Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Recently, whilst having a tidy-up in my garage, I found a box full of old 3.5" floppy disks from up to 25 years ago. I nearly got rid of them. Looked on ebay and found a 3.5" floppy drive with usb lead compatible with today's technology. A bargain at only £6.33 with free delivery. So I'm soon going to have an interesting session travelling back in time to see what I was up to a quarter of a century ago. +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Fantastic stuff, I still have my Atari 800xl up the loft with tape drive and 5 and a half inch floppy drive...... I remember waiting an hour to load up my computer games - lol. Tweedledee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TasKiNG Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 (edited) You'l have fun looking through them I'm still using 8" disks with my PDP11 Here's some of my retro collection Edited January 31, 2017 by TasKiNG Tweedledee, Smithysteve and Werisit 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 13 minutes ago, TasKiNG said: You'l have fun looking through them I'm still using 8" disks with my PDP11 Here's some of my retro collection Fantastic, and you've kept them like new. Never used 8" floppies, but remember 5.25" ones. My first computer was a ZX81 with a massive 1 kilobyte of ram! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 In another 25 years we might be buying ram by the petabyte! +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TasKiNG Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 8 minutes ago, Tweedledee said: Fantastic, and you've kept them like new. Never used 8" floppies, but remember 5.25" ones. My first computer was a ZX81 with a massive 1 kilobyte of ram! The ZX81 was great and was my introduction to computers too. I remember the 16K ram pack coming out for it and being amazed at the 3D monster maze game that had pictures made from ascii characters Tweedledee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 5 minutes ago, TasKiNG said: The ZX81 was great and was my introduction to computers too. I remember the 16K ram pack coming out for it and being amazed at the 3D monster maze game that had pictures made from ascii characters You've just brought back some memories that I had long since forgotten. I now remember doing some very basic graphics programming using ascii characters to create images. It was quite a pain to do, but at least we didn't have a high resolution screen to address. +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stash Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 First machine I worked on had ferret core for memory - a whopping 16k in a 6x2x4(feet yes feet) box just for the memory. Programs were loaded via punched cards and later "updated" to tape". Reel to reel tapes for storage - like in the orig Italian job.Programs loaded pretty fast but could ,and did, take 8hrs to run. It took all afternoon just to run the payroll for Brush Hawker Sid at Loughborough. We used the equiv of PDP11 but were made by Singer and Data General - they were a lot smaller and didn't need massive air con to keep cool. Oh the memories +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TasKiNG Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 22 minutes ago, stash said: First machine I worked on had ferret core for memory - a whopping 16k in a 6x2x4(feet yes feet) box just for the memory. Programs were loaded via punched cards and later "updated" to tape". Reel to reel tapes for storage - like in the orig Italian job.Programs loaded pretty fast but could ,and did, take 8hrs to run. It took all afternoon just to run the payroll for Brush Hawker Sid at Loughborough. We used the equiv of PDP11 but were made by Singer and Data General - they were a lot smaller and didn't need massive air con to keep cool. Oh the memories 30 years ago I used to work with Perkin Elmer computers which had ferite core memory. I've got one of the boards on my fireplace. As you can see I have a very understanding wife stash and Tweedledee 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I have a friend who has a Sinclair ZX80. Quite rare now, and very collectable. Worth £500-£1000 now i believe. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 (1983?) Used it mostly for games. Many a Saturday was spent visiting 'First Byte Computers' in Derbys old Main Centre. Anyone remember it ? On another note, i have a new Apple Mac Yay..........!! Tweedledee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 9 minutes ago, TasKiNG said: 30 years ago I used to work with Perkin Elmer computers which had ferite core memory. I've got one of the boards on my fireplace. As you can see I have a very understanding wife Hats off to your wife. I see you have the ZX81 and Spectrum. I thought the colour spectrum was a fantastic jump from the 81. Looks like you have a Casio or Panasonic personal programmable pocket pc, I thought they were great. +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TasKiNG Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 4 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said: I have a friend who has a Sinclair ZX80. Quite rare now, and very collectable. Worth £500-£1000 now i believe. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 (1983?) Used it mostly for games. Many a Saturday was spent visiting 'First Byte Computers' in Derbys old Main Centre. Anyone remember it ? On another note, i have a new Apple Mac Yay..........!! Wasn't First Byte next to the old Wilko's and Army recruitment centre? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Dave : your house must be like an Aladdins cave. Do you still have your arcade machines ? I see a Rubiks cube collection. I have a few of my own. Hope you don't mind me taking the thread off on a tangent.......but have a look at this trick. 2 minutes ago, TasKiNG said: Wasn't First Byte next to the old Wilko's and Army recruitment centre? Yes, opposite there, tucked away in the corner. The place was a Mecca for geeks !! +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 4 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said: I have a friend who has a Sinclair ZX80. Quite rare now, and very collectable. Worth £500-£1000 now i believe. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 (1983?) Used it mostly for games. Many a Saturday was spent visiting 'First Byte Computers' in Derbys old Main Centre. Anyone remember it ? On another note, i have a new Apple Mac Yay..........!! Yes, I remember First Byte. Do you remember Erroll, the black guy who worked there. He worked for himself after First Byte and was absolutely brilliant at troubleshooting computer problems. He got me up and running numerous times and never seemed to charge fully for his time. A very helpful guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TasKiNG Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said: Dave : your house must be like an Aladdins cave. Do you still have your arcade machines ? I see a Rubiks cube collection. I have a few of my own. Hope you don't mind me taking the thread off on a tangent.......but have a look at this trick. Good trick with the cubes Yea, still have my upright arcade machine in the dining room and a table top Taito space invaders machine in the shed You could call it an aladdin's cave, my wife calls it something else that is not repeatable. Here's the Arcade and Astro side Edited January 31, 2017 by TasKiNG +Bino-viewer and stash 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I don't remember the staff Pete : mind you it was 35 years ago. I think they got a bit fed up of us hanging around there now i remember it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I went in at the deep end, an Amstrad 646, built in tape machine and green monitor! I do remember spending £36 on a 4Kb RAM pack though!! +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 unfortunately for me I am old enough to remember no personal computers Brantuk and +TasKiNG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Watson Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 On the astronomy front (god forbid for an astronomy forum...!) I came across my old 'Astronomy' (US Publication) magazines a while back from the Eighties. What amused me was not a trace of digital imaging by amateurs, barely a whiff of any IT at all. How things have changed. Hard to do anything anymore image was now without some computing rearing its head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stash Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 2 hours ago, Sheila said: unfortunately for me I am old enough to remember no personal computers You are leaving yourself wide open to some comment there which ,as I am a gentleman ,I wont mention other than the word Abacus. Sheila and +TasKiNG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 6 minutes ago, stash said: You are leaving yourself wide open to some comment there which ,as I am a gentleman ,I wont mention other than the word Abacus. also there were no calculators in maths lessons I had to use logs or a slide rule. Old school +TasKiNG and +Ibbo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stash Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 43 minutes ago, Sheila said: also there were no calculators in maths lessons I had to use logs or a slide rule. Old school Thought it might be Napiers Bones or one of those things that looked like a bus conductors machine that had a winding handle Still got my Slide rule - sad I know ! +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 i hated slide rules so used the logs, and even i am not old enough for Napiers Bones stash 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stash Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Speaking of digital imaging thought this shows how far we have come to back up Dean's info http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38815948 - The bad one looks like one of mine. Great to see engineers getting praise instead of celebs like Pant & Lec - the former should be knighted . +TasKiNG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I first used an IBM computer at the Met Office. We had a PDP8e at school, which we shared with 3 other schools. I first worked at ICL in 1973! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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