A trip down memory lane

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

No.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Wow!

[staffslad]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Console-wise, I had a Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive and Panasonic 3DO. My old Atari 400 had a cartridge port for games like Defender, Joust and Pole Position. The Megadrive I got was a grey market import I bought from a computer shop about 6 months before the console was officially launched in the UK. The big advantage it had was that it played games from Japan as well as UK games. The official UK cartridges were a different shape and japanese cartridges would not fit a UK machine. I still have the 3DO and a Megadrive, though it is a UK model with a japanese cartridge converter. I never owned any Nintendo or Atari consoles, but as I said, the Atari 400 accepted cartridges. I have no idea if Atari VCS cartridges fitted the Atari 400, though I suspect not. Atari VCS graphics were quite crude and blocky compared to the Atari 400 from what I saw.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Wow!

[Mulletino]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Yup, Home Computers were my main interest, gaming still is.

I had:

ZX Spectrum 48K
Commodore 128
Amiga 500 (which I later upgraded to 1MB chip ram)
Amiga 1200

Then onto PCs.

Later in I started collecting old computers again and got:

Amstrad CPC464
Atari 400
Commodore 64
Commodore 128D
Amiga 1200 again (with accelerated 030)
Amiga CD32 (but that's venturing into Console territory which is the course i am still on).

Unfortunately I got rid of all of the above.

But I still have my original Atari VCS and Sega Megadrives.


Buying Computer Magazines was awesome, from the ones withe games listings you typed in (that often didn't work) to the fantastic Crash! (for the Spectrum) and Zzap!64 for the C64. Both of which I have recently backed on their kickstarter campaigns for their annuals, using the original staff, such good reads! I have Crash! 2018, Zzap!64 2019 and am awaiting delivery of Crash! 2019.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

No I have never been very cyber savy. I had a walkman..ha ha.

[staffslad]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Anyone remember these microcomputers from the late 70s through 80s?

Sinclair zx80
Sinclair zx81
Sinclair Spectrum
Commodore Vic20
Commodore C64
Atari 400/800 and successors
Acorn Electron
BBC Micro
Oric
Jupiter Ace
Texas Instruments TI99/4a
TRS80
Dragon 32
Amstrad CPC464 and successors
Atari ST
Commodore Amiga

The Atari ST and Commodore Amiga had built in disc drives, as did some later Spectrums and possibly Amstrads. Most loaded and saved programs from cassette tape. Remember that wait while the tape loaded your game into the micro's memory? Although it was not so convenient as a floppy disc or a game on a cartridge, tape based games were far cheaper so very large quantities were sold. I remember tape games costing £9.99 when brand new in the 80s, but after a year or so that would drop dramatically. Also, companies like Code Masters sold games for £1.99 and I had dozens of them. £9.99 games would also be re-released after a while in a smaller box at £1.99 or £2.99. Computer magazines almost always had a tape stuck to their covers--often a demo of a game or sometimes a complete game. I remember being so excited when I read in a Commodore mag that there would be a demo tape of Operation Wolf on next month's cover, and I made sure I got my copy the day the mag was published. Of course, these games from the 8-bit era--16-bit for Amiga and ST--can't live with modern games graphics and sound quality, but it is ultimately gameplay that makes someone keep wanting to play a game, not graphics and sound, and those old micros had some really great games that made you want to play and play.

Just for the record, I had at one time or another the following...

Sinclair ZX81
Atari 400 and 130XE
Commodore 128 and Amiga
Acorn Electron

[George 1978]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Sounds interesting, good luck with that George...but dont send them any money!

Thanks for the advice, Tex. I know from the past that so-called "companies" seem to make money disappear, and the police often say that it is not theft.

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Well, it's about archive television, choosing patterns of dates throughout the different decades - I am certain that members on here would be interested in it, but as I say, from a publishing perspective it is in its very embryonic stages. If there is any development, I might keep members posted on here.

It's a bit of an anorak thing to do - I have just have access to the Times and UK Press Online websites and to the old TV guide pages. I study them and write about them using a pattern of dates in the past if any of that makes any sense.

Sounds interesting, good luck with that George...but dont send them any money!

[George 1978]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Well, it's about archive television, choosing patterns of dates throughout the different decades - I am certain that members on here would be interested in it, but as I say, from a publishing perspective it is in its very embryonic stages. If there is any development, I might keep members posted on here.

It's a bit of an anorak thing to do - I have just have access to the Times and UK Press Online websites and to the old TV guide pages. I study them and write about them using a pattern of dates in the past if any of that makes any sense.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

As I mentioned about writing as a hobby or occupation a few days ago and being published - today I received an email saying that they are interested in publishing some material that I sent to them last week. I don't know whether they are straight up or not as I have not had any luck at all in this sort of thing - it is a bona fide publishing company based in London.

For some reason I feel that I need to be cautious about this as I know what it feels like to be set up only to be knocked back down again - I have assumed that nothing like this would happen to someone like myself.

Good for you George. You must be thrilled. Fill us in on the plot?

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Anything to do with these herberts?

Obviously where the name came from. They had a one or two hits in their day.

[George 1978]

Re: A trip down memory lane

As I mentioned about writing as a hobby or occupation a few days ago and being published - today I received an email saying that they are interested in publishing some material that I sent to them last week. I don't know whether they are straight up or not as I have not had any luck at all in this sort of thing - it is a bona fide publishing company based in London.

For some reason I feel that I need to be cautious about this as I know what it feels like to be set up only to be knocked back down again - I have assumed that nothing like this would happen to someone like myself.

[zabadak]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Wou are aware the "crawl" is short for the Australia Crawl swimming style first used professionally by the Australian champion swimmer, Richmond "Dick" Cavill and later perfected and popularised by another Aussie swim champ /film siren Annette Kellerman. (below)

Anything to do with these herberts?

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Wou are aware the "crawl" is short for the Australia Crawl swimming style first used professionally by the Australian champion swimmer, Richmond "Dick" Cavill and later perfected and popularised by another Aussie swim champ /film siren Annette Kellerman. (below)

The Cavil family sure liked to swim, 6 members of the family in the swimmers hall of fame!....have to say i diden't know such a thing existed