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Wow, this was not a thing where I grew up. I never even saw a real pc until I was in uni. That sounds awesome. Thanks for explaining. EDIT: Still totally fasci

Wow, this was not a thing where I grew up. I never even saw a real pc until I was in uni. That sounds awesome. Thanks for explaining. EDIT: Still totally fascinated by this. I asked my husband because I remembered that he had a much-beloved Spectrum when he was a kid and sure enough, he had digitized Your Sinclair issues on his iPad and he showed me several examples of games in Basic and hex. Super cool.

prerok 5y ago
If you are interested in the history of games there is an excellent blog here: https://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-trash-80-part-3/ https://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-trash-80-part-3/ Have been following it for years and would recommend reading it all the way through. Maybe even get an idea for the next project :)
- bananabat 5y ago
  Saved the bookmark for reading, thanks!
redis_mlc 5y ago
Note that half the time, you'd make typos and it wouldn't run. So it sounds nostalgic, but not so much. However, debugging it helped to learn the language. :) Dr. Dobbs Journal was probably the king of source code listings in magazine format. Pre-Internet, there were some remarkable mass-distribution Unix magazines with significant source code for utilities: Unix Review and Unix World. Even today, the back issues would be useful. I remember lusting over the AT&T 3B Unix machines advertised in those, but never could afford one. So I waited until VAX Unix in uni (the arts dept. had an unused one), then SCO and Linux. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC
- bananabat 5y ago
  So I can see how you can debug BASIC when you're doing the magazine thing and it doesn't run. But what about hex...how did people even find where they made had typos?
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    Most probably gave up on the hex listings if there were typos, but I never typed that in - it was all ASM or BASIC. I think it's important to realize that there was a golden age of early personal computing, but for most people it wasn't the first couple of years of toggle switches, very limited RAM and hex. Unlike Raspberry Pi's, the early PC was a standalone device that needed a usable UI before it had widespread appeal.

prerok 5y ago

If you are interested in the history of games there is an excellent blog here: https://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-trash-80-part-3/ https://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-trash-80-part-3/ Have been following it for years and would recommend reading it all the way through. Maybe even get an idea for the next project :)

bananabat 5y ago
Saved the bookmark for reading, thanks!

redis_mlc 5y ago

Note that half the time, you'd make typos and it wouldn't run. So it sounds nostalgic, but not so much. However, debugging it helped to learn the language. :) Dr. Dobbs Journal was probably the king of source code listings in magazine format. Pre-Internet, there were some remarkable mass-distribution Unix magazines with significant source code for utilities: Unix Review and Unix World. Even today, the back issues would be useful. I remember lusting over the AT&T 3B Unix machines advertised in those, but never could afford one. So I waited until VAX Unix in uni (the arts dept. had an unused one), then SCO and Linux. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC

bananabat 5y ago
So I can see how you can debug BASIC when you're doing the magazine thing and it doesn't run. But what about hex...how did people even find where they made had typos?
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Most probably gave up on the hex listings if there were typos, but I never typed that in - it was all ASM or BASIC. I think it's important to realize that there was a golden age of early personal computing, but for most people it wasn't the first couple of years of toggle switches, very limited RAM and hex. Unlike Raspberry Pi's, the early PC was a standalone device that needed a usable UI before it had widespread appeal.