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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 15, 2018 7:03:16 GMT
This week's DM involves itself with the early days of home computing. Remember the good old days of games on tapes. Waiting hours for programs to load. Dodgy 8 bit graphics and often insanely difficult game play. Those were the days.... eh? As far as I'm concerned you had 3 options: ZX Spectrum 16k-128k+. Commodore 64. Amstrad CPC. Pick one. Okay so we all know the C64 generally had the best graphics but that doesn't necessarily mean it was the best machine as far as you were concerned. Often it depended on what you wanted to do, what mates you had or in particular, what games you played. With each system having both positives and negatives. ..And before anyone asks, yes there is a reason I didn't include machines like the Dragon 32, the Oric and the BBC Micro. They were also rans and you know it!
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Post by ace5150 on Apr 15, 2018 8:03:06 GMT
Never interested in the slightest with these early computers. Didn't click my mouse in the slightest, BUT I would have avoided ANYTHING by Amstrad!
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Deleted
Deus est regit qui omnia.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2018 8:42:26 GMT
Didn't have a computer until 1999 so I am out of this one.
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Post by daz on Apr 15, 2018 12:26:20 GMT
Spectrum 48k all the way. Considering the power it had it gave us such inventive games at fairly reasonable prices which brought 100s if not thousands of hours of great entertainment. It was something which was invented, developed even, in this country and at the forefront of the computing revolution, easy to mock now but they were ahead of the curve at the time and sad to see no UK company is at the forefront of this anymore.
My first computer was actually an Atari 800XL, which could run certain Spectrum games, but you did have to search hard to find compatible games I did prefer my Spectrum more for the far greater choice of games, my favourite always being the Football Manager style games and one in particular called 'The Double', but I loved a load of the Codemaster games as well and many others.
Primative? Yes, but essential stuff for kids growing up in the 80s and I really wish I never gave my stuff away to a local charity shop back in the early 90s as I am sure my kids would love a good laugh at the primitive technology available in the 80s, they still have problems believing there was no dedictated childrens TV channel back then, so not sure how they would handle computer games on cassette.
Happy Days.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 15, 2018 14:54:45 GMT
Spectrum 48k all the way. Considering the power it had it gave us such inventive games at fairly reasonable prices which brought 100s if not thousands of hours of great entertainment. It was something which was invented, developed even, in this country and at the forefront of the computing revolution, easy to mock now but they were ahead of the curve at the time and sad to see no UK company is at the forefront of this anymore. My first computer was actually an Atari 800XL, which could run certain Spectrum games, but you did have to search hard to find compatible games I did prefer my Spectrum more for the far greater choice of games, my favourite always being the Football Manager style games and one in particular called 'The Double', but I loved a load of the Codemaster games as well and many others. Primative? Yes, but essential stuff for kids growing up in the 80s and I really wish I never gave my stuff away to a local charity shop back in the early 90s as I am sure my kids would love a good laugh at the primitive technology available in the 80s, they still have problems believing there was no dedictated childrens TV channel back then, so not sure how they would handle computer games on cassette. Happy Days. 100% Agreed. Except I never took mine to the charity shop and it still works afaik. I still have hundreds (literally) of games for it.
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Post by jno on Apr 15, 2018 16:43:03 GMT
Ooh, there were a few more than those options that I can remember playing with my 80s mates... BBC B, Acorn Electron and Dragon 32/64 and the utter shyte that was the ZX81. The Atari 2600 console was also massive in the early 80s.
The Spectrum 48k with utterly rubbish rubber keys is what everyone had and I have happy memories of playing Rambo, Commando, Spy Hunter, Daley Thompson's Decathlon and Football Manager round my pal's houses.
Very few had Commodore 64 and Amstrad but I do remember playing Boulder Dash on the C64 and it was a far superior machine to the Spectrum 48k so this gets my vote.
I can only remember me having 1 turn on a CPC64 by Amstrad as very few kids had one.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 15, 2018 18:32:17 GMT
Ooh, there were a few more than those options that I can remember playing with my 80s mates... BBC B, Acorn Electron and Dragon 32/64 and the utter shyte that was the ZX81. The Atari 2600 console was also massive in the early 80s. The Spectrum 48k with utterly rubbish rubber keys is what everyone had and I have happy memories of playing Rambo, Commando, Spy Hunter, Daley Thompson's Decathlon and Football Manager round my pal's houses. Very few had Commodore 64 and Amstrad but I do remember playing Boulder Dash on the C64 and it was a far superior machine to the Spectrum 48k so this gets my vote. I can only remember me having 1 turn on a CPC64 by Amstrad as very few kids had one. If you had paid attention during my OP 007 you would have seen that I fully took into account 'also ran' machines like the Dragon 32, MSX etc but know full well no one would have voted for them unless they were being contrary. I already have one control variable in this experiment that no one will vote for (the Amstrad CPC). I did not need multiple. The Atari 2600 was not a home computer it was a video game console. So that may be included in a future DM, who knows? The C64 was a far superior machine to the 48k but again as I said in my OP: "Okay so we all know the C64 generally had the best graphics but that doesn't necessarily mean it was the best machine as far as you were concerned. Often it depended on what you wanted to do, what mates you had or in particular, what games you played." I had/have the hard key version of the 48k Just some of the games I played over and over were: Beach Head Manic Miner Raid Over Moscow Way of the Exploding Fist Jet Pack Jet Set Willy Bomb Jack Target Renegade Barbarian Feud Spy Vs Spy Bubble Bobble Xenon Cauldron Rock Star Ate My Hamster Rock & Wrestle Bionic Commando Kickstart The Plot Football Manager How to be a Complete B*stard 1942 Chess Horace Goes Skiing Elite Action Biker with Clumsy Colin The list is flipping endless. Most of the titles I've forgotten. I dread to think how many hours I sat there listening to that loading screen. Brrrrrrrr.... Bip....Brrrrrrr....BipBipBip....BrrrrrBeeebebeeebbbbebbszzzzzzzwdhxwhdwh£$%phd^&*cwblchbhjeqfvk! Or however you spell it
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Post by jno on Apr 15, 2018 20:44:34 GMT
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 15, 2018 21:02:53 GMT
I just checked the acorn electron site. And I quote his second sentence in..... "We are the only dedicated Acorn Electron website on the Internet". I wonder why? The defence rests your honour.
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Post by KarinB on Apr 15, 2018 22:26:38 GMT
My brother had a Commodore 64. I haven't heard them mentioned since back then !
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Deleted
Deus est regit qui omnia.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2018 2:00:16 GMT
We had a 48K Spectrum,the posho kis had C64s.My best mate had a BBC and Chuckie Egg was glorious on that.My other mate broke the disc drive on it trying to get the disc out and Dave's dad went mad. I was a rabid Codemasters fan and bought all their releases,£2.99 per cassette,couldn't go wrong. My other mate,Andy,had a VIC 20 and we typed in a programme from a Magazine (Crash?) about five pages long but it didn't work.
I still think that nobody in the history of man must have ever completed Jet Set Willy.Even with infinite lives.
I have thousands of Speccy games on my Raspberry Pi and had a go for nostalgic purposes but I couldn't get past the first level of Manic Miner.
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Post by jno on Apr 16, 2018 3:12:11 GMT
I just checked the acorn electron site. And I quote his second sentence in..... "We are the only dedicated Acorn Electron website on the Internet". I wonder why? To answer the question, he's undoubtedly a lazy get, who has yet to discover a thing called a search engine: www.acornelectrontoday.comwww.stardot.org.ukwww.acornarcade.comhome.claranet.nl/users/bverhoev/On the topic of retro gaming I feel the need to blatantly promote another site today, run by my oldest pal on this forum swainy (who has the coolest ever stand up arcade machine at his house btw): retroasylum.com/So cool I even own a retro asylum t-shirt!
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 16, 2018 6:13:35 GMT
I checked those sites, they worried me. 2/4 weren't, as he said, on the first Acorn Electron site 'dedicated'. Another of the 4 above talked about joining their '8-Bit Acorn Webring'. Now is it just me or does the word 'RING', make them sound rather..... well, sinister? Any forum users should think at least 157 times before clicking that link, I'm sure. And finally the Acorn Electron Today site features a link to suicide counselling on the homepage!!!!! I kid ye not. To be honest if I'd dedicated my life to an also ran like the Acorn, I'd be suicidal too. Once again the defence rests. It was an also ran and you know it.
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Post by jno on Apr 16, 2018 6:17:19 GMT
Well, in fairness to the Electron you didn't get Daredevil Dennis on the Spectrum ... (the first game I ever handed over coin of the realm for): The sound of the bike reminds me of something, oh yes, Arch Stanton snoring after a few pints.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 16, 2018 7:06:47 GMT
In fairness Dare Devil Dennis looks like a very good game. I want a go!
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 16, 2018 7:20:33 GMT
Bodiesstuntdouble needs to buy the rights to that and call it Bodie's Stunt Double The Arcade Game
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Post by chopper on Apr 17, 2018 19:33:24 GMT
I had a BBC, and shared games with the Acorn Electron. Also had a lot of fun playing on friends Spectrums & Commodore’s!
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Post by jno on Apr 29, 2018 16:33:07 GMT
The really naff thing about the Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad was the lack of these in schools. This meant those of us with Electrons at home could bring their games in and while the teacher thought we were working hard on some cack maths program, we were in fact attempting 22 double decker buses on Eddie Kidd's Jump Challenge. My hand eye coordination and use of angles were far more practically applied on Eddie Kidd's Jump Challenge!
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Post by Arch Stanton on Apr 29, 2018 18:07:14 GMT
The really naff thing about the Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad was the lack of these in schools. This meant those of us with Electrons at home could bring their games in and while the teacher thought we were working hard on some cack maths program, we were in fact attempting 22 double decker buses on Eddie Kidd's Jump Challenge. My hand eye coordination and use of angles were far more practically applied on Eddie Kidd's Jump Challenge! We had 'Yie Ar Kung Fu' at our school on the BBC. It didn't work properly though, either that or I was just shyte at it. I'm sure you could only get so far then it broke.
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Post by mybodyguard on Oct 1, 2018 16:32:54 GMT
I don't know if TI was sold in the UK or not, but in the US, you either had a Commodore (I had the Commodore 64) or a Texas Instruments (my friend had the TI-99) to choose from. That was about it, unless you could afford an Apple.
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Post by McCann on Oct 1, 2018 23:32:34 GMT
Commodore 64 is back on sale these days as a mini emulator you plug into your TV. Complete with joystick. it comes with 64 games, but no Manic Miner unfortunately. I will probably fork out the €80 for one now it should be able to load new games via a USB soon. US version is going on sale in a week or two, and this is supposed to be opened up for loading new games.
Really need to complete Manic Miner during my lifetime. Would also like to go again at: Chuckie Egg, Chocky Egg, Green Beret, Falcon Patrol, Shoestring, Gilligans' Gold (most of these were on a Band Aid related tape sold in 1984 as 'Soft aid'), Paperboy, purple turtles, and you also had football sims like Treble Manager that were the paving the way before Championship Manager came along to waste thousands of valuable youthful hours on the PC.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Oct 2, 2018 7:22:29 GMT
I don't know if TI was sold in the UK or not, but in the US, you either had a Commodore (I had the Commodore 64) or a Texas Instruments (my friend had the TI-99) to choose from. That was about it, unless you could afford an Apple. No Texas Instruments just made calculators round my neck of the woods.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Oct 2, 2018 7:26:19 GMT
Really need to complete Manic Miner during my lifetime. I agree. You need to beat that game, give that Kong Beast a whuppin.
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Post by daz on Oct 2, 2018 11:50:26 GMT
Commodore 64 is back on sale these days as a mini emulator you plug into your TV. Complete with joystick. it comes with 64 games, but no Manic Miner unfortunately. I will probably fork out the €80 for one now it should be able to load new games via a USB soon. US version is going on sale in a week or two, and this is supposed to be opened up for loading new games. Really need to complete Manic Miner during my lifetime. Would also like to go again at: Chuckie Egg, Chocky Egg, Green Beret, Falcon Patrol, Shoestring, Gilligans' Gold (most of these were on a Band Aid related tape sold in 1984 as 'Soft aid'), Paperboy, purple turtles, and you also had football sims like Treble Manager that were the paving the way before Championship Manager came along to waste thousands of valuable youthful hours on the PC. I think there was a Spectrum one which came out, but I don't think it got great reviews, but would certainly splash out on one, within reason, if it was available. I am fairly sure I completed Manic Miner though, but if I remember correctly I required the help of Jim Noble to get me through one of the later levels. Happy days.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Oct 2, 2018 12:36:59 GMT
Commodore 64 is back on sale these days as a mini emulator you plug into your TV. Complete with joystick. it comes with 64 games, but no Manic Miner unfortunately. I will probably fork out the €80 for one now it should be able to load new games via a USB soon. US version is going on sale in a week or two, and this is supposed to be opened up for loading new games. Really need to complete Manic Miner during my lifetime. Would also like to go again at: Chuckie Egg, Chocky Egg, Green Beret, Falcon Patrol, Shoestring, Gilligans' Gold (most of these were on a Band Aid related tape sold in 1984 as 'Soft aid'), Paperboy, purple turtles, and you also had football sims like Treble Manager that were the paving the way before Championship Manager came along to waste thousands of valuable youthful hours on the PC. I think there was a Spectrum one which came out, but I don't think it got great reviews, but would certainly splash out on one, within reason, if it was available. I am fairly sure I completed Manic Miner though, but if I remember correctly I required the help of Jim Noble to get me through one of the later levels. Happy days. It was the Vega. I think? Swainy reviewed it here on one of his retro podcasts. IIRC
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Post by I used to think I was a parrot on Dec 4, 2018 21:19:18 GMT
I had a Commodore 64. I still play Summer Games II and Leaderboard.
The first game I played on it was Quasimodo.
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Post by jno on Dec 5, 2018 4:30:53 GMT
I had a Commodore 64. I still play Summer Games II and Leaderboard. The first game I played on it was Quasimodo. This one? I had this for the Electron. Superb stuff!
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Post by Arch Stanton on Dec 5, 2018 6:51:13 GMT
I had a Commodore 64. I still play Summer Games II and Leaderboard. The first game I played on it was Quasimodo. This one? I had this for the Electron. Superb stuff! I had it on the Spectrum. There was also a version called Punchy, I think too.
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Post by McCann on Jun 26, 2019 22:43:50 GMT
A full size version of the C64 will be out for Christmas. With a full working keyboard and a (presumably) more usable joystick.
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Post by jno on Jun 27, 2019 6:57:58 GMT
Jeeez, I SO want one, and that music, reminded me of this ...
Whether you like JMV or not, this theme tune kicks ass
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