Hard News by Russell Brown

Read Post

Hard News: Brimful on the 45

65 Responses

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 Newer→ Last

  • john shears,

    Happy Birthday Russell ,Good Old Amstrad ,the first computor I drove also,I remember deciding to print labels for a mailing and there was a hitch in the programme that took me about 3 hours one evening to correct and then away it went. I guess an Amstrad would have thought a gig was a small cart pulled by a horse but it was a very forgiving machine to learn on. How we have progressed.

    North Shore City • Since Nov 2006 • 21 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    Commodore 64 here - my father liked tech and found a nice local software package to do his taxes on. However that was once a month at best, so we got to use it the rest of the time.

    I beg to report that software piracy and trading was common in C64 circles and our library of many hundreds of games was probably 10% legit. This of course predates video being a part of games and my now highly developed respect of copyright protection.

    For all you Wellington types who feel the need to revisit your glory days of childhood computing I advise you to pop in and visit the computer store in the Karori Mall. I am not really sure what the deal is with that shop but it has a huge selection of really old games for old systems (Amiga for example) that are still (or were 4 months ago) at the original RRP. That being often over $100 (is it any surprise that 80s/90s teenagers became such software pirates?).

    We really are pretty lucky these days - games and consoles/pcs are comparatively dammed cheap. IIRC the C64 cost my father well over 3k in 83, and he ;ater purchased a new keyboard and colour screen a year or two later (and at least 7 joysticks over the years). $3k today would get me a very nice gaming machine, or even a not so nice but still good gaming laptop.

    Oh and happy birthday!

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    I got a ZX Spectrum in 1983 or 1984; the 48K, happily. I mentioned loading programs off tape to a friend in her early 20s a couple of years ago and she thought I was taking the piss.

    My earliest memories go before that, thought - things like my Dad bringing home an incredibly sophisticated terminal-in-a-big-briefcase setup so he could dial into work with an acoustic coupler modem in the late 70s.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Raffe Smith,

    Happy birthday. :)

    Amstrad 286, in 1991. 1Mb Ram, 40Mb HDD, 12mhz cpu...
    Still, it played Dune 2 and the original Civ well...

    Mount Albert. • Since Nov 2006 • 40 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    Oh, and while we're wallowing in nostalgia: M J Hibbert's nostalgia piece, Hey Hey 16K. Do not overlook the sheer genius that is Rob Manuel's video for same.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    (As an aside, Hibbert makes one point which is sad: it's been a while since the computers your kid would be likely to exposed to, consoles, Windows PCs, had a simple, free programming language as part of them at all, never mind as prominently as BASIC on the old 8 bit machines. The world has, in that regard, gone backwards.)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    10 CLS
    20 TYPE "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUSSELL!"
    30 GOTO 20

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    Oh, the amstrad with the tape drive was our second computer. I'd get up at 6am just to play Roland In Time before my siblings got up, and/or our mum kicked us outside to play.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Roland! Ah, good times.

    We had the colour Amstrad with the disk drive that was from some Asian manufacturer's odd lot and had 3.5" diskettes that were physically, as well as logically incompatible with the 3.5" format everyone else used. But it was a major advance over the ZX81, where you lost all your work if you accidentally bumped the 16K expansion pack.

    16K. That was such a LOT of memory.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Richie McGrath,

    Wellington types?...please don't make me cry...Hutt Valley!

    Since Jul 2007 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    had 3.5" diskettes that were physically, as well as logically incompatible with the 3.5" format everyone else used

    THey were incompatible because they were actually 3" drives (assuming you mean the Amstrad CPC, rather than a later Amstrad PC).

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • 81stcolumn,

    Thanks for the Ohrwurm - RB and a late happy Birthday. Ten years ago you could hear that chorus "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow" and of course that delightful guitar break.

    FWIW - ZX81 bought in '82/82 who could resist something that lets you PEEK and POKE it ? However I should point out I had already used a Honeywell 61/60 and an RML 380z before then. Ahhh nostalgia.

    Nawthshaw • Since Nov 2006 • 790 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow"

    Absolutely jammed in my head now, thanks.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    They were incompatible because they were actually 3" drives (assuming you mean the Amstrad CPC, rather than a later Amstrad PC).

    Yup, CPC. It was a long time ago!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow"

    Can you inform my wife please? She wants me to lose some weight ...

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 Newer→ Last

Post your response…

Please sign in using your Public Address credentials…

Login

You may also create an account or retrieve your password.