In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

Post by jonwinstanley » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

llm_nerd wrote: post #57

coreyh14444 wrote: post #11

I definitely had cassette based games on the TRS-80, but most of the "wireless" transmission in my youth was via BASIC printed in the back of computer magazines. You had to type in the entire app yourself. I did this for basically every app they listed. Sometimes it was like tax prep software, but I didn't care, even though I was like 9 at the time. Yes, it took a very long time. Yes, you could easily introduce typos…

My older brother would type in games on the Atari 400 from magazines like Compute! The 400 had a brutal membrane keyboard, and we had no storage so you could then enjoy it until the device powered down and then that work was lost. The computer was half a decade old at this point but we were poor so it was pretty great to us. After he finished hours of typing in a game, he called my friend and I to see the magic of fi…

Post by dylan604 » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:09 PM UTC

coreyh14444 wrote: post #11

I definitely had cassette based games on the TRS-80, but most of the "wireless" transmission in my youth was via BASIC printed in the back of computer magazines. You had to type in the entire app yourself. I did this for basically every app they listed. Sometimes it was like tax prep software, but I didn't care, even though I was like 9 at the time. Yes, it took a very long time. Yes, you could easily introduce typos…

Post by dylan604 » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

robertpnl wrote: post #22

ochrist wrote: post #19

The transmissions from NOS in The Netherlands could be received here in Denmark, and I actually succeeded in downloading several programs based on the BASICODE 2 standard. At that time (eighties), people had all sorts of home computers, but this way we could actually run the same programs, whether you had a BBC computer, a ZX81 or one of the many other brands. The way it worked was that the programs used a common (pr…

Here is an example of the sound that was heard on the radio for approximately 2 to 3 minutes that was broadcasted on the Dutch radio. https://on.soundcloud.com/QAUa2Kkgef1gDxDQ6

Post by nunez » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

Post by cstuder » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:37 PM UTC

coreyh14444 wrote: post #11

I definitely had cassette based games on the TRS-80, but most of the "wireless" transmission in my youth was via BASIC printed in the back of computer magazines. You had to type in the entire app yourself. I did this for basically every app they listed. Sometimes it was like tax prep software, but I didn't care, even though I was like 9 at the time. Yes, it took a very long time. Yes, you could easily introduce typos…