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…
I had an Intellivision. My next door neighbour at the time had the voice module. Its still at my parents house wasting away in my brothers room. Lots of fun games on that console, but my favourite was Tron Deadly Disks!
The first computer I ever worked with was a TRS-80. That was in junior high. In class we wrote all kinds of little programs.
The first computer that I owned was a Vic-20. I spent a lot of time writing programs and playing games. I had the tape drive for storing code on casette tapes. I also had a modem and dialed up my first bbs on that machine.
I had 2 friends with c-64s and disk drives, I was always jealous.
In highschool we used Apple IIe’s in the computer lab and after highschool, the next pc I used was a 386 sx.
My dad was really supportive of my playing with that vic-20. He bought the modem, a 16k memory cartridge, an advanced graphics cartridge, games, etc.
I suppose it all started with a Grandstand electronic game in the late ’70s. It had tennis, football, and a few other games that I can’t remember. They were all basically variants of pong with different bat sizes and numbers of bats. A friend later got an Atari VCS, on which I wasted many hours. Ahhh, “Night driver”. What a game!
My first encouter with a real computer was a ZX-81 at school, and an Apple II at my Mum’s work. But I couldn’t afford one myself. After saving up my cash, I eventually bought a 48K ZX Spectrum. That was really my introduction to computers and programming. That and a friend who had a BBC Model B (which cost waaaay to much money for any mere mortal to be able to afford, but his Dad got a discount through his work). I learned BASIC on the Spectrum, and assembly language on the Beeb.
After that, I upgraded to a Commodore 64, and then later from there on into the 16-bit era with an Amiga. However, in the late ’80s, I started getting nostalgic for the 8-bit days, and began collecting. My collection included:
- Atari VCS
- Atari 400
- Atari 800
- Atari 600 XL
- Atari 65 XE
- Tandy TRS-80
- Dragon 32
- Sinclair ZX-81
- Acorn Electron
- Amstrad CPC-464
- BT Merlin Tonto (in some respects, 8-bit, in others 16-bit)
Plus a bunch of 16-bit machines.
Red Warrior over at slashdot writes:
I haven’t done much with my MC-10 yet. I picked it up last year on eBay – looks like a neat little machine though!
(BTW, it doesn’t hurt to register dude!)
Abm0raz writes:
I had a 2600 and loved COmbat and Adventure. I also remember really liking Pitfall, Defender, and Beserk, too. And did I mention Asteroids? Yeah, those were the days! I saw a retro Atari 2.0 console with two joysticks and 40 games in memory at the store yesterday for $30. It was very tempting!!!
I also enjoyed playing with my friends C64 and really liked BeachHead. Someday I’d like to make an updated version of it, but need some more l33t c0d1ng 5k1llz to get there. I did learn Basic on c64’s at my school (6th grade, so right around ‘84ish)
My brother had an IBM (that he still has) which was one ofthe original ones. I think it was just a PS2, but I’m not entirely sure. I played Gato on it (which rocked) and Chuck yeagers Advanced Flight Trainer;-) I also programed a choose you own adventure on it in Basic!
After that there were dark years with little in the way fo computing, except that I eventually got an A1200 which I dearly love. Indeed I am going to get it up and running again after being inspired by you. Thanks!
I also kick myself regularly for not learning coding 10 or 20 years ago when it would have been soo much easier (no Wife, kids, or dogs needing time).