9!

And again, I'm glad chess didn't work.

[KC Elbows]

And yes, that is rectacle, as in glasses for your asses.