It doesn't feel like 20 years
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
I think I got my first computer when I was 8, and that was a ZX Spectrum with 16K. And like Michael, I had books with listing which I typed and modified. but I didn't get really interested in programming until I was about 12. until then I was more interested in electronics. I can't recall why my interests shifted back then. :vegemite: 4 3vR maXallion
"It shouldn't have done that!" - Architect, Merlin
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & more -
Roger Allen wrote: I started on A Dragon 32. I used to program games for my cousins who had a Dragon 32. I think I had a ZX Spectrum at the time and I was really jealous of the proper keyboard. Of course the Speccy had the superior software :-) Michael :-)
Michael P Butler wrote: I was really jealous of the proper keyboard Thy jest! Proper keyboard! Ha! Did you know that the force of each keypress went stright down into the solder joints on the underlying PCB? The number of times I had to disassemble that sucker to re-solder the cracked joints to get the keys working! It would always go wrong in the middle of one of the best games we were playing. Just to blow my own trumpet: My favorite game on the D32 was "Buzzard Bait" a Joust clone. My brother and I were so good at it it was unbeleiveable! In computer mags people were saying "I got to level 32 and scored 16000", where we were getting to level 400+! Michael P Butler wrote: Of course the Speccy had the superior softwar In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. Roger Allen Sonork 100.10016 If I'm not breathing, I'm either dead or holding my breath. A fool jabbers, while a wise man listens. But is he so wise to listen to the fool?
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
I guess you have to decide when does a calculator stops and a computer begins. I started with a Wang 720 http://www.geocities.com/oldcalculators/wang720.html. I did have the 4k expansion pack which was 1/2 the size of a 2 draw file cabinet and I was very happy to be using magnetic tape (those new micro cassettes) rather than my schools paper tape reader.
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I got my first computer in 1984: Commodore 64 with tape drive. These tape drives were really horrible. Half the time the reading head had to be adjusted to avoid load errors. X| But i got a floppy disk drive one year later!!:-D Thomas
Yes, you needed a small screwdriver to adjust it. This is usually called "good old times" :-D -- See me: www.magerquark.de
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
Commodore VIC20 (8k RAM) aged 8 or so ZXSpectrum +3 (Had a 3 inch double sided floppy drive) Commodore Amiga 500 (paid 100 quid for a second 3.5 inch floppy, and another 100 quid for 512k of ram) Plethora of PC's and laptops now. if(E_NOINTERFACE == pThat->QueryInterface(IID_IUnknown,(void**)&pUnk)) { // I aint no pUnk bitch! }
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Michael P Butler wrote: I was really jealous of the proper keyboard Thy jest! Proper keyboard! Ha! Did you know that the force of each keypress went stright down into the solder joints on the underlying PCB? The number of times I had to disassemble that sucker to re-solder the cracked joints to get the keys working! It would always go wrong in the middle of one of the best games we were playing. Just to blow my own trumpet: My favorite game on the D32 was "Buzzard Bait" a Joust clone. My brother and I were so good at it it was unbeleiveable! In computer mags people were saying "I got to level 32 and scored 16000", where we were getting to level 400+! Michael P Butler wrote: Of course the Speccy had the superior softwar In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. Roger Allen Sonork 100.10016 If I'm not breathing, I'm either dead or holding my breath. A fool jabbers, while a wise man listens. But is he so wise to listen to the fool?
Hey, the BBC Micro had Elite, Frak, A great F1 game (for it's time) and a whole host of Arcade type games from Acornsoft including Defender and Pacman. And it had a proper keyboard. Damn, looks like the Beeb/Speccy war is still on ;P Paresh Solanki You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead - Stan Laurel
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
My first computer was an Atari 400 (you know...the one with the Chiclet style keyboard). My father bought it because he thought he could figure it out. HA HA! Yeah, right. So, he gave it to me to play with. It has 32 K of memory (a ton in those days!). It also had the tape drive and a floppy drive (which never worked). I had a few games, but I spent most of my time coding in Basic (which came on a cartridge like the games did). That was the start of my career...this was back in 1981 or so. I used this for about 3 years, then I stopped programming for a few years then started back up again in 1989. It's been nothing but fun and games ever since! :) Brigg Thorp Software Engineer Timex Corporation
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Hey, the BBC Micro had Elite, Frak, A great F1 game (for it's time) and a whole host of Arcade type games from Acornsoft including Defender and Pacman. And it had a proper keyboard. Damn, looks like the Beeb/Speccy war is still on ;P Paresh Solanki You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead - Stan Laurel
Yeah but the Speccy had the better version of Elite :-D Michael :-)
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ZX Spectrum with 64K. The games that got me thru junior school: Jetpack, Manic Miner Cheers, Simon X-5 452 rules.
simons wrote: ZX Spectrum with 64K. :omg: how did you manage to fit 64K into a Speccy? I thought they only come with 16K or 48K? maXallion
"It shouldn't have done that!" - Architect, Merlin
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & more -
Michael P Butler wrote: I was really jealous of the proper keyboard Thy jest! Proper keyboard! Ha! Did you know that the force of each keypress went stright down into the solder joints on the underlying PCB? The number of times I had to disassemble that sucker to re-solder the cracked joints to get the keys working! It would always go wrong in the middle of one of the best games we were playing. Just to blow my own trumpet: My favorite game on the D32 was "Buzzard Bait" a Joust clone. My brother and I were so good at it it was unbeleiveable! In computer mags people were saying "I got to level 32 and scored 16000", where we were getting to level 400+! Michael P Butler wrote: Of course the Speccy had the superior softwar In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. Roger Allen Sonork 100.10016 If I'm not breathing, I'm either dead or holding my breath. A fool jabbers, while a wise man listens. But is he so wise to listen to the fool?
Roger Allen wrote: In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. The Spectrum had some great games, 'The Hobbit' , 'Elite', 'Jetpac' 'Attic Atac' 'KnightLore' and the wonderful 'SabreWulf' I also spend a lot of time playing with 'The Quill' - a adventure game creator which game us such classics as "Bored of the Rings', "The Boggit" and "Robin of Sherlock' Oh the 80's such a wonderful time to be a games player Michael :-)
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simons wrote: ZX Spectrum with 64K. :omg: how did you manage to fit 64K into a Speccy? I thought they only come with 16K or 48K? maXallion
"It shouldn't have done that!" - Architect, Merlin
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & moreOver the years (especially after Amstrad bought the Sinclair Brand) there have been quiet a few varations on the Spectrum. There was also a large market for add on ram packs and the like. Michael :-)
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Michael P Butler wrote: I was really jealous of the proper keyboard Thy jest! Proper keyboard! Ha! Did you know that the force of each keypress went stright down into the solder joints on the underlying PCB? The number of times I had to disassemble that sucker to re-solder the cracked joints to get the keys working! It would always go wrong in the middle of one of the best games we were playing. Just to blow my own trumpet: My favorite game on the D32 was "Buzzard Bait" a Joust clone. My brother and I were so good at it it was unbeleiveable! In computer mags people were saying "I got to level 32 and scored 16000", where we were getting to level 400+! Michael P Butler wrote: Of course the Speccy had the superior softwar In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. Roger Allen Sonork 100.10016 If I'm not breathing, I'm either dead or holding my breath. A fool jabbers, while a wise man listens. But is he so wise to listen to the fool?
Dragon 32 fan too :-D Beam Rider was the best game so original - nothing like it since! Davy http://www.LateDecember.com
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ZX Spectrum with 64K. The games that got me thru junior school: Jetpack, Manic Miner Cheers, Simon X-5 452 rules.
Jetpac was always my favourite arcade game, did you ever play Skool Daze and Back to Skool? They were great and I really wish somebody would remake them for the PC. Michael :-)
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
Happy anniversary! :) I started programming (in Pascal) in the fall of 1980 on a VAX-1l/780. Got my first PC (IBM-AT 6MHz 80286, 512K RAM, 20Mb hard disk) in 1984 and programmed in C using the MS C 3.0 compiler. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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Roger Allen wrote: In those days, I don;t think any of the computers had superior software. The Spectrum had some great games, 'The Hobbit' , 'Elite', 'Jetpac' 'Attic Atac' 'KnightLore' and the wonderful 'SabreWulf' I also spend a lot of time playing with 'The Quill' - a adventure game creator which game us such classics as "Bored of the Rings', "The Boggit" and "Robin of Sherlock' Oh the 80's such a wonderful time to be a games player Michael :-)
Yeah! Sabre Wulf IS one of my fav's! But don't forget the DIZZY Adventures! maXallion
"It shouldn't have done that!" - Architect, Merlin
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & more -
Over the years (especially after Amstrad bought the Sinclair Brand) there have been quiet a few varations on the Spectrum. There was also a large market for add on ram packs and the like. Michael :-)
I only know of the russian version of the Spectrum (Pentagon) with 1MB+ ram any idea where I can get such a pack nowadays? I've still got 16K of spare ram, but no way of connecting it to the Speccy :( maXallion
"It shouldn't have done that!" - Architect, Merlin
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & more -
I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
Exactly the same time, the same machine. I was K-12 then. It was a good experience loading programs from tape seeing those beautiful gray, B&W bars on the screen. I really miss those times. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
You guys are ancient ;P My first computer was a 200MHz Pentium with Windows 95. I skipped BASIC and went straight to HTML, then JavaScript, then C++. One memorable program was when I tied up a school computer for a few hours with this code and gpp:
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) { cout << "\a"; }That was a quite interesting experience.:rolleyes:-Domenic Denicola- [CPUA 0x1337] Geekn MadHamster Creations
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I just realised that I've been using computers for 20 years now. I got my first computer, a ZX81 about this time in 1982. (My cousin had got one the previous Christmas) Getting hold of games and software was very difficult back then, but there were a lot of books with BASIC listings in. I typed a few of these in and then started to modify them - thus my love of programming began. So when did everybody else got their first computer and what got you started programming? Michael :-)
Me, I had a TI-99/4A for my first. Even programmed assembler on it. Got it in high school, don't remember the year. Joel Lucsy (jjlucsy@ameritech.net)