10 Apr
1997
10 Apr
'97
3:23 a.m.
On 11-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
I remember demonstrating my Tandy CoCo-3 in 1988 to
some PC-goon or
other. He had a 386 PC running MS-DOS. I had a 2 mHz 6809 running OS-9. He
was totally amazed that 'that little video game' could have several
programs running at once, displaying their output in different windows
(something his PC didn't do at that time), and that I could even log on to
my machine from a remote terminal.
I still want to find a disk system for my CoCo-3 so that I can run OS-9 on
it. OS-9 is still amazing to this day, which is why any number of companies
use it for the base OS for cutting edge stuff such as set-top boxes for the
TV. Until I saw it, I would've never thought you could put a Unix-like OS
witch was multitasking and multiuser on a 128k 8bit machine! I've heard
mention of there being a version that runs on the Commodore 128 as well, but
haven't been able to find anything out about it.
I don't play computer games that much, but IMHO the
games from 10-15 years
ago are much more fun than the modern ones. OK, so now we have 3D rendered
graphics, real sound effects, but no 'plot' - nothing to do except blast
everything in sight. I personally prefer a good text-only adventure with
some logic behind it, and no sound.
I agree. The excitement just isn't there, even though the technology is
years ahead in graphics and sound. About the only game I've enjoyed recently
was a 3d bitmapped update of 'Asteroids' on the Mac, which I play on my Amiga
3000 under emulation. I'm also a big fan of INFOCOM's text adventure games,
as well as the Basic 'Star Trek' game that seems to have been ported to nearly
every platform known. I have a number of original disks for my Atari and
Commodore's that have the INFOCOM games on them.
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
--
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// Amiga: Today's Technology Ten Years Ago
// -------------------------------------------------------
\// True 32bit pre-emptive multitasking GUI, plug&play hardware,
\/ stereo sound, and 4096 color video modes since day #1
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Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, Kaypro 2X,
Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A,
Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a TRS-80 Model 4.
Plus Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles.