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The Research Machines 380Z (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/13/archaeologic_the_research_machines_380z_story/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/13/archa

by cannam 10y ago

The Research Machines 380Z (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/13/archaeologic_the_research_machines_380z_story/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/13/archaeologic_the_res...) is the machine I'll always (happily) associate with CP/M. That article says "even in 1982, the 380Z was a veteran", and that was still a couple of years before I ever got to use one. My school had two of them in the mid-to-late-80s that had long been seen as obsolete (having been replaced by a room of BBC micros) but were still sitting around and that nobody else wanted to use. I used to write text adventures and tank games on them and I had a plan for a crude version of Lords of Midnight that I'm pretty sure never got anywhere. I still have the floppies, though I very much doubt if they'd read any more. Love the industrial design of the 380Z as well.

jackhack 10y ago
>I still have the floppies, though I very much doubt if they'd read any more I think you might be surprised. Those low-density floppies were remarkably DURABLE. I have a whole pile of 8" and 5.25" floppies from the late 1970s / early 80s and even after decades of storage in less-than-ideal circumstances nearly all of them worked the last time I fed them to a TRS80 or my old Apple ][ about 5 years ago. (I was just as surprised the computer power supplies were still functional after this time, as electrolytic caps aren't exactly known for their longevity). Looking at code written when I was 12 is equal parts bemusement and cringe. Text adventures, BBS (bulletin board systems), Video game copies of arcade hits (space invaders in Basic. Donkey Kong in 6502 Assembly, A half-written tempest clone...) all are terrible judged by today's standards, but I thought they were amazing at the time. Speaking of amazement, I have no idea how I was able to accomplish anything without a search function, autocomplete, or google search. Just a blinking block in a text editor.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  At 12 i would have had the first clue about how to write either of those games.
digi_owl 10y ago
Those 5.25 drives makes me pine for slot load optical drives and discs formated for packet writing.

by cannam 10y ago

jackhack 10y ago

>I still have the floppies, though I very much doubt if they'd read any more I think you might be surprised. Those low-density floppies were remarkably DURABLE. I have a whole pile of 8" and 5.25" floppies from the late 1970s / early 80s and even after decades of storage in less-than-ideal circumstances nearly all of them worked the last time I fed them to a TRS80 or my old Apple ][ about 5 years ago. (I was just as surprised the computer power supplies were still functional after this time, as electrolytic caps aren't exactly known for their longevity). Looking at code written when I was 12 is equal parts bemusement and cringe. Text adventures, BBS (bulletin board systems), Video game copies of arcade hits (space invaders in Basic. Donkey Kong in 6502 Assembly, A half-written tempest clone...) all are terrible judged by today's standards, but I thought they were amazing at the time. Speaking of amazement, I have no idea how I was able to accomplish anything without a search function, autocomplete, or google search. Just a blinking block in a text editor.

digi_owl 10y ago
At 12 i would have had the first clue about how to write either of those games.

digi_owl 10y ago

Those 5.25 drives makes me pine for slot load optical drives and discs formated for packet writing.