OFF: Olde games

[flossbac]

Ah yes....
Those were the days of wooden computers and iron programmers.  I was a
TRS-80 Color Computer fan myself, what with that whopping 16K of memory
(which I later proudly upgraded to the mind-boggling 64K).  I even wrote a
few articles for the Color Computer magazines of the day..... things really
were FUN in those days, but it  does seem pathetic in a way.... I mean all
that effort to get some squarish primary-color graphics.... chokes me up!
John Majka
flossbac at nlci.com

> >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
>