JamesD

Seriously Briza? What upside down country do you come from anyway? Back In The Day

When was VBCC the choice for Amiga? I know people used it, but some people used MANX 'C', and Lattice/SAS 'C' was the choice where I was. GCC replaced SAS after a few years. I guess maybe VBCC was the choice if you wanted a free compiler before GCC?

I had a house fire too. Lost some of my most expensive machines. Also lost an Aquarius... if I still had it I'd give you a heck of a deal. Only had it out of the box twice, and I didn't like it either time. The add ons you list are tough to find.

I know this is hijacking the topic a bit, but what's your (or anyone else's) favorite 8 bit keyboard? I usually prefer keyboards with a lighter touch because you can type faster. But that can go too far. My personal favorite from 8 bits is the TRS-80 Model III keyboard. I could type really fast on that. Apple II desktop machines were always good. I can type pretty fast on them.

I had one of the "melted" keyboards on a white CoCo 1 that I owned for a few years, and my brother had a CoCo 2 with one. Never had any problems. Maybe it depends on how yours had been stored, or it just had gunk in it.

I can type that fast if I'm typing plain text like for word processing, but not that fast while thinking up the code as I go. If you are typing in a program from a magazine, then you can type a lot faster. A friend of mine would read off the code from the magazine, and I'd type it. I could type as fast as he could read it. The original CoCo keyboard was a mixed bag. The keys were spaced okay, and you could type pretty fast on it once you got used to it, but nothing like 70 WPM. The keycaps weren't shaped right, they could wedge slightly so they would either stick a little, and you couldn't use a light touch. The later keyboards were pretty good. The melted keyboard is like typing on some modern laptop keyboards, and the final keyboard (Deluxe CoCo & CoCo 3) works really well. I replaced the keyboard on my CoCo 1 with an HJL keyboard which felt a lot like an electric typewriter. That's what I used through several years of college. It worked about as well as anything I used on other machines till I got to use one of the clicky IBM keyboards.

I can type 70-85 WPM on a decent keyboard. I just don't see having any chance of typing as fast using that method.

I guess WOZ did say something he learned at Atari, so my comment might be a bit misleading

'For the King' free on Epic games

WOZ did not come up with the idea. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/tech-history/silicon-revolution/al-alcorn-creator-of-pong-explains-how-early-home-computers-owe-their-color-to-this-one-cheap-sleazy-trick

I hate the Sinclair BASIC keyword entry. If you are a kid that can't touch type, it probably seems brilliant, but it you are a touch typist, you have learned to type what you think without giving what keys you are pressing any thought at all. You can't think BASIC keywords, you have to think custom keystrokes even if the machine has a real keyboard.

Yup This would have been impractical back in the day to say the least due to the RAM available at the time. Yes, they could have done more with the GIME, but it also would have cost more. If they had only added a sound chip, and a real time clock.

From a post on discord. Lots of pics over there. 320x225x256 colors

LOL, I like 'Ride of the Valkyries' better than your other background music

I thought those two machines were okay. There were other reasons to dislike them, starting with but not limited to the keyboards.

The new EPIC Games freebies are up. Just Cause 4, and Wheels of Aurelia

There was a ribbon cable attached to that, so it probably interfaced something, but what is anyone's guess.

The TS-1000 is pretty blah lookin, but the original Sinclair ZX-80 looked pretty cool in white with the blue keyboard... even if it's not as good as the TS-1000. A computer not as good as a TS-1000. LOL

Atari Vault $1 https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/atari-vault

I think We Went Back is permanently free. When I did a search pasting the name in the search box, it disappeared from the results before I could click on it. But if I typed it out, it would pop up below the search box once I typed "We Went", and I could click on it there. Ticket To Ride: First Journey looks like a kid's version of the game. I bought the regular version for the XBOX 360 years ago, and then for the PC when that died. It's a fun board game. Gravity Wars was one of my regular titles I played on the 360 as well. Nice to see it free.

The C64 version was a bit slow. The conversion someone did for the Plus/4 works a lot better at the faster clock speed. Funny thing, the recent Oric clone runs pretty well even though it's also clocked at 1MHz

Latest EPIC freebies are up. 'Close to the Sun', and 'Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment'

80 Micro started out with 148 pages in the very first issue, and it had as many as 484 pages, why would a TRS-80 person buy a general computer magazine?

Well, that's possible, but piracy was rampant on other platforms they supported. Apple disk copying parties were a big thing. Maybe piracy was rampant, or maybe sales were just bad, or maybe they just thought Atari people would upgrade to the ST, or maybe it was all of the above. After seeing that info with Atari cart sales, I have to think bad sales numbers were a big part whether or not it was due to piracy. Even Atari cancelled a bunch of games that were almost finished.