Retro Computers

[mike9009]

This used to scare the life out of me as a seven year old. What a step on from Pong etc.

[DavidY]

Zad said:

snuffy said:

Weren't later TVs cleverer where they loaded all the pages in RAM and then when you selected a new page it already had it ? Caching in fact.

I think with Fastext they cached the pages that were linked to the 4 colour buttons, and later models cached the sub-pages on the page you were currently viewing.

Yep!! and certain pages were transmitted OSQ (Out of sequence) so they were inserted in the list of transmitted pages more often, examples would be the index page 100, and the TV listings index page.

[J4CKO]

Never did buy and original C64 but have ordered the full size remake version, looking forward to getting it.

https://www.retrorgb.com/c64-maxi-reviews-availabi...

[Deep Thought]

J4CKO said:

Never did buy and original C64 but have ordered the full size remake version, looking forward to getting it.

https://www.retrorgb.com/c64-maxi-reviews-availabi...

Looks good. Great that it can load games from / save to USB.

[SeanyD]

Related to this thread, a mid range machine around 1980 era would have had 16k memory.

A mid range machine today has 16gb memory.

Tech capacity has thefore progressed by a million, in the last 40 years. Phenomenal to think.

[littlebasher]

J4CKO said:

Never did buy and original C64 but have ordered the full size remake version, looking forward to getting it.

https://www.retrorgb.com/c64-maxi-reviews-availabi...

Saw a review for that on Youtube, looks like a good option. Too much hassle trying to plug my old C64 into a TV and then loading games off the SD2IEC thingy !

[Gary C]

littlebasher said:

J4CKO said:

Never did buy and original C64 but have ordered the full size remake version, looking forward to getting it.

https://www.retrorgb.com/c64-maxi-reviews-availabi...

Saw a review for that on Youtube, looks like a good option. Too much hassle trying to plug my old C64 into a TV and then loading games off the SD2IEC thingy !

You can get emulators for every 8 bit machine on a PC, but nothing matches using real hardware

Been playing disk version of Elite on my BBC, got to Average already

The clunk, clunk , clunk of the floppy is so evocative. Just wish we still used CDC CMD disk drives at work. When I compiled a program, the floor would shake as the 4" long voice coil moved the heads in and out.

[Zad]

It looks like original hardware but the new C64 Maxi is an emulator, running on an ARM core. Very similar to the Mini hardware, but by the sound of it the firmware is considerably improved.

[Morningside]

mike9009 said:

This used to scare the life out of me as a seven year old. What a step on from Pong etc.

If only he had incorporated a gun,,,but the dinosaur still made me jump. It was surprising how small the maze actually was.

[ATG]

My lineage: ZX81 bought from a mate's brother for £60 when he got a Vic20. It had a 32kb RAM pack which was huge at least in physical dimensions. This was followed by a Sinclair QL bought for bugger all from WHSmiths (I think) when Sinclair was going bust due to such engineering highlights as the C5 and the QL. The QL had a Motorola 68000 series processor, so 32 bit (woo!) , but they used the version that had an 8 bit data bus (68008?) FFS. And a few years later I saved a bit of money in my gap year and bought an Archimedes and it flew. What a piece of kit.

When I bought that ZX81, RAM was roughly £1 per kilobyte. If that were still the case, the RAM in my £200 smart phone would be worth about £6 million. Add another zero for inflation, if you like. Absolutely staggering progress.

[ChevronB19]

16k ZX Spectrum bought by my folks, who were not well off. Must’ve been a stretch for them. Previous experience had been at school with the ZX81 plus thermonuclear RAM pack.

Teachers didn’t know what to do with them, so the actual ‘teaching’ was pretty non existent, although I do remember thermal printers, as well as endless pirated games. My folks hoped I’d learn to program, but other than some basic BASIC that never happened. Now I have a small person I’m teaching myself Linux command line and some python, but at very early stages.

[Dinlowgoon]

Some Guy said:

272BHP said:

I think Defender still plays really well.

Yes and epic sound effects and that little tune on start up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gss3lxeqCok

Still addicted now,Space City and Tivoli arcades on Margate seafront used to have 5 or 6 machines all lined up with their volumes all set on 11 !
Never forget the buzz of clocking it for the 1st time.(Extra ship for every point scored for first 10,000 points).
Decent full size (not sit-down) machines fetch big money now and 40 yr old hardware not that reliable so Mame64 is the way to go.
The ZX Spectrum clone games never really cut it.

[Brilad]

dundarach said:

Yes, all sorts, a small bit of mine...

Username: Dundarach

Pic: Nohzdyve

Retro credentials check out!!

[J4CKO]

Got it all set up and played a few games, its much more like playing on a real C64 than emulators feel like as you can see it and the joystick works ok but is a bit notchy/clicky, a 65 inch telly is overkill for it though. The "carousel" for the in built games is very slick and it all works very nicely, much better job than the Mini version and performance seems better.

Makes me remember how utterly frustrating Monty mole was, you can save your state and go back if you die but even with that I just get killed all the time.

Machine is apparently "The ugliest thing I have ever seen", according to the wife, plonked in my man cave next to my 2600 but I like it so nerr !

Will get a load of roms and try all the other games that arent built in.

Edited by J4CKO on Sunday 29th December 13:25

[Alex Z]

I’m hoping for an Amiga to follow on next. Emulators and even SD cards in real hardware are still a faff, so a nice ready made option would be great.

[Sterillium]

Alex Z said:

I’m hoping for an Amiga to follow on next. Emulators and even SD cards in real hardware are still a faff, so a nice ready made option would be great.

This is exactly my hope... something like that but for Amiga would be epic.

[Zoobeef]

Dug out my old Amiga stuff the other day. Includes a A500 and A1200.
1200 is now set up to a 32" CRT using a new scart lead. Chaos engine looks great.

[Zoobeef]

This is all the stuff I have. All but the 1200 may go though.

[J4CKO]

Alex Z said:

I’m hoping for an Amiga to follow on next. Emulators and even SD cards in real hardware are still a faff, so a nice ready made option would be great.

Yeah, that would be fantastic, never managed to get an Amiga emulator running, not tried that hard though.

[Bear-n]

I've just peeked at sold prices for the Panasonic 3DO, which has now tempted me to sell mine!