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The other book that came with the machine has a quote that I think kicked off my career as an engineer - "Now that you have set up the computer, you will want t

The other book that came with the machine has a quote that I think kicked off my career as an engineer - "Now that you have set up the computer, you will want to use it. The rest of this booklet tells you how to do that; but in your impatience you will probably already have started pressing the keys on the keyboard, and discovered that this removes the copyright message. This is good; you cannot harm the computer in this way. Be bold. Experiment. If you get stuck, remember that you can always reset the computer to the original picture with the copyright message by taking out the '9V DC IN' plug and putting it back again. This should be the last resort because you lose all the information in the computer." I loved that machine.

guytv 4y ago
Me too. I remember going through the "Beyond ZX Spectrum" was it? it had listings of basic programs for "Lunar Lander" and other nice games. With colorful inspiring screenshots of the running games.
- danjc 4y ago
  Ah lunar lander, felt like so much code to type and I never got the darn thing to land without crashing!
desireco42 4y ago
Same here and I vividly remember that message "you can't harm computer". It really spoke to me.
- TuringTest 4y ago
  Me too, here. It was a significant reassurance, and I was later disappointed to learn that the PC operating system did not have that same quality that earlier microcomputers had.
  - int_19h 4y ago
    PCs were cobbled together in a way that earlier microcomputers were not - individual pieces of hardware could all be from different vendors, and adhering to a bunch of protocols, some of them proprietary. Then on top of that you had several different OS options (even if only considering DOS, there were still several), all of which had to support all the aforementioned hardware somehow. It's not surprising that nobody could guarantee the safety of all possible combinations - that's the price you pay for customizability.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
  You can if you short out the edge-connector with a coin; ask me how I know.
  - oxryly1 4y ago
    Also it turns out you can harm an Apple //e if you plug a //c mouse into its joystick port. Ask ME how I know, lol.

guytv 4y ago

Me too. I remember going through the "Beyond ZX Spectrum" was it? it had listings of basic programs for "Lunar Lander" and other nice games. With colorful inspiring screenshots of the running games.

danjc 4y ago
Ah lunar lander, felt like so much code to type and I never got the darn thing to land without crashing!

desireco42 4y ago

Same here and I vividly remember that message "you can't harm computer". It really spoke to me.

TuringTest 4y ago
Me too, here. It was a significant reassurance, and I was later disappointed to learn that the PC operating system did not have that same quality that earlier microcomputers had.
- int_19h 4y ago
  PCs were cobbled together in a way that earlier microcomputers were not - individual pieces of hardware could all be from different vendors, and adhering to a bunch of protocols, some of them proprietary. Then on top of that you had several different OS options (even if only considering DOS, there were still several), all of which had to support all the aforementioned hardware somehow. It's not surprising that nobody could guarantee the safety of all possible combinations - that's the price you pay for customizability.
NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
You can if you short out the edge-connector with a coin; ask me how I know.
- oxryly1 4y ago
  Also it turns out you can harm an Apple //e if you plug a //c mouse into its joystick port. Ask ME how I know, lol.