Article about collecting in Antique Trader.

From: Scott Walde <scott_at_saskatoon.com>
Date: Wed Jun 30 18:03:45 1999

On Wed, 30 Jun 1999 Glenatacme_at_aol.com wrote:

> Other than the Timex/Sinclairs, what's the cheapest machine which was
> available in 1982 that I could have used to learn BASIC and assembler and
> machine code -- at home?

VIC-20. I bought mine for $600CDN in either 1981 or 1982 (not sure) I
had already learned BASIC at school on the Apple ][+ and later the Apple
//e. (that doesn't read quite right. I taught myself BASIC on the Apples
at school. There were no classes on programming.) I taught myself 6502
assembler on the VIC _without_ a monitor or assembler program. I would
write out the program on paper, convert the mnemonics to their HEX
equivalent, and then the decimal equivalent, then poke them into memory.
I also learned the workings of the VIC by poring over the schematic that
came with my Programmers Technical Reference Manual. (That's also where I
learned 6502 from.)

I hope this doesn't really sway the argument either way. I'm really
neutral on the subject. Some people collect PDP-8s, some people collect
what's 'popular', as for me, I'm still looking for a VIC-1540 because I
could never afford one back in the early 80s.

Also, back to the question above, I think by 1982 we might also have had
the Atari400. The C64 must have been around this time too. Probably the
Coco as well. Really, 1982 is pretty close to the start of the 8bit
explosion.

ttyl
srw
Received on Wed Jun 30 1999 - 18:03:45 BST