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Author Topic: Bye-Bye 1983  (Read 941 times)

slink

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Bye-Bye 1983
« on: October 30, 2012, 03:18:24 pm »

Today, as I was cleaning old magazines out of a closet full of manuals and reference books, I threw out my very first computer magazine.  It was a 1983 issue of Micro, which was devoted to the Radio Shack TRS-80.  I did not have a TRS-80, but I did have a Heathkit Z-80 CP/M computer which ran Microsoft BASIC.  The languages were close enough that I could make the TRS-80 BASIC programs work on the Heathkit.  The very first computer game that I ever typed in came from that magazine: D&D.  It was an ASCII dungeon-crawl game.  I also typed in a Lotus 1-2-3 knock-off spreadsheet and something Zork-like.  But D&D is the one I played all the time.  The man who later became my husband also played it on my computer, when he visited me back then.  A shared fond memory went out in the trash today.  *sniffle*

But I have Dwarf Fortress to console me.  *grin*
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Flying Dice

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2012, 03:20:54 pm »

But I have Dwarf Fortress to console me.  *grin*

My hat's off to you. That was a beautiful pun.
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RedKing

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2012, 03:21:30 pm »

I remember typing in programs in Commodore BASIC from Family Computing. God, the PEEK and POKE statements and their inscrutable arcane magic....good times.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2012, 03:23:07 pm »

I miss POKE's. Many a wasted hour was spent typing those in by hand. Now its all "Up, Up, Down, Down, O, X, O, X, infinite lives".
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kaijyuu

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2012, 03:25:24 pm »

I have a bunch of old magazines I'll never throw out, like Computer Gaming Monthly. Lots of interesting old debates and such concerning the state of the industry back then, like whether online gaming would ever pick up.
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Levi

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2012, 03:27:22 pm »

I remember my dad typing out those games from magazines for our C64 when I was a little kid.  :D
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RedKing

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Re: Bye-Bye 1983
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2012, 03:38:16 pm »

I did a lot of demos (back before I knew there was such a thing as a demo scene). Of course, mine were elementary (spirograph-type randomized graphics with 3-voice waveform audio) and my mind was blown by the professional demo coders in Finland, whose stuff I'd find bundled with the hacked games I got via sneakernet, using Fast Hack'em or some such.

Oh, and saving money by buying single-sided, double-density floppies and then just using a hole punch to make them double-sided.  :D


While we're taking a trip down Amnesia Memory Lane, here's a 1983 Sears Catalog.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2012, 03:45:44 pm by RedKing »
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Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.