• Re: I want to do something retro...

    From Shurato@21:2/148 to Warpslide on Sat Jun 29 12:20:00 2024

    On 27 Jun 2024, Spectre said the following...

    You had a spreadsheet? We were writing basic programs on paper... :/

    I remember checking a book out from the library filled with basic programs for the C64, oh the joys of typing pages upon pages of basic code hoping you don't make a typo. At least I was able to save any of the good programs/games to a cassette once I had typed them out correctly.

    I wasn't worried with a typo in basic programs... It was the (hmm, my vocabulary is failing) I want to say hex code that got me...

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  • From neoshock@21:1/150 to Bob Worm on Mon Jul 1 03:39:25 2024
    Never went there. The parents always though that computers would be a f in the pan, so no typing. A lot later though, the same jooy could be h entering hexadecimal code into "Monitor" on the II range... the joys of looking for typo in reams of two digit numbers... Even worse than hunti basic code.

    I never could afford magazines for type-ins but I do remember my brother and me collaborating to type in a "baby crying" program from the C64 manual. One-read-one-type-then-swap setup. The *entire* thing was pokes, as I remember it, and it didn't work by the time we had it all entered.

    Both my Commodore Vic20 and 64 were hand me downs, and there were a collection of software, accessories and the Compute' Gazette collection, I remember typing in those programs. When I got the VIC20 I did not even have a desk, the computer would just be on the ground with me cross-legged sitting on the floor typing away.

    Lloyd (neoshock) sysop @ Vintage Pi BBS
    vintagepi.asuscomm.com

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  • From neoshock@21:1/150 to AKAcastor on Mon Jul 1 03:42:25 2024
    Wouldn't it be a surprise if there was a misprint in the book and that's why it never worked?

    There were always mistakes in those magazines and books. For magazines you would need to wait for a following issue if the noticed the mistake, or for a lot of the books, the programs written in basic would be a generic basic, and sometimes you would need to modify it for you particular computer.

    Lloyd (neoshock) sysop @ Vintage Pi BBS
    vintagepi.asuscomm.com

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  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Neoshock on Mon Jul 1 11:56:06 2024
    There were always mistakes in those magazines and books.
    For magazines you would need to wait for a following
    issue if the noticed the mistake, or for a lot of the
    books, the programs written in basic would be a generic
    basic, and sometimes you would need to modify it for you
    particular computer.

    Oh yes, the books that had BASIC programs that would run on any computer! And somehow they often didn't seem to work on any computer I tried! haha

    I remember borrowing books from the library that suggested the programs could work on an computer with BASIC (but you may need to make some small modifications). I definitely wasn't able to get past the 'small modifications' step at that time.. Sometimes I hadn't even seen the computers that ran the BASIC dialect used in the book - pretty sure I remember trying to get some Sinclair BASIC programs running in Microsoft GW-BASIC in DOS, I'd never seen a ZX Spectrum in my life.

    The books were still a great experience.


    Chris/akacastor


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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to neoshock on Tue Jul 2 13:36:35 2024
    Re: Re: I want to do something retro...
    By: neoshock to Bob Worm on Mon Jul 01 2024 03:39:25

    Hi, Lloyd.

    When I got the VIC20 I did not even have
    a desk, the computer would just be on the ground with me cross-legged sitting on the floor typing away.

    Wow, that's dedication. Shows how engrossing computers were in those days.

    Of course if we could have just sat in front of the TV on a laptop in those days I imagine that would have been what we did instead :)

    BobW
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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to AKAcastor on Tue Jul 2 13:46:13 2024
    Re: Re: I want to do something retro...
    By: AKAcastor to Neoshock on Mon Jul 01 2024 11:56:06

    Hi, Chris.

    I remember trying to get some Sinclair BASIC programs running in Microsoft GW-BASIC in DOS, I'd never seen a ZX Spectrum in my life.

    I think you had more luck making Sinclair type-ins work on DOS than I ever did on my aunt's Sinclair. That awful BASIC where you had to have the cursor in keyword mode and press "P" for "PRINT" - don't *type* "PRINT", that won't work. Oh, you did it again. Oh and now the whole line is muffed and actually now that I look, so is that one 3 lines ago.

    35 years on and I'm still extraordinarily furious just thinking back to that. And to think, people loved those things. What's wrong with people?

    Eughhhh!

    BobW
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  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Bob Worm on Tue Jul 2 12:05:44 2024
    I remember trying to get some Sinclair BASIC
    programs running in Microsoft
    GW-BASIC in DOS, I'd never seen a ZX Spectrum in my life.

    I think you had more luck making Sinclair type-ins work
    on DOS than I ever did on my aunt's Sinclair. That
    awful BASIC where you had to have the cursor in keyword
    mode and press "P" for "PRINT" - don't *type* "PRINT",
    that won't work. Oh, you did it again. Oh and now the
    whole line is muffed and actually now that I look, so
    is that one 3 lines ago.

    Oh no. I didn't realize the depths of the depravity of Sinclair BASIC. I've always been curious about the ZX Spectrum but now I must re-evaluate whether it is a curiousity or a curse.

    35 years on and I'm still extraordinarily furious just
    thinking back to that. And to think, people loved those
    things. What's wrong with people?

    Seems like we heard "inexpensive computers" and our brains shut off while we sat in front of those terribly frustrating underpowered uncomfortable gadgets. (I feel like that was a kind of genre of computers in the 80s, and I wanted them all.)


    Chris/akacastor

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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to AKAcastor on Wed Jul 3 11:10:08 2024
    Re: Re: I want to do something retro...
    By: AKAcastor to Bob Worm on Tue Jul 02 2024 12:05:44

    Hi, Chris.

    Oh no. I didn't realize the depths of the depravity of Sinclair BASIC.
    I've always been curious about the ZX Spectrum but now I must re-evaluate whether it is a curiousity or a curse.

    The later releases I believe worked the "normal" way, it was just the very memory constrained earlier BASICs that made life that difficult. Possibly you could get used to it but I sure as hell was not going to put myself through that for a computer I didn't own.

    People loved the Spectrums, I never understood it. The C64 had much better graphics and sound, plus a proper keyboard, and what the hell is a Kempston joystick? Supposedly the games were better?

    I have basically just insulted the religion of 50% of British 8 bit fans, I was going to say they will be out with the pitchforks but, if they were here, they would already have been out defending that awful BASIC.

    Actually most of my friends had Spectrums (Spectra?) back in the day and C64s were in the minority, most people probably didn't care about the BASIC because to them that was just the thing you use to load your games off tape. Then you had the hoity-toity BBC crew, whose mum or dad (or both) invariably worked at a school because nobody was shelling out 400 squids of their own money for an 8 bit micro :)

    BobW
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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Bob Worm on Wed Jul 3 21:37:00 2024
    Oh no. I didn't realize the depths of the depravity of Sinclair BASIC.

    The later releases I believe worked the "normal" way, it was just the very memory constrained earlier BASICs that made life that difficult. Possibly you could get used to it but I sure as hell was not going to put myself through that for a computer I didn't own.

    Not sure where it came from, but we liberated a Sinclair from a School
    Cabinet. It had the wacky press this button for print, do not type print, do not pass go. We gave it back after the weekend :)

    On a slightly different note, I've no idea what it'd be overseas, but we had the "Dick Smith VZ" range of computers, VZ200 sticks in mind, not sure how
    many other models there were, but it worked the same way. Horrible little things, even smaller in footprint than the sinclair, but boxier and a little taller, like a small tissue box. The keys were flat with the top surface,
    and you had to push them below the surface to get a key stroke.

    Spec


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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to Spectre on Wed Jul 3 21:55:37 2024
    Re: Re: I want to do something retro...
    By: Spectre to Bob Worm on Wed Jul 03 2024 21:37:00

    Hi, Spec.

    Not sure where it came from, but we liberated a Sinclair from a School Cabinet. It had the wacky press this button for print, do not type print, do not pass go. We gave it back after the weekend :)

    There's something to be said for a system that's so disappointing that people not only think twice about pinching it but actually return it once they've had a go.

    Somehow reminds me of when an old friend took the dashboard out of a car to turn the mileage back and someone had written "oh no, not again!" in tippex on the back :)

    BobW
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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Spectre on Mon Jul 8 06:33:00 2024
    Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    You had a spreadsheet? We were writing basic programs on paper... :/

    At my first job in college, one of the older guys kept asking me where
    the spreadsheets were. I had no idea what he meant, I thought he meant
    Excel? Maybe he needed it installed on his Mac?

    No, he was referring to a 2 foot wide "columnar pad", a pad of paper
    with spreadsheet columns that he used to use to create spreadsheets by
    *hand*.




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