# Vintage Computers.....



## seiko6139 (Aug 25, 2003)

I was browsing the net and I came across this site. I watched Live Aid this weekend and it brought back some happy memories of 1985 when I was 18.

I was looking to see what computers were available at that time,I have a BBC model B which I have owned since 1983.

Please look at this site and see what you think.

Cheers,

Ian

http://www.thornbridge.zetnet.co.uk/comps.htm


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## r1ch (Feb 2, 2004)

Blast from the past indeed!.. My first computer was a <drum roll> *ready built* Sinclair ZX80. They were Â£99.99 built, or something like Â£70 if you bought it as a box of bits. It had a massive 1k of memory and you had to store compiled programs etc.. on audio cassettes. It was a wacky process where you had to hit the play&record buttons on your tape player and then hit the "enter" key on the Sinclair and it squirted it to the tape. If you turned the volume up on the tape player you could hear the Sinclair warbling at the tape! It was amazing what could be achieved with 1k, with some efficient programming. There were a host of quite decent games that were developed using the standard 1k on board memory. These days of course you need at least half a gig of memory before a PC will boot


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

The first paragraph about the Slide Rule is interesting. I found one of these the other day in amongst a box of old bits and pieces. I have absolutely no idea how to use it









I didn't own a computer myself until the 80286 came out. First one I used was a mid-1980's IBM XT with a huge 640K of RAM and I think a 25MB Hard Disk


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## Roy (Feb 23, 2003)

r1ch said:


> Blast from the past indeed!.. My first computer was a <drum roll> *ready built* Sinclair ZX80. They were Â£99.99 built, or something like Â£70 if you bought it as a box of bits. It had a massive 1k of memory and you had to store compiled programs etc.. on audio cassettes. It was a wacky process where you had to hit the play&record buttons on your tape player and then hit the "enter" key on the Sinclair and it squirted it to the tape. If you turned the volume up on the tape player you could hear the Sinclair warbling at the tape! It was amazing what could be achieved with 1k, with some efficient programming. There were a host of quite decent games that were developed using the standard 1k on board memory. These days of course you need at least half a gig of memory before a PC will boot


My first one was a ZX81.

Then a Spectrum

next was the Amstrad's with one 5 1/4" floppy drive and no hard disk.

How did we manage. The largest program available was only on three disks.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

Commodore Pet


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## ericp (Feb 23, 2003)

I started off with a Ti/994a...

It was fantastic...Light years ahead of anything else around at the time, but never really took off.

It had programmable sprites, multi channel audio and a facility for hardware upgrades via plug in cartridges.

It was a real breakthrough and probably helped me on my way to my current job...

What I really wanted at the time was a Tandy TRS-80 but they were serious money. I used to go into the local Tandy store on Saturday mornings and write software to demo the machines for them.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

Acorn BBC model A


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## Nin (Jul 16, 2004)

> Acorn BBC model A


Me too!

I've just bought a 512MB memory card for Â£28.00, and it's the size of a Â£2 coin. Flip, I'm gettting techno-fear, and I'm not even 40 yet!

Nin


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

started on a zx81 1k bought the 16k ram pack, made a frame to stop it wobbeling!

Also had in one way or another zx80, rubber key speccy, proper specy (didn't they call it a 128?). Sinclair QL, remember those? Not owned but played with a dragon 32 and an Oric, had an Acorn electron, used a Commodore pet at school, went onto a C64. Got an atari ST somewhere, BBC model B (donated to the local primary school when they still used them). Acorn A4000 RISC OS also in the garage with the ST in a box (that cost Â£400 15 years ago and you didn't even get a monitor. The RISC OS was far superior to Dos, using a window system long before Microsoft).

eventually went with the herd. I think my 1st pc was a 386 still no hard drive, in fact the pc I have now was the 1st one I owned with a hard drive. I was really into computing in my youth but trained as a mechanic because I though the future was safer for mech's than IT!


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Still have my Amiga A1200, must get it out and have a play sometime.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

> next was the Amstrad's with one 5 1/4" floppy drive and no hard disk.


I still have one in the loft complete with Hercules Monochrome graphics, also an Amstrad 1640 with EGA graphics...wow!!

Also in the loft a Commodore C64 complete with matching Disk drive and matching Commodore printer....gonna put that on Ebay one day...

Roger


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

forgot my dad's amstrad pcc thing that I posted a while back, he wanted it back when I took it to him, christ knows why









I've also got a toshiba laptop that's quite old, runs on windows 3.1! Keep it in the van at work cos I can type in "write" save to a floppy and then load into word when I get home on the pc. Did the RLT 69 review text whilst "at work" on that!


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## Sargon (Feb 24, 2003)

I too had the Texas Insturments TI 99-4A, and also wanted the Tandy! What a small world. I could never affort the game modules so I had a bunch of games stored on audio cassette. I programmed Space Invaders in Basic in under 100 lines.


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## ericp (Feb 23, 2003)

There is a huge market in retro games....

Some real classic arcade games have been reproduced on units that can be plugged into a domestic TV..

Dig Dug, Space Invaders, Galaxian etc...

They cost around Â£20.00 and come with dozens of games built in.


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## Roy (Feb 23, 2003)

Saw one of those Eric the other day, I'm tempted.


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## ericp (Feb 23, 2003)

Me too......

There was a little stall selling them in the White Rose Centre.

I think theres is around 40 games on them...


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## Roy (Feb 23, 2003)

The one I saw had 99 games.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

QVC were selling something like that a while back.


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## USMike (Mar 16, 2003)

ericp said:


> I started off with a Ti/994a...
> 
> It was fantastic...Light years ahead of anything else around at the time, but never really took off.


I actually still have two of them, one black and one tan. Not to mention several hundred programs I wrote in Basic and Extended Basic that are stored on disks and tapes. I had Multiplan set up on it and used it for some calculations for my office where we had no computers. I think Wordstar was the word processer the 99 used. About 20 cartridges are still around. Hunt the Wumpus, Connect Four, Spelling Series for children, Math Games, etc. are there. Haven't had it hooked up for years but my daughter, who used it growing up, is thinking of setting it up at her place for two young children that visit her frequently.

I went directly from the TI to an Apple in the Trust Department of the bank where I worked and set up my depreciation schedules. I couldn't talk the bank president into buying one for the Accounting Department, so I used the Trust Dept computer evenings and weekends.

I had multiple variants of the 8088 and 8086 machines on the market and had an Eagle, the first clone of an IBM about the time Rod Canion started Compaq Computer. It has been an interesting, fast paced world since the first one in the mid-1970's and many personal $$ have been spent on computers until we arrived at the current configuration of Pentium 4's in 2 rooms in the house and a Toshiba laptop that has become our home entertainment center and moves from room to room. I'd like to have some of that money back so I could buy more RLT watches.

I can say that the invention of personal computers drastically changed the jobs I had in finance and accounting positions in various US banks. It gave us independence from the computer guru's who did things on their own schedule and couldn't help us fast enough. PC's gave us the ability to automate routine calculations so we could be more accurate in our work and gave us time to work on comparing various alternatives, particularly in investments. They also got us hooked on games and adventure games were exciting and challenging.

I think the old fashioned games tickle the nostalgia chords in all of us and make us think about those thrilling days of yesteryear when we were masters of all we surveyed.


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