ZX Spectrum

[Ghillie]

Yeah it was some toy. As a young kid I only ever saw it as a console because it had a joystick. Now I realise it's a computer and I could have became educated instead, rather than becoming the dog's nuts at Pacman!

 

[dad_of_jon]

The SID chip in the Commodore 64 was, and still is awesome!

enjoy......

 

[chthon]

Games I played: The Hobbit, Knight Lore, Underworlde, Tir Na Nog. Never finished one actually.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

First ever computer was a C64, followed by a brief fling with and Atari ST, before returned to the fold for an Amiga (with an additional external disk drive. Made playing the epic 12 disk Monkey Island 2 much more manageable). After that messed about with the usual PS1 to PS3. Pretty much missed out this generation of consoles, but my oldest has an Xbox One which I struggle to operate. Must be an age thing.

Nothing beats the golden age though seen in the link below. You're welcome :

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I bought the Atari 2600 just to play Defender it saved me putting several pounds a week through the pub coin op.
(i did get other games for it)
Looks crap now but back in the day this was the dogs.

 

[RichardM]

I had a Commodore VIC20 as my first computer, I wrote a few games and copied a few out from magazines but never really got in to gaming. I then used a BBC Micro for my final year project at Portsmouth Poly (a program for controlling and logging the testing of central heating radiators to BS something), then moved on to PCs and for a short while PLCs

 

[Norfolk79]

Gauntlet and bubble bobble were 2 of my favs of the spectrum

 

[stevey]

I had an atari st, whatever that was, would have been around 1990.

 

[Drunkula]

I had an atari st, whatever that was, would have been around 1990.

Somebody I knew had one - to me the ST means Buggy Boy, Italia 90, Xenon and the gorgeous music of Black Lamp which I still sing sometimes when I'm running or doing random crap.

 

[Drunkula]

The SID chip in the Commodore 64 was, and still is awesome!

Before they got so basically they were samplers me and somebody else thought that Sid chips should be in all phones - and I still think it!

I tried to get a Sid sound happening in Caustic and got slightly close but you had to turn the tempo up as far as it could go to try and switch notes fast enough so it sounds polyphonic on one channel - YES, it already is polyphonic but that's not the point. You want it all done on the intrinsically mono modular synth so you can say you've done it it by pointlessly making hard work for yourself.

Anyone starting into synths and hasn't got a feel for filters then if you look at something like the Ocean Loader 3 in oscilloscope view that dampened front edge is resonance up high.

I watched something recently where Martin Galway talked about him basically writing a super simple scripting language that did all that magic on the Sid chip. And he did most of the tunes in a couple of days and got paid piss all. I was aghast. There should be special knighthoods for the Order of the Sid.

If I met the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and we'd be chatting all mad enthusiastic at a party I don't know what would put me off more, if she said C64 music was crap or "Shall we take a minute to give thanks to our lord Jesus."



Limitation means innovation and the Sid chip did amazingly at that.

Controversial - Last Ninja music isn't that great. Target Renegade.... that's where you should be.



20:13 emotion or what!


And of course this, which people might never know they've heard and it could be in the palm your your hand:


Yeah, this stuff might be a passion of mine.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Before they got so basically they were samplers me and somebody else thought that Sid chips should be in all phones - and I still think it!

I tried to get a Sid sound happening in Caustic and got slightly close but you had to turn the tempo up as far as it could go to try and switch notes fast enough so it sounds polyphonic on one channel - YES, it already is polyphonic but that's not the point. You want it all done on the intrinsically mono modular synth so you can say you've done it it by pointlessly making hard work for yourself.

Anyone starting into synths and hasn't got a feel for filters then if you look at something like the Ocean Loader 3 in oscilloscope view that dampened front edge is resonance up high.

I watched something recently where Martin Galway talked about him basically writing a super simple scripting language that did all that magic on the Sid chip. And he did most of the tunes in a couple of days and got paid piss all. I was aghast. There should be special knighthoods for the Order of the Sid.

If I met the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and we'd be chatting all mad enthusiastic at a party I don't know what would put me off more, if she said C64 music was crap or "Shall we take a minute to give thanks to our lord Jesus."



Limitation means innovation and the Sid chip did amazingly at that.

Controversial - Last Ninja music isn't that great. Target Renegade.... that's where you should be.



20:13 emotion or what!


And of course this, which people might never know they've heard and it could be in the palm your your hand:


Yeah, this stuff might be a passion of mine.

Hypaball was also a thing of beauty

 

[AMyd666]

Went on sale 38 years ago today.

Did you have one did it get you into gaming and PC's?

Jet set willy (in video below) what a game.


View attachment 24825

View attachment 24826

I had a commodore vic 20. The one before the 64. Looks identical. I remember having to use some basic programming to load games and then wait ages!

 

[prog99]

I had an atari st, whatever that was, would have been around 1990.

I had one from before they had an integrated floppy drive, some of my handiwork is dotted around here - Sinister Developments - Demozoo

 

[marshbrewer]

I had one from before they had an integrated floppy drive, some of my handiwork is dotted around here - Sinister Developments - Demozoo

Long after the ST was old hat in computer / gaming terms, we* were using them to make banging house music with Akai samplers and midi to CV converters driving old analogue synthesisers due to its integrated MIDI port and the availability of Cubase for it. Gradually, virtualization meant that Mac's and PCs took over but they were happy days!


* By 'we' I obviously mean other people. My DJ'ing and dance music production skills were so fantastic I am now a project manager in the logistics industry.

 

[Norfolk79]

Talking of Retro gaming hardware, we’ve got a free trial of the Readly magazine subscription app. Currently reading Retro Gamer’s “Ultimate Retro Hardware Guide”. It’s a fascinating insight into all the old consoles and home computers from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Well worth a read if you happen to have Readly

 

[BrewMeHappy]

I had the ZX Spectrum+2 with the built in tape drive. I remember spending hours and hours of my childhood staring at the pictures of them in the Argos catalogue before eventually getting one for Christmas.

After that I had other consoles and then the one year my older brother saved up and bough an Amiga 500 which was superb before getting outclassed by the SNES I managed to get. Happy days.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I had one of those.

 

[BrewMeHappy]

I had one of those.



View attachment 24996

That's the one.

Mine was black though and think it was called the +2A. Apart from the colour, I don't know of it was any different.

 

[greyrider]

Nintendo DS?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Nintendo DS?

Consoles!