Old Skool Blog

I’m interested to find out what systems you owned back in the day. What video games (remember, I am only interested in pre-NES systems – NES doesn’t make the cut) did you own and/or play? What home computer(s) did you own or use? Did you do any programming, or just play games?

As I have mentioned before, I first used an Apple II and a Sinclair ZX-80 in high school and later I owned a Commodore Vic-20. (And five years later, a Commodore 64.) I did plenty of programming, teaching myself BASIC and later 6502 assembly. I spent many a late night plonking away on my Vic-20’s keyboard, trying to make it do cool stuff.
So tell me a little about your backgrounds and interests in old skool computing…

Finally, after more than 20 years, I own an original Atari joystick. $5 (plus postage) on eBay was all it took in the end. I always believed that the Atari CX40 joysticks were among the best I ever used back in the day – a reasonably solid construction and the shaft felt good in your hand.

It would have been back in 1979 that I first got my hands on an Atari joystick. A neighbour had an Atari VCS and I got to play Combat and I think Star Raiders. When the time I got my first computer (Vic-20) a joystick and paddles were top of my list for peripherals wanted. The joystick I got was a Commodore model (the one with the triangular shaft) which was good, but just didn’t feel as good as the Atari one. I always envied my brother’s step-kids who had an Atari by this stage and I tried everything I could to swipe their joysticks.

By far the best joystick I ever owned was the Atari which was incredibly solid, but there’s something to be said for the feel of the original Atari joysticks.

I might dig out one of my Vic-20s and play some Radar Rat Race…

To test my memory and give you an idea of what’s in my collection, let’s see if I can list all the computers and video games I currently have. (Note: I’m only going to list machines, not how many of each I have. (Yes, I do have multiples of many of these!))

• Amstrad
• CPC 464
• Apple
• IIe Platinum
• IIc
• IIgs
• Macintosh Plus
• Mac LC II
• Mac Quadra something or other
• Atari
• 2600 jr
• 7200
• Portfolio
• XEGS
• Commodore
• PET 2001
• Vic 20
• Commodore 64
• Plus/4
• Commodore 16
• Amiga 500
• Dick Smith
• VZ 200
• VZ 300
• Emerson
• Arcadia 2001
• Hanimex
• HMG 1292
• HMG 1392
• HMG 2650
• 666T
• 677
• TVG070
• Intellivision
• Interton
• VC 4000
• Lark
• TV Sport
• Multitech
• Microprofessor (Apple II clone)
• Philips
• Videopac (aka Odyssey II)
• Sands
• SC-2300
• Sheen
• TVG 406
• 106 Colour Video Sport
• Sinclair
• ZX 80
• ZX 81
• Spectrum
• Spectrum +3
• Soundic
• MPT 02
• Tandy
• Colour Computer 3
• MC 10
• TV Scoreboard
• Texas Instruments
• TI 99/4a

I am sure I am forgetting one or two makes/models, especially the old Hanimex/Interton/Lark/Sheen/Tandy type video games – I have a ton of these systems, but my collection is not in any sort of order. Yet.

The URL of this site is OldSkoolComputing.com and the blog is called “Old Skool Blog“, so it’s best that I define “old skool computing” right up front.

For me, “old skool computing” primarily refers to Home Computers – 8-bit computers, typically with BASIC in ROM, from a variety of manufacturers in the 1970s and 1980s. While Amiga and Atari ST computers were not 8-bit but are included here and represent the end of a “golden age” of home computing when there was plenty of diversity in the market and it was still possible for a dedicated person to truly understand the whole machine without having to learn countless APIs. Hacking away on these machines was within reach of just about any kid with the time to learn BASIC and/or Assembly Language.

In addition to home computers, I am also intending to cover early video game systems – specifically “pre-crash” games and systems. These systems come in two flavours: PONG clones (and variants) and cartidge based systems. The most famous of the pre-crash cartridge-based systems is of course the Atari 2600. By focusing on pre-crash systems, my definition of “old skool gaming” cuts off just before the appearance of the NES.

Hopefully that gives you an understanding of what I hope to be covering here.

My first hands-on experience with computers was back in 1981 or 1982 when I was in high school. My school had two computers, an Apple II and a Sinclair ZX-80.
I was the first student given access to the Apple II as part of a bribery scheme to get me doing my homework regularly. No-one really seemed to know anything about the computers – the Apple II was used by a couple of the science teachers to run some basic chemistry software and a little bit of LOGO programming and no-one really used the Sinclair ZX-80. (The Sinclair ZX-80 was nearly permanently locked away in a desk drawer.) So I was given permission to use the Apple II during my free time (provided all my homework was up to date) and handed a couple of manuals and left to my own devices.

I taught myself Applesoft BASIC by reading the manuals and a couple of magazines I found. (Back in the day, computer magazines had type-in programs – pages and pages of mainly BASIC code that you would laboriously type in and run.) After a while the powers-that-be at my school let me take home the Sinclair ZX-80 to play with. That was fun, although a bit frustrating trying to learn the different behaviour of that small wedge of white plastic!

Sometime in 1982, my parents bought me my very own computer – a Commodore Vic-20! Many, many, MANY hours of hacking away at that machine honed my BASIC skills and along the way I taught myself a smattering of 6502 Machine Code.
Christmas 1986 saw my first real upgrade – a Commodore 64. A few years later I stepped on up to an Amiga 500. When I was a starving university student, I sold my Amiga gear to pay a few bills, but I kept the old C=64 and Vic-20 even though my poor old Vic-20 sported a busted keyboard. I didn’t enter the world of PCs until 1996…

Sometime in the early 1990s I picked up a Commodore PET 2001 through the local classifieds. And added (but later sold ) a Commdore 128. There things sat until I discovered the world of emulation and I started playing around with various emulators, but they never felt real to me. I always craved the feel of a real computer. About five years ago I stumbled upon an eBay auction for a Vic-20 and my life hasn’t been the same since.

Slowly I added to my meagre collection – a Ccommodore 16 here, a Ccommodore Plus/4 there and one special day I won an auction for a Sinclair ZX-80!

Over time my collection has grown to include a variety of home computers from the early 1980s and somehow I have also started collecting old video game systems from the late 1970s and early 1980s. (The video game collection is sort of an accidental collection – I’ll explain that in a later blog post.) I finally decided it was time to organise my collection and hopefully build a web site around this hobby. This blog is just the start.