Amazing

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:13 pm

OldEliteist wrote:
This may be a bit of a cheek but I just did a search on Google and found a completely unrelated post I made on a Linux forum 15 years ago. With this in mind I'd like to list here the computers I was lucky enough to own (briefly in some cases) during the golden years of IT. I do this on the off chance I take a break from Oolite 15 years in the future and do a similar search:

Sinclair ZX80 + 16k RAM expansion
Sinclair Spectrum 16K + that weird thermal printer
Texas Instruments TI99-4A (the only old computer I still have)
Commodore 8096
Commodore 64
BBC Micro 48K
Amstrad PCW 8256 (for writing letters you know)
Commodore Amiga 500
Commodore Amiga 1200 + 80MB(!) hard disk

Dreamed of an Acorn Archimedes

In 95 moved on to PC's and now Macs. Have been looking back through rose tinted glasses ever since.

That's an impressive list! And you're in good company. As I never throw a working computer away I still own the following.

Atari 2600 (original wood effect one) c. 1977
2x Commodore 64s (original 1984 one, later Amiga-lite one + original Floppy drives)
3x Amiga A500s (one standard, one with 1/2meg upgrade, and a modified one with Fatter Agnus, 2MB soldered in upgrade and a 20MB A509 HD)
HP Omnibook 800CT P133 laptop (1995)
IBM Thinkpad 600 (PII-300) laptop
Dell CPx laptop (PIII-650Mhz)

then a variety of hand built PCs uses others cast offs and ebay where necessary (1.2GHz Celeron w/64MB GF3, 1700+ Athlon w/128MB GF4 Ti4800 and this machine Athlon 2800+ w/128MB 6600GT)

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:13 pm

Oops - perhaps I ought to read a whole thread before giving in to enthusiasm...!

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:15 pm

myst.RAVEN wrote:
DaddyHoggy wrote:
one of my favourite "thinking" games - was "The Sentinel"

Now if that was available in PC format I'd definitely be interested.
OMG, that game was incredible! Also procedurally generated (in order to fir in the C64's memory). Yes< i would also love to play that one again - though I seem to recall checking out a (possibly emulated?) version not too long ago (by which I mean in the past year or so.) Hmmm...

[goes to Google...]
From Wikipedia: "Graphically, the best version is the PC port, capable of VGA graphics and incremental lighting."
[goes back to Google]

Alright, try this link (I haven't visited it yet) - apparently it's a remake for Windows:
http://johnvalentine.co.uk/zenith

This era of games also reminds me of one that has stuck in my mind. It was called Mercenary, first-person wireframe-3D game, in and out of aircraft, groundcars, and maze-like installations on foot...

We ended up in the same place - I've downloaded it.

My 1st Amiga (bought on 20th September 1989) came with Mercenary (and other games) - I played it to death but still couldn't complete it.

It was a lot like another game I'd played on the C64 called (I think) "Cholo"

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:19 pm

Cholo doesn't ring any bells for me, I'm afraid. Glad to find someone else who recognises Mercenary, though. I remember being blown away by the fact that you could walk, drive, or fly. I used to get a kick out of finding certain specific vehicles tucked away here and there. That city was quite large, as I recall...

Commander Smivs · Post by **Smivs** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:23 pm

I never had a computer of my own back then but a good friend had a C64 which is where I played Elite all those years ago.
Other favourites included a really crappy but enthralling platform game called, I think, Mr Do's Castle, but our favourite by far (other than Elite) was a double header Olympics game...can't remember exactly what it was called...but the Ski Jump from the Winter Games was wicked

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:30 pm

Some of EA's earliest titles were on C64, and many were sports-based, including some Olympic game, Winter Games (or some such), California Games... They used to have an interesting geometric logo back in those days, a cube, sphere, cone - the first and last I think were meant to resemble the E and A.

Anyway, that was some pretty pointless rambling there...

I'll just keep quiet now

OldEliteist · Post by **OldEliteist** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:44 pm

Obviously regret doing it now but most of mine were part exchanged to upgrade to the next thing, although the Spectrum got swapped for some records, which in turn got swapped for CD's when they came out. Now of course I look back and want to give younger self a good slap.

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:47 pm

That might create a time-travel paradox, though

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 7:38 pm

myst.RAVEN wrote:
Cholo doesn't ring any bells for me, I'm afraid. Glad to find someone else who recognises Mercenary, though. I remember being blown away by the fact that you could walk, drive, or fly. I used to get a kick out of finding certain specific vehicles tucked away here and there. That city was quite large, as I recall...

Ah yes, remember it well (and most of the others mentioned above). The coolest ship of all was the piece of cheese.

Hmm, now there's a ship for Oolite

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 8:23 pm

Thargoid wrote:
The coolest ship of all was the piece of cheese.

Yes! Thank you - I was trying to remember, knew there was something... unusual (off?) about the ultimate ship

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:04 pm

myst.RAVEN wrote:
Cholo doesn't ring any bells for me, I'm afraid. Glad to find someone else who recognises Mercenary, though. I remember being blown away by the fact that you could walk, drive, or fly. I used to get a kick out of finding certain specific vehicles tucked away here and there. That city was quite large, as I recall...

Did you ever fly up to the little dot in the sky which turned out to be a Orbital Station? If you did then did you ever pick up the wedge of cheese? If you fell out of the station, you could "use" the wedge of cheese to fly around - because apparently it was that kind of *Kraft* -

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:29 pm

Mercenry was great! I remember there was a secret hanger far outside the city, it had a cool ship in it too if i remember correctly, a sort of jet fighter or maybe a paper plane or something!!?! *memory a bit foggy*

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:48 pm

Griff wrote:
Mercenry was great! I remember there was a secret hanger far outside the city, it had a cool ship in it too if i remember correctly, a sort of jet fighter or maybe a paper plane or something!!?! *memory a bit foggy*

Yeh, there was...

http://mercenarysite.free.fr/merce.htm

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:14 pm

Ah! Fond memories.

Mercenary was great (but not quite as great as Elite). I especially remember the Antigrav which you needed to lift the heavier items...

myst.RAVEN · Post by **myst.RAVEN** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:31 am

DaddyHoggy wrote:
myst.RAVEN wrote:
Cholo doesn't ring any bells for me, I'm afraid. Glad to find someone else who recognises Mercenary, though. I remember being blown away by the fact that you could walk, drive, or fly. I used to get a kick out of finding certain specific vehicles tucked away here and there. That city was quite large, as I recall...
Did you ever fly up to the little dot in the sky which turned out to be a Orbital Station? If you did then did you ever pick up the wedge of cheese? If you fell out of the station, you could "use" the wedge of cheese to fly around - because apparently it was that kind of *Kraft* -

Yup - flew up to the space station. If I recall correctly, only some of the planes were capable of getting there - and then you got the upgrade when you got there

Oh, and many thanks for that link! Between Oolite, a couple of other oldies (though not quite on such a scale!) and now this, I think I may terminally overdose on nostalgia!