Ah, The Good Old Days...

Post by **5eraph** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:41 am

Do any of these videogame ads from 1982 bring back memories?

I've had an Atari 2600, and later a 7800; but my first real computer was an Atari 400 that I got for Xmas in '81 when I was six. It was one of the few things that could keep me happy after my mother passed away that year.

I still have it, and surprisingly it still works. I even still have my BASIC cartridge and tape drive, but I've lost most of the games and all of the warped tapes I used to use, though. I used to read through Byte magazines looking for code to play with. They had some interesting articles as well. The one I remember most clearly was about the "new" Dune movie with Sting that I never actually saw until I was much, much older (God, it sucked).

I'd be a very different person today if I'd never had that Atari.

RogueSpear · Post by **RogueSpear** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:51 pm

Wow.. my first was an Atari 800, also 1981 I think - I was 13. Hey did you have to wait like a year and a half for the floppy drive to come out after they took preorders? Those really were the days, when I kid could master every single thing about a computer. I even banged out some serious assembly code in those days.

Post by **5eraph** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:24 pm

Assembly was way over my head, but I did manage to do some BASIC programming back then. I never got the floppy drive for it, but the neighbor behind me eventually got one of the newer black streamlined 800s with the external floppy drive. That was after I got a Tandy 1000b in '86.

Do you know where I could find an old 8088 processor? I pulled it out when I upgraded the processor to a 286 (it was on an expansion card with a ribbon to the processor slot). That's all I should need to get that up and running again. I do still have all of the software for that beast.

I wonder what would have happened if Tandy's DeskMate OS was still around. Do you think it would still seriously compete with Windows?

Aussie · Post by **Aussie** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:21 pm

Yeh, I too bought an Atari in the early 80's ...with the basic cartridge and some space game cartridge (hyperspace or...something). Kept it for a year or so, then sold it to a work colleague before it became superseded.

Post by **5eraph** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:30 pm

You might be thinking of Star Raiders. I had that one and a port of the first raytraced arcade Star Wars game.

I also had Centipede and Dig Dug, but my most favorite game was found at a garage sale just down the street from me: Jumpman Jr.

RogueSpear · Post by **RogueSpear** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:32 pm

Don't forget Miner 2049er and Joust

Aussie · Post by **Aussie** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:39 pm

Star Raiders could be it....I remember the game had a hyperspace jump if you were getting murdered and had to escape the baddies.

Post by **5eraph** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:22 pm

Star Raiders was hard for me at that age. I never did finish it. But I do remember the hyperspace jump (the sound it made is stuck in my head now). I was always getting my ass handed to me in that game. My rating was usually Garbage Scow.

I remember hearing about Miner 2049er, but never actually played it. I always wanted Joust. I eventually got that for the 7800, but by then I'd mostly lost interest.