Atari Pinball
I remember my first exposure to electronic toys, I wouldn’t call it a computer, but it was definately something that caught and held my attention. It was Atari’s breakout / pinball that hooked up to your TV. I got ahold of one when my grandfather brought one home from a yard sale when I was young. e handed it to me like he had no idea what it was, but thought I might think it was cool. I did, and by the end of the week he was pissed, pissed that it had taken over his television, and that he never got to watch his programs. The next week there was a brand new (yard sale) black and white TV for me to play my games on. The following week it was in the basement where he didn’t have to listen to it anymore. That’s where I spent the majority of my off school hours.
Times Sinclair TS1000
From there I got ahold of a used 2600, and again, played it until it wouldn’t even turn on. What followed was an Intellivision, a Colecovision, and so on. These were great fun, but there were others that caught my eye. I remember seeing the ads for the “real” computers. The Apple II, The TI994a, and the like. What I ended up with was the Timex Sinclair. It was quite the underpowered piece of amazing technology. At the time I was just uber happy that I had a computer. One that I could interact with, and program. I must have spent a total of about a year of my life sitting in front of it typing in basic programs printed in a British magazine that my uncle found for me, I had about 2 years of back issues.
While this was happening at home, the were placing computers into the schools, and I was getting a chance to see the Commodore PET, and Super PET, as well as the Radio Shack TRS80. These were pretty impressive at the time, as I really hadn’t seen something of that stature close up. I still remember seeing the TRS80 being used to play “Adventure” while I was part of the “peanut gallery”. We rarely got an opportunity to do more than just see them used. There were only a couple in the classroom, and they were primarily used for demonstrations.
I used the TS1000 for awhile, and was quite happy with it. I expanded it, and spent days working on programs in basic that played games, tracked money, and basically just allowed me to learn basic pretty well. I was far from a great programmer, but felt like I was doing something credible, and being creative in my own way. It was a great escape.
I remember the Commodore VIC20 being released, but never got ahold of one. I did have a friend that had one, and we did play plenty of games wiith it. It was quite a good time, but nothing too special. Then the Commodore 64 was released. I remember this one because I had been saving for a TI994a for awhile, and the 64 came out, I just couldn’t decide. After a bit I ended up with the 64. I remember this vividly because this would be the first (and only) time that I made the right platform decision.
Commodore 64
That 64 kept me plenty busy. I ended up buying the monitor that went with it, the Floppy drive, and one of the sneakiest things I’ve ever done. We had the 300 baud modems, and used to use them to call the local BBS systems in town. When the 2400 baud versions came out we couldn’t afford them, but bought them anyways. Swapped the 300 guts into the 2400 case, and returned them to the local Fred Meyer. I’m not proud of that one, but it’s a statement to how badly we wanted the latest hardware.Hours spent playing lode runner, and trading games with your buddies. It was great fun, and the Commodore 64 was an amazing machine for the times.
While I was spending my time tied to the 64, a neighbor picked up an Apple II+. He was a little older, and had a real job, so his cash fow allowed him some great toys. I remember being able to see the machine when he got it, and all the goodies that came with it. He had a joystick that was proportional. This was a far cr from the old atari stick I had plugged into the 64. It made for a completely different experience when playing a game, and this machine certainly seemed like a huge step up from the 64. I had a major case of the wants.
(continued in pt2)
Tags: Atari 2600, Atari Pinball, Intellivision, Mac user, old technology, Timex Sinclair
