Memory lane

[GH85Carrera]

Vintage tech: Looking back at the Commodore 64 - News - PC & Tech Authority

I remember bringing home my powerful Commodore - 64 to replace my pitiful Commodore Vic 20. I had a 300 baud modem that was not even an autodial. It was technically illegal to use the modem since I did not call the phone company and register it. I got on Compuserve and ordered a pair of jeans in the early 80s. That was my first on-line purchase.

[GH85Carrera]

How many of you remember the days when NO ONE owned a phone? We all just rented them from the Bell Telephone. The one and only phone company.

[dhoward]

And they were hard-wired.

[KFC911]

...and on a "party line" with a nosey 'ole biddy as a neighbor (who like to listen in)

[herr_oberst]

. . . . and we were glad to have it!

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, in the first house I bought there was one phone in the center of the house. There was not one other phone wire anywhere. I had to go to Bell telephone and pick up a phone that I had to rent. There was simply no other option.

[legion]

That's nothing guys. I remember back before we had the wheel. It was a pain to get around. And don't get me started on the cuisine before we captured fire...

Seriously, I had a VIC 20 as a kid. My parents wouldn't buy me an Atari and I liked that you could at least get cartridge games for it. My dad tried to get me interested in BASIC, but I didn't like that you spent all this time writing a program, and it just went away when you turned off the computer. Later on my dad got a tape drive, but I seem to recall it took forever to store stuff and by that time I'd lost interest in everything but the video games.

[M.D. Holloway]

I think it would be cool to take the old keyboard and use it to house a modern PC and an LED projector...

[oldE]

Originally Posted by KC911

...and on a "party line" with a nosy 'ole biddy as a neighbor (who like to listen in)

I grew up in a household that had the local telephone exchange switchboard. A couple of party lines had over 12 phones each, because they went 'way the heck and gone' up the mountain. A phone number might be listed in the book as 25-22: So when someone asked for that number, you would jack into the 25 line, and use the toggle to ring two long and two short.By age ten, I was entrusted with putting calls through. On Sunday mornings, when the folks went to church, I was the operator 'on duty'.
Talk about an early immersion in Customer Service!

"Number, please?"

Best
Les

[masraum]

Yep, we bought a C64 when I was about 12. I think my parents paid about $600 for the "keyboard". The floppy drive hadn't been released yet, so for the first few months we used


Until the floppy drive came out. I think we paid about $400 for the floppy drive. Do you remember when you discovered that the disks were dual sided and you could just cut a notch out of the other side of the 5.25 to use the back side?

Yes, about the same time, we still had "rented" phones, except that my parents had a phone that we owned and plugged it in. At some point the telco called and said something like "you're only renting one phone, but you have 2 rings on the line" and wanted us to pay extra or something. I remember my parents plugging and unplugging the second extension to fool the telco for a while.

We also had a remote control TV that was not IR. If you opened a beer can, soda can or sneezed, the sound would sometimes trigger the TV to change channels. I never did understand that because the remote wasn't noisy when you used it.

[masraum]

Funny thing is...

there's an app for that!

[GH85Carrera]

The phone on the wall in my garage righ now was a phone that I bought from Bell when they finally started selling phones. It still works great.

[masraum]

[Stuart993]

I had/have one of these.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

I think it would be cool to take the old keyboard and use it to house a modern PC and an LED projector...

The New Commodore 64, Updated With Its Old Exterior - NYTimes.com

[dennis in se pa]

My first computer experience was learning to program in binary onto a paper tape at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania in 1967. The class was called Finite Mathematics for some reason. I found it fascinating.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by masraum

Had one as a kid, and got one recently again.

Evel Knievel was my hero as a kid.

-Z

[flipper35]

I had one of those as well, with the van for him to jump over.

Had a C64 as well. Programmed my own games and had lots of fun. even had my own cheat codes but was found out when I drag raced a Dodge Omni against a 426 Charger and won. My friend was both ticked and impressed at the same time. Of course back then I didn't have a way to simulate traction but we had weight, gear ratios, red line and torque curves in a sequential database on the disk. (and the hidden NOS button for me ) A good reaction time and shifting properly were the only interactions but it was fun in Jr High.

[wdfifteen]

My first computer was a DEC PDP-11. No, I didn't own it, heck I couldn't afford the annual maintenance contract, but it was "mine" in the lab.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Z-man

Had one as a kid, and got one recently again.

Evel Knievel was my hero as a kid.

-Z

Cool, I had 3 or 4 different bikes IIRC. I think I had the stunt cycle and a chopper and another thing or two. Didn't they work either by a pull strap or by the hand crank (much better). I loved mine, but I think I was only about 5 at the time.

Tonka Trucks, Matchbox/Hot Wheels, and Evel Knievel stuff, those are the toys that I mostly remember from when I was 3-5 or so.

I still have a lot of my matchbox cars, but the rest is gone.