Retrocomputing
November 19, 2019
For nearly four decades, I have invested in the latest for home video gaming: Atari, Sega, and Sony. This year, I am a Google Stadia Founder.
But I still enjoy retrocomputing -- mostly games from the 1970s & 1980s arcade and home computer era -- using machine emulation.
I started learning BASIC on a WANG like this in high school. Bought my Commodore VIC 20 in February 1982, followed by its replacement Commodore 16, then Commodore 128. I was an Amiga PC user from 1988 - 1997 before succumbing to PC -- for Linux.
February 12, 1982
I grew up with the start of the 8-bit era. After playing the Milton Bradley electronic board game, Dark Tower, for Christmas, I got hooked on BASIC programming when starting the second semester with a Computer Math class.
I spent the first four weeks handwriting a port of Dark Tower while saving up for a $400 Tandy Color computer. My high school buddy convinced me that the Commodore VIC 20 might be a better value at $300, and clearly it was. I would purchase one at Ann & Hope, then buy its Datasette tape drive for $79 the following week.
The Commodore joystick and an Omega Race game cartridge would follow, after all, I wanted not only to learn computers but also wanted to craft and play games.
The following year, I would get a 6-slot cartridge extension to plug-in the Machine Language Monitor cartridge with a 3K and 8K memory expander. 6502 machine code programming was my key to understanding how computers worked at the speed and level required to achieve my goals.
I would not get my first floppy drive until after I switched to the Commodore 16 for Christmas 1984. But, I had started my professional career as a computer programmer later that Spring and was able to get a complete Commodore 128 setup with an 80-column monitor, modem, printer and the quirky 1571 floppy drive.