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Re: [TCLUG:20067] ancient computers
On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Kent Schumacher wrote:
> I used to play adventure off a remote mainframe with my little green
> screen terminal and 110 baud modem. It really built tension when you
> had to wait for each character to display to see what your fate was...
>
> Prior to that I played it on a teletype, but the noise was driving me
> crazy so I had to quit until I could upgrade to a terminal...
Man, that's like when I played Dungeon from a VAX on a DECWriterII over
300bps. To be on a VAX in the late 70's was a big deal, but since Dad
worked for DEC, it was what we had access to.
When he got the VT100 at home, we saved a few trees. Or maybe then is
when we moved up from the acoustic coupled modem to a Racal-Vadic 300
baud.
Even better was the addition of the Robin motherboard, which converted the
VT100 to a Z-80 based CP/M microcomputer! I still have a pile of old 360k
5 1/4" disks for that.
To complete the trip down nostalgia way, I remember writing Fortran on a
TI portable terminal, that looked like an oversize portable mechanical
typewriter and weighed about 50 lbs. It also used thermal paper!
Any one else ever play Lunar Lander using a lightpen? ;)
Cheers,
Phil
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