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Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:41 am
by Pukmeister
I started out with a 25Mhz Intel 386SX processor, 512K ram and a 40 Mbyte HDD with a VGA screen. (A 486@33Mhz with SVGA was cutting edge).

The last PC I built about 5 years ago was a full-on Intel i7 top spec multi screen gaming rig for my teenage son which cost me about £2700 to build. It is still a capable machine even now and surprisingly still not slow or outdated so it was value for money, he took it with him to BIMM in Brighton (Uni studies) along with an i5 based iMac for music production.

I am now slowly becoming a grumpy old Luddite who can no longer be arsed with technology, I much prefer simple stuff that just works. Must be an age thing?


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Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2018 2:47 am
by rayb
I started out with a ZX81 and invested in the "massive" 16KB RAM upgrade.

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2018 2:48 am
by capitano
Pukmeister wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:41 am I am now slowly becoming a grumpy old Luddite who can no longer be arsed with technology, I much prefer simple stuff that just works. Must be an age thing?
It is ... because that describes my ageing process too.

I treated myself to an iMac in 2010. It's never failed to do anything I ask of it (which also decreases as I get older) and I still have it. The only replacement part has been a new keyboard, which was down to me, my love of a morning espresso and some momentary balance issues. :lol:

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:02 am
by Pukmeister
rayb wrote:I started out with a ZX81 and invested in the "massive" 16KB RAM upgrade.
We were too poor as kids to even have an amstrad ‘pong’ TV console (with about 6 monochrome tennis-based games).

A spoilt schoolmate had a ZX80 and he bought a ZX81 upgrade for it, we sat in awe in his bedroom as he bravely took it to bits with shaky hands and upgraded it. Games loaded from audio cassette.

Things have come such a long way since those days.


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Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:37 am
by SH125Paul
Frogger, Hungry Horace and Horace Goes Skiing...
ZX Spectrum...
My kids don't belive it...

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:04 am
by MrGrumpy
I can't work out how anyone achieved anything at work in the old days...when I started, computer access was down a phone line at horrific cost and the idea of everyone having at least one computer on their desks would have seemed like a lunatic fantasy! How did we communicate before e-mail???

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:33 pm
by Whatsisname
I think I still have all or most of the Amstrad Action covertapes. in the loft. They used to give them away with every magazine. Mine was a 6128, which also had a 3 inch disc drive, and a colour monitor as oppsed to the green screen!

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 1:39 pm
by rayb
MrGrumpy wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:04 am I can't work out how anyone achieved anything at work in the old days...when I started, computer access was down a phone line at horrific cost and the idea of everyone having at least one computer on their desks would have seemed like a lunatic fantasy! How did we communicate before e-mail???
Amstrad was a customer of ours when I worked for Western Digital. It was their £350 PC that made it affordable for every desk to have a computer on it. Big mistake. Managers who managed and had secretaries to type their letters, started typing their own. A huge waste of their time.

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 4:10 pm
by Maxsymuppet
mottza wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:41 am Nice, my recently updated pc is now a Intel i5 8400, 16Gb DDR4 2666 RAM, nVidia 1050Ti 4Gb Video, 240Gb SSD and 2Gb SSHD. Runs lovely.
Whatever that means!

Re: Going dark for a few days...

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 4:15 pm
by Maxsymuppet
Pukmeister wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:02 am
rayb wrote:I started out with a ZX81 and invested in the "massive" 16KB RAM upgrade.
We were too poor as kids to even have an amstrad ‘pong’ TV console (with about 6 monochrome tennis-based games).

A spoilt schoolmate had a ZX80 and he bought a ZX81 upgrade for it, we sat in awe in his bedroom as he bravely took it to bits with shaky hands and upgraded it. Games loaded from audio cassette.

Things have come such a long way since those days.


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I've still got one of those old Amstrad games in the loft. Might be worth a few quid by now. As for the ZX81 my brother started with one and he is now a programmer earning around twice as much (at least) as I do. It inspired him to go to university to do a degree in computing. Little acorns and all that.