5 ms·

It was my first computer. We lived in India, and importing it into the country was a huge deal in the 80s. Programming on it felt magical. Even taught my self Z

It was my first computer. We lived in India, and importing it into the country was a huge deal in the 80s. Programming on it felt magical. Even taught my self Z80A assembly language to wring the maximum out of the machine. It determined the trajectory of my career.

fifticon 2y ago
I live in denmark, and mirror your comment almost to the word. Especially the idea that programming it felt like doing magic.
gluecode 2y ago
Same for me, but with an ATARI 800 XL. I had too many POKEs and PEEKs in my BASIC code. Indian customs took 30 days to release this machine in the 80s.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  I absolutely love the video chip of the Ataris. The display list approach is nothing short of brilliant, allowing multiple display modes on a single frame.
  - flohofwoe 2y ago
    To be fair, that was also possible on some other 8-bit home computers of the time, but required the CPU to get involved (with tricky timing code to write the hardware registers at the right time). The 8-bit Atari's display list coprocessor is basically the daddy of the Amiga's Copper :)
  - musicale 2y ago
    Display lists date back to the antiquity of computer graphics, and Atari obviously knew how to build game machines. Now we have GPUs which can do all sorts of things, but a graphics coprocessor for an 8-bit machine is a nice addition.
xcf_seetan 2y ago
Also my first computer. I got a kit version for half the price. It made me the pioneer of micro computing in my little town, as i was the first to have one. :) I was only 15 years old. Most amazing is that it had 1Kb ram and I had 2 games for it: a chess game and a flight simulator all character based. It was so cool.
ggambetta 2y ago
Mine too! I have a picture with my late dad and the ZX81 that has a special place in my heart: https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/dedication.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/d...
- dcminter 2y ago
  That is an absolutely adorable picture!
- olddustytrail 2y ago
  Don't sit so close to the screen, it'll ruin your eyes!
  - forinti 2y ago
    I had to get glasses at 48, so it turns out all the warnings were true.
    - ggambetta 2y ago
      I had to get glasses at 17. To be fair, by then I had already spent too much time in front of a screen XD Got LASIK a few years later, and now, 15 years after, still seeing great.
pkphilip 2y ago
Same here. I did use the ZX Spectrum in India. Late 80s.
ghoul2 2y ago
Whoa. Are you me? Same here. Lived in India, my fathers' friend (based in the UK) gifted him a ZX Spectrum. I was hooked from the day I typed 10 PRINT "myname" on it. Taught myself Z80 assembly, just from the appendix in the Spectrum programmers manual that listed the opcode encodings and mnemonics (mostly just guessing what the opcode did from the mnemonic) - at around 10 years old, I could hand-write and hand-encode the assembly code without needing to lookup the opcode encodings. I was 6 years old at the time. Completely determined the trajectory of my life/career.

fifticon 2y ago

I live in denmark, and mirror your comment almost to the word. Especially the idea that programming it felt like doing magic.

gluecode 2y ago

Same for me, but with an ATARI 800 XL. I had too many POKEs and PEEKs in my BASIC code. Indian customs took 30 days to release this machine in the 80s.

rbanffy 2y ago
I absolutely love the video chip of the Ataris. The display list approach is nothing short of brilliant, allowing multiple display modes on a single frame.
- flohofwoe 2y ago
  To be fair, that was also possible on some other 8-bit home computers of the time, but required the CPU to get involved (with tricky timing code to write the hardware registers at the right time). The 8-bit Atari's display list coprocessor is basically the daddy of the Amiga's Copper :)
- musicale 2y ago
  Display lists date back to the antiquity of computer graphics, and Atari obviously knew how to build game machines. Now we have GPUs which can do all sorts of things, but a graphics coprocessor for an 8-bit machine is a nice addition.

xcf_seetan 2y ago

Also my first computer. I got a kit version for half the price. It made me the pioneer of micro computing in my little town, as i was the first to have one. :) I was only 15 years old. Most amazing is that it had 1Kb ram and I had 2 games for it: a chess game and a flight simulator all character based. It was so cool.

ggambetta 2y ago

Mine too! I have a picture with my late dad and the ZX81 that has a special place in my heart: https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/dedication.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/d...

dcminter 2y ago
That is an absolutely adorable picture!
olddustytrail 2y ago
Don't sit so close to the screen, it'll ruin your eyes!
- forinti 2y ago
  I had to get glasses at 48, so it turns out all the warnings were true.
  - ggambetta 2y ago
    I had to get glasses at 17. To be fair, by then I had already spent too much time in front of a screen XD Got LASIK a few years later, and now, 15 years after, still seeing great.

pkphilip 2y ago

Same here. I did use the ZX Spectrum in India. Late 80s.

ghoul2 2y ago

Whoa. Are you me? Same here. Lived in India, my fathers' friend (based in the UK) gifted him a ZX Spectrum. I was hooked from the day I typed 10 PRINT "myname" on it. Taught myself Z80 assembly, just from the appendix in the Spectrum programmers manual that listed the opcode encodings and mnemonics (mostly just guessing what the opcode did from the mnemonic) - at around 10 years old, I could hand-write and hand-encode the assembly code without needing to lookup the opcode encodings. I was 6 years old at the time. Completely determined the trajectory of my life/career.