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Yes indeed. Worked real well for Adam Osborne

The Tandy Color Computer 2 Makes Learning Fun - even funnier. Anyone recognize the educational game SuperDork there is playing?

News By Computer Foils Kidnappers: Alec and Shanna invoke an AMBER Alert some twenty-plus years before its time.

Also, check out the 'portable' RS Cellular Phone.

(PS - apologies to those who lost Mod points... saw this after the fact...)

News By Computer Foils Kidnappers: Alec and Shanna invoke an AMBER Alert some twenty-plus years before its time.

Also, check out the 'portable' RS Cellular Phone.

(PS - apologies to those who lost Mod points... saw this after the fact...)

Ooh... Someone else actually uses the word ibne. I learned it from a Turkish friend of mine.

You're definitely all ibne.

Btw, the obAfricanAmerican kid and the obPhysicallyImpaired kid (with an athletic body - just look at his muscles) are included in the comic's school class. Now nobody can accuse them of discrimination!

- fighting terrorism - the enemy of free people worldwide!

Nah, but I bet it explains your midnight sleepwalking trips to the dump to scavenge for casette tape players, accoustic couplers...and, of course, Tandy Pocket Pagers.

On a serious note- it's pretty sad that Tandy blatantly took advantage of the anti-drug "war" going on to basically brainwash kids...and that teachers and parents didn't see right through it and protest up a storm.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"Gosh, Mr. Green, we were only doing what anyone would -- fighting terrorism -- the enemy of free people worldwide!"

Awww.. You slashdotted it!... Now how am I going to finish reading The Computers that said no to Drugs?

You people ruin everything

"We're proud of you son! Real proud!"
"And we'll be waiting for you when you get out of that rehabilitation center!"

Oh, and first post? Maybe...

Check out the size o' that pager.

There are some funny C64 vs. NES debates. Overall, there weren't that many Compute! articles, though. A friend of mine once got a game, and another time a disk sector editor published in Compute! magazine. That was huge for a sixteen year old! But, they weren't on the site (yet - they want your articles.)

Also, I wasn't aware there was a Datel Action Replay cartridge for the Commodore 64. They were doing it back then!

yo.

There are some funny C64 vs. NES debates. Overall, there weren't that many Compute! articles, though. A friend of mine once got a game, and another time a disk sector editor published in Compute! magazine. That was huge for a sixteen year old! But, they weren't on the site (yet - they want your articles.)

Also, I wasn't aware there was a Datel Action Replay cartridge for the Commodore 64. They were doing it back then!

yo.

The computer that said no to drugs. Oh my fucking god.

Is it me, or does this drug dealer, Mr. Clayton, look an awful lot like J. Jonah Jameson?

A 1985 interview with Dan from Antic magazine
A 1985 review of M.U.L.E. from Creative Computing

A 1985 interview with Dan from Antic magazine
A 1985 review of M.U.L.E. from Creative Computing

> the monospace-char-based interface shown in the picture you reference, running under DOS

you know, now that I am looking at that picture again, I wonder whether that wasn't pixel-based too (CGA or Hercules?). Or were italicized characters available in character mode? I was still using 8-bit machines at that time, so I did not have the thrill of using char-based interfaces on PC since I jumped straight to an Atari ST (a Mac was way above my budget back then...

Speaking of the Atari ST, it was not until 1986 when I could try the native version of MS Write on it, of all things (no MS Word there)!
Sadly, I could not afford a Mac until the Plus dropped to affordable levels on the educational pricelist... and the Atari ST had a mighty 640x400 resolution :-)

Hey, EA used to make good games too back in the day. I remember on my Atari 1200 there was this game called "Worms?" that was really great. You can read a short discription of it at http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n7/260_Ou tpost_atari.php but lets face it, that was a long time ago. They also produced really great games for the Commodore 64, like "M.U.L.E." and "Seven Cities of Gold" (which was actually decent on the first release, though the updated VGA version for PC totally sucked). In fact, if you check out HotU and show EA titles by year you'll see that their early stuff was actually pretty good. You'll also notice there are only 16 games listed (ie good games) for 1995-2002, compared to 11 listed for 1986 alone. Granted, its a site for old games, but I don't think they've left much out in this case.

In 1987 they didn't have Dungeon Keeper, but I suppose Spinnaker's Adventure Creator was sort of similar. I liked making endless looping rooms where people would get trapped....

I still have it but I have no idea whether it would actually work in modern PCs.

Check out this article about a $200 million dollar megaflop computer. Cf. to the article above (in slashdot) about a 10 teraflop box from standard PC parts.

Cool - now I can prove I really am a published author without having to bringing in my mint-condition May 1986 copy of Antic from its protective encasing at home :-). http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n1/derejoystick.ht ml

I like the Atari Pocket PC the best:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n6/european_r eport.html
(only 200 pounds!)

No, that hole designates whether it is a high density disk or not.

I searched on google for the difference between single-sided and double-sided disks and could only come up with this.

Basically, there is no difference, he should be able to use those disks in anything that will read 720K disks. Wait, here's his problem. IBM PS/2 formatted disks won't work in other types of computers...

Try twenty years! There was an old pointing device for the Atari computers which used mercury switches. There is a note about it here.

Granted, you wouldn't write a word processing suite in assembler,

Shhhh! Don't tell that to these guys:

In October 1978 [...] Barnaby began coding WordStar. In four months, Barnaby wrote 137,000 lines of bullet-proof assembly-language code. Rubenstein later checked with some friends from IBM who calculated that Barnaby's output was equal to 42 man years. [link]

...or...

For the past three years, [Jeff Wilson] has been employed by WordPerfect Corporation as a software engineer. While there, he participated in development of WordPerfect for the Apple IIe/IIc computer line. He is currently managing development of WordPerfect for the Atari ST, which should be available shortly after you read this. He programs exclusively in assembly language, and enjoys it! [link]

Also, from what I understood, the WordPerfect Corporation actually required that all programs be written in assembler. BTW, some more interesing WP history.

Oh, you mean, you wouldn't use assembler to write a word processing suite nowadays. Ok, I getcha. Yeah, I think you're right. After all, WordPerfect Corp has been out of business for how long? (Well technically, bought out and resold, and resold... They're just a name now.)

Doh...I did programming in _C_ on it, not C++. Sorry about any confusion this may have caused.

BTW: If there are any Atari fans out there, I came across this site that is quite a walk down memory lane.

Empire, Moria, Labrinth and Dry Gulch. I would love to know what became of these games...are they still alive anywhere? That would be awesome to bring some of them back!!

Moria's still around, being maintained by David J. Grabiner... some people still play it on "modern" platforms (or you can telnet to chungkuo and play it there along with many other classic games.)

I'm not familiar with Empire but it seems to have turned into a PC game (now ancient and available at Underdogs and other fine establishments). THis page looks like a good bet, it has download links for PDP-10, PDP-11, VAX/VMS, PC, source etc.

I see the others mentioned historically here but "dry gulch" and "labyrinth" are too commonly used for me to find anything actually useful.

Artistry in Electronic Gaming
Interview with Dan Bunten, designer or M.U.L.E
Home Computer Games Grow Up

Artistry in Electronic Gaming
Interview with Dan Bunten, designer or M.U.L.E
Home Computer Games Grow Up

Artistry in Electronic Gaming
Interview with Dan Bunten, designer or M.U.L.E
Home Computer Games Grow Up

18 years ago tomorrow I got my first computer - A Timex/Sinclair 1000 (aka Sinclair ZX-81). I used it until March of '83 when I upgraded to an Atari 400, which I used until 17 years ago today when I upgraded to an Atari 800XL.

Recently I went to the local Goodwill store looking for old movie equipment and they had a TS1000 new in a box for $11. I did not find my movie stuff, but I did find my first computer!

Now, thanks to things like xmess I can still enjoy my old computers.

Also, for you Atari fans out there, you might want to check out Atari Magazines. They have the entire Antic magazine library online, including the source code, program disks, etc. It is a neat trip if you have a few hours to waste. Heck, even if you are not an Atari fan, it is still interesting.

Good luck putting 500 gigs in a vic-20: It looks to me like the Vic 20 only had 3 address lines available for bank switching. I'd love to know how you plan to work around that.

Also, there were commercially available products to give over a meg of memory to an 800XL which just plugged into the expansion bus. Take a look here for an example of how far an 800XL could be pushed with commercially available upgrades in 1987. Sure blows the additional 512k that your C128+1750 had out of the water...
--

Actually, the 800XL could be boosted to at least 512K of ram.

I remember seeing an ad for a 4 meg upgrade a couple of years ago, but I can't find any trace of it on the web.
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You could also actually get hard drives for the 8 bit atari systems, so there are many options beyond casettes.
--

Oh, the days of type-in games.. I had an Atari 800 (upgraded to a 130xe when the thing imploded on itself) and I had all sorts of cool magazines (which I stupidly gave to someone who I never saw again in my lifetime) for it. Compute!, Antic, etc. Ahh, the memories..

So, a few weeks ago I was on a nostalgia kick. Apparently, every single Antic magazine is now available on the internet, including all the software, which made me dance a jig for a few days. It's a real blast to the past.

I gotta admit, though, the Atari 800 emulator I had to dig up worked surprisingly well. Even the old antic music program worked great. (Some of you may remember Shock the Monkey being played on four channel square wave synth. I made an mp3 of it!) What's really sad is I actually remembered a great deal of atari basic and the various memory locations to peek/poke at. =)

Hypercard was an interesting system, weighted down by a terrible scripting language. Hypertalk was painfully similar to COBOL-60, ("add 1 to a") and had terrible data access ("field 3 of item 4 of card 9341"). Hypercard also turned out to be a ripoff of Zoomracks for the Atari, so Apple had some problems there.

Hypercard's "component model" was weak; you couldn't write components in Hypercard. It was more like a plug-in system, and in fact most Hypercard plug-ins were to provide access to something Hypercard didn't support, like networking.

Hypercard didn't really lead anywhere. Still, Cyan's Manhole and Cosmic Ozmo, the 2D black and white predecessors to Myst, were written in Hypercard, an impressive achievement.

While the pegboard computer is kinda neat, it reminds me of a much harder challenge. Build a computer that play a perfect game of tic-tac-toe (aka noughts and crosses) built only from 300 empty matchboxes and a set of coloured beads. Donald Michie did this back in 1960. You can find out more here

Oh, and man, those Men of Sieg Hall are just plain scary.