My First Computer
That sounds like a Fisher Price toy, and come to think of it, my old Commodore 64 would be outgunned by a lot of toys these days.
Denis Gobo tagged me in a blog entry about our first computers and favorite games. He was one of those upper-class kids with his fancy-pants Commodore 128. I can distinctly remember looking at the sleek, smooth 128, comparing it to my bulbous, ugly 64 and thinking, “Wow, I wish I had one of those.”
My favorite C64 games were Ghostbusters, Battle Chess and Winter Games, probably in that order. Man, I loved Ghostbusters. For a taste of early 1980’s gaming, check out this video of 100 C64 games in 10 minutes.
I gotta confess, though, what I really liked was The Print Shop. Oh, how I loved making greeting cards, signs and banners. I was Mister Desktop Publisher, me and my pirated graphics packs.
I started with the tape drive, worked my way up to the 1541 disk drive, and dabbled with Basic programming like Denis talks about. I think the longest program I ever made was maybe 200 lines: I remember trying to write a text adventure game where you pick your next steps, and calculating odds with some dice rolls, but that got old quick.
My second computer was an IBM PS2, and if I remember right, Dad bought it from Sears when I was 12-13. We started with the monochrome monitor and a 3.5″ floppy drive, but I had big plans, baby. IBM ran a contest on their user forums: each month, the user who answered the most questions (first post!) got a piece of hardware. Some months it was a color monitor, other months it was a REAL GENUINE HARD DRIVE! ZOMG! For free. I won the color monitor, and I was pissed because I really wanted the hard drive. I don’t remember whether or not I won the second month. Looking back now, I’d love to go back and read the answers I left. I remember getting up at the butt crack of dawn to answer as many questions as I could before school, and race home to answer questions before schoolkids got home.
I’m gonna identify my nerdiness here, but this is a sad truth: I don’t really think I played any games on the PS2. I was all productivity, all the time, baby. I couldn’t get enough of forums. I was not what you would call a hit with the ladies.
The games came back with a vengeance when I went to college, though. I lived every waking moment for the University of Houston computer labs, playing MUDs (multi-user dungeons) all hours of the night. I didn’t give much of a rip for the games themselves, but the social aspect was awesome – meeting people all over the world, taking part in these fun experiences.
And now I’m on Twitter. Go figure.
Time to find out how nerdy everybody else is – I’m tagging:
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Best games for the C64 were Karateka, Raid on Bungling Bay, and Racing Destruction Set. God how I loved making my own race tracks on RDS. Now, this is a tag I can really sink my teeth into. I'll post something up tonight or tomorrow on http://www.made2mentor.com.
Oh, and I wish you would have told me about your C64 interest. I gave away one with monitor, daisy wheel printer, and 1541 drive. All of it was pristine in the boxes too. I just didn't have room for it.
I was totally one of those C-128 kids!
I remember playing *tons* of Ghostbusters, GI Joe and Racing Destruction Kit
Ok, I answered your tag.
Ha! I would love to have taken it, but then reality starts setting in – I don't have room for it either, hahaha. We threw away a bunch of stuff in the last few moves around the country!
How did I forget Pinball Construction Set? That was el numero uno. I looooved that game.
Anybody play Impossible Mission? "You can't hurt me!!!!!"
Anybody play Beach Head? "You can't hurt me!!!!!"
What?! No Montezuma’s Revenge?!?! I had a TI-99/4A as my first computer myself, but everytime I went over to my best friend’s house (who had a C64), that was what we played and played and played. Its any wonder we got out in the sun. 8^D
Oh, that brings back memories. I had a C-64 as well. Run-Stop-Restore!
I’d love to know what your rig is these days!
Funny, couldn’t afford a computer at the time. I snuck into Pratt Institute and used their computers PC ATs, and anywhere else I could get onto a system. Funny I started on an Apple ended up on a PC and now back on a mac with various emulators — all while thinking it was the music and graphics I would be coding not DBs, systems and web sites. It was all fun though. Thanks for sharing these memories I brought back some good times.
My first one was a Vic 20. Didn’t get a fancy C64 until later. If I remember correctly “Byte” and “Peek and Poke” were the magazines at the time. I’d sit for hours typing. I didn’t have any storage method at the time and later “upgraded” to a harness that utilized a regular “Boom Box” to store and retrieve work. It worked about 50% of the time, and that means it usually said it stored the program OK… And of course, all of this was plugged into the only outlet available which was switched on and off with the light switch. The number of times someone turned the lights off during the day, leaving my Black and White TV and Vic 20 with no electrons would be devastating today.
For more strolling on memory lane, listen to the song Hey Hey 16K : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28