Vic-20s ARE CRAP! (And a few other ramblings from 1984)
There was a great rivalry between myself and some of my computer owning chums in the early/mid eighties. The thread title was a phrase I made good use of back then, but was it really true? After all, it had more colourful graphics and more impressive sound than the Speccy. But hell, some of the things they came out with, "I'm getting a 16K RAM pack, then my computer will have much better graphics than your shoebox". It was a stinking lie! <calms down with an effort>
Yeah, and those kids with rich parents who were given BBC Model Bs (?400! +disc drive, printer etc.). Stuck-up snobs, the lot of them! Then there were the Ones who couldn't afford a BBC, but wanted to take Computer Studies. Their fate? To own an Acorn Electron.... The "serious gamers" with their Commodore 64s. The "others" with their Dragons, Ti99s, Orics etc. (they always insisted that their computer was the best, no matter how rubbish it was).
A lost world, indeed.... I do miss the variety!
The fact remains, though:-
THE SPECTRUM (48K anyway, I almost forgot about those poor, desperate 16K owners) WAS THE BEST OF THE LOT!!!
Yeah, and those kids with rich parents who were given BBC Model Bs (?400! +disc drive, printer etc.). Stuck-up snobs, the lot of them! Then there were the Ones who couldn't afford a BBC, but wanted to take Computer Studies. Their fate? To own an Acorn Electron.... The "serious gamers" with their Commodore 64s. The "others" with their Dragons, Ti99s, Orics etc. (they always insisted that their computer was the best, no matter how rubbish it was).
A lost world, indeed.... I do miss the variety!
The fact remains, though:-
THE SPECTRUM (48K anyway, I almost forgot about those poor, desperate 16K owners) WAS THE BEST OF THE LOT!!!
Post edited by Blunderbuss on
Comments
That's hit the nail square on the head. These days there is no variety for kids to squabble over, even on the console scene there are only two real contenders.
Where are we now? We all own IBM PC compatible-derived machines. True, there is the occasional Mac owner, but they don't have much of a case.
Bring back the good old days.
The old VIC 20 is beginning to grow on me. I'm collecting software for it, and it seems that very little software really makes use of what the machine can do.
When you see the Llamasoft stuff, or Jetpac for instance, you can see that decent games are possible
Sure, it's not got a lot of memory, but otherwise, it's not too bad.
I've just got hold of a SORD M5 computer. It seems a very underrated machine too - with its 32 sprites, and multi channel sound. The BASIC-G language looks like one of the best versions of BASIC I've seen, with labels as well as line numbers, interrupt driven sprites and keyboard handling from BASIC, and windows. With it's keyboard being more like the original Spectrums, and a 256x192 display, and Z80 CPU - it seems to have a lot in common with our favourite beastie :)
There are several crap things from 1984 however....
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD (the band not the game) being a prime example.
Re. Vic-20. I admit that it did have a handful of excellent games. <dredges memory> Er, Bongo, Arcadia (much better than the Speccy version), Gorf (on cartridge, my favourite arcade game), Chariot Race..... I believe (although I never got to play it) that it also had a acaled down version of Manic Miner. Can anyone remember the title of that one?
Yes - the Sord M5/CGL M5 etc - same thing. It's a good thing that you bought a Speccy, though if the M5 was cheap, it would have been a fantastic investment. I've been after one for a long time - I got outbid on eBay for one that went for ?102, but luckily managed to get a boxed one for the same price the following week! :)
There are very few games, and trying to find them is going to be very difficult. I've got 4 carts - that's all. However, I'm gonna get programming on it, and see what I can come up with :)
You'll always be alright with a Speccy :)
The scaled down version of JSW on the Vic is 'Perils of Willy' - a bit of a dodgy game really - lots of potential, but badly programmed.
There really were loads of computer formats around in '84. Some of them must have flopped (Memotech, Jupiter Ace, the funky looking Elan Enterprise etc.). It would have been great to have bought one of each computer and kept them in storage. A real time vault. Unfortunately, I was only fourteen at the time, and I could only afford the one! I wouldn't mind seeing the sales figures for all those computers. I suppose the C64 would be top, but how do they compare with the likes of the Playstation?
I was only 13 in 1984, but I've got hundreds of the things kicking around.... Orics, Dragons, ZX81s, TI99s...
You've gotta be pretty sad though, and have a VERY understanding wife to go to these extremes though... :)
I have a Dragon emulator - T3. I forget where I found it... and haven't properly explored it, as it seems to be quite hard to get to grips with. I can't find a lot of Dragon .cas files out there, either.
One of the main problems with T3 is the need to calibrate the joysticks, or the joystick emulation, which I also had real trouble with. If uncalibrated, the emulator would interpret the resting position to be off-centre, so you'd have constant motion in one direction when you weren't touching any keys.
Despite the obvious qualities of WinVICE, I still haven't dumped CCS64 yet. I suppose it's like the time when I just couldn't bear to leave X128 and switch to ZX32...
The EDSAC was the world’s first stored-program computer to operate a regular computing service. Designed and built at Cambridge University, it performed its first fully automatic calculation on 6 May 1949. This Warwick University simulator is a faithful emulation of the EDSAC for Windows. All the controls and displays of the original machine are there, plus a library of original programs, subroutines, debugging software, and program documentation. check the website out http://edsac.net/ you can only play noughts and crosses lol but slightly interesting in the scheme of things, hard to play as well lol seen as noughts and crosses is in lines and the control is a telephone dial on the edsac :)
You said 'denied distribution'
and our survey said '99'
are you gonna play or pass?
yup i think i agree with that
Damn ultimate / code masters and the like...by the way is there any sites / pages anywhere that give the ins and outs to the denied games thang?
i know on one of the other sites ive been on tzx vault i believe theres a list of denied games but doesnt tell you why theyre denied etc, and yes ive clicked that denied games list link above the forum but its all politics and stuff doesnt really mention anything properly about a companies decision, just wondered if there was something a bit more about it all somewhere
[ This Message was edited by: mel the bell on 2003-11-08 23:10 ]
If there's any way of getting hold of a copy of WinSTon, then get that. These days it's known as STew, and is *nominally* available from the Little Green Desktop (www.atari.st) But I've never managed to get the page to work. I run its predecessor, WinSTon 0.4, which is absolutely marvellous.
it was great. The sound on it was mind blowing, and had it had the right support from the start, it would have walked all over the spectrum.
shame .... :(
I had an Oric too.. it was my first computer :) I got it for Xmas '83 along with a few type in books (I still have the 50 progs for Oric one). Unfortunately, come the 27th I had to return to the shop with my dad to exchange it as I'd quickly realised the " key on the 2 button wasn't working which was a major bummer when you only had type-ins. I then took this golden opportunity to sneakily convince my dad to swap it for my dream machine... a VIC! and the honeymoon began :D
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
Creamy 5K wonder machine.
oops...
;)
It only had 3.5K! I should know, because I used to constantly remind my deluded Vic-owning "friends" of the fact. Then the b*st*rds all went and got Commodore 64s. I was really outgunned then!
I have a multi console emulator called MESS (www.mess.org). The Dragon 32/64 emulator is much easier to use than T3 and if you want any games go to this site http://membres.lycos.fr/romch/tosec/dragon32/
MESS has an emulation for any console/computer you can think of you just have to find the right ROMS.
That's the BASIC you're talking about. The actual machine code had a limit of about 64K, isn't that right, Commodore fans? (anyone out there?)
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
Sacr? Bleu! The French have done it again... Anything obscure to do with old computers and/or games, it's always the French that come up with the goods. Magnifique!
Oi!
Whatever the truth of the matter, it didn't stop C64 owners looking down their nose at me and my Speccy 48K! X-Box owners are the modern equivalent of C64 owners. I mean, a larger, more powerful American machine against a smaller black one. The Gamecube represents all the obscure computers (Dragon,Oric etc.), and the PC is the BBC B.