Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[Jacob]

So did ours, if you had the money. They were extremely expensive. You could, however, cut your budget on floppy disks by using them on both sides with a bit of rather available equipment, such as one of those things used to make holes for easy filing of paper. I have absolutely no idea what they are called in English, but I was rather skilled at using them.

A hole punch

I had the C64 - with thr cassette deck. Eventually I did save up for a floppy drive, but in practical terms it made little difference.

[Jacob]

I still remember the sound of the turbo-tape loading.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I still remember the sound of the turbo-tape loading.

I think that sound is part of the opening credits for GTA III: Vice City.

[Norgy]

I dunno, the exclusives for Xbox and Playstation are pretty much the Amiga vs the Atari ST being played out again.

Pretty tame compared to the Megadrive/Genesis vs Super Nintendo wars back then.  Now C64 vs Spectrum that was another thing. 

The Sinclair Spectrum had 48k memory, and monochrome graphics. It was never sold in Norway, but the BBC computer was. And the C64.
We also made computers in Norway at that time, but they were not microcomputers, and that is how Norsk Data met its demise. They did invent the HTML, though.

[Norgy]

I still remember the sound of the turbo-tape loading.

A sound of excitement in waiting.

[Duque de Bragança]

I dunno, the exclusives for Xbox and Playstation are pretty much the Amiga vs the Atari ST being played out again.

Pretty tame compared to the Megadrive/Genesis vs Super Nintendo wars back then.  Now C64 vs Spectrum that was another thing. 

The Sinclair Spectrum had 48k memory, and monochrome graphics. It was never sold in Norway, but the BBC computer was. And the C64.
We also made computers in Norway at that time, but they were not microcomputers, and that is how Norsk Data met its demise. They did invent the HTML, though.

I remember those monochrome versions. 1000 FF cheaper (150 € unadjusted for inflation) than the colour version!
Old enough to remember Minitel and Thomson MO7s. 

[Tamas]

You fancy pants, I had the Hungarian knock-off of the C64. With cassettes of course, although it had floppy drive as optional extra available. Never occurred to pre-teen me that I could have made saved games if I connected the computer to the mic port of the cassette player for it. Only thing that could had used it though was Elite and that was a rare ocassion it even loaded, being a small kid in a village, I was on the end of a long chain of pirated games copied from friend to friend.

[Norgy]

A double cassette deck was a luxury, obviously, but it made both copying turbo tapes and various albums, as it also had an LP and CD player much easier.

I think I should refrain from saying I spent that much time outdoors. I think I spent it indoors, copying games and albums and being thrown out to "get some fresh air", then grabbing my soccer ball and shooting at the top corner of a goal with no net at a nearby training ground.

[Josquius]

I had a ZX Spectrum rather than a commodore - later than it's prime of course, getting it from a cousin who had moved on to a PC.
I remember the back packages of games always included screenshots of versions from different machines.
Some of the others always looked amazing. The actual spectrum game was... Less so.
I was forever envious of people with an Amiga. Until very recently I still dreamed of getting one. But my experience with a raspberry pi with even basic stuff being laggy and painful taught me I wouldn't get much enjoyment these days.
Such a shame the Amiga went under. Apparently had quite some advantages over pcs.

[Duque de Bragança]

Dad's Hi-fi system + cassette deck from micro-computer = fun!

[Norgy]

The Amiga was a superb computer. I had a 500, and then the last one that was mass-manufactured, the 1200. When I later had to get an IBM computer for studies, it was a step down, but the Amiga died because it was pricy and with very few expansion options.

I felt a sense of loss when I threw the old 1200 out two years ago. Even the box it came in was a beauty.

I do believe the neutrals would say the Atari ST was superior to the Amiga 500, though, hardware-wise.

[Duque de Bragança]

Amiga was for the rich kids in the late '80s-early '90s.
Great machine, better than the Atari ST, for me.

[Gups]

Weird thing I learned recently. American Commodore 64's ran off floppy disks.

How did the UK Commodore 64's ran?

Cassettes ("audio" tapes). I still remember those from my Amstrad CPC.

Type:

Run"

to run your software.

You could get floppy disc drives for the C64 for extra cost. I can't remember if the cassette player had to be brought separately or was bundled.

My dad ran a home computer shop and a games company back in the 80s (only big game was Kick Off and its sequels) and I worked at the shop on Saturdays. Always remember being amazed by the concept of having a whole 64k to mess around with, having got used to the Vic 20s 3.5K.

Wait wait wait.
Your dad made Kick Off?
I used to live super kick off on the MD.

Yep. Well he published it. Made loads of money (especially from Kick Off 2) then threw it away on publishing  crap.

[Norgy]

Jesus Christ, man! Either you didn't say a word about that when we met in London, or I was too busy telling some bartender off to hear it. Or drunk.

Kick Off 2 was the mother of all footie games. And it was impossible to score unless you bent the ball quite madly.

[Gups]

Jesus Christ, man! Either you didn't say a word about that when we met in London, or I was too busy telling some bartender off to hear it. Or drunk.

Kick Off 2 was the mother of all footie games. And it was impossible to score unless you bent the ball quite madly.

That poor bartender! You didn't tell him off, you just gave him a Viking stare...

Yeah, KO2 was a big game back in the day. Lots of arguments over whether it or sensible soccer was the better footie game.