"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: He's a home-micro oriented retrocomputerist? He's bragging, along the same line as "I had to walk uphill both ways when I was in school..." or the Monty Python routine "There were a hundred and fifty of us living in a cardboard box in the middle of the road!"/"You were lucky! We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank!"? I don't know either show but I wouldn't be surprised for a kid or a sitcom writer to presume that computing began with the TRS-80. Tim.

At 11:21 PM -0700 9/29/07, Chuck Guzis wrote: I think the best explanation is that American TV is absolute rubbish. The TV writers are hacks, who only write for the clueless brain-dead masses (which sadly seems to sum up the American public). Trying to make sense of TV's portrayal of computers is a waste of time. Just look at computers in any episode of CSI. I have the misfortune of seeing most episodes of CSI, and it appears CSI:NY's set designers have decided to toss out any pretense of accuracy, and gone full on into Sci-Fi. Not knowing the show (and not caring to), my hand-wave of an explanation would be the guy had the computer around when he was a little kid and took it to college with him. He might have written software for it just for fun. This works best if he came from a background of poverty, which since Stanford is mentioned seems unlikely. BTW, in this area, I've seen a grand total of 5 TRS-80's of various vintage. Two of those the Library just received as part of the donation last week, one of those, a CoCo, might be the first that has enough pieces to actually be usable. The only system I've found less possible to get up and running in any form are Atari Computers. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

Chuck Guzis wrote: I suspect that whoever consults with the writing team pulled out TRS-80 as a term that people watching the story would recognize as an early PC. The writers are telling a story in 43 minutes of air time and try as they can to get this point across. Also it is possible that the producers or directors changed it if the computer has to be used on camera, regardless of accuracy. Someone elsewhere in this thread mentions that they have gone full scifi with accuracy. This is again because they are storytelling, not filming a doumentary. Sadly the writer and a lot of people who watch CSI think they are presenting the "real" story of forensic science capabilities which they are not. There clearly is no good explanation for the tv writer as far as any real explanation. I strongly suspect the producers and people on set, or clueless friends of the writers for the original mention. I would think that they should have said Nintendo or Gameboy or such, but noone mentioned it during filming if they wanted something that could have been possible. Jim

Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: The show is Chuck on which premiered on NBC this week and the question is: Why would a character who's 27 years old say he'd developed a video game on a TRS80 when he attended Stanford? I think part of the problem is that the term, "video game" as it is used today means graphics and physics engines that tax a fully loaded dual-core, 64-bit system with an equally powerful video card. "Developing" a "video game" on the TRS-80 (assuming a Model I) meant using BASIC to throw black-and-white, character-based graphics onto the screen. As I recall, it was what you tried right after you got bored with asking the user for input and using the value entered to display some other value on the screen, but before you attempted to simulate arrays. I also recall it involving a lot of POKE-ing. My point is, I could posit an undergrad computer geek that learned BASIC as a grade-schooler finding an old TRS-80 and seeing how far he could push it, just for fun. However, for another character to say something on the order of, "Wow, you wrote 'xyz' ?" would require the program to be written during the TRS-80's heyday in order to gain the assumed notoriety, something that does not fit the timeline. Then again, it's fiction; you are required to suspend disbelief. The writer's job is to make sure that too many of the viewers don't have to suspend *too much* disbelief. Obviously we are not the target audience, that's all. Now I have to dig out my old Model-1 and see if it still fires up. I had *plans* for today, darnit! -Scrappy --------------------------------- Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with Yahoo! Autos.