Arcade heaven! - Page 2

malazn mafia · 02-12-2017, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

The first PC (clone) I had only ran DOS (it was prior to windows).
You had to know your commands, or have a simple menu program like Xtree.

The # 1 pirate command: copy a: *.* b: (when you had 2 floppy drives).
Copy protection? What protection?

I still wonder how I ever thought a 10Mb hard drive was big. It held the equivalent of 25-30x 5.25" floppies! I made a slide hammer with the splindle out of that drive - because it was a double-height drive, the spindle was a cylinder of steel around 100mm high x 40mm diameter, with a 10mm hole down the guts. Nice & solid.

The turbo button on them was interesting - it actually worked in reverse (ie with turbo on it ran at its rated speed, and when turbo was off it slowed it down. Was a good cheat mode for games that relied on the processor clock speed, and slowed down as well.

Do you remember the early "rubber cup" modems for the old dial phones?

I bought the little Sega genesis classic thing a while back - never realised how woesful the graphics on Alex Kidd were.... and Sonic isn't much better.

I still own a Super Nintendo & dozens of games, buried somewhere in the garage, so I bought the mini when it came out a few months back. Mario Kart brings back some memories!

Would trade all the modern conveniences like wifi, smartphone, online shopping etc to have all of that back, those were the days. Simple, stable and built to last. All the modern overcomplicated tech has gotten so unreliable and with the built in redundancy where they don't last beyond the warranty period, it's all just a big rort..

Kieron · 04-12-2017, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Would trade all the modern conveniences like wifi, smartphone, online shopping etc to have all of that back, those were the days. Simple, stable and built to last. All the modern overcomplicated tech has gotten so unreliable and with the built in redundancy where they don't last beyond the warranty period, it's all just a big rort..

Ive worked in IT for 30 years and I'm not sure I agree mate. Modern day electronics at the hardware level are easily as reliable as back then and are far more affordable nowadays. Back then, hard disks, crt monitors, memory chips were all common failures in my experience. Software wise, big issues back then was software had there own drivers for any peripherals, major PITA to get printers, plotters digitisers etc to work correctly for all apps.

Planned obsolescence where consumers seem the crave the latest and greatest is the big rort by manufactures but this applies to virtually all consumer items, including cars. For those of use who hang on to tech (myself included) as we see them as tools to do certain tasks as opposed to a must have accessory, we eventually have to upgrade as software etc no longer work on the older devices, Series I FG Falcon/Iphone owners using bluetooth will know what I mean

robertmanziel · 14-01-2018, 10:55 PM

Nostalgic! My childhood games. Look at how everything has changed.

**Beastie** · 15-01-2018, 09:14 PM

Slightly off topic, but reading this tread today, I can't help but think of this band...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o1pOGc-zS0

snap0964 · 15-01-2018, 10:12 PM

^^^^Showing your age Tom.
This is the only song I remember from them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epfomZRUyRo .
When I was a Navy trainee in the early 80's a classmate bought a 7" single from that album you posted, this was on the B side - got to like it actually.
It had been released a few times - one version in German.
Anyways, my computer intro was in high school in 1980 - the Tandy TRS-80.
http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html

And later http://oldcomputers.net/vic20.html

**Beastie** · 15-01-2018, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snap0964

^^^^Showing your age Tom.
This is the only song I remember from them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epfomZRUyRo .
When I was a Navy trainee in the early 80's a classmate bought a 7" single from that album you posted, this was on the B side - got to like it actually.
It had been released a few times - one version in German.
Anyways, my computer intro was in high school in 1980 - the Tandy TRS-80.
http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html
image
And later http://oldcomputers.net/vic20.html
image

And what a great song...

I worked at Dick Smith Electronics during my year 10 work experience and the first thing I ever sold was a Commodore Vic 20...

Iggle Piggle · 15-01-2018, 10:42 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufBYaYJAERc

Were some bargains to be had back then...

Potability:

Cause 'puters were sexy back then:

snap0964 · 16-01-2018, 12:22 AM

^^^^^^My 486DX66 cost $3500 in 1994. Can't remember the HDD size, but it did have a superfast 2 x Cdrom drive !! DOS6.22/WIN 3.11.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beastie

I worked at Dick Smith Electronics during my year 10 work experience and the first thing I ever sold was a Commodore Vic 20...

Yeah, IIRC I bought mine while I was home on leave in 1984 - you could use a CRT TV as a monitor. I went deluxe and got the cassette deck as well

Used it for a few years and packed it away then for a fair few years too, til it ended up as landfill when I moved house in the mid nineties.

snap0964 · 16-01-2018, 12:29 AM

Actually, speaking of landfill, here's the doco "Atari - Game over".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew8j62WaZ7Q
Most have probably seen it, free to air on SBS, or Netflix.
Covers the rise and fall of Atari, and the game ET and what happened with it.

Kieron · 02-02-2018, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snap0964

^^^^Showing your age Tom.
This is the only song I remember from them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epfomZRUyRo.

I worked at Tandy in the mid 80's (when the CD player was first introduced), we played their album 'The Man-Machine' on the linear tracking turntable in rotation with 'Brothers in Arm's' on the CD player. Both albums drilled into my mind, finally bought 'Trans Europe Express In' which was surprisingly popular with the shoppers.

Quote:

Anyways, my computer intro was in high school in 1980 - the Tandy TRS-80.
image

The game on the screen in this pic is Star Trek. Enterprise is in the middle and a Klingon towards the bottom RHS. Took me ages to type the BASIC code in from this book -

snap0964 · 02-02-2018, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kieron

we played their album 'The Man-Machine' on the linear tracking turntable

Yeah, 'The Model' first appeared on that album - late 70's IIRC, and it was done in German.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kieron

The game on the screen in this pic is Star Trek. Enterprise is in the middle and a Klingon towards the bottom RHS.

We used to play 'Super Star Trek' on the TRS-80, not a lot of graphics, but you could do Long/Short range scans, fire Phasors/Photon torpedoes, etc.
"Condition Red - Shields dangerously low".