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186
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 13:01:26
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Greetings folks,
I'm interested in knowing, if you could use an old 8- or 16-bit computer again, what would it be, and why? Also, what would convince you to turn back the binary clock and start using an old machine again? Programming, gaming, hardware modding, or whatever... all opinions welcome :-)
Regards,
Shaun.
http://www.commodorecomputerclub.co.uk
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 27/11/2008 15:56:35
Posts: 491,
Visits: 659
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I'd like to resurrect my old Acorn Electron bought from WHSmith in 1984, I have hundreds of games for it and would like to have a go at them again, only problem at the moment is I no longer own a cassette player..
A thing that I would love to be able to try is to get windows XP on it like Maticus2 did on his Spectrum, and who knows maybe even get it online!
But I have to admit to not having a clue where to start.
Are you lining up a feature for the mag by chance?
Asrock 939Dual-VSTA
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2200 MHz
2048 MB
7300GT 256MB
Maxtor 200 GB
SAMSUNG 200 GB
Freecom 500GB External
NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A
NEC DVD_RW ND-4550A
Thermaltake Damier Blue 480W
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186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 13:01:26
Posts: 129,
Visits: 375
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There are plenty of ideas floating around my head... the problem is time at the moment. However, I've got more of an idea now of people's conceptions (and misconceptions) of 'retro gaming and computing', as well as their habits, fears, likes and dislikes. It should all help, at the very least, to improve the Retro column. I hope.
Regards,
Shaun.
http://www.commodorecomputerclub.co.uk
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Octo-core Atom @ 233GHz (ES)
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 01:30:08
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only problem at the moment is I no longer own a cassette player You can get a traditional "shoebox" player from Argos for about £19. No doubt eBay has some seond-hand ones. Don't be put off! Get the beast fired up again!
Classic PCs
Original IBM PC (4.77MHz 8088, 256KB RAM, monochrome) · Original IBM PC XT (4.77MHz 8088, 512KB, 10MB HDD, monochrome) · Original Compaq Deskpro (7.14MHz 8086, 640KB, 20MB HDD, CGA graphics)
Home Computers
Commodore VIC-20 · C64 original · C64 Terminator edition · C16 · Amiga 500 · Amiga 600 · Amiga 600 HD · Amiga 1200 Acorn Electron · A3010 (Archimedes) · A4000 (Archimedes) Others Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K · Dragon 32
Consoles
Nintendo Wii · GameCube purple (x 2) · GameCube black · N64 black (x 2) · N64 clear blue · SNES (x 2) · NES (x 2) · DS silver (x 3) · GBA SP silver · GBA purple · GBA clear · Game Boy Color clear · Game Boy Sega Dreamcast x 3 · Saturn · Mega Drive II · Mega Drive · Master System Atari 10-in-1 · Jaguar (x 2) · 7800 · 2600 wood-grain Microsoft Xbox 360 · Xbox Others Mattel Intellivision · MB Vectrex · GoldStar 3DO · Sony PlayStation (original)
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486
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/11/2008 11:37:15
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I love my Atari 800 and 130XE, and the old Atari games like Asteroids take me back to my childhood.
I don't have any other use for them except to play all those old games which are simple but still great.
Phil.
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Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 29/10/2008 21:40:22
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I loved my old computers, A500 / 1200, Atari 520 STe - till they broke 
I was given an ST FM with 4 meg of ram, and a 40 Meg HDD a few years ago. It's great. It runs Cubase and it fequently visits the studio I work at to show poeple the old school methods of music creation. the Atari mono monitor is slowly dying, but I can still mess about with Pro Tracker on a TV.
I also use Pagestream 2, if only to hear a piece of A4 get hammered by my Star LC10 printer. Pagestreams method of printing can make some great hi res printouts even from a lowly 9 pin head, but it's a good idea to use a high GSM paper 
If it was a faster machine (the lack of Blitter doesn't help), suported higher resoloutions with a 24 bit colour depth and had better quality audio capabilities I'd be using it more.
@Allanco
If you have problems finding a cassette player with a DIN socket, you can find the pinout info for the din in the Electron user guide http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/info/acornsoft/user_guide.zip (r click, save as). With this you'll be able to make your own lead so you can use any player you like 
5 CC wins, and proud of my messy dive!
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Pentium
Group: Forum Members
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My cousins had a BBC Master. I knew it was a lot better than my Atari 800XL at the time but I was too young and didn't know it's potential, nor did I kow that there was so much to be learned.
I'd love to have that time again being 16 in the era of the BBC rather than 10.
Not quite what you asked but more or less
gaming: E4400@2.66GHz / P5K-E / 2x1GB PC8000@533MHz / 2x80GB D'Max 9-RAID0 + 320GB / 8800GTS 512MB / ViewSonic VX2835wm
server+media: P4 2.8GHz @ 2.4GHz / 775Dual-VSTA / 2x512MB PC3200 / 1000GB+500GB+250GB / HD2400pro
also: P3 for the mrs and a linux box and probably enough bits to build another one
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486
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/11/2008 11:37:15
Posts: 1,002,
Visits: 2,506
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I'm not really an expert on 25 year old tech, but i'm sure i remember the Atari 800XL was in many ways better than the BBC Master. Even though the Master was a few years newer didn't it still have relatively poor graphics and only 8 colours compared to 256 on the XL?
If i'm wrong, like i said , it was a long time ago. 
Phil.
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