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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2003-09 > 1064280086


From: "tiglath" <>
Subject: Re: "I'm Being Deluged By Emails"
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 21:21:26 -0400
References: <wE3bb.1020$wS2.35039@eagle.america.net> <4c3520e1b3john@cartmell.demon.co.uk> <bkirop$km$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk> <4c355456c1john@cartmell.demon.co.uk> <bkn8hg$s1m$1@bob.news.rcn.net> <whewitt-F800EF.12132922092003@news1.ucsd.edu> <4c3619dc1djohn@cartmell.demon.co.uk> <bknvur$faa$1@bob.news.rcn.net> <bko4kg$i8b$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk>


"Martin Reboul" <> wrote in message
news:bko4kg$i8b$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> tiglath wrote...
> >
> >
> > Hmmmm. Acorn still around?
> >
> > Echoes of my first computer, a BBC Model B, 32k of RAM, bought in
> > Hastings. I had such fun with it...
> >
> > It had *already* a lot of clever ideas. I loved the always-on screen
> > editor and the BASIC interpreter... The only time Marianne, my
inamorata,
> > had any serious competition...
>
> I still have mine....
>

Does it work?

> Tell me Tiggers, did you have "Aviator" for it?

No. I used to port games from the Atary to the BBC for a London firm, all
in assembly. I could not do it now; it took enormous pain. Some games
were larger than the memory and I could never run them whole so I had to
test parts of them and then find ways to shed bits and pieces until a
watered down version of the game could run. I didn't see the sun for weeks
at times, the Model B was smoking but never let me down. I gave it to a
school when I came to the U.S. One with the machine...


> Loaded from a C90 tape... 20 mins... first time I ever landed a Spitfire,
I
> could fly under the bridge upside down, piece of cake (though it took
about
> 10 seconds to realise you'd made it). I used to skittle those enemy
> triangles out of the er, 'sky' ... even though it took about a minute for
> the guns to reload and you only got one shot at a time.

I worked on similar games, can't think of their names... Eventually I
bought a floppy drive but I spend a few months with just a cassette tape.
Write an efficient script for THAT.

The eight-bit 6502B CPU was wonderful to work with. I didn't have a printer
and had to write the programs in pencil to debug more than a screen's worth.

The summer of '81.




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