Retro Thread

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frase

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Thought I would create a thread about a passion of mine, the Commodore. I loved c64 and Amiga - I am a collector of both.


Commodore 64? This was the highest selling PC during the 80's!

 
That and the cassette player / software loader and a copy of MicroPoise <?> Flight Simulator is how I spent one summer. Boy the graphics back then were quite simple compared to what is available now.

I burnt my C=64 up many years ago, trying to repair the power supply. Oh boy, lots of memories from using / toying with one of those. ;)
 
i started my 'career' as a 13yr old on a Acorn electron.

boy, the night's i would sit on my pc programming it, saving it to tape.

then come to load "" or chain "" the next time and tape got chewed, or wouldn't read a part of it...

i loved that machine.
 
I still have my first ever Meccano screw driver, with a bit chipped off the end of it. I think I was about 10 when I got that 1st set. So 37 ish years ago.

It is on my wall holder of tools, and I still use it.
 
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MichaelBits said:
the fist result .... gay porn star
Click to expand...
Freudian slip?



I had a few Meccano kits too, but an electronics projects kit like this is what really got me interested in electronics (and, ultimately, computers).

Rsehb1U.jpg

I was about 6 years old. I had already been taking lots of stuff apart and had been playing with batteries and motors for a year or two when I received a kit like this one Christmas. About 5 Christmases later, I received my first computer, a VIC-20. By that time I was playing around with digital circuits (mainly 4000 series CMOS) so the VIC became a great addition to my electronics projects, enabling me to combine the two and write programs to interact with the circuits I'd designed.

I sometimes wish I hadn't turned my hobby into my career. Writing software and designing circuits was so much fun back then. I miss those days. :(
 
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Moltuae said:
Freudian slip?
Click to expand...
Doh!

Moltuae said:
I had already been taking lots of stuff apart and had been playing with batteries and motors for a year or two when I received a kit like this one Christmas.
Click to expand...
I took lots of things apart back then to. My grandfather was an electrician at the John Deere plant, so he gave me various electronic things to take apart/play with.

I remember he gave me an old typewriter once to take apart. I coudn't get it to come apart and got irritated and got a hammer! It came apart after that... but was no putting it back together.

Markverhyden said:
Some of those erector set kits included cranes.....
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I had the full one (or possibly multiple sets) that included the crane and could build a bridge. I remember building a bridge spanning my Grandfathers entire workbench in the basement.
I believe it was my uncles set from when he was a kid in the late 50's/early 60's that I played with. Kind of wish I still had it...
 
Markverhyden said:
Some of those erector set kits included cranes.....
Click to expand...

Mine came with a 120v gear-reduced motor with a triple pulley. My most vivid memory was holding the motor (after dropping it on concrete earlier) in my bare feet and plugging it in. Wham!! Rock my world! It was a metal chassis motor with a direct short to case (and me) and I couldn't drop it. I couldn't throw it. I couldn't get it out of my hand until I unplugged it from the wall. Rather than being terrified I was incredibly curious why I couldn't drop the thing while I was getting electrocuted. (Obviously the 120v cramped all the muscles in my right arm making a death-grip on the motor.) It was my most vivid erector-set moment! :rolleyes:
 
I had some erector set in a metal box (similar to Michael Bits picture)...it could be done as a crane, or a ferris wheel.

Regarding first computer, my first home one was an Atari 400. Had a cassette deck to store programs. Used it for my BASIC programming (and some games of course).

Other old "toys" I enjoy remembering...

*those old .049 gas engine control line planes
*Estes rockets
*Guillow balsa wood rubber band powered planes
*Evel Knievel wind up motorcycle
*Hot Wheels cars on the orange track
*AFX Slot racers
 
I grew up on an IBM XT - fully loaded... it was like $5K in 83-84.. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) supplied my dad with one so he could log into the mainframes with the supplied 2400baud Hayes modem when there were off-hours issues.

Fun story: When I was 4, S.W.A.T. came to our house and setup a mobile base of operations due to a guy up the street that went off his meds and was holding his kids hostage. It all worked out in the end.. anywho, SWAT came in with a huge suitcase (a mobile computer with modem)... I saw them pulling it all out and was like "We have one of those right here!?" and the SWAT guy was like... "This one's got a faster modem and it's an XT!" - They ended up using our computer and modem to coordinate the action! Computers in homes wasn't really a thing, so for them to walk in and just happen to have a state-of-the-art computer sitting, in what would have been considered a "depressed" or low-money area, it was just meant to be, lol.

For a 4yo kid, how cool is that!?

EDIT: Oh, and guess who helped them get to our terminal program ;-)
 
Moltuae said:
I never had Hot Wheels but I had a Streak Racing set, which I think may have been similar ...

Who else had the Six Million Dollar Man toy with his cutting-edge peep-hole head and bionic arm? :D
Click to expand...

That Streak set looks very similar...
And oh yeah...I remember the Six Million Dollar Man toy with the arm!

How about "Rockem Sockem Robots"? "Battling Tops"?
 
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