Does anybody remember the Dark Ages of computing...

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-03-08 06:15pm

Actually along with David Drake, and Piers Anthony I used to own a Wisard computer....

oh it used an Unix/PCM OS, and at first it had no floppy drive.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-03-08 08:06pm

I first used Apples in school, but I first owned a 25MHz 486 in 1996 (Win 3.1), then I got a PII-266 (Win 98, with occasional Win2k or Linux dual boots, now just pure Win2K) in 1998, and got Internet in 2000. In 2002 I got a P-120MHz and ran Windows 95 for awhile, then installed Linux from Scratch, where I learned most of my Linux skills. I got my 450MHz current computer in 2003, (ran Windows 2000 for a month or two (until I could download the Debian ISO on pitiful dialup, and get bored of gaming), then installed Debian, with Windows as a secondary OS, which went through cycles of pure Debian Linux/dual boot with W2K, and is currently running only Linux).

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2004-03-09 04:21pm

I wonder what was the most common type of computer game back in the '80s or so? I'm guessing stuff like Pac-Man and "educational" things like Carmen Sandiego...

Also if anybody ever played something called "Yeager: Air Combat" or "LHX Attack Helicopter", do let me know... they're early EA games, from early '90s or so, programmer for both was a Brent Iverson (dunno who he was... he was fairly big in the game manuals though, i suppose he's some EA executive now). I used to love these games... not Yeager so much, but LHX kicked ass!

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2004-03-09 04:30pm

My first owned computer was a Commodore 64 back in the early 90s. Great days. Nothing tops Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager and Microprose Soccer. Nothing.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-03-09 04:46pm

Elheru Aran wrote:I was talking last night on the AIM chat, and it occurred to me that most of the people here on the boards wouldn't have been around during the so-called "Dark Ages"...

anyways, I still remember my parents' old Commodore 64 with fond memories... it had this great Olympics game, and Pac-Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then there was this OOOOOOOLD IBM running MS-DOS... used floppies... I'd play Carmen Sandiego on it! Fun stuff... there was also LHX, this helicopter game, and a flying game... Yeager Air Combat. All fun, even if seriously old.

Anyways, I was wondering... what's the oldest comp y'all have ever used? And if there were games on it, was it fun?

I still have my Commodore 64.

Hell, when I had a Tandy 1000, I used the old C64 joysticks on it. Worked fine until the damn things broke...

btw, I was at the wee age of 5 when I first started using the C64, and I'll be 23 on May 22nd. Do the math.

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2004-03-09 05:02pm

The first computer i ever used (or at least the first i remember using, my father was always quite open about technology) was an IBM PC 5150, with a 8086 processor and no hard drive, in some computer course i took about how to use MS-DOS.
After that i used a cupple other newer PC's.
The first computer i actually owned was a 486 DX2 50Mhz, either 2or 4 MB of ram, and a tiny hard drive i don't remember it's size. Just in time to get cought in the Doom craze. Damn, that was 11 years ago, im starting to feel old.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-03-09 06:01pm

C-64, programming in BASIC.

And a text-based RPG based on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2004-03-09 06:10pm

I remember playing on Apples during elementary school. I think they were IIe's. There was Oregon Trail, which is a classic (I still laugh when I remember a friend of mine who named all the people after Looney Toons and then put "That's all folks!" on his gravestone after he lost). I also remember a game where you took some kind of fish and had to dictate it's actions when it came across things in the lake and if you screwed up it usually died. Like if you told it to eat on otter, you were as good as done.

And then there was my personal favorite, some word scramble game where you played as a dustball trying to avoid evil vacuum cleaners through the use of elevators while trying to grab letters scattered about the level and then get to the exit. Did any of you guys ever play that?

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2004-03-10 01:34am

i wonder... what's the farthest back anybody can remember actually using a computer? Dates would be nice... and so would comments on the tech used, whether it be vacuum tubes or reel-to-reel!

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-03-10 01:40am

Mom couldn't find a baby sitter so I spent most of 1975 in the computer science lab at humbolt state university. oh btw that was back in the day of paranoia lookin dumb terminals, punch cards and reel-to-reel.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-03-10 01:46pm

Let's see, we've had an Applie ][e since about 1985.

Didn't get anything else until 1998, when we picked up a Pentium II box (just below the cutting edge, I had been reading Computer Shopper for a while). Played around with that for a while, learned about W98's quirks, and then heard about Linux. Tried the UMSDOS-based DragonLinux distro, found it interesting (I had no clue at first about the forward slashes for directories... that took some getting used to) and later decided to give what was then Macmillan-Mandrake Linux 6.5 a shot. It didn't work terribly well for me, though, and I eventually dumped it and went back to Windows.

Then sometime in between we got a few 486s from the local thrift shop that I started playing around with. Stripped a few of them apart, monkeyed around with them until I could get Win95 installed properly, and used them for a while. Eventually they started failing (probably because the old components couldn't handle all the dis- and re-assembly) and I managed to cobble one together from the others. That one became our Freesco router box.

Eventually we got Verizon DSL (before the freesco router) and I started thinking about getting our then-three main computers to share the connection. (In the meantime, we swapped the plugs going into the modem.) Finally I heard about Freesco, got that box up and running, and made all the computers happily share a connection.

And one of my dad's friends, who being a contractor gets to go through junk piles in commercial sites, gave us some old hardware as well. So we now have an old HP Portable Plus (anyone ever seen one of those?), a Zenith ZWL-something laptop with an Intel 8088, three main computers, one 486 router, several other 486s in disassembled state, four laptops (one 486DX4, one Pentium-166, one Pentium II 400 -- my laptop, one Pentium III 700 -- my mom's laptop) and God-knows-how-much loose computer hardware.

Oh, yeah. There's only one computer in the house now that exclusively runs Windows, and that's my mother's. Every other computer is either only running Linux or multi-boots, with Linux as the default...

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-03-10 01:52pm

Woo, I think it was an Apple II, back in '94~ That was the oldest computer I have ever used

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2004-03-10 02:16pm

My family never owned anything older than a 386 16 MHz, which was pretty cutting edge at the time. That damn thing lasted almost ten years without any component failure. I'd like to see a modern computer do that.

Of course at various schools I was acquainted with the joy that was the Apple ][ series and Oregon Trail.

A friend had a C64. The coolest thing about that was that it's monitor doubled as a TV set.

But aside from the C64 and a few Apple ][s, I can't claim to have ever used any computers older than myself (eg. before 1982).

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-03-10 02:34pm

Vympel wrote:(is there such thing as an 086?),

Yeah the 8086.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-03-10 02:50pm

and some of us remmeber upgrading to 32 K on a trash 80, (which was well before that 64k onboard the Commadore).

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-03-10 04:58pm

BoredShirtless wrote:
Vympel wrote:(is there such thing as an 086?),
Yeah the 8086.

Intel's processors go something like this:

4004/4040 - first microprocessor chip
8008 - first 8-bit CPU chip
8080/8080A
8085
8086/8088 - first 16-bit x86 chip (IBM PC, IBM XT)
80186/80188 - PC Tandy 2000
80286 - first "real" processor (IBM PC/AT, PS/2 Mod 50)
80386 - first 32-bit x86 chip
80486 - first on-chip L1 cache & math coprocessor
Pentium
Pentium Pro
Pentium II
Pentium III
Pentium 4

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-03-10 05:15pm

Elheru Aran wrote:
Also if anybody ever played something called "Yeager: Air Combat"

I played it religiously. I'd go up against tons of B-17s in a single MiG-twenty-something.

Did you ever figure out how to fire missiles?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-03-10 05:18pm

interesting trivia: microsoft originally tried getting the term 8086 patented/copyright protected/etc. with the US government, but were thrown out of court after the judge ruled that they couldn't patent a number.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-03-10 05:33pm

Lets see....

Beginning Programming in Gifted Class was about... 1983-84.

Didn't use a computer much after that until I reached college in 1988, where I was introduced to the 400bd modem on a C64, and then a 1200bd on a C-128. Did a lot of BBS surfing

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-03-10 05:42pm

Commodore Vic 20
and my primary school had a glut of BBC Micros.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2004-03-10 05:49pm

I remember C-64a, ICONs, dignified old card-based machines and ancient apple computers.

Come to think, I have a working C-128 somewhere in my house, and a couple boxes of old tapes with games on them. Classic stuff like Castles of Dr Creep, Pac-Man, Wizard, Summer Games, Impossible Mission, Archon, Dig-Dug, Boulderdash, and various things by Activision, Atari, Sega, Broderbund, Midway, etc.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-03-10 06:05pm

Remembers when Amiga's rather then Macs were the perfered video toasters rather then Macintosh computers.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2004-03-10 06:16pm

I played it religiously. I'd go up against tons of B-17s in a single MiG-twenty-something. Did you ever figure out how to fire missiles?

Rock on, man!

I was playing it on this old IBM machine (don't remember the exact model/make, but it was floppy disk only-- two floppy drives, one left and one right, under the monitor), with a joystick that had the grand total of two buttons and an analog stick... talk about fun!

And no, unfortunately I didn't know how to fire the missiles...

Probably wouldn't have scored anyway... I'd just go up in the F-4 and totally open up with "unlimited ammo" and "invulnerable" engaged, shoot all those bombers out of the air! My older brother got to be pretty good with it...

LHX was about the same quality graphically, but was a good deal more fun-- rescue missions, sanctions, etc-- you had the usual assortment of nasty Communist hardware on the ground and in the air, all ready to blow you out of the air at a moment's notice. That one was seriously cool... not to mention that I found the helicopter MUCH easier to handle than the plane! You had the Apache (my favorite! Hardware galore...), the Blackhawk, Osprey, and the LHX (fake "experiemental" attack helo, probably based on the Comanche). Osprey had a really nice 30mm Gatling, IIRC, and the rest had their usual weapons... it was kind of too easy, but i guess that's why I liked it!

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2004-03-10 06:26pm

Keevan_Colton wrote:Commodore Vic 20
and my primary school had a glut of BBC Micros.

Every school had millions of those BBC things. Must have filled a fair few landfills.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-03-10 11:22pm

I had a Kaypro, Touted as the first "Portable" computer. Greenscreen, ASCII games. Had startrek on it....umm....couple other things......I think...I think i....Blew it up somehow....no, wait, sledgehammer. Shame, too. Probably worth a shitload of money now.....Or not.

Hey! How OLD are you guys gonne feel when someone brings a working Apple IIe or IIGS or a C64 into Antiques Roadshow and gets some ridiculous appraisal on it? You know it'll happen. Mayhaps sooner than we think!

*sigh* I'm so Farking old.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Does anybody remember the Dark Ages of computing...

Re: Does anybody remember the Dark Ages of computing...