Happy 30th, BBC Micro :)

[Fat Tone]

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/30/bbc_micro_model_b_30th_anniversary/

I was there from the beginning. I lived some of the events in this article. I indeed had the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, sold it and got a paper round to fund a Model B. I argued the toss with Vic 20 owners over which was best for programming or gaming.

It brings a tear to the eye.

T.

[Evildead666]

My Dad brought home a Dragon32 (Welsh made!!) which was our first computer.
A schoolfriend had a BBC, but it just seemed there was a lot of educational stuff for it, and little else.

If I remember correctly, we had a BBC in 4th year Junior School, but it might have been the only one in the school, and it was for Maths "Games" or should I say "Game" since I think there was only one.

Then the 8-bit explosion happened, AmstradCPC, Commodore 64/128, Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
I might still have a copy of "Computer+Video Games" from back then, I know we have "Amstrad Action" in a box somewhere.

Those were the golden days of home computing, having to know how to do most things yourself, no Internet, no bloody virus's, and computers that booted in seconds.

When my cousins replaced their BBC with an Acorn Archimedes, i was gobsmacked by the power of the beast.

Edit : Damn interesting read Fat Tone, cheers.

[VJ]

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC! (Schneider Joyce)
3" (yes!) diskettes, which could hold a whopping 94K, and you had to turn them to get data from the other side. Even a colour screen, as long as the colour you wanted to show was bright green (think: Simpsons radioactive material). It ran CP/M+...

[Evildead666]

My dad went all out and got the 6128 Colour version.
It came with the standard AMSDos, but we also got CP/M for doing a few things.

The disks held more than 94K, iirc it was about 120-170K per side.
Bit of a shame they had proprietary disk size (3"), it meant they were always expensive.
Still have a box of Disks, but the Amstrad is in pieces. Took it apart to repair the Disk drive belt which had worn out, and never put it back together.

I did find an Amstrad emulator though online, CPCEMU.
Works a treat

Also have a ROMbox for the Amstrad and a RoDOS chip to go with it.
Those were wonderful days, back before save games

Most of the games back then had to be played in one long session.
Arkanoid, Elite, Mercenary, The Pawn, The Guild of Thieves, StarGlider, Rick Dangerous...so many classic games that I would still enjoy today, simple in their conception, but masterfully delivered.
Spindizzy, Head over Heels and all the other isometric 'adventure' games.

Ahhhh, fond memories.

[Evildead666]

Have to go and try and find that C+VG now (or something as old, sure I saw it a short while back)
Rummaging through the boxes in the garage...

[Evildead666]

Oh, archive.org, I love you

http://www.archive.org/details/cvg-magazine

another link for those old console geeks

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/mean_machines_all_issues.php

and a historical link to news from the past i just found.

http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?cat=24

Going to be doing a lot of (old) reading over this Xmas