My first computer had 1K

[Britboy]

I was later thrilled with the 16K add-on pack.



That is all. Just feeling nostalgic.

[le geek]

HA!

My Vic-20 had 3K!!!!!!!!

In yo' face

uhm, or something...

Cheers,
Ben

[Pantechnicon]

I was later thrilled with the 16K add-on pack.



That is all. Just feeling nostalgic.

God bless old Uncle Clive, eh? That was my first, too. But I had the Yankee version which was known as the Timex-Sinclair 1000. It actually had 2k when released here. I got it for Christmas of 1982 and my parents actually got me the 16k expansion pack at the same time. This was accidental foresight on their part along the lines of "This thing goes along with the computer. We have no idea what it does, but little Retro will figure it out".

Ye gods, I loved that thing. I never knew what back pain was until I got a TS-1000 and spent hours hunched over it pecking away at that membrane keyboard until my fingers were raw from the heat emanating through the top. The problem with that 16k expansion was that if you didn't keep the machine perfectly still while it was attached you would wind up crashing it and losing all your code.

Oddly, I could never save my programs on audio tape with the included cable. Never got that to work even once. So I used to have to write my prgorams out by hand if I wanted to save them. The next Christmas I got the thermal printer and I thought I was so stylin' because of the fact that I could now simply LLIST my code. Pay attention kiddies! This was what we considered as viable storage in the days before hard drives, and we were grateful for it!

Somewhere in the attic is that old TS-1000 complete in its box along with a big folder containing all my old printouts. Good times. Good times...

[Ze_ro]

[color=red]My Vic-20 had 3K!!!!!!!!

Ah, the VIC-20... a computer of limitless potential... as if anyone could actually use up 3 whole kilobytes of memory!

--Zero

[pango]

I was later thrilled with the 16K add-on pack.

thrilling

[Darth Sensei]

Oh how I miss the old days. I'm sure there are more than a few of us who cut our teeth on computers with punch cards.

D

[Ed Oscuro]

My dad had a Sinclair, still has a few books from then. He eventually traded it in for a TI-99/4a :/

I'd rather have a Speccy myself :P

[Pantechnicon]

My dad had a Sinclair, still has a few books from then. He eventually traded it in for a TI-99/4a :/

I'd rather have a Speccy myself :P

As if I haven't ranted on long enough in this thread.... My dad got me a similar "upgrade". A few years after I got the Sinclair he thought I could use a newer computer so he traded our VCR (they were still pretty valuable back then) for a Tandy MC-10. As you can see, Dad got the short end of the trade . Besides the computer, he also got the 16k expansion and the printer. This computer was really similar to the Sinclair in so many ways. If you clicked the link, note the BASIC shortcuts on the keyboard and the virtually identical-to-Sinclair's 16k expansion. And the printer was a little thermal job as well. Despite the improvements of color and sound capabilites, I still preferred the old Sinclair for some reason and didn't use the Tandy all that much. They now sit alongside each other in the attic and talk about the good old days together.

btw, a Spectrum would be nice to have, but I have yet to see one at the thrifts in my neck of the desert.

[Bill Loguidice]

Hmm, I think the Vic-20 actually has 5K. BIG difference there!

I also have the MC-10, among other "novelty" systems. Really, having that system is more for the fun of collecting and saying you have it than any practical reason. Also, the darn chiclet keys get a bit sticky sometimes...

[Ed Oscuro]

Heh. Programming in BASIC on the Speccy was a nightmare, though; my dad wanted to do some financial work (got one cartridge in the box, it's a financial cart, and a tape with the year's financial data "BadopdopdopdeleleleDODODODOdatradadtrada..."

But with BASIC (I guess/hope it was different in assembler, it had to have been) you were stuck to using a certain size of number, and on the newer ZX-81s the machine run MUCH slower since the same pocessor had to process much larger numbers! That said, I think some of the finest 8-bit computer game software appeared on the Spectrum.

[Ze_ro]

Hmm, I think the Vic-20 actually has 5K. BIG difference there!

Yeah, but Commodore had an annoying tendancy to fill RAM with BASIC... when you started up the VIC, you really only had 3K to work with, because the rest was in use by the system. Similarly, the C-64 only gave you about 38K to work with, despite having 64K of RAM in there.

--Zero