OFF: Olde games

[Andrew A. Apold]

>10 ? "Kevin is cool!!!"
>20 GOTO 10
>
>
>That was my first Vic-20 programming experience, I think.  I actually got
>pretty good at BASIC, then got into PASCAL, some FORTRAN, delved into
>Assembly Language, LISP a bit, and even FORTH.  Nowadays, all I do is use
>applications, but I do miss programming.
>"In my younger days, I had to PEEK and POKE in ten feet of snow,
>barefooted..."

Jeh, I started on a Commodore pet, but cut my teeth on a Vic-20
(hey, i had the 8k memory expansion cartridge!) and then a C-64.
I was a pretty faithful commodore man, going through every one of
their other models (C-128, Amiga 500, 2000, 3000, 4000) except
the dreaded Plus 4.

Stuff was fun back then.  I wrote my own games back then.  But for
everything that seemed cool back then, there were uncool stuff.

Hands up if you remember

- the poke command that could physically destroy a commodore pet

- removing comments from your code to save memory

- trying to type on calculator-style keys of the first pets.
  bonus points for having attempted to type on the microwave pad
        style keyboard of an Atari 400.

- accidentally listened to what was on an audio casette that
        you saved data on.

- drilled a hole in the back of a commodore 64, mounted a
        switch and then soldered wires to two pins of the
        cartridge port to create a reset switch

- having a large and versatile collection of ascii art.
        bonus points if you had ascii pornography.

- writing a program to flash a commodore 64 screen in black and
        white to create a strobe light.  Bonus points if you
        could syncronize it to a ceiling fan, turned off all
        the other lights, and marvelled at how the ceiling fan
        at high speed appeared to be motionless.

- typing anything from a magazine that was over 8 pages in length.
        bonus points if it was straight hex codes from a compiled
        app.  (my numeric typing speed I attribute to this day to
        doing these)....

- having a friend who knew how to copy disks and nothing else.
        The one I knew needed a blank disk for some app.  So he
        pulled out his trusty master blank disk and copied it.
        (he didn't know how to format, so he had someone make him
        one and then used his copy program to copy the blank disk
        whenever he needed one).  It gets worse.  He once tried
        to copy my cleaning disc.

- setting the colors real dark and trying to run productivity
        apps on an amiga in "flicker" interlaced mode.

-


"I can saw a woman in two...
 but you won't want to look in the box when I'm through"
   - "For my next trick..." by Warren Zevon
===============
Andrew Apold