Author Topic: Retro Computer shit! (Read 24412 times)

Skidder. · « **on:** February 21, 2014, 11:39:19 am »

Need to put this in here, as oppose to in the Tech section.

I've been doing some research and stuff into the Home Computer Boom/Crash of the 80's.

Just wondered what (if), any of the older farts' memories were like of back then?

Personally, I loved it all, loved the Spectrum, Commodore and even the BBC MICRO. Loved them all.

Only Me · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2014, 12:14:13 pm »

Agreed mate. it was exciting and boss.

Can still here the fax machine like squeal that was the wondrous sound of a game loading via audio tape.

Loved mastering [basic] BASIC, so I could break into me little brother's game programmes and change all the screen wording to things like "Sconeheads just died cos he's fucking shite" , or "Welcome Gayer 1".

I started with a ZX80, then graduated to the Spectrum. Remember being absolutely awestruck when a mate of mine got a Commodore which had a massive 256K of RAM. Shove your dual quad core processors up your arse, THAT was real technology!

Our school was very early in on the scene too - boss computer room with 20 brand spanking new BBC micros in it. Most popular room in the gaff by a mile.

Had a very early PONG game which cost a tenner from Boots. 4 games on it [squash: 1 little bat, tennis: 1 little bat v another, footy: 2 little bats v 2" and hockey: 4v4], and the sound came out the box itself, not your telly [which, of course, you had to manually tune until the impossibly exciting black screen hove into view].

Onwards an upwards to my Atari console - £30 quid for spaceys, in about 1977!!! A lad in our school got one for chrimbo. Unfortunately, his Ma didnt have a proper handle on the new tech, so she had just bought him the cartridge, not the console itself!

Im nearly 48 now, and I still love arsing about with video games/computers etc. Me arl fellas the same, and he's 70 this year!

Roady · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2014, 12:27:38 pm »

was never a spectrum man. Had the commodore vic 20. Games such as blitz.Used to saty up with my grandad playing that game until one of us completed it.Basically a plane would fly along the screen left to right and drop on bar each time.You could drop bombs on the buildings below idea being you had to "blitz" all the buildings before the plane made its way to the bottom of the screen to land.HArder than it sounds but a boss game.
Moved onto the C64 which was boss..Double dragon was a boss game! two player too which amazed me at the time,many an afternoon spent with a mate beating people up.
Then there was the omega.My god that was some machine (At the time) graphics compared to the previous was immense and no noise loading a tape as it was floppy disk!
Sadly dont really like consoles and the like any more.As much as i imagine theyd be good fun im old school and playing the likes of outrun,afterburner etc was way more addictive for me than any game youd get nowadays.

Boss times!

pw1008 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2014, 01:01:43 pm »

I'm a bit like Roady in that I used to love computers as a kid but never really got into consoles despite trying a few of them.

I first played the atari console in my cousins when i was about 4 or 5 they were about 9 or 10 at the time and couldnt believe what i was seeing. it was like the most advanced thing in the world which is crazy when i see my nieces and nephews at the same age on ipads now.

first computer i got was a Commodore Vic 20 - i remember Blitz game and used to love that. Moved onto a spectrum after that - not sure why but went for the grey one with the cassete attached to it - spectrum 128 maybe? Me and my mate used to copy the games using my mums Hi Fi and for some reason always left the volume on high and plugged headphones in to stop the noise.

Games I remember include Chucky Egg i think, Renegade, Paper Boy, Daley Thompson games, operation wolf and Platoon when you got the soundtrack to the film as well. Sure there are others but i cant remember. Think there were 2 big software companies Ocean and US Gold.

From there I moved on to Atari ST - whether it was something to do with the console or I blagged my parents it was better for programming and school work but I only ever played games on it but can only really remember Out Run - remember finishing that game. With hinddight would have been better sticking with commodore and getting the c64 and amiga. but hey ho!

That was it really. Tried a playstation one, nintendo game cube, gameboy but never really progressed. In fact never bought a laptop or ipad but did get an iphone recently. Always had laptops from work so suppose I'd have bought one if it wasn't for that.

Recently bought a Raspberry Pi so must still like tinkerting with stuff although mainly use that for xmbc rather than any programming

Only Me · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2014, 01:08:53 pm »

I used to have to get the bus to school from Lord Street in Town [the bit thats pedestrianised now]. In them days there was a Dixons branch opposite, and I couldn't tell you the number of times I missed the 18 because I was glued to the window staring in awe at the Mattel Intellivison console they had.

3D footballers it had. 3D!, and a controller that thad about 15 buttons on it. And all for a measly £399.99.

Needless to say, never did get to play it!

Statto Red · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2014, 01:28:26 pm »

Quote from: pw1008 on February 21, 2014, 01:01:43 pm

I'm a bit like Roady in that I used to love computers as a kid but never really got into consoles despite trying a few of them.

I first played the atari console in my cousins when i was about 4 or 5 they were about 9 or 10 at the time and couldnt believe what i was seeing. it was like the most advanced thing in the world which is crazy when i see my nieces and nephews at the same age on ipads now.

first computer i got was a Commodore Vic 20 - i remember Blitz game and used to love that. Moved onto a spectrum after that - not sure why but went for the grey one with the cassete attached to it - spectrum 128 maybe? Me and my mate used to copy the games using my mums Hi Fi and for some reason always left the volume on high and plugged headphones in to stop the noise.

Games I remember include Chucky Egg i think, Renegade, Paper Boy, Daley Thompson games, operation wolf and Platoon when you got the soundtrack to the film as well. Sure there are others but i cant remember. Think there were 2 big software companies Ocean and US Gold.

From there I moved on to Atari ST - whether it was something to do with the console or I blagged my parents it was better for programming and school work but I only ever played games on it but can only really remember Out Run - remember finishing that game. With hinddight would have been better sticking with commodore and getting the c64 and amiga. but hey ho!

That was it really. Tried a playstation one, nintendo game cube, gameboy but never really progressed. In fact never bought a laptop or ipad but did get an iphone recently. Always had laptops from work so suppose I'd have bought one if it wasn't for that.

Recently bought a Raspberry Pi so must still like tinkerting with stuff although mainly use that for xmbc rather than any programming

Paper Boy, Chucky Egg brings back the nostalgia, the Vic 20 was the first computer i had with Duck Shoot game. Then i had the Commodore 64 , the thing i remember most is the games taking ages to load nowadays either downloading the game or putting the DVD into the drive then you're away playing the game, some games took 45 minutes to load. Not sure what the title, was but one game my mate had for the C64 took about 45 minutes to load up only it kept crashing near the end of loading.

Hollywood Balls · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2014, 02:01:40 pm »

there's a great drama that was on BBC called Micro Men about Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry and the battles betweeen them inthose early days of computing - if youve not seen it already get hold of it - you'll love it!

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2009/oct/03/clive-sinclair-micro-men-alexander-armstrong

Roady · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2014, 02:14:44 pm »

used to frequent that shop in central station that sold all the games "bits n bytes" i think it may have ben called??? they had arcade games in there too..in the early days daly thomsons decathlon...think they had double dragon too..then onto outrun, which was a magnificent game, then after burner too.spent many a happy afternoon in there.

anyone remember it?

AndyInVA · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2014, 02:28:55 pm »

spectrum for me

i can remember buying it with my dad

fantastic way to learn basic programming

Ziltoid · « **Reply #9 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:21:59 pm »

Red Beret · « **Reply #10 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:42:35 pm »

I've mucked about on many an emulator for Speccy and C64. Also had Mame32

CHOPPER · « **Reply #11 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:55:42 pm »

20 goto 10

pw1008 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:59:32 pm »

Quote from: Roady on February 21, 2014, 02:14:44 pm

used to frequent that shop in central station that sold all the games "bits n bytes" i think it may have ben called??? they had arcade games in there too..in the early days daly thomsons decathlon...think they had double dragon too..then onto outrun, which was a magnificent game, then after burner too.spent many a happy afternoon in there.

anyone remember it?

yea I remember that one. Used to get loads of stuff in there. Was pretty limited back in those days to buy stuff, remember ordering games out of computer magazines must have been cheaper or they had the games sooner.

stoa · « **Reply #13 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:05:43 pm »

When I was a kid, I was so proud that I could write a short programme in basic, where you'd get asked questions and the questions would be included in the next line of text like "What is your name?" you type in "Mike" and it would say "Hello, Mike". Or it would ask you whether you're happy or not and if you said now the colours on the screen would change to cheer you up. I never got any further in terms of programming...

I also loved that you had those magazines with the code for a programme or game and you could just type it in yourself and a couple of weeks later you had a working game. The only problem with that was, that it quite often took shitloads of time to get a game running because of all the typos...

Yolanderyolando · « **Reply #14 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:05:48 pm »

i remember waiting 15 minutes for a tape to load on the spectrum ( which seemed like hours as a kid ) only for it to crash with seconds to go !

Slick_Beef · « **Reply #15 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:08:17 pm »

Loved messing around on BBC micros back in the day.

I remember in school we had a load of educational software with times tables and stuff.. then one day in the storeroom we found a copy of Barbarian II... sensational game.

Ziltoid · « **Reply #16 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:09:27 pm »

We were late on the scene in our house, this was our first although we did have BBC's at school

Yolanderyolando · « **Reply #17 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:11:55 pm »

Quote from: Slick_Beef on February 21, 2014, 04:08:17 pm

Loved messing around on BBC micros back in the day.

I remember in school we had a load of educational software with times tables and stuff.. then one day in the storeroom we found a copy of Barbarian II... sensational game.

was that the viking one when you went on raids, and you had to decide how many to commit to the attack and how many to defend at home ?

if it was, it was an amazing game !

SP · « **Reply #18 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:19:29 pm »

electricghost · « **Reply #19 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:35:48 pm »

20 minutes to load, drifting through space for hours hoping to get attacked by another ship to briefly interrupt the monotony, only to crash into the planet you were trying to land on

CHOPPER · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:37:14 pm »

kesey · « **Reply #21 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:53:00 pm »

Just found this.

http://www.free80sarcade.com/

Buck Pete · « **Reply #22 on:** February 21, 2014, 05:13:34 pm »

The first game I got with my Speccy.

Soon disregarded and even scoffed at when I got my hands on the likes of Manic Miner, Jet Pac and Pyamarama

But for me the old school computing was about the text based adventure games. Colossal adventure, Hobbit and the like were just fantastic in their day.

"Kill Thorin"

I don't think I have ever since enjoyed and utilized a Christmas present more than I did that Sinclair Spectrum in 1983. Yeah I got a C64 after that and so on. But the Initial buzz of getting that Spectrum was like curry to a pisshead.

POKE 45678,123

Mercer · « **Reply #23 on:** February 21, 2014, 05:16:18 pm »

The Amstrad 464 k was fucking tops.

TepidT2O · « **Reply #24 on:** February 21, 2014, 05:23:57 pm »

Quote from: Puck Pete on February 21, 2014, 05:13:34 pm

The first game I got with my Speccy.

Soon disregarded and even scoffed at when I got my hands on the likes of Manic Miner, Jet Pac and Pyamarama

But for me the old school computing was about the text based adventure games. Colossal adventure, Hobbit and the like were just fantastic in their day.

"Kill Thorin"

I don't think I have ever since enjoyed and utilized a Christmas present more than I did that Sinclair Spectrum in 1983. Yeah I got a C64 after that and so on. But the Initial buzz of getting that Spectrum was like curry to a pisshead.

POKE 45678,123

First game I ever played on the speccy

That and penetrator.

Great fun to play, but the graphics are abysmal by today's stabdarsd.

The speccy was notoriously difficult to get soft ware to load on. The whine of pure machine code being blasted through my ears, the distress as it crashed for the fourth time in a row. Sometimes software just would not load for no reason.... Then it would.

I became an expert in cleaning cassette heads and winding tape back in with pencils.....

But that wasn't the biggest issue....

The fucking power lead.. It was on a hair trigger and would suddenly decide it wasn't connected any more .... Usually on your way to a high score or what not....

But, the keyboard's rubber keys were immense for gaming (unless you got a bit hot, then the sweat made the key slippery).

It's simplicity was its genius, and it's still in my parent garage somewhere...

Craig S · « **Reply #25 on:** February 21, 2014, 05:26:59 pm »

Quote from: Only Me on February 21, 2014, 01:08:53 pm

I used to have to get the bus to school from Lord Street in Town [the bit thats pedestrianised now]. In them days there was a Dixons branch opposite, and I couldn't tell you the number of times I missed the 18 because I was glued to the window staring in awe at the Mattel Intellivison console they had.

I remember going into Dixons and typing

10 print "Fuck off"
20 go to 10

Then run it, and stand back and watch the sales guy try to cancel it, eventually having to pull the plug.

(I can't remember the exact syntax, may not have been print.)

Buck Pete · « **Reply #26 on:** February 21, 2014, 05:33:05 pm »

Quote from: Tepid Water on February 21, 2014, 05:23:57 pm

The speccy was notoriously difficult to get soft ware to load on. The whine of pure machine code being blasted through my ears, the distress as it crashed for the fourth time in a row. Sometimes software just would not load for no reason..

Oh the memories.

Sat motionless and wide-eyed staring intently at the dozens of multicolored horizontal lines on the TV screen for 30 minutes or more. The piercing shriek of the game loading scratching at your ear drums. Not to worry you think, soon I'll be playing Horace and the Spiders.

THEN... the words you dread. The two words that struck fear into any 13yr old kid......."SYNTAX ERROR".

AndyInVA · « **Reply #27 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:04:35 pm »

manic miner

loved that

how many hours were wasted on that game

Draex · « **Reply #28 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:22:59 pm »

IBM186 with some golf game! Loved the old Amiga

Spent many a day blasting through that and Cannon fodder (If Jools died I was devastated!)

CornerFlag · « **Reply #29 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:33:53 pm »

My mate used to have a Speccy, used to love going to his to play on games I can't even remember the name for now! The lad next door had a C64 too, could hear it through the walls it was that loud! Never had anything like that myself, my first games console was a Master System. They used to have BBC Micros in schools pretty much all the way through to the end of Primary, Secondary wasn't much better, definitely recall playing Tea Shop on one of them!

The lad next door used to have something called a Barcode Battler, I know it's a lot more recent than Ataris and Amigas but I always wanted one of those too!

payback · « **Reply #30 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:40:02 pm »

best. game. ever.

Buck Pete · « **Reply #31 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:54:25 pm »

Quote from: payback on February 21, 2014, 06:40:02 pm

best. game. ever.

Shit!!. I remember a football manger game for the Speccy but the graphics were nowhere near as sophisticated as the one on that picture. They were basically stick men.

When you won the cup and big cup made up of back squares flashed on the screen.

I played that game for hours!!

HERE IT IS!!

TepidT2O · « **Reply #32 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:56:51 pm »

Wasn't there Emlyn Hughes soccer?

Great fun.

Buck Pete · « **Reply #33 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:59:42 pm »

The picture I posted was from the original Football manager. Paybacks picture is from the more up to date C64 version.

oojason · « **Reply #34 on:** February 21, 2014, 07:41:39 pm »

Boulderdash

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FiEVfa1OK_o?fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/FiEVfa1OK_o?fs=1</a>

The ending to Jet Set Willy (spoilers!) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttrt7Uk6M4

LukeD · « **Reply #35 on:** February 21, 2014, 07:47:34 pm »

My BBC B is in the loft and in full working order last time I checked. My little boy is nearly three so I reckon I have about another three years tops before he's understanding computer games and chatting to his mates about what he should be playing and all that. When that day comes I'm going to sit him down and show him Chuckie Egg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3RgzDaNTac), Frak (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgiA10MfOu4) and Fortress (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNi6GRVXrFE) and explain to him how groundbreaking that was when I was a kid! I'm sure he'll be blown away...

TepidT2O · « **Reply #36 on:** February 21, 2014, 07:51:38 pm »

Blimey.... Chuckie egg..... Brings back memories

Mark Walters · « **Reply #37 on:** February 21, 2014, 09:55:45 pm »

I had a Spectrum as a kid. Managed to convince my parents that the 48k was better than the 16k for doing homework. In reality it was never used for that at all.

I broke a couple of the keys playing Daley Thompson's Decathlon so bought a programmable joystick. I think the broken keys were "l" ands "k" so every time I was programming cheats from Sinclair User magazine I'd have to move the joystick left for the "k" in "peek" ands "poke". Eventually I sent it off to a company who could turn your rubber-keyed speccy into a Spectrum+ with a proper keyboard and graduated to a Kempston joystick. Broke that playing DTD too but then Match Day came out. It was the first footy game I'd ever played and it was brilliant. My other five was Head Over Heels. Hated most of the other games that were popular like Manic Miner and Elite though.

My mum cleared out her loft recently and the speccy was there with all my old games and magazines. Might power it up one day if I can find a tape player!

TepidT2O · « **Reply #38 on:** February 21, 2014, 09:56:52 pm »

Kempston joy stick.... Legendary names

KiNki · « **Reply #39 on:** February 21, 2014, 10:03:03 pm »

i had the acorn electron and played chuckie egg, mission impossible, killer gorilla and some other game that involved eggs.