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Spectrum vs Commodore 64?..

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Old Feb 23, 2008 | 07:30 PM
  #61  
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anyone remember great escape on the speccy
or
escape from colditz on the amiga they was great games

and the original testdrives like above
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 05:56 PM
  #62  
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Noticed you get hold of this kit now for a matter of a few pounds on E-bay . Back in the day a Vic20 or C64 or Speccy would cost hundreds.
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:34 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by ChefDude
sorry guys but the BBC micro was the best all rounder.

The BBC's pascalised BASIC was an excellent programming jump off. and the 6502 cpu was a joy to code with too.

It started me off into the world of assembler on 6502, Z80, 68000 and IBM ES9000

And we got Elite first
The BBC was great, plus you could make the excuse that was educational as all the schools were using them. It got me into programming my own stuff at an early age when bedroom coders ruled the roost.
But before the BBC, my first machine was ... a Dragon 32 !!
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:40 PM
  #64  
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Originally Posted by MJW
But before the BBC, my first machine was ... a Dragon 32 !!
I've still got my Dragon 32
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:47 PM
  #65  
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We only had one BBC Model A in School, and about 8 Tandy TRS-80's with one shared 5 1/4" floppy drive

I wasn't allowed to do computers as part of my options, only those who were doing CSE's could do computers, O Level folks weren't allowed

Although we could go to computer club after school
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:47 PM
  #66  
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Originally Posted by Iain Young
I've still got my Dragon 32
Wasn't there a Dragon64?
I take it the 32 and 64 meant how much RAM was in each one?
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:49 PM
  #67  
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And for those who dont know what the TRS-80's were, this is one

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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 06:56 PM
  #68  
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Originally Posted by jpor
Wasn't there a Dragon64?
I take it the 32 and 64 meant how much RAM was in each one?
Yes, there was a Dragon 64 as well, (a slightly different colour case if I remember correctly). The 32 had 32kb of RAM and the 64 had 64kb.

It was a great machine. Well ahead of it's time


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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 08:44 PM
  #69  
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Does anyone remember these?

http://pc-museum.com/gallery/oric-1.jpg

Seem to recall seeing them on-sale @ Dixons.

Apparrently they were targeted at competing with the ZX Spectrum.
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 09:17 PM
  #70  
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Originally Posted by jpor
Does anyone remember these?

http://pc-museum.com/gallery/oric-1.jpg

Seem to recall seeing them on-sale @ Dixons.

Apparrently they were targeted at competing with the ZX Spectrum.
Yep I remember them, they ran Forth I believe which was a disadvantage as most computers at the time were running a version of BASIC.
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 09:41 PM
  #71  
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anyone remember these then ?
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 09:43 PM
  #72  
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and perhaps your school had these (like mine did)


star trek anyone ?
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 10:02 PM
  #73  
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Every now and again, when I'm feeling nostalgic; I have a nose round here: http://www.old-computers.com/

I still would like have a vintage Cray, not sure what I'd do with it, maybe use it store my address book or something
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 10:02 PM
  #74  
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LOL

Yes I remember the Oric, and the Jupiter ACE, I have in the loft a Yamaha MSX machine, but at least it had a half decent (at the time) music keyboard
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Old Feb 25, 2008 | 10:38 PM
  #75  
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Originally Posted by spectrum48k
and perhaps your school had these (like mine did)


star trek anyone ?
Oh yes, I remember those! I used to teach hapless adults word processing on them.

Steve
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 12:37 PM
  #76  
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Sounds like I was lucky enough to start out on a VIC-20
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 12:56 PM
  #77  
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Originally Posted by chrisowe
Yep I remember them, they ran Forth I believe which was a disadvantage as most computers at the time were running a version of BASIC.
<anorak on>
Nope, the oric-1 used BASIC (its own dialect) like all the other machines of the time. It was in fact the Jupiter Ace which used FORTH and that was designed by the two hardware engineers from Sinclair who designed the ZX81 who formed a company called Jupiter Cantab.

Not a wise decision really as FORTH never really took off!
<anorak off>
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 01:06 PM
  #78  
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Originally Posted by GaryK
<anorak on>
Nope, the oric-1 used BASIC (its own dialect) like all the other machines of the time. It was in fact the Jupiter Ace which used FORTH and that was designed by the two hardware engineers from Sinclair who designed the ZX81 who formed a company called Jupiter Cantab.

Not a wise decision really as FORTH never really took off!
<anorak off>
Yep your right, it was a long time ago.
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 02:33 PM
  #79  
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Of all my computers, my Amiga seemed the most satisfying to program games for.

Armed with this, you felt anything was possible!
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 04:05 PM
  #80  
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Am I right in thinking that there was a home computer that had PASCAL as it's primary programming language? Newbury New Brain was it?
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 05:00 PM
  #81  
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came with a BASIC compiler according to the blurb
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 05:15 PM
  #82  
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Originally Posted by spectrum48k
Of all my computers, my Amiga seemed the most satisfying to program games for.

Armed with this, you felt anything was possible!
Really?
It's poor hardware sprite's and the bitmap display buffer that meant you used most of the CPU power+Blitter to do scrolling was a tragic mistake.

The c64 with its <1Mhz processor could scroll the screen around quicker than the Amiga, add it's decent sized sprites and it made the Amiga look a bit poor. Having 32 colours and better resolution just didn't make it that much better

Cheers

Dan

Ps. I made games for both systems, the C64 was a joy to program the Amiga was a real dissapointment when you tried to make it fly
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 05:43 PM
  #83  
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Originally Posted by DanPhillips
Really?
It's poor hardware sprite's and the bitmap display buffer that meant you used most of the CPU power+Blitter to do scrolling was a tragic mistake.

The c64 with its <1Mhz processor could scroll the screen around quicker than the Amiga, add it's decent sized sprites and it made the Amiga look a bit poor. Having 32 colours and better resolution just didn't make it that much better

Cheers

Dan

Ps. I made games for both systems, the C64 was a joy to program the Amiga was a real dissapointment when you tried to make it fly
I should elaborate, the Amiga was the first machine I started to write GAMES on. I was 10 when I got my Spectrum and it was something I just tinkered with (BASIC and a little Z80). My BBC'B was the machine I learned BASIC and then later 6502 on. I only had a C64 briefly, and it was used solely for playing games with my mates (Winter/Summer Games, Pitstop II, etc..) - which is a shame as you make it sound like a great machine to code for. It was only when I got my Amiga at 15 did I take a proper interest in 68000 assembler - converted Atari Supersprint onto it. I say converted - I should say 75% converted as I never completed it!

Last edited by spectrum48k; Feb 28, 2008 at 12:41 AM.
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Old Feb 26, 2008 | 06:36 PM
  #84  
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Originally Posted by spectrum48k


came with a BASIC compiler according to the blurb
Just done a search on old-computers.com and came across this that did have PASCAL as it's main language:

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

Which one had Fortran as it's main language?
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Old Feb 27, 2008 | 08:23 PM
  #85  
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Who's still got their original home computer from the 80's?
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Old Feb 27, 2008 | 09:13 PM
  #86  
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Originally Posted by jpor
Who's still got their original home computer from the 80's?
my dad got rid of them all, except the A1000, which is still in pristine condition. So I went out on eBay and bought a mint Spectrum and a C64! Fancy a ZX81 next, and perhaps a BBC'B. I'd love an Atari 800
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Old Feb 27, 2008 | 10:57 PM
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Originally Posted by spectrum48k
my dad got rid of them all, except the A1000, which is still in pristine condition. So I went out on eBay and bought a mint Spectrum and a C64! Fancy a ZX81 next, and perhaps a BBC'B. I'd love an Atari 800
Still got the following:

VIC20 C.from 1983 - Got a knackered RF modulator
ZX81 - Non working
ZX Spectrum 16K - Non Working, but still have the joystick dual port add on

Did have the AMIGA A500, and a A1200 (With 2MB RAM and an Added internal 420MB HDD). Then Swapped the A500 for the CDTV (A500 in a CD cabinet with a built in CD-ROM). Then Sold both the A1200 and the CDTV.

Been also looking on E-bay and noticed a couple of A4000's going. One is up for £1200!
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Old Feb 28, 2008 | 10:47 AM
  #88  
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I bought up a few a while ago but the reality was it was easier just to install emu's on the pc and play everything that way.
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Old Feb 28, 2008 | 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by GaryK
I bought up a few a while ago but the reality was it was easier just to install emu's on the pc and play everything that way.
Got any links?

Would be great to play a few classics.

Defender of the Crown on the Amiga. Loved that! A friend lent me his amiga for the w/end. I played that all the time, needless to say i didn't want to give it back to him.
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Old Feb 28, 2008 | 02:37 PM
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Originally Posted by GazTheHat
Got any links?

Would be great to play a few classics.

Defender of the Crown on the Amiga. Loved that! A friend lent me his amiga for the w/end. I played that all the time, needless to say i didn't want to give it back to him.
ZX Spectrum
emulator: Spectaculator, Sinclair ZX Spectrum Emulator Home
games library: World of Spectrum
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