Can't beat a real Amiga though. :)
Hello from sunny South Wales :)
I feel like I have nostalgia for beige PCs, as I always pictured a
desktop PC on a desk, used as a tool, and desktop computers were
commonly beige. I still sometimes would like to have a space big enough for a big computer desk with storage for media & things, and bonus
points would be also having a beige PC case..
The old 286 era equipment stuffed into XT style cases that have an open layout, lots of space, and allow for full height, full length cards. I
had 3 of those stacked at one stage..
I never could afford magazines for type-ins but I do remember my brother and me collaborating to type in a "baby crying" program from the C64 manual. One-read-one-type-then-swap setup. The *entire* thing was pokes, as I remember it, and it didn't work by the time we had it all entered.
Wouldn't it be a surprise if there was a misprint in the book and that's why it never worked?
Oh yes, Lemmings, Lotus Challenge 1,2 & 3
"Kids, We didn't have fancy computer games when we growed up. We had
to play with our dad's spreadsheet program - and we liked it!"
I was a little lucky in my first job, magazine returns at a newsagent. It took me a month to get enough cash for an elderly II+, it didn't pay particularly well but it did give me access to all sorts of magazines. Some of which you only had to rip the cover off to send back :) Start my program entry career as short as it was.
Typing a program into it, and hoping the power didn't go out before saving it to tape. Or "Dad vorlon's hogging the TV, I want to watch a show"....
Do you still have any of the authentic, no-cover magazines?
On 27 Jun 2024, Spectre said the following...
You had a spreadsheet? We were writing basic programs on paper... :/
I remember checking a book out from the library filled with basic programs for the C64, oh the joys of typing pages upon pages of basic code hoping you don't make a typo. At least I was able to save any of the good programs/games to a cassette once I had typed them out correctly.
Never went there. The parents always though that computers would be a f in the pan, so no typing. A lot later though, the same jooy could be h entering hexadecimal code into "Monitor" on the II range... the joys of looking for typo in reams of two digit numbers... Even worse than hunti basic code.
I never could afford magazines for type-ins but I do remember my brother and me collaborating to type in a "baby crying" program from the C64 manual. One-read-one-type-then-swap setup. The *entire* thing was pokes, as I remember it, and it didn't work by the time we had it all entered.
Wouldn't it be a surprise if there was a misprint in the book and that's why it never worked?
There were always mistakes in those magazines and books.
For magazines you would need to wait for a following
issue if the noticed the mistake, or for a lot of the
books, the programs written in basic would be a generic
basic, and sometimes you would need to modify it for you
particular computer.
When I got the VIC20 I did not even have
a desk, the computer would just be on the ground with me cross-legged sitting on the floor typing away.
I remember trying to get some Sinclair BASIC programs running in Microsoft GW-BASIC in DOS, I'd never seen a ZX Spectrum in my life.
I remember trying to get some Sinclair BASIC
programs running in Microsoft
GW-BASIC in DOS, I'd never seen a ZX Spectrum in my life.
I think you had more luck making Sinclair type-ins work
on DOS than I ever did on my aunt's Sinclair. That
awful BASIC where you had to have the cursor in keyword
mode and press "P" for "PRINT" - don't *type* "PRINT",
that won't work. Oh, you did it again. Oh and now the
whole line is muffed and actually now that I look, so
is that one 3 lines ago.
35 years on and I'm still extraordinarily furious just
thinking back to that. And to think, people loved those
things. What's wrong with people?
Oh no. I didn't realize the depths of the depravity of Sinclair BASIC.
I've always been curious about the ZX Spectrum but now I must re-evaluate whether it is a curiousity or a curse.
Oh no. I didn't realize the depths of the depravity of Sinclair BASIC.
The later releases I believe worked the "normal" way, it was just the very memory constrained earlier BASICs that made life that difficult. Possibly you could get used to it but I sure as hell was not going to put myself through that for a computer I didn't own.
Not sure where it came from, but we liberated a Sinclair from a School Cabinet. It had the wacky press this button for print, do not type print, do not pass go. We gave it back after the weekend :)
Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
You had a spreadsheet? We were writing basic programs on paper... :/
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