Topic: Retro Computer shit!

[Peabee]

It’s got to be CRT when playing retro consoles and games.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I remember my eldest bro buying a C64, I loved it. I remember him also getting a weekly magazine called Input which taught you how to write basic programmes. I remember the one which turned your computer into a piano!

I've got every actual real magazine version of that - still very good for getting kids to learn how to program (And adults!)

Load up an emulator and type away! Tons of clever programming and you can run them all with the right emulators - I've got emulators on everything - Apple, Amiga, Atari 400, 2700, 7800, BBC Micro, Electron, Commodre 64, Commodore VIC 20, Commodore Pet, MAME, SNES, Gameboy, Megadrive, PS, PS2, Sega 16, Gamegear, Oric, Sharp MZ80K, Acorn Electron, Dragon 32, Coleco, Nascom, Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81, TI 4/A, Radio Shack shit, TRS80 I, II, III...




Here is every issue of Input to download as PDFs!!  https://archive.org/details/inputmagazine

[TepidT2O]

The trouble is this...

I’ve used a speccy emulator ....  I’ve loaded games and I’ve remembered being stunned by the graphic at the time..

Then I play them and they just look like random blocks of black squares, can barely make out what the objects are supposed to be. R Type was amazing, I ruined its memory  by playing it again

Never go back!!

[stoa]

I remember a a kid I was doing some basic basic-programming and I was chuffed when I managed to have the computer ask some simple questions like "What's your name." and then using the answer to say something like "Hi, [name]". My biggest achievement was asking whether someone was happy or not and if the weren't the screen would changes colours to cheer them up...
I also remember that my dad bought German magazines (I live in Austria) and they had listings for utilities or games in them. You just typed them off and you had a game to play. Of course, there were always some typos and you had to find them first, because otherwise the game wouldn't load... That was a right pain in the arse. Best game I remember from them was some tennis management sim where you guess players and followed their matches (all text of course). Most of the times I started typing the listings and hoped my father would finish them. Most of the time he did...

[gazzalfc]

Just been to a soft opening of a new retro gaming bar in town

https://nq64.co.uk/

On colquitt street in the old Aloha bar.

Loads of old arcade machines and consoles.

[Sangria]

Just been to a soft opening of a new retro gaming bar in town

https://nq64.co.uk/

On colquitt street in the old Aloha bar.

Loads of old arcade machines and consoles.

Do they do a limited number of cocktails, with each cocktail containing a maximum of 2 ingredients?

[Sangria]

The trouble is this...

I’ve used a speccy emulator ....  I’ve loaded games and I’ve remembered being stunned by the graphic at the time..

Then I play them and they just look like random blocks of black squares, can barely make out what the objects are supposed to be. R Type was amazing, I ruined its memory  by playing it again

Never go back!!

Some old school games hold up well. Eg. Gameboy Tetris has never been bettered.

[Venton]

Finally finished the console collection



ZX Spectrum

Master System
Mega Drive (Version 1 and 2)
Saturn
Dreamcast

NES
SNES
Famicom/Super Famicom Clone player
N64
Gamecube
Wii

Playstation 1
Playstation 2

XBox
XBox 360

Still on the hunt for a decent sized CRT TV for the light gun games.

Running most through SCART as that gives the best picture on the flat screen but the AV switch box is handling the CRT consoles.

On the other side of the room I have PS3, PS4 and Wii U

You're missing the ZX81, with 3d Monster Maze and 3d Defender

Both of which used 3d very loosely.

[Venton]

Started out with a zx80, sold that for £12 ffs (wish I'd kept it), then got a zx81 with Sinclair printer (still got it), how the hell did they ever fit chess into 1k , I remember 3d monster maze was incredible on the zx81, we were too skint to get a speccy tho.

I remember when you came round that corner and saw the t-rex bearing down on you, your fingers stubbing down on the membrane keyboard, an ecstasy of fumbling as you tried to turn round and peg it the other way. Terrifying stuff, brilliant.

[kavah]

RIP chuck

What a machine this was



the chip that powered the Commodore and the BBC, Atari, and Apple II (and earlier chips in pinball machines)
Thanks Chuck!


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/chuck-peddle-dead.html

[Yosser0_0]

Lastly a favorite of mine, brilliant strategy game. Wish I could still play these 

Elite! An all time classic, I had it on the spectrum and a mate of mine had it on the Amiga, after I'd seen that version I upgraded to an Amiga as soon as I could afford it.

If Space strategy / shoot em up is your cup of tea there is a fantastic games available on Android called 'Galaxy in Fire 2'. Stunning graphics and great game play.

https://galaxyonfire.fandom.com/wiki/Supernova

[Yosser0_0]

RIP chuck

What a machine this was



the chip that powered the Commodore and the BBC, Atari, and Apple II (and earlier chips in pinball machines)
Thanks Chuck!


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/chuck-peddle-dead.html

6502 processor, I actually learned machine code using that on something called an 'Emma' board whilst I was studying for my OND Electrical and Electronic Engineering. After the lecture, you'd loose all your work and have to start again the week after. When I was was doing my HND in the same subject we'd progressed to 6809 machine code which was 16 bit!!

I probably wrote my first decent bit of software on the ZX Spectrum at about the age of 16 whilst doing my OND, but it was in my own time. It was a 10 pin bowling game complete with colour, sound, crowd action and the ability to earn extended play. I also wrote a Tank Battle game, but ran into issues with the 'plot' command, it seemed to leave smears on the screen during fast movement.

I actually found a cassette a while back in the loft containing my original built code and looked into ripping it into a rom file using a sound card to sample the audio stream but never got around to it.
 

[Sangria]

6502 processor, I actually learned machine code using that on something called an 'Emma' board whilst I was studying for my OND Electrical and Electronic Engineering. After the lecture, you'd loose all your work and have to start again the week after. When I was was doing my HND in the same subject we'd progressed to 6809 machine code which was 16 bit!!

I probably wrote my first decent bit of software on the ZX Spectrum at about the age of 16 whilst doing my OND, but it was in my own time. It was a 10 pin bowling game complete with colour, sound, crowd action and the ability to earn extended play. I also wrote a Tank Battle game, but ran into issues with the 'plot' command, it seemed to leave smears on the screen during fast movement.

I actually found a cassette a while back in the loft containing my original built code and looked into ripping it into a rom file using a sound card to sample the audio stream but never got around to it.
 

You're taught programming as a sequential thing, where step 2 follows step 1 and is followed by step 3 and so on. However, different bits of the computer work at different speeds. The CPU, which handles calculations and instructions and so on, is the quickest part. Graphics processors and generally everything else is slower. So if you update the screen whenever you have a new processor update, the stack of instructions will pile up and up until the graphics processor can't cope any more, and you have the dreaded stack overflow, or whatever graphical corruption you get when the processor skips instructions.

[Yosser0_0]

You're taught programming as a sequential thing, where step 2 follows step 1 and is followed by step 3 and so on. However, different bits of the computer work at different speeds. The CPU, which handles calculations and instructions and so on, is the quickest part. Graphics processors and generally everything else is slower. So if you update the screen whenever you have a new processor update, the stack of instructions will pile up and up until the graphics processor can't cope any more, and you have the dreaded stack overflow, or whatever graphical corruption you get when the processor skips instructions.

Oh I solved it and fixed the graphics issues, just had to be a bit cleverer with the use of the 'unplot' command, just never built it into a cohesive game, so was never entirely satisfied. Anyway at the same time I met my very attractive girlfriend who was eventually to become my wife, so that was the end of that in terms of writing games!

To be honest I've had more issues writing Comms software where you often miss data due to buffer overflows and have to use ring buffer or semaphore techniques.

[thejbs]

I had a pretty messy break up with a gf about ten years ago. At the time, her brother was on a retro games binge and had borrowed my SNES, mega drive and about 40 games, multitap, loads of controllers etc. Never seen them again 😭

These days I have a Mac mini as a media hub and use emulators. Still, it’s not the same.