What is your retro computing most "irrational want?"

[Arnuphis]

..and they are all fairly easy to obtain. If you come to Amiwest in Sacramento this year you can have a Commodore monitor. In fact you can have two!

 

Now a TI-99/8 on the other hand....

[CaptainBreakout]

Hotness eh. I take it you're a fan of 60's hair?

 

My most irrational want is for there to still be a large online posting community that gets their jollies with DOS/Windows 3.1 computing and gaming. I mean going back to the days of Compuserve/Genie, where you could post a single question about Maniac Mansion or the amazing 80287 math co-processor, and get a massive conversation going. I can kinda-sorta get the same amount of action these days, if I combine Atari Age, Reddit and a whole mess of other sites. But following 20-30 threads that get an occasional reply here and there, just isn't the same as following 2-3 hyper-active threads and enjoying the resulting mayhem.

Have you visited Vogons.org ? I used to be pretty active there when I was more focused on DOS PC stuff. I still run all my emulation on DOS PC hardware... But I also have real consoles so I tend to stick around these parts.

 

Anyway, peek out Vogons. Might be right up your alley. Met some hardcores there like you describe.

[CaptainBreakout]

My irrational want right now is a certain piece of software rather than hardware.

 

It's Mosquito Madness for the Apple II.

 

It's the very last Compute! Magazine type-in game that I haven't been able to relocate since my childhood.

 

I was able to check off a long list of games Ive typed in over the years, (sometimes by typing them in myself with scans, and then sharing them on Asimov ftp), but Mosquito Madness is literally the last one.

 

Needless to say, I'd happily appreciate any leads on this game.

 

Likewise I'd be happy to talk to anyone who's also interested in Apple II type-in games.

[carlsson]

Doesn't Archive.org (as well as other sites) have a complete set of COMPUTE! magazines for you to browse and type it in just you did with the other ones?

[CaptainBreakout]

Doesn't Archive.org (as well as other sites) have a complete set of COMPUTE! magazines for you to browse and type it in just you did with the other ones?

Yes, but last I checked, I couldn't find that particular game.

 

Compute! had some spin-off magazines that were specific to certain computer platforms. One of them was a quarterly called "Compute's Apple Applications". My family had a subscription to this. I heard it only had something like 100 subscribers, and it only lasted a few years. I think Mosquito Madness was in it, but I'm fuzzy on whether it was an Apple II exclusive.

 

That's just by deduction. I haven't found scans of Compute's Apple Applications... At least not all of them. Some type-in games for the Apple were exclusive to this spin-off magazine (Heat Seeker, Air Rescue, Basketball Sam & Ed). I found those, but if Mosquito Madness was in an issue, it's elluded me so far.

[carlsson]

I saw that after a brief search. Bombjack has some issues of CAA but is missing 1988/1 and 1988/2 in which the game you are looking for was listed. Someone elsewhere sold floppy disks with all programs from those issues typed in so chances are they're floating around but hard to locate.

[CaptainBreakout]

I saw that after a brief search. Bombjack has some issues of CAA but is missing 1988/1 and 1988/2 in which the game you are looking for was listed. Someone elsewhere sold floppy disks with all programs from those issues typed in so chances are they're floating around but hard to locate.

Thank you!!! That really narrows it down. Yeah, I haven't located those... And that would be the exact time period.

 

There's some dsk images on Asimov called type-in games from Compute... Has a menu and everything. Those were compiled by yours truly. I figure I'll put up volume 3 after I find Mosquito Madness.

[CaptainBreakout]

I saw that after a brief search. Bombjack has some issues of CAA but is missing 1988/1 and 1988/2 in which the game you are looking for was listed. Someone elsewhere sold floppy disks with all programs from those issues typed in so chances are they're floating around but hard to locate.

Hiya Carlsson, I started another thread about this in the Classic Computing subforum. How did you find out Mosquito Madness was listed as being in those 1988 issues? Did I read that right?

 

Thanks again of course!

[carlsson]

I found it in this Usenet post by Rick Sandifer dated April 4, 1994 (so the lot probably already is sold or thrown away):

Please only US customers.
All disks are 5 1/4 and are Apple II family (not IIgs specific)
No price includes shipping, but buy enough and I'll pay it.
Please EMAIL me for any questions/haggling/discussion etc.
Upon receipt of check or money order will ship, COD welcome and
buyer pays half COD cost.

-----------
Disks Only: Asking: 1.50/disk + shipping
-----------
Compute!'s Apple Applications: February 1988-Vol. 6, No. 1, Issue 7
Need DOS 3.3 or ProDOS to boot.
Triad, Instant Calculator, Newswriter, Laser Chess, Disk Alarm,
Rat Race & PS Draw
Compute!'s Apple Applications: April 1988-Vol. 6, no. 2, Issue 8
Need DOS 3.3 or ProDOS to boot.
Basketball Sam & Ed, DOS 3.3 Dates, Help Letters Survive, Stars,
Mosquito Madness, Automatic Proofreader, Apple MLX

 

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.apple2.marketplace/gza7Tf451fo

[CaptainBreakout]

Nice sleuthing! This feels like a Carmen Sandiego moment.

 

It makes sense that it was one the same issue as Basketball Sam and Ed.... That was also almost impossible to find. The copy of the game on my disk was retyped in from the xeroxed pages of that issue that I made at the public library at the time. I resorted to retyping it in, and it was about a dozen pages of pure hexidecimal. Anyway, wish I'd have xeroxed Mosquito Madness too.

 

Incidentally, Basketball Sam and Ed was supposedly a port of a VIC-20 game. I've never encountered that version, and I know you are familiar with Vic-20 software so you might want to keep your eye out for it. Haven't checked in awhile but it might still be 'lost'. Fun game too, I heard the Vic version had sound... The Apple II version didnt- Compute said they omitted it for space reasons in the magazine. Heh.

[carlsson]

I've got no idea about any basketball games for the VIC-20. Also if this program was published in 1988, either it took 4+ years to port it to the Apple II or someone had digged up a really old one.

[potatohead]

I want more room. Son is not leaving the house, got girl, kid, ugh.

 

A lot of my retro stuff is boxed. I cycle through, but just want to set it all and play, code more.

 

Recently, I got my Tandy model 100 going. It's cool and portable. Have 64 column driver for it, assembler.

 

I want a RAM expansion for it. Maybe get INFOCOM games running. But for now, I have been writing some 8085 assembly. It is a weird chip. Has a few 16 bit undocumented instructions though. Just enough to make things easier.

 

The bitmap LCD is crazy! I am learning how to write to it, maybe make a sprite engine to attempt a simple, not BASIC game.

 

In that room, I want ethernet and serial to TCP devices for a couple machines. Set up scope, solder station, build some retro stuff.

 

Soon...

 

Oh, I got a GS. My Atari and Apple machines see the most use at present. Want keyboard and mouse to run the GS.

 

One want I did get recently is a great SONY PVM. CRT porn! I love that thing. Renders pretty much anything great, even plain old composite. Should have done that much sooner.

 

If you love CRTs, get one now is the time.

[+x=usr(1536)]

I'll register another vote for the Enterprise 128.

 

Never had (or used) one, nor did I know anyone who did. But a 128K computer with a built-in joystick in 1985 was pretty hot stuff - and there was something about the look of it that really appealed to me. Having lots of function keys also helped, because for some reason computers, in my young mind, should have lots of function keys.

 

The one advert I can remember seeing for it also caught my attention because the voiceover was done by Matt Frewer - who had played both Edison Carter and Max Headroom in 20 Minutes Into the Future, which had come out a few months earlier and still remains one of my favourite pieces of short science fiction.

 

[Bubsy3000]

Anybody ever been interested in buying older laptops from the 80's just to say you did? I'm not sure any of the older laptops are gaming compatible but some of them looked really cool design wise.

[+OLD CS1]

My most irrational and impractical "retro" wants are an Apple IIgs and an Atari ST. I never owned either of these in my past but they always held a place of curiosity. At one of my schools there were two of the Apples. My grandfather had a 520ST on which he did CADD work for his engineering firm, and when I visited I learned how to use his CADD software, used (I think) DEGAS Draw to whip up some graphics, and programmed in GFA BASIC. (I like GFA BASIC so much I had to find it for my Amiga.)

 

But, really, with all my Commodore, TI, and Amiga stuff which I use regularly and the stuff I want to build, I have no place for either a "gs" or an "ST" in my life, and I do not have the room to just collect things. Nonetheless, I still feel oddly compelled whenever I see a good "gs" system or an "ST," especially a Falcon, up for grabs.

[Scooter83]

Last computers I want are

 

Tandy 1000rlx

Commodore pet 2001 cash register keyboard

Osborne 1

And really that's about it and a sharp x68000

[JamesD]

Another 6847 based machine added to my list
Lorenzon Elettronica Shine 1

[adamchevy]

New in the Box:

 

Atari 820

Atari 815

[Arnuphis]

My most irrational and impractical "retro" wants are an Apple IIgs and an Atari ST. I never owned either of these in my past but they always held a place of curiosity. At one of my schools there were two of the Apples. My grandfather had a 520ST on which he did CADD work for his engineering firm, and when I visited I learned how to use his CADD software, used (I think) DEGAS Draw to whip up some graphics, and programmed in GFA BASIC. (I like GFA BASIC so much I had to find it for my Amiga.)

 

But, really, with all my Commodore, TI, and Amiga stuff which I use regularly and the stuff I want to build, I have no place for either a "gs" or an "ST" in my life, and I do not have the room to just collect things. Nonetheless, I still feel oddly compelled whenever I see a good "gs" system or an "ST," especially a Falcon, up for grabs.

 

I hear you on this. I never had and didn't know anyone that had either and Apple II or ST. I also never had any kind of Atari back in the day. So all this time I was curious about them. I ended up being given an 520ST and Dedicated monitor and got hold of a IIgs and IIe. I have had some fun with the Apples but the ST just sits in a cupboard. My retro love time can only extend to the machines I have history with and that is the Commodore/TI and Acorn machines. I'm sure the same is true of users of Apple/Atari who get the chance at getting a TI and then it just sits in a box. I think it is true of us all that we wish we had more time and more space (and more money!) to enjoy these machines to the fullest.

[digdugnate]

i thought of something else- it'd be cool to have a P-Code card for my TI PEB.

[oracle_jedi]

I ended up being given an 520ST and Dedicated monitor and got hold of a IIgs and IIe. I have had some fun with the Apples but the ST just sits in a cupboard. My retro love time can only extend to the machines I have history with and that is the Commodore/TI and Acorn machines. I'm sure the same is true of users of Apple/Atari who get the chance at getting a TI and then it just sits in a box.

Yep. Have the same situation with a boxed Commodore 64 I picked up about 10 years ago in a job lot.

 

I know that machine can do amazing things but I never seem to find the time to explore it properly.

 

When I do find time to power her up I tend to gravitate to the games I love on the Atari like Dropzone, Ballblazer and Mr. Do. Games that suffered less than stellar ports on the 64.

 

Longer in depth RPGs I dont have the time for. I need to find the good pick-up-and-play games for the 64 and spend some time there.

[+OLD CS1]

i thought of something else- it'd be cool to have a P-Code card for my TI PEB.

 

I might could help you with that...

[digdugnate]

 

I might could help you with that...

[willbilly]

Ti 99/8 for starters.

[mutterminder]

Since my first computer was the TRS-80 Model I, ever since I saw them in 80-Micro Magazine, I always wanted an LNW-80. TRS-80 compatible computer with color graphics. I've never even seen one though...