Age, was Re: IBM mainframe goes for 99 cents

From: Jim Leonard <trixter_at_oldskool.org>
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 16:37:09 +0000

Nico de Jong wrote:
>>Sellam wrote :
>>
>>That's fine, because if you play your cards right you'll most likely end
>>up out-living most of us here and then you can piss on all our graves.
>>
>
> It could be interesting to know the age"spread" of thist list contributors,
> and how long we've had the computer virus under our skin.
> I myself turn 60 next time, and have been in this business sinc 1967 or so,

I am not nearly old enough to really be a member of this list. :-) My father
was a tech writer with teletype and he would bring home various toys, like a
vt100 line/signal analyzer (hope I'm remembering that properly) and various
computer-like things. In 1980, I played Adventure on an Osborne luggable; in
1983 I connected to BBSes and Compuserve using a (rich) friend's IBM PC Model
5150; also did much (MUCH) Apple II stuff in school from 1980-1985. In 1985 I
got my very own PC clone and, being an antisocial nerd, I went crazy with it.

Maybe a better way to understand myself and my background is to look at my
collection, which is mostly 1980-era personal computers, including stuff like:

2 5150s
1 5160 clone
1 XT/286 (NOT AT, the XT/286, can't remember exact model number)
2 C64s (NTSC)
1 Timex Sinclair 1000 with various tapes and expansions
1 Mac 512
1 Mac SE
6 Amigas (2 A500s, 1 A1200, 2 A4000s, 1 A3000)

I also tend to like wacko x86 hardware:

2 PS/2 Model 25s
2 Panasonic Sr. Partners (luggables with built-in thermal printers)
1 AT&T PC 6300 (my first clone, still works, upgraded in crazy ways)
2 PCjrs with various sidecars, ROM carts, add-ons
Various Tandys (Tandy 1000, 1000HD, TL/2, maybe others)

I still program for x86 and last year I won a competition for programming a
stock IBM 5150 (4.77Mhz, 8088, 640K RAM, Sound Blaster Pro, CGA, 10MB MFM) to
display 30 frame-per-second full-screen video sync'd with 22Khz sound. This
same program is up for an award in March at Breakpoint 2005 for Best Original
Production. I am still developing the technology (up to 60fps now and 44KHz
audio) and hopefully will have something even more impressive for next year.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter_at_oldskool.org)                    http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project?             http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at             http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
Received on Sat Feb 26 2005 - 15:04:35 GMT

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