Text 15136, 117 rader
Skriven 2014-05-11 11:51:00 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOE DELAHAYE
Ärende: Re: Right up your, errrr,
=================================
On 05-10-14, JOE DELAHAYE said to TIM RICHARDSON:

JD>Re: Re: Right up your, errrr,
JD>By: TIM RICHARDSON to JOE DELAHAYE on Sat May 10 2014 06:12:00

JD>>First one was a Radio Shack Colour Computer.


TR> Heh heh heh....my first one was a Commodore 64! Without a `floppy' drive!
TR> That meant if I wanted to play any of the games available in the various
TR> publications available then, I had to type the entire program out line by
TR> line (sometimes took an hour or more!), and then spend MORE time trying
TR> the program...going to whatever line it told me there was an `error' on,
TR> and re- typing it...(which usually took almost another hour)...and THEN
TR> played with it for oh....around 30 minutes or so before I got
JD>bored....and TR> dumped it!


JD>No floppy drive at first either.  did have a tape drive, and of course
JD>game and program cartridges.


Yeah. I remember that. The first `drive' I had was a tape drive, too. Forgot
about it till you just mentioned tapes. I could do all that typing, checking
out the `errors', and then `save' it all to tape!


But to do a `real' program (and the ones that came on `tape' were limited
around here) you had to have a 1541(?) floppy drive! Like...you couldn't get
Microsoft Flight Simulator for Commodore 64 on `tape'. The tape couldn't hold
even a third of the program!


There was ONE (count 'em...ONE) computer store where you could buy Commodore's
and Commodore stuff, and I had to drive right past it every day to get to and
from work. Finally stopped in one day, took a look at the computer and bought
my first Commodore 64! A floppy drive was a few years down the road...they
were costly out here back then. When I finally could afford a 1541 floppy
drive, Microsoft Flight Simulator was the first big program I bought.


JD>To use a floppy, I had to buy the controller
JD>first.  To use anything other then a single sided floppy, you needed OS9
JD>if I recall correctly, or perhaps that was only for the 3.5 drives.
JD>360 k single sided disks, then 720 double sides and finally 1.2 meg


TR> Finally got the money for a floppy drive...then a second drive...


JD>That was fun


TR> When I got done building the system I had four floppy drives and a
TR> printer. Pretty good system. Even did BBS'ing locally with it. Started
TR> with a (I don't believe this) 300 baud modem! Went up to a 1200 baud
TR> Aprotec! With a 300 baud modem it took almost 35 or 40 minutes to
JD>download TR> a message packet! And usually back then users were limited to
JD>45 or 50 TR> minutes per day on a BBS.

JD>Yes,  I remember

TR> Wwhen I stepped up to my first xt, it came with a 10 meg Seagate with a
TR> DOS operating system. If you loaded `Tools' on it, it was full! Then came
TR> a 40 meg drive! Lots of fun.


JD>My buddy got a 40 meg drive.  Cost him either $400 or $600.  Cant remember
JD>any more


I got hold of a 40 meg Seagate drive from a IBM-based store not far from where
I was living in the early 1990's. Cheap. It was used. Had a friend who ran a
BBS I belonged to then install it. You had to `format' it first! Took hours!
Even a `low-level' format was a time consumer!


Now...you can format a drive in less than a few minutes!


TR> I remember when Amiga came out with a one meg external drive. That was a
TR> big deal.


JD>It was.


Yeah...but they were so friggin' expensive back then I never bothered with
one.


I gave the Commodore 64 to a niece who was in middle school at the time, and
the Amiga to a nephew for his kids to play with.


TR> Nowadays, all you hear about is up in the `giga'byte range! Terabyte,
TR> even!


Back then...with the monitor you had remote equipment sitting all over the
desk. Even today I got the monitor which takes up a lot less room now, but the
tower, and then the printer on a stand behind my chair.


My next computer will be an HP with just a large monitor. The only remote
equipment will be the printer. Everything is contained in the monitor. The
prices on the one I want will drop a lot by this coming Christmas to make room
for the new lines. Maybe I'll buy it for Christmas.






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