On 11-Apr-97, classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu wrote:
>I remember demonstrating my Tandy CoCo-3 in 1988 to some PC-goon or
>other. He had a 386 PC running MS-DOS. I had a 2 mHz 6809 running OS-9. He
>was totally amazed that 'that little video game' could have several
>programs running at once, displaying their output in different windows
>(something his PC didn't do at that time), and that I could even log on to
>my machine from a remote terminal.
I still want to find a disk system for my CoCo-3 so that I can run OS-9 on
it. OS-9 is still amazing to this day, which is why any number of companies
use it for the base OS for cutting edge stuff such as set-top boxes for the
TV. Until I saw it, I would've never thought you could put a Unix-like OS
witch was multitasking and multiuser on a 128k 8bit machine! I've heard
mention of there being a version that runs on the Commodore 128 as well, but
haven't been able to find anything out about it.
>I don't play computer games that much, but IMHO the games from 10-15 years
>ago are much more fun than the modern ones. OK, so now we have 3D rendered
>graphics, real sound effects, but no 'plot' - nothing to do except blast
>everything in sight. I personally prefer a good text-only adventure with
>some logic behind it, and no sound.
I agree. The excitement just isn't there, even though the technology is
years ahead in graphics and sound. About the only game I've enjoyed recently
was a 3d bitmapped update of 'Asteroids' on the Mac, which I play on my Amiga
3000 under emulation. I'm also a big fan of INFOCOM's text adventure games,
as well as the Basic 'Star Trek' game that seems to have been ported to nearly
every platform known. I have a number of original disks for my Atari and
Commodore's that have the INFOCOM games on them.
Jeff jeffh_at_eleventh.com
--
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// Amiga: Today's Technology Ten Years Ago
// -------------------------------------------------------
\// True 32bit pre-emptive multitasking GUI, plug&play hardware,
\/ stereo sound, and 4096 color video modes since day #1
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Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, Kaypro 2X,
Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A,
Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a TRS-80 Model 4.
Plus Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles.
Received on Thu Apr 10 1997 - 10:23:26 BST