Cool kids had C64s. I had every other boring, flawed model. Tandy MC-10. TI-99, ZX80 (not even 81!) and some other CoCo with chiclet keys. Now I know the 6809 is actually pretty interesting but back then without video or graphic chips there wasn't much you could do as a 12 year old.
Weirdly the most fun I had was with the BASIC programmable SHARP PC-xxxx line. I still have my PC-1350 somewhere.
My first computer was a VIC-20, in 1982 or so. It had so little RAM, that I needed to program it with a Machine Language monitor cartridge.
Cool kids had C64s. I had every other boring, flawed model. Tandy MC-10. TI-99, ZX80 (not even 81!) and some other CoCo with chiclet keys. Now I know the 6809 is actually pretty interesting but back then without video or graphic chips there wasn't much you could do as a 12 year old.
Weirdly the most fun I had was with the BASIC programmable SHARP PC-xxxx line. I still have my PC-1350 somewhere.
Pretty cool article.
Nowadays often when you see articles about computer history of this era, the articles tend to be focused on Apple and IBM.
So it’s neat this article focuses on the other computers of this era. TI, Atari, Commodore, etc.
It's interesting how things differed so much across different countries.
In the UK there was good split between Atari and Amiga, and before that the Spectrum and the C64.
Lots of rivalries and interesting characters though, for sure.
I only had one game for my VIC-20, the pack-in game, called BASIC. I never beat it, but I got a few levels in!
You sure on the name? I'm having a hard time finding a reference, Wiki amongst a few other searches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VIC-20_games
BASIC was a programming language, it was a joke.
A joke that got a lot of us high paying jobs later on.