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Old home computer thread.


Bender
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My first home computer was a Commodore 16.

It had the same (stronger) processor as the 'new' Com 64 (called plus/4 or something), which was to replace the original Com 64.

This never happened though. Well, not on a scale that Commodore hoped.

Mainly because there was so much software for the old Com 64 that would not run on the new Com 64, that people never bothered to replace their old indestructible C64.

If I'm not mistaken, there also was a 128 K version, but that never made it either for the same reason.

And when the first PC came, it was 'game over' for hobby computers... Generally speaking.


Anyway, the reason for me to buy the C16 was that it had a set of Basic commands that made it easy to make music on it.

Without 'peeking and poking'....

And I was more interested in music than in hobby computers.

What else I did do though was teaching my girls to make simple programs in Basic and getting them a bit acquainted with computers

And I bought a few games for them (or maybe they came with the Com 16 when I bought it) so they could play with it and thus get used to 'Computing'.


Unlike my colleagues, I had a 'life' outside work.

Mainly concerning music (active and passive), motorbikes (also as a part time instructor) , reading (history books), playing volley-ball and hobby a bit on my house...

So after a days work, I did not care much for computers, I had other interests.

Whereas my colleagues came home, locked themselves in their 'hobby rooms' and got to 'work' on their hobby computers, and later of course their PC's, till bed time.... and beyond. :shock:

So next morning they could hardly keep their eyes open at work. And their hobby cost a fortune; always buying the latest, fastest, largest memory... :roll:

Now I could understand how this computer hobby 'grabs' you, if they had some other profession, like carpenter, salesman, bookkeeper, farmer or whatever...

But... we were : It-professionals ! In my case since 1969.

We worked with computers the whole day, every day !

Don't get me wrong, I liked my work. I've done it all my life.

It was very interesting and I've seen the whole range of developments, from punch-card up until smartphones.

But I just cannot understand how people who are working with computers can have no other interest than... computers. :scratch:


Of course after the Com 16 I did have PC's or laptops too.

But I still don't care much for games or video's or 'social' media.

Well OK... a motorbike forum or 2, but that's about bikes, not computers.

I've got a lot time off now, being retired, but I'd rather listen to music, or make music , or go for a walk or, better even, get up my bike and ride...


But don't let this stop you, computer freaks...!

Just be happy in whatever you like to do !

And fortunately there are always a few who do it for the benefit of others...

They are called mods ! :thumb:

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I remember copying my friends games by using the double cassette deck on the home stereo :D

 

Games cottoned onto that and had a bootloader that had a few ways to detect an original tape mostly down to timings and a specific high data density, It took me about a month to get the code from the boot loader work out what it was doing, I then wrote in assembler a new loader and was well chuffed when it worked, I didn't actually do anything with it though as I didn't have a clue about selling copies dohhh


6502 machine code is lightening fast, first time I wrote something that worked I thought it had failed I had to put huge loops in it just to slow it down to a second.

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I used to program in games that had all the code ready written in magazines. I would always end up with a typo and it would take hours trying to find it. Once the game was running it was inevitably total shit.

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First computer I worked with was a NASCOM at work and a Spectrum ZX80. Both ran a form of basic and I took a ZX80 program for calculating cable sizes and conduit and trunking capacities then rewrote it to run on the NASCOM. We used that in the office for ages. I then added programs to do light calculations for spraybooths etc. All in basic.

Over time these programs were upgraded to run on newer machines before ending up on spreadsheets.

Those were the days. Now you pay a small fortune for this type of pragmatism to run on Windows.

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just a small tangent... I just realised, or 'remembered to remember' - the computer Im using right now is 9 years old. bought new 2011.

And I only bought it because when I saw it for the first time I didn't have the foggiest idea of what I was actually looking at. totally confused.

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I had a Commodore 64 then was heavily into the Amiga scene of the early/mid 90s, owning 500, 600 and then modded 1200 models. Created a few games using AMOS too. In 92-93 I ran a games shop which specialized in imported consoles like Neo Geo, PC Engine, Super Famicom etc. I remember Jap copies of Street Fighter 2 flying out the door at £100! It was a short bubble but we made a huge profit before the SNES and Megadrive were released in the UK and the likes of Dixons took over.


Then I built my first PC, a 486 133mhz, 4mb of ram in 1995 which was enough to play Doom and Doom 2 at LAN parties, then many years of upgrades and online PC gaming ensued, spent years playing Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament.


I've had just about every console going, currently a Xbox One X. More of a casual gamer these days, love GTA online, RDR2 and currently Modern Warfare.

 

Did you play Duke Nukem 3d ? Great in a lan or dial up game. I'd use the freeze gun to freeze my mate & then dance in front of his Duke which he'd see but be paralyzed then kick him. I had a go at the map editor, flippin hours I wasted on that.

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We used to play Descent during lunch at work on the networked PC’s. Said we were testing and monitoring the lag on the network.

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I had a Commodore 64 then was heavily into the Amiga scene of the early/mid 90s, owning 500, 600 and then modded 1200 models. Created a few games using AMOS too. In 92-93 I ran a games shop which specialized in imported consoles like Neo Geo, PC Engine, Super Famicom etc. I remember Jap copies of Street Fighter 2 flying out the door at £100! It was a short bubble but we made a huge profit before the SNES and Megadrive were released in the UK and the likes of Dixons took over.


Then I built my first PC, a 486 133mhz, 4mb of ram in 1995 which was enough to play Doom and Doom 2 at LAN parties, then many years of upgrades and online PC gaming ensued, spent years playing Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament.


I've had just about every console going, currently a Xbox One X. More of a casual gamer these days, love GTA online, RDR2 and currently Modern Warfare.

 

Did you play Duke Nukem 3d ? Great in a lan or dial up game. I'd use the freeze gun to freeze my mate & then dance in front of his Duke which he'd see but be paralyzed then kick him. I had a go at the map editor, flippin hours I wasted on that.

 

I did! The map editor was great, I used to make some devious ones then drop them to my mate on a 3.5" disc and he'd return the favour. Made loads of maps using the Quake editor too. Kinda miss those days when it was all new and exciting.

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Did you play Duke Nukem 3d ? Great in a lan or dial up game. I'd use the freeze gun to freeze my mate & then dance in front of his Duke which he'd see but be paralyzed then kick him. I had a go at the map editor, flippin hours I wasted on that.

 

I love Duke!! I have probably had a copy of that game on every computer or console I've owned.

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Ahhh duke, " I'm hear to kick ass and chew gum and I'm all out of gum"


I had a mate who bought an atari st after seeing the parrot demo, on the back of this another bought one for a flight sim, we then discovered the flight sim could be split between the 2 via a midi cable.


Wow this is the future we thought so we set everything up and it worked great, except it was fairly realistic and no one was really any good so we just got a glimpse of the other plane as it either shot past you or crashed, we became very bored very quickly and then invented a game, who could do the most amount of damage to the twin towers by crashing into them...... :oops:

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That reminds me, I had this game where you had to recreate the Kennedy assassination as faithfully as possible. Could never get the shots lined up quite right, but I did learn how to be way more efficient than Lee Harvey Oswald. If you take out the driver first it's MUCH easier to pick off every single person in the car :lol:

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All this talk of Amstrads and Dizzy sent me on a quick rummage..


https://i.imgur.com/SsflFog.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>


Sad fact - it never loaded properly, not once :cry:


Still got the CPC464 and a CPC6128, I haven't touched either in about 20 years but they're there, ready and waiting for.. Something..


After the Amstrads (which were pretty useless without Internet or anything, let's be honest) we had a recycled 486, and then a few years later went LARGE on a Duron 1300 system which would actually play games online, even if the GPU was some awful Sis 730 monstrosity. Personally my first built/hobby machine was a Pentium 2, quickly upgraded to P3 spec with a slocket and the basic bones are still with me today - I'll be going on a trip to That London on Saturday to pick up a PSU for it!

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I had a commodore then an amiga500

then I didn't have 1 at all for years while I was in the Army.


I had to learn quite a bit of BASIC and then even how to code in REBATE (military BASIC spin off)


I wouldn't have a clue now :lol:


The furnaces I look after now used to be xp but now we're on windows10

(I only know how to do the things I need to)

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[mention]rennie[/mention]


Furnace control




10 furnace$ =0:cold$=98

20 run furnace

30 Repeat; furnace=furnace +1; until furnace >100

40 end furnace

50 if furnace=< cold$ then goto30 else goto60

60 if furnace=bang then run.


😂

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Did you play Duke Nukem 3d ? Great in a lan or dial up game. I'd use the freeze gun to freeze my mate & then dance in front of his Duke which he'd see but be paralyzed then kick him. I had a go at the map editor, flippin hours I wasted on that.

 

I love Duke!! I have probably had a copy of that game on every computer or console I've owned.

 

It was a fun game even when you blew you're mate up ( loved the trip mines ) If you kill someone on COD it's so realistic you feel like going & buying a poppy

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Did you play Duke Nukem 3d ? Great in a lan or dial up game. I'd use the freeze gun to freeze my mate & then dance in front of his Duke which he'd see but be paralyzed then kick him. I had a go at the map editor, flippin hours I wasted on that.

 

I love Duke!! I have probably had a copy of that game on every computer or console I've owned.

 

It was a fun game even when you blew you're mate up ( loved the trip mines ) If you kill someone on COD it's so realistic you feel like going & buying a poppy

 

Spy v spy was good

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I love Duke!! I have probably had a copy of that game on every computer or console I've owned.

 

It was a fun game even when you blew you're mate up ( loved the trip mines ) If you kill someone on COD it's so realistic you feel like going & buying a poppy

 

Spy v spy was good

 

Team Fortress 2 :thumb:

You've probably shot me in CounterStrike bythway :shock:

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Talking of blowing things up, I was wondering why me and my mates got into computers later than most and remembered that one of my mates dads worked in a chemical factory. He regularly supplied us with various chemicals that went bang with a satisfying amount of noise, smoke and destruction. I reckon we spent many happy hours out on waste sites finding things to destroy when most of our peers were glued to keyboards.


I reckon we got the better deal.


It came to an end when, being easily led, he was persuaded to join in an attempted break in at a local newsagents. They were after the fags. He was the designated brick thrower but missed the window and had hit the frame. The brick bounced off, hit one of his associates and knocked him out. At this point they noticed the police car parked over the road and legged it. My mate wasn’t a good runner so decided to try to hide under a car. Unfortunately he wasn’t too bright either and didn’t spot that it was the police car he’d hidden under.


I think that put an end to the supply of explosives so we had to resort to computers but it was never the same.

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@rennie


Furnace control




10 furnace$ =0:cold$=98

20 run furnace

30 Repeat; furnace=furnace +1; until furnace >100

40 end furnace

50 if furnace=< cold$ then goto30 else goto60

60 if furnace=bang then run.


😂

 

:lol: there's a line between every one of them! Shout at operator!

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Team Fortress 2 :thumb:

YEEEEEES


I don't even want to know how many hours I've sunk into TF2. Enough that I've reset my stats a few times so my loading screen doesn't make me feel bad about how I've spent my life :lol:

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