Time Capsule: Home computers of the 80's. - Blu-ray Forum

tron3 · 06-02-2008, 09:18 PM

First rule is no mention of gaming systems. We already had a long thread on that. Just non-pc home computer systems. Ok, let's start our nostalgic trip down rem-ory lane.

My first was the Texas Instruments 99/4A Home Computer. First to have a 16 bit CPU (albeit 8 bit bus), 16K ram, and BASIC programming built-in. Much like my fist PC I had ZERO productive software for it. Not even a single game. Not even a cassette storage device!

However, I was undaunted as I was so curious as to how programming languages worked I studied the two enclosed programming books in depth. I wrote sizable programs in that 16k space. Though it doesn't seem like much, once I finished a program I had no way to save it, except to write down the program line by line in a notebook I still have. Took pages and pages to save them.

Months later I finally bought a cassette system and spent an entire weekend re-keying my programs to save them on tape. The slow rythmic byte crunching sound of data being saved was music to my ears. And though it could take minutes to load a program I wrote, it was like lightning compared to the re-keying I did to run my programs.

I later bought Extended BASIC and learned the joys of sprites. The stored speech module gave me the joy of...well, speech! By the time I stopped spending money on it in about 1990, I was up to about 90 cartridges, dual floppies, and even dual cassette!

The last time I spent any money for it was actually about a year ago. Someone on ebay sells a yellow composite cable adaptor for use on more modern tv's. No more 300 Ohm connectors.

I learned so much on that thing and it spring boarded me into an IT career. What would have become of me if I had listened to all the nay sayers who said I should not buy one?

JJ · 06-02-2008, 09:23 PM

I cant remember much of my first computer - other than I spent all day playing "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" and some mystery game at a museum on them in all of four glorious colors! I was too young to know all the technical stuff.

2112 · 06-02-2008, 11:34 PM

I had a Commodore VIC 20

jkwest · 06-02-2008, 11:47 PM

Tandy 1000

Played long hours of Kings Quest II on that baby!!

JasonR · 06-02-2008, 11:52 PM

Commodore 64

David Mamet · 06-02-2008, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tron3

My first was the Texas Instruments 99/4A Home Computer. First to have a 16 bit CPU (albeit 8 bit bus), 16K ram, and BASIC programming built-in. Much like my fist PC I had ZERO productive software for it. Not even a single game. Not even a cassette storage device!

Nice story! I remember my brothers computer in the late 80's had a cassette storage device. He must have had a CPU similar to yours. Needless to say he also works professionally with computers to this day.

My_Two_Cents · 06-03-2008, 12:13 AM

Radio Shack TRS-80 in High School with cassette tape storage of programs. I can still remember playing my very first computer game on one of those, unfortunately I cannot remember the name of it. It was all text-based and sort-of RTS-ish. You grew and sold crops in order to feed and support a community and army, which was then used to defend and attack others in order to gain more land. It was really kind of fun, and took-up a lot of my study hall time.

Sling · 06-03-2008, 01:02 AM

My first PC toy purchased at radio shack .I bought it with my paper rout money.

atomik kinder · 06-03-2008, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonR

Commodore 64

Me too! After I stopped using it and got rid of it, it took me years to get another computer about 9 years ago was when I got it.

Psychonaut · 06-03-2008, 01:51 AM

I think the first our family owned was a Commodore Plus4

We then upgraded to the uber Apple IIGS

DetroitSportsFan · 06-03-2008, 02:04 AM

I never had a computer until the late 90s.

I had about every video game system since the Atari 2600 though.

Marquoz · 06-03-2008, 05:29 AM

First computer I remember was an IBM PCJr with cartridges for I think DOS, and then cartridges for the games. The second computer was a Goldstar (I want to say that's now LG?) 8088. It had a whopping, the salesman tried to convince my mother it was too big, 30 meg hard drive. A huge premium was paid for THAT puppy! It was 10 megs larger then the standard hard drive, so was a large markup!

It had this cool command prompt where you had to memorize your commands, like copy a:\*.* c:\ to copy your game on the hard drive. It had glorious 4 color CGA! All the bells and whistles for your high tech bleeding edge power machine! It included a massive 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, and even a turbo button that increased the CPU power!

cpgator · 06-03-2008, 05:37 AM

tron3 · 06-03-2008, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marquoz

... It included a massive 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, and even a turbo button that increased the CPU power!

Ahh, the turbo button, what a fun item. Did you know anyone who actually wanted the computer to run SLOWER?

I know, the purpose of the turbo button was because some older programs, games mostly, would run too fast at the high clock speeds and needed to slow down. My attitude was, "No program that old is worth keeping."

Oh and remember before computers had hard drives? If you had a dual floppy system you were a "power user"!

Nerdkiller likes BD · 06-03-2008, 12:55 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecf...rsist_locale=1

An all time classic Mac commercial.

tron3 · 06-03-2008, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nerdkiller likes BD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecf...rsist_locale=1

An all time classic Mac commercial.

Best computer commercial ever. I remember going to work in the new year and the 1985 calendar was on the wall. I think it was a big guy, Eddie, who scribbled on it, "So, Orwell was off a year."

Fun stuff.

Marquoz · 06-03-2008, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tron3

Ahh, the turbo button, what a fun item. Did you know anyone who actually wanted the computer to run SLOWER?

I know, the purpose of the turbo button was because some older programs, games mostly, would run too fast at the high clock speeds and needed to slow down. My attitude was, "No program that old is worth keeping."

Oh and remember before computers had hard drives? If you had a dual floppy system you were a "power user"!

I still remember cartridges for computers, and I had a bunch of punch cards from my mother's work that she bought home. Dug some up a couple years ago and wow, how far computing has come!

camper · 06-03-2008, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkwest

Tandy 1000

Played long hours of Kings Quest II on that baby!!

Same here, that's one of my favorite games ever! Getting into Dracula's castle was awesome, and as great as the other games were this was my favorite by far.

I always found it odd that i had to upgrade my ram from 128k to 256k in order to play Kings Quest 1, so it took me a while to save the $150 for the memory upgrade to play it.

I got to be a master at Desktop too, even though all I did was put in cartoon stuff and change the colors to have something to put into it.

~Camper

sssick · 06-03-2008, 02:30 PM

I had a Tandy 2000 and my favorite game was Jordan Vs. Bird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSXOmJ3mH7A

TwYsTeD · 06-03-2008, 03:42 PM

funny thing i still have my commodore vic 20 and my 64 ;D they are not hooked up anymore but they are in the closet in my bedroom..

06-02-2008, 09:18 PM	#1
tron3 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Aug 2004 Location:New Jersey Blu-ray reviews:3	Time Capsule: Home computers of the 80's. First rule is no mention of gaming systems. We already had a long thread on that. Just non-pc home computer systems. Ok, let's start our nostalgic trip down rem-ory lane. My first was the Texas Instruments 99/4A Home Computer. First to have a 16 bit CPU (albeit 8 bit bus), 16K ram, and BASIC programming built-in. Much like my fist PC I had ZERO productive software for it. Not even a single game. Not even a cassette storage device! However, I was undaunted as I was so curious as to how programming languages worked I studied the two enclosed programming books in depth. I wrote sizable programs in that 16k space. Though it doesn't seem like much, once I finished a program I had no way to save it, except to write down the program line by line in a notebook I still have. Took pages and pages to save them. Months later I finally bought a cassette system and spent an entire weekend re-keying my programs to save them on tape. The slow rythmic byte crunching sound of data being saved was music to my ears. And though it could take minutes to load a program I wrote, it was like lightning compared to the re-keying I did to run my programs. I later bought Extended BASIC and learned the joys of sprites. The stored speech module gave me the joy of...well, speech! By the time I stopped spending money on it in about 1990, I was up to about 90 cartridges, dual floppies, and even dual cassette! The last time I spent any money for it was actually about a year ago. Someone on ebay sells a yellow composite cable adaptor for use on more modern tv's. No more 300 Ohm connectors. I learned so much on that thing and it spring boarded me into an IT career. What would have become of me if I had listened to all the nay sayers who said I should not buy one? Last edited by tron3; 06-02-2008 at 09:29 PM.

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06-02-2008, 09:23 PM	#2
JJ Blu-ray Count Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Miami, FL Home Theater Gallery:99 4K collection:619 Blu-ray collection:1293 DVD collection:31 Digital collection:5 Blu-ray reviews: 18 Trading Score:203	I cant remember much of my first computer - other than I spent all day playing "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" and some mystery game at a museum on them in all of four glorious colors! I was too young to know all the technical stuff.

06-02-2008, 11:34 PM	#3
2112 Active Member Member since:Dec 2007 Location:Kalispell, MT Blu-ray collection:63	I had a Commodore VIC 20

06-02-2008, 11:47 PM	#4
jkwest Off-Topic King Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Northern California PSN Id: jkwest5 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:20	Tandy 1000 Played long hours of Kings Quest II on that baby!!

06-02-2008, 11:52 PM	#5
JasonR Super Moderator Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Trading Score:12	Commodore 64

06-03-2008, 12:13 AM	#7
My_Two_Cents Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Dec 2007 Location:Wherever I may roam.... Home Theater Gallery:40 4K collection:35 Blu-ray collection:507 DVD collection:19 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:4	Radio Shack TRS-80 in High School with cassette tape storage of programs. I can still remember playing my very first computer game on one of those, unfortunately I cannot remember the name of it. It was all text-based and sort-of RTS-ish. You grew and sold crops in order to feed and support a community and army, which was then used to defend and attack others in order to gain more land. It was really kind of fun, and took-up a lot of my study hall time.

06-03-2008, 01:02 AM	#8
Sling Special Member Member since:Oct 2007 Location:Virginia Beach Blu-ray reviews:2	My first PC toy purchased at radio shack .I bought it with my paper rout money.

06-03-2008, 01:51 AM	#10
Psychonaut Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Apr 2008 Location:Second left after Wal-Mart Blu-ray collection:111	I think the first our family owned was a Commodore Plus4 We then upgraded to the uber Apple IIGS

06-03-2008, 02:04 AM	#11
DetroitSportsFan Hot Deals Moderator Top contributor Member since:Aug 2007 Location:Michigan 4K collection:439 Blu-ray collection:2226 Trading Score:93	I never had a computer until the late 90s. I had about every video game system since the Atari 2600 though.

06-03-2008, 05:29 AM	#12
Marquoz Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jan 2008 Location:New Orleans Home Theater Gallery:4 Blu-ray collection:167 Trading Score:2	First computer I remember was an IBM PCJr with cartridges for I think DOS, and then cartridges for the games. The second computer was a Goldstar (I want to say that's now LG?) 8088. It had a whopping, the salesman tried to convince my mother it was too big, 30 meg hard drive. A huge premium was paid for THAT puppy! It was 10 megs larger then the standard hard drive, so was a large markup! It had this cool command prompt where you had to memorize your commands, like copy a:\. c:\ to copy your game on the hard drive. It had glorious 4 color CGA! All the bells and whistles for your high tech bleeding edge power machine! It included a massive 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, and even a turbo button that increased the CPU power!

06-03-2008, 05:37 AM	#13
cpgator Senior Member Member since:Aug 2007 Location:Parker, CO

06-03-2008, 12:55 PM	#15
Nerdkiller likes BD Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2008 Location:Wrestling in Ireland. PSNetwork: Nerdkiller316PSN Nerds beaten up: Loads 4K collection:75 Blu-ray collection:880 Trading Score:1	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecf...rsist_locale=1 An all time classic Mac commercial.

06-03-2008, 02:30 PM	#19
sssick Expert Member Member since:Jan 2008	I had a Tandy 2000 and my favorite game was Jordan Vs. Bird. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSXOmJ3mH7A

06-03-2008, 03:42 PM	#20
TwYsTeD Active Member Member since:Apr 2008 Location:Home of Mickey Rat Ca, Home Theater Gallery:3 4K collection:247 Blu-ray collection:2211 Trading Score:30	funny thing i still have my commodore vic 20 and my 64 ;D they are not hooked up anymore but they are in the closet in my bedroom..

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