(no subject)

[andrewducker]

For those that ever had a computer between 1980 and 1984, this is very funny.

(Flash animation, video)

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, that seems to just about be exactly right. But they don't mention my Atari 800?

[andrewducker]

They only mention my BBC model B by proxy.

Bloody Spectrum owners.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

That's because sod-all could afford an Atari 800!

Somewhere I have a NZ 1981 price-list for the Atari computers. They were like thousands compared to the Sinclair ZX81's hundreds...

Sigh - had to wait till I got a C64 before I truly knew what a sprite was. Hmm - balloons floating over the text? Wow!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Well, we had a 400 first, and of course I didn't pay for it, my dad did. I don't think it was so startlingly expensive, but this might have been 1982 or 1983? My dad has never quite come to terms with the direction that home computers took after that. He loved being able to write little programs to do his bagpipe stuff, and kept his 8-bit Ataris running for years and years, long past their natural life, because he knew that when he switched to PCs he'd stop coding.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Bagpipe stuff?

I switched to an Amiga and didn't program that for a long time. None of the high-level languages available seemed much good to me, C was too expensive and assembler seemed to require you to know C... So I learnt how to ray-trace instead. ;-)

Sad that when you get a new computer these days there's not a simple programming language included with it. I mean, it's a computer, right? Isn't programming it a fundamental part of it? Sigh...

I switched to an Atari

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... my dad was going to buy me a computer in 1979/1980 (I'd already written a graphics package for the Tandy TR80 Model one Level II by that point) and I was trying to choose between a Northstar (CPM with 8" floppies and *COLOUR*! and an Apple ][) but one thing didn't lead to another and my first computer ended up being a choice between a MicroProfessor (hex keypad and LED display!) or a ZX81. I went with the 81, followed by a second hand spectrum. Meanwhile my brothers went through Atari 400 and 800s.

My first programming was actually in around 1978 when my school in America was given an old Dec PDP machine and we BUILT a Heathkit Zenith terminal and bought a Decwriter paper terminal!

I worked in a hifi shop in the early/mid 80s (sixth form) selling spectrums, orics etc. and writing little demo programs for them.

So when I went to uni in 1983 it was a choice between the Atari and the Amiga (though we used BBCs as terminals to the unix network and I did a fair bit of graphics coding on them) and I went the Atari route, learned C and GEM (pre-Windows!) and eventually upgraded to a Mega ST4 with hard disk, Mac emulator cartridge, high res mono monitor etc.

And then when I went out to work, it was IBM System/38 and PCs. So I picked up a PC (about 1988) and stuck with that ever since (though I have upgraded from the 286 Tosh laptop with glowing orange screen)

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

At the time there wasn't much commercial music software, and none that would handle the peculiarities of bagpipes. So Dad wrote stuff to play bagpipe tunes on the Atari's built-in -- polyphonic!! -- sound. It always sounded awful, nearly as bad as actual bagpipes, though not as loud. (I should add that I'm fond of pipe music and own lots of it... but the performance has to be up to a certain standard before its bearable to listen to). I guess these days he could produce bagpipe ringtones...

Mac OS X includes XCode tools, a collection of development tools for producing Mac OS X apps.

[worldforger.livejournal.com]

Andy, how the hell do you find htis stuff?
*rolls eyes and chuckles*

[andrewducker]

That was on Neil Gaiman's journal.

Check out my links friends list:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker/friends/links

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

Fab. My bro had the Commodore 64 I think - c 81/82?. I had a Sinclair QL on loan from Strathclyde Uni in 85 - did it mention that? And I *might* have had my first Amstrad PCW before then, but not sure.. (and neveer played games on either - why have comp games never grabbed me??)