RetroElectroDad

I'm ultra-nostalgic about the Atari 8-bit and Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. Neither was my first computer, that would be the Sinclair ZX81, but my second computer was the much underrated TI-99/4a and the third was my Atari 600XL. I struggled along on the Atari for a while with tapes and 16K before adding the extra memory, then 1050 disk drive and then a second 1050 disk drive. The second drive came with a free 800XL that became my workhorse.

I tried to write games on the Atari for a while but I don't think I knew enough back then or just wasn't talented enough. Both of my completed efforts ended up in Page 6 as subscriber disks or specials ("Brik-Bat" and "Symbolism") and in the end I decided to get a "proper" job and started programming as an employee in an IT Consultancy. It was a sad day when my trusty 800XL died on the very day I bought my Amiga with almost my first wages, it was as if it knew.

Having moved on to PCs and now Macs I never lost the nostalgia and started collecting vintage computers when money was a little less scarce to the point where there aren't many mainstream ones I don't have and I've picked up some of the rarer ones too. In the Atari line I have the VCS, 2600, 7800, Jaguar + CD, 800, my original 600XL, highly modded 800XL, stock 800XL (x2), 65XE, 130XE, modded NTSC 1200XL, 520STE, 1040STFM, Falcon030 and Lynx II. I re-bought a TI-99/4a (in fact at least three) and a Peripheral Expansion Box and I even have a few Commodores - the Vic-20, C64, SX-64, Amiga A500, A500 Plus, A4000.

Every now and then I come up with a vague idea for a game and think of getting to the 800XL or (more likely at the moment) the TI-99/4a and developing again just for the hell of it. One day I will complete something rather than just tinker...