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    Bits and Bytes (1983)

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    • S
      scotth
      last edited by

      I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
      I thought it was cool at the time.

      travisdh1T scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • travisdh1T
        travisdh1 @scotth
        last edited by

        @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

        I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
        I thought it was cool at the time.

        It was awesome for it's time.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • scottalanmillerS
          scottalanmiller @scotth
          last edited by

          @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

          I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
          I thought it was cool at the time.

          Sounds like the Atari 400, I would guess.

          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            scotth @scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

            @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

            I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
            I thought it was cool at the time.

            Sounds like the Atari 400, I would guess.

            I honestly don't remember. I got it as a gift and learned to do a little coding from the user manual. I'm not even sure what language it used when I wrote the code (copied from the manual). Hell, for all I know, the wife could have it sequestered away from me in a closet.
            I'm pretty sure that I have a color Panasonic 24pin dot matrix printer somewhere. I'll have to do a search & destroy this year for spring cleaning.

            scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • scottalanmillerS
              scottalanmiller @scotth
              last edited by

              @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

              @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

              @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

              I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
              I thought it was cool at the time.

              Sounds like the Atari 400, I would guess.

              I honestly don't remember. I got it as a gift and learned to do a little coding from the user manual. I'm not even sure what language it used when I wrote the code (copied from the manual). Hell, for all I know, the wife could have it sequestered away from me in a closet.
              I'm pretty sure that I have a color Panasonic 24pin dot matrix printer somewhere. I'll have to do a search & destroy this year for spring cleaning.

              https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg/1200px-Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg

              S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • scottalanmillerS
                scottalanmiller
                last edited by

                http://media.arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.media/atari48.jpg

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  scotth @scottalanmiller
                  last edited by

                  @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                  @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                  @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                  @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                  I used to have an Atari -- it was a white keyboard that I hooked up to a TV and a tape player. I don't even remember anything else about it. I made a lightening bolt flash on the screen with thunder.
                  I thought it was cool at the time.

                  Sounds like the Atari 400, I would guess.

                  I honestly don't remember. I got it as a gift and learned to do a little coding from the user manual. I'm not even sure what language it used when I wrote the code (copied from the manual). Hell, for all I know, the wife could have it sequestered away from me in a closet.
                  I'm pretty sure that I have a color Panasonic 24pin dot matrix printer somewhere. I'll have to do a search & destroy this year for spring cleaning.

                  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg/1200px-Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg

                  That looks about right. There were connections on it like an old VT terminal.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller
                    last edited by

                    I always wanted an Atari 800 as a kid. When I was a little older though, this is the Atari I dreamed of...

                    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Atari_1040STf.jpg/1200px-Atari_1040STf.jpg

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • S
                      scotth
                      last edited by

                      I had a few buddies that were seriously into the Commodore stuff. Big game collections. Ran great.

                      scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • scottalanmillerS
                        scottalanmiller @scotth
                        last edited by

                        @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                        I had a few buddies that were seriously into the Commodore stuff. Big game collections. Ran great.

                        I'm a big commodore collector. I have a VIC20, C64, C16, C128, and Amiga 1000.

                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • S
                          scotth @scottalanmiller
                          last edited by

                          @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                          @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                          I had a few buddies that were seriously into the Commodore stuff. Big game collections. Ran great.

                          I'm a big commodore collector. I have a VIC20, C64, C16, C128, and Amiga 1000.

                          Sheeeez. They loved the Amiga's too. They were big fans of the Motorola chips IIRC.

                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • scottalanmillerS
                            scottalanmiller @scotth
                            last edited by

                            @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                            @scottalanmiller said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                            @scotth said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                            I had a few buddies that were seriously into the Commodore stuff. Big game collections. Ran great.

                            I'm a big commodore collector. I have a VIC20, C64, C16, C128, and Amiga 1000.

                            Sheeeez. They loved the Amiga's too. They were big fans of the Motorola chips IIRC.

                            Motorola made amazing chips in that era. They were the bomb.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • connorsoliverC
                              connorsoliver
                              last edited by

                              Just starting the series now, not sure what to expect but very excited. 🙂

                              scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • scottalanmillerS
                                scottalanmiller @connorsoliver
                                last edited by

                                @connorsoliver said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                                Just starting the series now, not sure what to expect but very excited. 🙂

                                It's really great stuff. Both informative AND silly and entertaining.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • connorsoliverC
                                  connorsoliver
                                  last edited by

                                  Just finished episode 1. I'm fairly young and I haven't had much experience with older technology, so seeing how the floppy discs were read and how the programs were found through the directory was fascinating. Also, I thought it was quite comical how how large the hard discs were. Did they have smaller hard discs at this point or was that it?

                                  JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JaredBuschJ
                                    JaredBusch @connorsoliver
                                    last edited by

                                    @connorsoliver said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                                    I haven't had much experience with older technology, so seeing how the floppy discs were read and how the programs were found through the directory was fascinating.

                                    it still works the same way. just the media changed.

                                    connorsoliverC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • connorsoliverC
                                      connorsoliver @JaredBusch
                                      last edited by

                                      @JaredBusch Ahhh I see.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • connorsoliverC
                                        connorsoliver
                                        last edited by

                                        Episode 2 down. It must of been such a pain that floppy discs only worked on specific computers. Also, has anyone here tried to learn a new language on one of the old fashioned cassette programs? Seems like it would be impossible.

                                        scottalanmillerS maryM 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • scottalanmillerS
                                          scottalanmiller @connorsoliver
                                          last edited by

                                          @connorsoliver said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                                          Episode 2 down. It must of been such a pain that floppy discs only worked on specific computers.

                                          Actually no different than today with hard drives, SD cards, etc. That's actually not really changed, the primary thing that has changed is that while Windows can't ready most things, everyone else can read almost everything else. But if you make things with other computers, Windows still falls down and doesn't know what to do.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • scottalanmillerS
                                            scottalanmiller @connorsoliver
                                            last edited by

                                            @connorsoliver said in Bits and Bytes (1983):

                                            Also, has anyone here tried to learn a new language on one of the old fashioned cassette programs? Seems like it would be impossible.

                                            It's not as bad as it seemed. You still do all of your learning in memory, and would just save when done. Only a problem if you lost power before you saved it.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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