8 Bit Heaven

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The car boot sale thread has made me very nostalgic for my old Orics and may yet result in unwise bids on ebay before the day is out. So I thought I'd ask what your first computer/console was and whether or not you you wish you'd hung on to it when the shiny new Amiga/ST/Mac/PC turned up? Also: what do you think of the whole retro-computer game thing that's been bubbling under for the last couple of years or so?

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NES. dear god NES. it's my life and it's my wife. still. zelda, super mario brothers 2, dr. mario, tetris, startropics, zelda ii, mega man 2, strider, excitebike...siiiiiiiiigh....i wish i was home RIGHT NOW.

― jess, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All the stuff wot I have owned:
Amstrad PC 1512 (1988)
Sinclair Spectrum +2A (1989)
Sega Master System (1991)
Sega Megadrive (1992)
Sega Mega-CD (1993)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1994)
Sega Mega 32X (1994)
Sony Playstation (1996)
P2 233 (1999)
Nintendo 64 (1999)
Sega Dreamcast (2001)
Of all of those the Spectrum is probably my favourite, and I'm not being crap and kitschy either. Games that cost £1.99? How can that be beaten?

― DG, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

through the 80s: a BBC Micro model B borrowed in holidays from parents' school.

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had the original Atari console (2600?) you know the one with the wooden cabinet.

then I had a spectrum, with rubber keys and everything.

Then my Dad bought a Tatung Einstein that was a horrid computer

hmmm, next was the megadrive

and now the playstation one.

come redundancy time, there'll be a spanky new laptop methinks

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tell me bidding £50 on a ZX Speccy complete set with 20 games is wrong. Oh god. I want it so bad. Oh my. No-one so far haf noticed me in office corner breathing ever so slightly quicker. Should I? Oh lord. Help.

My first console WAS the Speccy ZX. My dad programmed me games on it. I was too little to program it myself. I was busy gurgling, or something. First ones I played on were the Atari and C-64 (topic of song of same name by Barcelona roXoR!) on my friends down the road, but the first one I evah used myself was ACKSHIRELY rubbidge rudimentary PC type thing running Windows 2.81 (? does that even exist) but myself and my father shunned it. BASIC and DOS for us! But then he wouldn't let me play on it any more. Later I got a Master System. Now I have a PlayStation one, and want EVERYTHING ELSE DAMMIT.

Should I bid £50? This is soooo U&K you would not believe. I hate being poor.

― Sarah, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Playstations are shite, flog it and get a Spectrum. Seriously.

― DG, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't flog it, I've not finished FFVIII yet and also I only got it to play DDR with in the first place so it's going NOWHERE.

Is £50 a stupid price for a damn spectrum?????

― Sarah, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Much as I loved my Spectrum (and borrowed ZX81 before it - Breakout, Chess and a text adventure written in 1KB - take that fancy dan PS2) I really think you'd have to be a bit mental to buy one now. Why not just download an emulator for free? Can you really face waiting three minutes for a game to load (on a good day)?

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

retro games are obviously better, simpler more fun. I'm crap at playstation etc. too damn difficult to just pick up and play for a bit. You have to devote your life to it to be good at tekken

my first computer was a bbc compatible Acorn Electron which wasn't powerful enough to play the whizzy games my mate had for his bbc micro master with disc drives (I only had a tape drive).

We have a bbc micro master here which has a teletext box for our better than the web information system. If anyones got any bbc games on disc We'd love them.

― Ed, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

guilty as charged on the retro computing thing. I was a sinclair boy zx80 through til the spectrum. i did the diy upgrade from 16K to 48K. that's as stressful as my middle class existence ever got. oh and my parents separation and divorce...

i wasn't having any of those ponced up amstrad things either. We could have the sinclair v commode 64 FITE if you like? heh. i have built (from instruction!) a little tape sampler thing that allows you to make .TAP files for your speccy emulators too.

the shame of it all

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haf nothing to download upon to NOT HAFFING ANY TYPE OF COMPUTER apart from Gameboy and PSone. This is making me bitter and jealous. I think I might cry! The bidding haf been pushed up to £53. That's mental. I think I shall end my bidding, with disappointed tears welling in my eyes.

― Sarah, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My first computer was a ZX81 - classic! Um...

Then a BBC Model B which was the sign of the kids who'd had to use the 'it's educational' excuse. But I loved it nonetheless.

Nick is right about the old spectrums - it will go wrong within a week and then you'll be stuffed. Just keep looking in jumble sales - eBay is a mug's game.

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you can't download stuff then while you're on a PC (don't tell me you do all this on your WAP phone??) go to herewhere you can play plenty of Spectrum games in a Java applet there and then. Except it doesn't work on my Mac, but that's Macs/bad internet designers/Bin Laden's fault.

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My head agrees with Nick. But my heart yearns for the little box my small fingers falteringly tapped out my first programs on. I loved my Oric so much when I was 8. With its clicky keys, hatred of lower case and rubbish games and everything. I want it back so much. I learned to program on it. I learned assembler on it. I even designed my own font for the stupid thing. Wah!

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My Spectrum still works as I took good loving care of it. And no Sarah, you can't have it.

― DG, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think it's different if you're a programmer though RickyT - I have nostalgia for the gamez of my youth but the only thing I ever programmed on my computer was...ah actually no, maybe not. Anyway the gamez of my youth are better in the memory than in reality that said if anyone can point me to where online I might find KEVIN TOMS FOOTBALL MANAGER then I will be most grateful.

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Funniest thing about the Oric - the way it tried to gain competitive advantage over the Spectrum by having not just a BEEP noise, but also a "PING", a "SHOOT", an "EXPLODE" and a "ZAP". How could it have failed???

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Football manager games = very blimmin good indeed. Even if all the 'highlights' of the matches looked suspiciously similar.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Still got my Atari 2600, perfect shape, all accessories, about 40 games.

― Sean, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

maplins do a solder your own pong kit for less than a tenner

― Ed, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cool! Jet Set Willy In Space was set to have had a room called 'Zen & the Art of Oric-exploding!' in 'tribute' to everyone's favourite duff computer.

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Oric also had proper SOUND, MUSIC and PLAY commands as well as the built in sound effects. You could set envelopes and waveforms and everything. Much better than the boring BEEP, which only took pitch and duration arguments.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

God's Teeth! I am associating with people who liked Speccy FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT GAMES? I am ASHAMED OF YOU. [Note: for those who don't know, Spectrum footie management games = spreadsheets]

― DG, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are you trying to rile me, Mr Dastoor?

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had an Acorn Electron on which you could play mathematical space invaders, spelling space invaders and other fun educational games. Or, you could play Pac Man. Guess which was the only one we ever took out of the box. I do not want another Acorn Electron because you have to link it up to a tape recorder to play games which is the stupidest of stupid ideas. I prefer playing Tetris on Yook.de.

― Madchen, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's rubbish, DG! They had game highlights, transfers and err.. stuff. You show me the speadsheet that has that capability EVEN TODAY.

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In my defence, I never had a Spectrum. I was talking about Commodore 64 management games.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The other great thing about Kevin Toms Football Manager was the way every player in the league would randomly completely change their skill levels between seasons. Star players would suddenly become donkeys in too months, and complete no-hopers would transform into footballing genii. There was no reason given for this at all, and it certainly wasn't there for memory reasons.

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"too months" = "two months", coincidentally the time a season of Football Manager actually took due to the 'highlights'.

Tape loading in hexadecimal!! Very educational!

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom, you can download Football Manager here and get on 'THE ROAD TO WEMBLEY' (oddly, I seem to remember this showpiece graphic appearing only after one had actually won the FA Cup.

Who is Kevin Toms?

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Video Games were not allowed in our house and i have never played a computer or console game.

― anthonyeaston, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am almost weeping at the nostalgia of this thread, I spent hours and hours and hours on Kevin Toms Footy manager, my dad went ballistic when he found that I'd left my speccy on for about two weeks rather than save the game onto a blank disc as it was so unreliable.

1st game for my speccy = the hobbit, damn those pesky elves.

Most loved game = sabre wulf

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Defn. of posh in early 80s: your computer had a disc drive.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

FatNick, standing behind me, sez "Speccies ROOOLZ! I are playing 'Chaos' and smiting Greenfield 1 with my illusory Golden Dragon! Cheers cheers!"

― DG, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have nostalgia for the gamez of my youth but the only thing I ever programmed on my computer was...ah actually no, maybe not

Please tell me this wasn't a companion piece to your home-made vibrator, Tom. Was Sam Fox's Strip Poker not enough for you?

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No no at the opposite end of the spectrum, Nick. Blimey though Sam Fox Strip Poker.

The wolf in Sabre Wulf = very scary.

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sabre Wulf!!! I remember that well. I was so rubbish at it, it was embarrassing.

Hmmm - I had an Atari 2600 (for River Raid and Defender), a C64 (Sentinel, Elite), an Amiga (Monkey Island!), a Playstation (Final Fantasy!!!) and now a PC (Max Payne!) and Dreamcast (Shenmue! Skies of Arcadia!). Can't decide whether to get a PS2, Gamecube or XBox now - I'm a big Resident Evil fan which is Gamecube exclusive, Shenmue is XBox only and Final Fantasy is only on PS2. Bother.

So, yes, I miss my C64. I remember playing Head Over Heels into the early hours, and there was Little Computer People which is The Sims now. And Uridium. And Delta. Oh my...

― Dark Eyes, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

More scary - the floaty killer monk in Fairlight, the Sentinel in the Sentinel, and THE FUCKING BIG T-REX in 3D Monster Maze.

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

http://www.mykeweb.co.uk/3dmm/images/Grrrrrr.gif

― Nick, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eek!

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That is scary yes.

― Tom, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Go on. Download Hey Hey 16K. If you don't have the MJ Hibbett album already. Also go HERE for LYRICKS and here for even more. RAH CHEERS!

― Sarah, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, yes! DO IT NOW!

― RickyT, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fun these days spotting all the old speccy references in RARE games on the N64. References, hell, there's an entire copy of jetpac in DK64 (and original Donkey Kong arcade too for good measure). Plus Sabre Man is making a come back! He's in Banjo Tooie, and he's the star of a new GBA game.

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Still got my Atari 2600, perfect shape, all accessories, about 40 games.

V. nice. I had mine through 1992, and over a hundred games and eight million controls. Gave it to some friends -- had I waited a few years, the eBay hordes would have forked over some major cash.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I nearly died playing Shenmue on Dreamcast when I found perfect copies of Hang On and Space Harrier in the arcade!!! Ended up messing up the plot as I spent all my time in the arcade. Like real life.

Rare used to be Ultimate, didn't they? Ultimate made some of the most innovative arcade adventures of the 1980s. I never finished any of them though: did anyone ever beat Sabre Wulf? Which incidentally is coming to GBA I think...

― Dark Eyes, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ultimate ganes were a speciality of mine, did wulf, atc atak and a couple of the 3d ones too, which were ace also

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So what happened at the end of Sabre Wulf? I only ever managed to get three pieces of the medallion thingy.

― Dark Eyes, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Like a lot of them it wasn't that thrilling, I remember a big battle with the wulf, then the thing kinda went funny and spinny, mind you, this is about 15 years ago.

Atic atak was the dullest though, not even remotely memorable

― chris, Tuesday, 30 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 29 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Woah, bit of a Thomas Dolby moment there... but Alan, surely you gotta agree the game itself was a bit weak? As I recall it was basically a vector graphics version of hangman... and instead of up being down and down being up like in Elite (i'm confusing myself now), up really meant up. Which was bad. It was fast though, but if I remember correctly it had see-through vector graphics as well? Amusing Starion Fact: it was set in the year 2010. This won't work, but try clicking here to see a review.

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wow, it did work!

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I liked Starion, too. I have no idea what Alan is on about with his double-byte register but it warms my heart nonetheless. It's this kind of thing that makes me loves Spectrums - the amount you could squeeze out of them with sheer ingenuity.

A CBM expert was seen openly weeping when he saw the quality of the graphics compared to the CBM Elite, and with very good reason. Words cannot adequately describe the immense realism that the graphics manage to portray - to say that they are astonishing, astounding, phenomenal and... well startling, doesn't even begin to say it.

Does critical writing get any better than this?.

― Nick, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This thread is dangerous. Not only did I nearly spend £70 on a spectrum last night, I also read a guide to FORTH on the train home and in the Chinese takeaway. It made my head hurt. I don't get it. What's a stack. Where? When?! Parameters? Delimiters? ALL THINGS I WANT TO UNDERSTAND but you put them all together and my mind, he GORN!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

aaarrgghh, nostalgia overload! Andrew you may well have just ruined the rest of my working day. I had that edition, and a few of the games in it, the baseball was rather good, but I remember being impressed with the graphics, now, my phone has better games on it!

― chris, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have to say, this is my favourite thread in ages.

― chris, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hem, here's the Your Spectrum review and guide. (including fab hacking hints!)

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really do want to know what is a "stack" and how do you place "numbers" on "it".

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's very sad that I have a computer with a 1.4Ghz processor and a geforce 3 graphics card and go-faster stripes, and yet Rick Dangerous on the C64 has been more fun than anything I've played on it. Sigh.

I remember Tau Ceti really well. Never had a clue what I was doing, and so I just flew around shooting things (did the same with Frontier, oddly). Later there was Starglider on the Amiga too, which was absolutely amazing. Sigh.

Who did Ocean become, incidentally? I remember them releasing Tunnel B1 for the Playstation and Saturn, and then they vanished. And US Gold, too, who did all those conversions of Spy Hunter, Tapper, Up and Down and others for the C64. And Elite, who converted Commando, Paperboy, and best of all Space Harrier and Ghosts and Goblins...?

― Dark Eyes, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a rubbidge laptop which I can't run anything on. It runs Win 95 and um, NOTEPAD. I am tempted to open it up and try to do stuff with it, if I can have spectrum fun surely I can have such similiar geeky crap skills with the whole 12 (TWELVE!) MB of RAM open to me on my laptop.

I'm reading about STACK MANIPULATION NOW! (Thanks Alan!!!)

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I would like to get rid of Windows 95 first. The sooner I am HARDCORE and using command prompts, the better.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cripes, am I really the only person here to have had an Acorn Atom? The 12K upgrade brought with it Galaxians (which I played so much during the summer of '82, my right index finger became permanently crooked) and Labyrinth. Bought a couple more games in early '83, neither of which ever loaded properly, and lost interest. Started malfunctioning in '84, at which point it disappeared into my brother's attic 'to be fixed' (see also: my Olympus camera, his JVC stereo et al).

Got a '95-vintage Pentium PC secondhand off a workmate in summer '97, and the only game I ever played on that was PGA Golf. The hard-disk died recently (taking with it every document, every e-mail, every image from four years of computing fun), so now we have some 1.5GHz, 40GB, 128MB RAM, Pentium 4 montrosity with GeForce MX400. I have no intention of buying games for this - the supplied freebies ('Midtown Madness II' and 'Crimson Skies' [I've yet to load the latter]) are plenty.

I have no interest in 'platform games' (is that what they're called?), preferring to obsessively drive round in circles, whack little white balls with sticks or fire at slow-moving 2D targets until my neck- and back-ache drives me to my bed. I give myself another month before I consign MM II to a drawer and never use the PC for gaming again.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Officially good links for speccy stuff (highly recommended):
ZX32, the best Windows-based Spectrum emulator.
World Of Spectrum, pretty much anything you could ever want for the Spectrum, utilities, emulators etc, and 5,941 games!
The Your Sinclair Rock'N'Roll Years, a site that is conclusive proof that YS woz way better than any of that Crash or Sinclair User shite.

― DG, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Acorn Atom ≅ BBC Model A?

― RickyT, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Let's try that again:

Acorn Atom ≈ BBC Model A

― RickyT, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Crimson Skies is ace, incidentally. One of the few PC Games I've really got into recently. Midtown Madness II is okay, too.

I really regret selling/giving away all of my own systems. How could I do such a thing?

― Dark Eyes, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is that the strange 20s style thing? I found that rather amusing when I played it. Moral of this thread: DO NOT THROW THINGS AWAY.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I could have told you that Sarah, my room is overflowing with stuff that any sane human being would have slung out years ago.

― DG, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, Crimson Skies is the 1920s flight combat thing that Microsoft did. It's really quite good, especially with a force feedback stick and everything.

I will never throw anything away ever again, I think.

― Dark Eyes, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whilst cleaning last night, wading through FF8 strategy guides piled on top of MetroStars (LETS GO METRO!) scarf on top of passport forms on top of ect ect ect, Lixi exclaimed in horror: "how do you have so much.... STUFF?!?!?"...

I do not throw things away. I should hope the Master System is still at home. ARGH! I forgot to phone my dad to enquire re: Spectrum last night due to yumminess of Chinese food and spacehopping. (NB photos of spacehopping to be uploaded as soon as stinky co-worker sitting in front of scanner goes home).

Force feedback sticks: WARN PEOPLE BEFORE YOU IMPLEMENT THEM. Fear.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a gaming lightweight. The only systems I have owned are:

Atari 5200
Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast

I kind of want an X-Box.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dunno about the next-gen consoles, they all look the same and appear to have the same games coming out on all of them. Well, except the Gamecube, but then do you really want to shell out all that money for ANOTHER version of Mario Kart etc?

― DG, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

more for the next zelda >slurp<

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not sure what to do about the next-gen consoles. I'm avoided buying a PS2 because the XBox and Gamecube are imminent, but I haven't a clue which one to go for and don't want to have to shell out for all of them.

I shall miss the Dreamcast. There have been some top quality games for that console. But now the good Dreamcast games are being split between the new machines? Sonic and Resident Evil on Gamecube, Shenmue on XBox... arrgghh!

― Dark Eyes, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes yes yes, the Dreamcast is fab, it's such a shame that it's on its last legs.

― DG, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I guess Sony was just too strong for it, and it was doomed from the start. But oh - Jet Grind Radio.

― Dark Eyes, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What's with all this more than 8-bit talk?

― Nick, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I woke up at 3am with a gasp a week or so back. "What's wrong?!" said (then)sleeping companion.
"Ahem, oh, um, nothing"
"No, go on"
"You'll giggle"
"I won't!"
"Ok. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO GO FOR XBOX OR GAMECUBE!!!"
*makes confused noises* "Gamecube". Of course this is all hypothetical as I HAF NO MONEY ANYWAY arrrrghhh.

― Sarah, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree Nick, they can start their own 64-bit thread somewhere else. Incidentally, why are those consoles 64-bit when PCs are 32? Is it because of big graphics data etc?

― Sam, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

n-bit for consoles relates to the complexity of the graphics whereas n-bit for proper computers is the register size on the CPU.

― RickyT, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, so it's not actually describing the same thing? Are the registers on CPUs on consoles not 64-bit then? What are they?

― Sam, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i thought it was the bus-width, i.e. how many bits it pushes around in one time cycle

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought it was when you got killed again by the NMEs in Dropzone and threw your computer against the wall only for it to break into eight bits.

― Dark Eyes, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As far as I can remember I have issue 1 of LM. Must have bought it cause I was an avid reader of Amtix. Fabulous mag(Amtix that is). Never realised anyone else would actually remember it(LM that is).

How many issues were there?

Did anyone else read Amiga Power? As the Amiga drifted out of favour it became less and less about computers and just about whatever the writers felt like writing about. It was a magazine that truly created its own world. If you came in half way through you would completely miss most of the references and jokes. Much like these boards then...

The sequel to the mag is here http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/ap2/

― MarkS, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's also a Your Sinclair sequel floating about out there...as far as I know, most YS staff went to Amiga Power, so that would explain what happened to it.

― DG, Thursday, 1 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dan Perry - I R wondering what R happening to your saturn? were it actually being any good? me and greenfield one were becoming wary of Sega branded consoles after mega cd/32x (flopXors!)

The Dreamcast R being very good though. I R looking forward to Shenmue 2 which R having space harrier, afterburner, hang on and outrun in it! Roxor!

― I R saddo!, Saturday, 3 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

Okay, I need your help before I go INSANE...

I saw this *thing* a few months ago, advertised somewhere, and now I can't find any trace of it... some of my pals want to get it for Christmas after my going on about it, and now that it has disappeared they think I am a loony and that I made it up. Does it ring any bells? What is it called? Where can I get one?

The *thing* is this: a joystick which plugs directly into your TV through a SCART cable which has loads of "old school" games built into it - ie, there's no console/machine/etc, just the joystick and the cable, presumably the technology needed is now so miniature it can all fit in the body of the joystick.

Help me Obi Wan ILE, you're my only hope...

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Romford market, probably.

― DG, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks, DG, but it needs to be somewhere in London.

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Romford is in East London, as we know. Anyway, it'd only be a 10 minute or so journey out of Liverpool Street, get a fast train that only stops at Stratford and Romford.

― DG, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Would that be the part of East London that is in fact Essex?

― RickyT, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It would be the part of London that is in the London Borough of Havering. I am in the part of London that is the London Borough of Redbridge, you catch my drift you cheeky badgerbloke?

― DG, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(some people, honestly)

― DG, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Borders mean nothing DG, it's what the people think ........ Essex boy.

― chris, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Andre: might that be the thing from this old register article. If so, you'll be lucky to find one -- i think they neglected to clear the copyright or something.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I dunno, first Cabbage says that Borders means nothing when they are paying my bloody wages, then Alan calls me "Andre" which as we all know is the name of a DISNEY SEAL. Harumph.

Just kidding. Actually Alan you have hit the nail on the head, that is *exactly* the thing I was thinking of, and the time frame is about right too. Nice one. Just a shame I can't actually get one...

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

I spent a lot of hours in front of my telly playing 8-bit games like "elite", "qix" or "bandits". Oh, nostalgia... Does any one have them for sale? If you do please mail me at: overengen@telia.com

― Magnus Overengen, Wednesday, 23 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

thirteen years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Cs7AOvpqc&feature=youtu.be

― maura, Monday, 23 March 2015 17:32 (ten years ago)

That's pretty fkn great.

― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Monday, 23 March 2015 17:51 (ten years ago)

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