"I wanted to just indulge a little here and
reminisce about my System 80 experience. I was only a young boy at the
time, about 14 when I saved up all my pennies and spent them on a System
80 (I think my mum might well have helped a bit too). I really wanted
an Apple ][ or even and Apple clone of some kind (A friend of mine actually
had a clone which was called a Pineapple!). We had Apple ]['s at school,
and I was learning to program in BASIC on them. But the System 80 it
was, and I was still immensely proud of it. I had a computer - not many
people at the time could say that.
I have mostly fond memories of my System 80. It
largely worked well. I recall that it was perhaps the only computer
I've ever seen with fake wood laminate on the sides. There just isn't
enough wood in computers these days! Also, the built in tape drive with
volume control was something unique at the time I think. It seemed self
contained and very capable at the time. I did have to hook it up to
a horrible blurry colour monitor, which I'm sure contributed to the
bad eyesight I now endure. I remember a little later I sprung for a
much much clearer mono screen (that was actually amber) and the difference
in pixel clarity was chalk/cheese. Mono monitors are very sharp, even
by today's standards, because there is only one gun to worry about,
and you don't need precise alignment.
Anyway, I used this computer to play games and write
simple programs. I enjoyed learning the art of programming. At the time,
the computer seemed to have limitless capabilities. Anything you could
dream up you could program. Graphics programs, text games, simple calculators,
whatever. I made plenty of mistakes, and learnt to avoid "spaghetti
code", which was a great mess of GOTOs. I even once learn assembler,
but it was a bit low level for me. Fast, but too much like hard work.
PEEK and POKE don't do it for me really.
I remember one program I wrote, with a smile. It
was a parody of the demo application that came with the system, which
had a cheesy picture of Dick Smith. In what might well have been one
of the earliest pieces of electronic porn, I wrote a program that drew
a large lifelike penis - the real "electronic dick". When
I showed some of my friends, I'm sure they thought I was gay, which
I'm not, not that there is anything wrong with that as they say.
I also remember writing some software which displayed
a 3D maze, in simple wire frame. I'm fairly certain that I did it in
the most inefficient method possible. The maze was 3x3 grid only, and
drew only 2 squares deep. Still, it was cutting edge at the time, and
kept me amused, which was the point really. It was like the maze you
saw on Wizardry I, if that makes sense to anyone.
Over time, like a few years, the System-80 got less
and less use. The computers at school were upgraded and oh-so-much-better.
I became a "computer monitor" at school. Which is a stupid
name, because a monitor means the display of course. Anyway, I then
went on to do Computer Studies and then BSc in Computer Science. I sold
Apple computers for a while. I now am the National IT Manager at the
company I work for, and still dabble in programming, using the techniques
and discipline I learnt way back then on this now humble machine. I
still have a preference for BASIC, it's my "mother tongue".
VB.NET is quite a capable language now.
I no longer own a System 80, and can't remember
exactly what happened to mine. I have, however, been recently given
a working TRS-80 Model 100 "laptop" which is similar in many
ways but using a LCD display. I am having fun revisiting my youth on
it, and teaching my two children programming on it! Haha. They think
I'm crazy. Perhaps I am!!
