Retro Computing Nostalgia Thread


Prometheus

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I was mulling over how fortunate I was to have been around for the rise of home microcomputers throughout the 1980s, and figured I'd make a topic for sharing recollections of all the stuff that they enabled, caused, and whatever else, back then. :p


My first personal computer was a Commodore 64, and I remember (when I was little) spending entire weekends trying to figure out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjooF6MthoA, which is still my favourite game in that series. I'm still constantly surprised by the fact that even now, decades later, I still discover new games for this machine that I missed out on at the time.


I also fondly recall Granny's Garden on the BBC Model B machines that most British schools had at the time. How we all feared being sent home at once by the witch. :lol: I got to read the original teacher's notes for this recently, and found it quite interesting how they have several bits of humourous, but otherwise useless, information in there (amongst other things, apparently the Granny from the title drinks gin while her grandkids are outside playing in the garden from the title, and apparently one of the people who encouraged the program's development would sing the title theme down the telephone whilst "sometimes being encouraging"). I wonder how many other educational programs from back then included oddball stuff like this in their notes?


My favourite BBC Model B experience, though, was when we were introduced to a survey-taking program, which would print out a sheet of statistics when every person in the class had filled it in (it was simple stuff like favourite colour, favourite food, and all that sort of junk :p ). We were told not to mis-spell anything (this was before the days of spell-checkers), as this would cause the statistics to come out incorrectly, but someone did anyway. The teacher just yelled about it, and missed a great opportunity to explain something which was plain to the rest of us - it was a brilliant working example of how if you put bad data in, you get bad data out (and clearly it was an effective one, since I've never forgotten it :p ).
 
That's my favourite Dizzy game too (Spectrum flavoured though :p ).


There was a text adventure game I always vaguely remembered on the Micro, and after seeing this:


grannysgardenwitch.gif



I'm fairly sure it was Granny's Garden, as that picture feels very familiar. So thanks for that :)
 
She made the most terrifying, noise, too (I had no idea that this was the sound that witches made). They actually had the computer this one was played on in a separate place from all the classrooms to prevent it from distracting the other kids, when I was a young'un. I guess they didn't realise that there's an option to turn the sound off. :lol:
 
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My first own video game EVER :


Frantic_Freddy_COL_ScreenShot1.gifFrantic_Freddy_COL_ScreenShot2.gif


Sadly my Spectravideo is out of service, so I can't show you how it looks on my Amiga monitor
sad.gif



DSC00022.jpg
 
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I'm still constantly surprised by the fact that even now, decades later, I still discover new games for this machine that I missed out on at the time.

Me too .. only in my case its with the Oric-1/Atmos system .. a visit to oric.org and defence-force.org and oricgames.com is always a treat for me .. so many titles I never was even aware of, being one of only a few hundred Oric users in Australia at the time (1983) ..


My favourite Oric game right now is this one:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DlVW4r2w8y0?feature=oembed


Get the latest version for use in PandOricutron here: http://1337.defence-force.org/
 
hum, space invader on my old commodore pet 3032... yum... or not
 
I think Space Invaders on the Spectrum 48k is the first game I ever remember playing, I would have been about 5 at the time. Or my uncle had a Pong machine (with a gun and everything, wow!), so it might have been that. I also seem to remember a lot of

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mz3r_s2Zc4M?feature=oembed and Horace Goes Skiing on the Spectrum when I was very young.

I kind of remember seeing a NES at a friends house for the first time and being blown away by Super Mario Bros. - gotta get me one of those!


I've got another very hazy memory from school of a program that you typed instructions in to move a triangle on the screen. Wherever the triangle went it drew a line, kind of like a electronic etch-a-sketch. So to draw a square would have been something like:


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


I imagine this was to teach us some kind of basic programming concept, how a computer thinks. If anyone else remembers this and knows what it was and what its purpose was I'd love to know.
 
^ I don't know the program, but I've seen Pong-type machines that came with guns that look like they would get you shot. :blink:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweKsYRPQjc?fs


You could break in to the program and see how it worked! That tape is the reason I'm here.


Ok, I may be going mad, how the hell do you insert a video in the the thread?
That might have been in my Dad's tape collection that I mentally labelled "boring" :rolleyes: I did eventually get around to learning a little bit of basic though and now I'm starting to learn Python those first few programs seem strangely familiar...


There's an insert media button on the far right of the toolbar to make it simple :)
 
Tickles that sounds a bit like some old CAD ware I once used called Quark Express.


I'm sure that was all syntaxed like that to draw your geometry.


GORF was my old fav invaders type game.


BBC was early doors for me, I remember playing Horrice Skiing or something named like that, basic downhill salalam avoiding trees and that.


Megatron transformer was sweet, I had the original one, the gun [the one came out later was more pc and turned into something weak like a telescope]


think the original megatrons were fetching a few hundred quid now, saught after items.
 
Tickles that sounds a bit like some old CAD ware I once used called Quark Express.


I'm sure that was all syntaxed like that to draw your geometry.
No, I think this must've predated Quark Express. To be honest it was so simple (from the little I remember anyway) one of the teachers may have just knocked it up. Thanks though.

Megatron transformer was sweet, I had the original one, the gun [the one came out later was more pc and turned into something weak like a telescope]


think the original megatrons were fetching a few hundred quid now, saught after items.
Really? I think I may still have it at my parents' house, as long as my mum didn't throw it out... :unsure:
 
[…]


I've got another very hazy memory from school of a program that you typed instructions in to move a triangle on the screen. Wherever the triangle went it drew a line, kind of like a electronic etch-a-sketch. So to draw a square would have been something like:


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


turn right 90


forward 10


I imagine this was to teach us some kind of basic programming concept, how a computer thinks. If anyone else remembers this and knows what it was and what its purpose was I'd love to know.

It was the Logo language (wikipedia) it's pretty fun, you can easily make spyrograph-like drawings with it.


I learnt it as a first step before learning BASIC.


Oh, I remember this version of Megatron, I had it long ago. I played "police and thief" a lot with it :p
 
It was the Logo language (wikipedia) it's pretty fun, you can easily make spyrograph-like drawings with it.


I learnt it as a first step before learning BASIC.


Oh, I remember this version of Megatron, I had it long ago. I played "police and thief" a lot with it :p
That's the one :) I remember some more of the commands now I see them, especially PENUP and PENDOWN
 
Yeah if you google "megatron G1 toy"


[generation one...original]


you will see shops selling it at £120 ... £100


find yours if you can eh, though probably needs to be mint/boxed
 
The first game I played on my own computer (C64) was Bruce Lee (the second was strip poker :p )


The best Invaders I played was Invade-a-load on C64 - fast action with a great tune.


It was made so much better by only being able to play it while a game was loading ... limited time made you hunger for more and unless you stopped the tape in just the right place it crashed :s


Spent most time playing Mission Impossible, got a game to around twenty minutes.


Oooh! And now I'm started I gotta mention H.E.R.O. So damn simple, so damned addictive.


Sheesh! Kids today have it so easy with graphics you dont have to use your imagination with ;)
 
^ I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers Invade-a-Load! :lol: I never had any games with it included, but I recall visiting a friend's house one day and seeing it there - wasn't Ghostbusters one of the games that had it, or am I misremembering? (I only remember that that was another game we played that day. :p )
 
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