Re: Geek Reminiscing

[Robbie Honerkamp <robbie@opus.shorty.com>]

On Fri, Oct 16, 1998 at 01:37:22PM -0400, Baron Chandler wrote:
> > Imagine 1983. I bought my first computer, an Apple IIe, after spending a
> > year hacking around on my best friends TI99/4A - complete with the external
> > cassette drive. He soon acquired an HUGE external expansion box that held a
> > quite massive 5 1/4 inch disk drive. I know the thing cost about $800, but
> > dammit, we had a floppy drive!
> 
> Hehe. The TI99/4a was THE computer. Talk about something ahead of its time.

I had a TRS-80. Not by choice mind you- I asked for an Atari computer. But
my dad heard that Atari was about to go out of business or something so
I got a TRS80 CoCo with a whopping 16k of RAM (I remember thinking "Wow-
I'll _never_ use all of it!). The reason I wanted an Atari was that our
neighbors had several of them- a limitless supply of pirate software was
just across the street. Instead I had a computer that I could either run
Color Logo or Typing Tutor on. Fortunately it came with a pretty good set
of books that tought you BASIC, so if I wanted a new program I could just
write it.

Us TRS-80 fans laughed at the TI99.. :-) There was an unspoken rule among
all TRS-80 users. If we were in Macy's or Richs (remember when they had
a computer section??) we'd go up to every computer and do:

  10 PRINT "THE TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER IS BETTER!"
  20 GOTO 10

I loved going into a store and seeing the computers already doing that.

> > I had the Apple IIe, with the extra-cool 80-column card and a full 64K of
> 
> Man, lowercase and 80 columns musta been nice. I actually got a mod chip for
> my Apple ][ plus (that is featured on the apple2.org site actually) - I'd
> forgotten about it till i went thru some of the pictures and saw it. It came
> with a wire clip that you could short some pins with and a new charset ROM
> that swapped out either inverse or flash text for lowercase. Imagine that.

In 1984 I finally convinced my parents that the TRS-80 just wasn't the thing
anymore. So I got an Apple //c for Christmas. I remember getting really excited..
until I found out that TRS-80 BASIC wouldn't do me any good on the Apple //
and that the Apple didn't come with a programming book. Pfft.
 
> Haha. It must have been nice with a modem. I had to rely on my friends from
> Louisville to bring me warez. Karateka, the newsroom (which I actually cracked
> for them hehehe), the print shop, spy hunter... And of course, the beagle 
> bros. software. Man, I had almost forgotten about them. They were the coolest.
> Talk about geeks you have to meet. AFAIC they're right up there with Larry Wall
> and other pioneers. 

You know- It was years before I had a game that didn't start up with a
graphics screen that said "CRACKED BY __________" on it. My parents wouldn't
let me have a modem- I started asking for one after seeing WarGames on
HBO. They thought I was going to blow up the planet or something. I finally
got a modem in high school- Micro Center had a sale on 2400 BPS modems
so I got one and snuck home with it (and wired up a phone line to my
bedroom). 
 
> Remember the old peeks and pokes pointer chart? That was THE handiest refer-
> ence tool that I have ever owned. 

I still have several!

> As long as all original copyright and trademark notices are
> retained/preserved and used AND as long as only those titles
> that are designated as Beagle Oldies are included (i.e. you
> may not include anything that is currently being sold by
> Quality Computers), it's OK with me for you to make them

Quality Computers is now out of business. They thought they didn't need
the Apple II market and decided to do Mac stuff only. They thought wrong.
 
> Dammit Robbie! Why'd you go and start this!?!! :-D

Bwa-ha-ha!

Robbie