The home computer war
technicshistory.com
The home computer war
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: The home computer war
#2Pretty cool article.
Nowadays often when you see articles about computer history of this era, the articles tend to be focused on Apple and IBM.
So it’s neat this article focuses on the other computers of this era. TI, Atari, Commodore, etc.
Re: The home computer war
#3I only had one game for my VIC-20, the pack-in game, called BASIC. I never beat it, but I got a few levels in!
Re: The home computer war
#4Pretty cool article. Nowadays often when you see articles about computer history of this era, the articles tend to be focused on Apple and IBM. So it’s neat this article focuses on the other computers of this era. TI, Atari, Commodore, etc.
It's interesting how things differed so much across different countries.
In the UK there was good split between Atari and Amiga, and before that the Spectrum and the C64.
Lots of rivalries and interesting characters though, for sure.
Re: The home computer war
#5I only had one game for my VIC-20, the pack-in game, called BASIC. I never beat it, but I got a few levels in!
You sure on the name? I'm having a hard time finding a reference, Wiki amongst a few other searches.
Re: The home computer war
#6My first computer was a VIC-20, in 1982 or so. It had so little RAM, that I needed to program it with a Machine Language monitor cartridge.
Re: The home computer war
#7My first computer was a VIC-20, in 1982 or so. It had so little RAM, that I needed to program it with a Machine Language monitor cartridge.
Cool kids had C64s. I had every other boring, flawed model. Tandy MC-10. TI-99, ZX80 (not even 81!) and some other CoCo with chiclet keys. Now I know the 6809 is actually pretty interesting but back then without video or graphic chips there wasn't much you could do as a 12 year old.
Weirdly the most fun I had was with the BASIC programmable SHARP PC-xxxx line. I still have my PC-1350 somewhere.
Re: The home computer war
#8I only had one game for my VIC-20, the pack-in game, called BASIC. I never beat it, but I got a few levels in!
You sure on the name? I'm having a hard time finding a reference, Wiki amongst a few other searches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VIC-20_games
BASIC was a programming language, it was a joke.
Re: The home computer war
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sure on the name? I'm having a hard time finding a reference, Wiki amongst a few other searches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VIC-20_games
BASIC was a programming language, it was a joke.
A joke that got a lot of us high paying jobs later on.
Re: The home computer war
#10My first computer was a VIC-20, in 1982 or so. It had so little RAM, that I needed to program it with a Machine Language monitor cartridge.
Cool kids had C64s. I had every other boring, flawed model. Tandy MC-10. TI-99, ZX80 (not even 81!) and some other CoCo with chiclet keys. Now I know the 6809 is actually pretty interesting but back then without video or graphic chips there wasn't much you could do as a 12 year old. Weirdly the most fun I had was with the BASIC programmable SHARP PC-xxxx line. I still have my PC-1350 somewhere.
That 6809 bewitched my middle school self. Having already learnt Z80 assembly language, the 6809 just looked so much more elegant. It had index registers that were actually useful! It had position independent code! It could do multiplication in one instruction! So when faced with choosing a CoCo or a C64 .. of course I chose the machine with the MUL instruction. Naturally, within mere months, that horrid 32x16 black on green display forced the harsh realization that a computer is more than just the CPU, that the support chips could actually be far more interesting. Who cares about a multiply instruction, when you could have sprites and 3 voice sound?