Do you remember your monochrome days?

My all time fave involved gathering 'vassals' from territories and then attacking castles (with catapults nogal) :D Bru .... I loved that baby.
 
XT, 20MB HDD, 640kB RAM, Floppy, Grey Monochrome (256 shades, original was yellow with 16 shades), QEMM, Magic Key (CGA emu) ... the good old days :D
 
How did that turbo button work, and why could you only use it in Turbo mode now and again.. whats the dif?

Anyone give more details on the turbo button.
 
I remember when a friend (now lecturer at TUT) showed us the first graphics on a DOS system. Yes it was pictures of women who clearly could not afford clothes for some reason, but the ability to do it on those old machines was like landing on the moon for computer geeks back then. Amazing stuff! I wonder if the first photo picture on a computer wasn’t perhaps that of a naked woman. I think you would be safe with betting a beer or two on it.
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:D:D:D
 
My first "proper" computer was a UK-101, the very first single board home computer. Got it in 1978 and had to build it myself. Came with 4K of RAM, later upgraded to 8K. 6502 CPU running at 1MHz. It was also sold as the Ohio Scientific in the US.

Here's the interesting bit: I've still got it and it's still working! On the original monitor!

First IBM compatible was a Taiwanese Takeaway, 8088 @ 4.77/8MHz, 640K RAM, CGA graphics with colour monitor and LX-80 printer. Whole setup cost R5K in 1986.

BTW, I'm collecting old computers, so if anyone has ones in good nick, drop me a PM.

I'm specifically looking for a ZX-80 (not ZX-81), the first white one and a DAI, the Belgian system.

But anything cool you've got, drop me a PM.
 
vodacom3g said:
My first "proper" computer was a UK-101, the very first single board home computer. Got it in 1978 and had to build it myself. Came with 4K of RAM, later upgraded to 8K. 6502 CPU running at 1MHz. It was also sold as the Ohio Scientific in the US.

Here's the interesting bit: I've still got it and it's still working! On the original monitor!

First IBM compatible was a Taiwanese Takeaway, 8088 @ 4.77/8MHz, 640K RAM, CGA graphics with colour monitor and LX-80 printer. Whole setup cost R5K in 1986.

BTW, I'm collecting old computers, so if anyone has ones in good nick, drop me a PM.

I'm specifically looking for a ZX-80 (not ZX-81), the first white one and a DAI, the Belgian system.

But anything cool you've got, drop me a PM.
Click to expand...

What else have you got? :D

Pictures! :)
 
MrG said:
How did that turbo button work, and why could you only use it in Turbo mode now and again.. whats the dif?

Anyone give more details on the turbo button.
Click to expand...

It just ran the whole system at a higher clock frequency. The original PC ran at 4.77Mhz (CPU was rated at 5MHz), but if you plugged a 8MHz CPU in, you could run the whole system at 8MHz.

Obviously if you run it at a higher speeds some apps, like games, would run faster than intended and you could rather then switch to the normal speed. Timing was often done with software loops.

Also, if it had crappy components, the higher speed could overheat the system and cause instability, but it was not really a problem.

The Taiwanese takeaways had the 'Turbo' function built in, but the IBM units ran at a fixed speed. In those heady days I designed a daughter-board that plugged into the IBM motherboard and carried a separate Xtal and some components to give the IBM PC's and XT's a new leash on life. Sold hundreds of them.......would love to find one again for my collection.

And you thought 'overclocking' is something modern gamers invented ;)

BTW, the first IBM AT (Advanced Technology) ran a 80286 at 6MHz and led to one of those classic statements; "This system is so powerful, I cannot see it being used by one single person. Rather it'll be a central system serving a few users in a small office". :)

Want to say it was Mr. Gates, but I need to go check up.
 
Anyone who hasn’t had to wait anxiously whether a game would load off a tape after 5 minutes has truly missed out.

Load “*”,8,1

Probably got it wrong but those in the know will know.

In any event, Amiga 500> *
 
it would seem i've always had pirate tendencies, but did you know that you could copy a tape game by "cross taping" it?
 
milomak said:
it would seem i've always had pirate tendencies, but did you know that you could copy a tape game by "cross taping" it?
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Not all were so easy. They had those "high tone" ones, with the odd warbles.
 
Old computers rock! :D

I am something of a collector as well, but I don't really have very many of them.. :o
My oldest system is my "EG2000 Colour Genie" :)

Old "portables" are my favorite.. though some of them would hardly qualify as "portable" these days.. :)

One of the oldies I'd most like to get hold of is an Epson HX20.. :D
 
My 1st pc was an 8086 with a 17mb hard drive ...

It used to have PCtools on it which you had to use to "Park" the hard drive before turning it off :p
 
@ Voicy - that would be PCTools V1.x? :D

Had the luxury of using an EGA monitor at my first work (all were using green screens) :D - doing drafts on AllyCAD :D
 
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