Oldness poll

by **jimboston** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 9:06 pm

I had a Timex Sinclair.

I remember when I was the remote control in my house.
(I had big brothers... and when they wanted the TV channel changed I was the remote. Lucky for me there were only six channels.)

I was also the antenna... If reception was bad they would make me hold the antenna "or else".

by **Woodruff** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 9:51 pm

Borderdawg wrote:
Woodruff wrote:
HapSmo19 wrote:"...operates at a lightning fast 20mhz,..."

Monitor and mouse not included? For $8500.00? WTF?

Yeah, I also like "virtually simultaneous data transfer".

I remember writing programs and saving them to casette tape, because hard drives were enormously expensive back then.

And Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs)...the internet before the internet.

I can go ya one better than cassette, Woody! When I got out of the Navy in 1980, I went to work for Burroughs Corp. Banks were just going to mainframe systems, and the bank terminals were analog systems programed with punched mylar tape!!

Yeah, I did punchcards in the Air Force (floor sort!). Ah, the memories...glad they're only that.

by **mpjh** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:11 pm

Yeah, I remember when "data encryption" in the Navy communications system was all punch card controlled.

by **thegreekdog** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:55 pm

I never used the internet until I got to college (1997). And in 1997 we didn't have good stuff like CC or wikipedia or google. I used instant messenger a lot (to talk to friends from high school). I also played Age of Empires (the original) - my roommate and I against the guys next door. That was always fun.

by **the.killing.44** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:59 pm

Your poll is fundamentally flawed.

by **mpjh** on Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:02 pm

I agree, some of us so old we don't remember what we remember.

by **BigBallinStalin** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:22 am

heavycola wrote:

256,000 colors?!

/me immediately jizzes pants

by **muy_thaiguy** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:39 am

I remember when all we had for transport was our own 2 feet. The damn mammoths were too damn stubborn to let people ride on them, and horses weren't quite evolved yet. Some idiots tried riding a saber toothed tiger (we called them big tooths), and well, let's just say we learned from their mistake. And the wolves, ooh the wolves were monsters back then! They just don't make wolves like they used too. Shame too.

by **mpjh** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:07 am

Back when you had little unicorns pasted on your bedroom door, hey?

by **heavycola** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:21 am

mpjh wrote:my first computer -- well I don't remember its numbers -- but it was "programed" with switches on its face plate and the "solution" appears in a sequence of little red lites on that same faceplate.

my first comp was an Acorn Electron (32k) followed by a C64. I was obssessed with Elite, then my dog chewed up the tape with my commander on it. Valuable though incredibly painful early life lesson.

by **mpjh** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:30 am

more like

by **2dimes** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:54 am

jimboston wrote:I had a Timex Sinclair.

I remember when I was the remote control in my house.
(I had big brothers... and when they wanted the TV channel changed I was the remote. Lucky for me there were only six channels.)

I was also the antenna... If reception was bad they would make me hold the antenna "or else".

ZX-81

10 print "2dimes"
20 goto 10

Website · by **Huckleberryhound** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:03 am

Dude, i remember a time before home computers.

The zx81 anyone?

by **2dimes** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:04 am

Website · by **Huckleberryhound** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:05 am

2dimes wrote:
jimboston wrote:I had a Timex Sinclair.

I remember when I was the remote control in my house.
(I had big brothers... and when they wanted the TV channel changed I was the remote. Lucky for me there were only six channels.)

I was also the antenna... If reception was bad they would make me hold the antenna "or else".

ZX-81

10 print "2dimes"
20 goto 10

I should've read the whole thread really...."Boris goes skiing" and "Ghostbusters" were the first games i ever played.

by **heavycola** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:07 am

Huckleberryhound wrote:
2dimes wrote:
jimboston wrote:I had a Timex Sinclair.

I remember when I was the remote control in my house.
(I had big brothers... and when they wanted the TV channel changed I was the remote. Lucky for me there were only six channels.)

I was also the antenna... If reception was bad they would make me hold the antenna "or else".

ZX-81

10 print "2dimes"
20 goto 10

I should've read the whole thread really...."Boris goes skiing" and "Ghostbusters" were the first games i ever played.

ghostbusters = awesome. So were Hangman and Jet Set Willy of course

by **2dimes** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:09 am

=( we couldn't afford fancy games for ours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AonYn7pbVy8

by **stahrgazer** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:22 am

tzor wrote:Yes, I remember "dial up" services that required telephone modems; Compuserve, The Source, even the company I worked for, the Mult-Player Games Newtork started out by using Compuserve's dial up system.

I remember before that when personal computers got data from IBM mainframes by acting as "smart terminals."

I remember when the IBM PC was introdced and when i first saw it next to the card punch systems at my college.

I remember the Commodore PET in my senior year of high school.

I remember the vynal record, the rotary phone, the manual typewriter (did you ever see "Max Headroom" where they used manual typewriters as computer terminals ... much later of course), and when Television was in Black and White.

I don't remember Commodore PET but I do remember pet rocks... and all the other things here. I can even remember when we didn't have a tv set at home.

by **Tiggy D Amour** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:56 pm

My first computer:

Combat was awesome!

by **Tiggy D Amour** on Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:59 pm

Look at the other games you could buy:

by **karelpietertje** on Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:07 pm

nietzsche wrote:I invented the Internetz

Fixed

by **Incandenza** on Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:13 pm

2dimes wrote:mpjh as a former gear head I have to call you on fuel injection. It was available on the 1953 Corvette and I suspect existed for a while in some form before that. Impressive list still you must be rilly old.

Actually, they didn't make a fuelie Corvette until 1957. But IIRC some German cars had fuel injection before WWII, and some hot rod guys had fuel injectors in the late 40's.

/reluctant repository of an insane amount of car knowledge, but still haven't the foggiest idea how to change my own damn oil

by **Timminz** on Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:13 pm

Both my parents worked heavily with computers when I was a kid. I remember the World Wide Web being a brand-new thing, but I don't specifically remember the early days of usenet, or whatever it was called back then. My earliest, regular internet use was on newsgroups, playing Doom with my friends, and local BBS's.