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danamania
Official 68k Muse
Australia
1193 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Aug 2002 : 07:06:45
I was pondering a little today about the past - where we all came from to get to our lil mac-hobbies. Some of us came from Apple II's. some from commodores, or ataris... or pc-land, and we have a good bit of experience on different machines before we got to our macs. Of course, we're here cos we do love the lil 68ks, but what was it about the -other- machines you've had that kept you interested? I began thinking about this earlier when I came across www.sidstation.com The C64's little synthesizer chips, the SID, was a pretty nifty little beast. A digitally programmed but analogue-generating sound chip, it has a bunch of features that ended up being used so completely by decades of a-hacking. Kinda simple, but ended up able to make some completely STUNNING pieces. Some (pretty small) mp3s from the sidstation site: http://www.sidstation.com/sidsound/sidmix/Robot-Tomorrow.mp3
http://www.sidstation.com/sidsound/sidmix/Bastian-Game_Over.mp3
http://www.sidstation.com/sidsound/sidonly/Storm-sidRepulsion.mp3 These tracks weren't made by a C64, but by the sidstation - a synth of sorts, made using SIDs. Yeah, it sounds 80's synthy... but then it was an 80's machine... and perfect for a Kraftwerk or jean-michel jarre generation :D. The other I really respect is the multitasking part of the Amiga's kernel, "exec", a miniature piece of code that managed some damned decent multitasking. Actually, some VERY good multitasking. No memory protection in the OS, but exec kept things running as well as possible without. Part of the reason using a 68000 box felt as responsive as an 030. (before things Fell Apart anyhows) That's just a couple - 2 of my faves :). pick your own, and rant about them! dana
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maclover5
LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Australia
5830 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2002 : 15:18:47
Well Dana, i came from that place that we have gradually come to hate - School. One fine sunny afternoon, in grade 3, I was doing some school work, and our teacher was up the back, showing people how to use the classroom computer - a Macintosh LCII. Then it was my turn, and of course, i didn't really care for computers at that time, so the teacher went to a bit of work to force me onto the LCII. I turned on the monitor with the switch on the front (a Macintosh Colour Display), and then got told by my teacher to feel around the left hand side of the back for a little switch. It was a bit hard at first, but then i found it, and switched the machine on. it made the boot chime, welcomed me to Macintosh for the first time, and arrived at the desktop.At this point, i had no idea as to how to do anything. I asked the teacher, "How do i use THIS??". She then showed me how to use the mouse, and the basics of pointing and clicking. I played brief games of Hangman Plus and some other game about a man and a dog standing out on the street (B&W compact game...anyone know what it was and where i can find it?). Then it was time for me to get off the computer. I shut it down, and went back to my creative writing (well at least i think it was). Later on that year, Dad told Mum and I that he wanted a computer. I asked if we could get a Macintosh, as i knew NOTHING about PC at that time, and he said no, of course. However, Mum then asked Da Bomb. She said that since we use Macintoshes at school, it would be better for me if we had a Macintosh. Months passed, and we ended up with an LCIII. It had 4 megs of RAM, an 80 meg hard drive, an external AppleCD 300, and a StyleWriter II. I loved that machine, and still do. I hope Georgina never goes away. Flash forward to 2002, and as you know, i am now a very busy high school student, who is now a geek, is no longer cute, and no longer has a life.  I am now a very heavy 68ker and general Mac user, and will stay that way forever. This is why i love Pizzabox LCs. They were the first Macs I had ever used. Even though the LCII was underpowered, it was still the first Mac model i ever used, which is why i love them all.  -------------------------- Pizzabox LCs RULE!!!!!!! Warrior maclover5
68k Macintosh Liberation Army
Number of 68ks Liberated: 6
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boredomconquersall
Full Member
Canada
613 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2002 : 18:30:44
my friend has a C64 that has been crashing in his grandparent's basement since 1996... I allways used to love going to my friend's house and using his... I thought it was funny that the disk drive was so loud (which I later learned wasn't normal) and kept asking what kind of a sound card it had in it (because, yah know? the AdLib sucks ass) so I could find one for myself and put it in my computer. I was so nieve. while were on the topic of first macs, my first mac was a mac IIsi back in 1996... back then it had a second monitor and a rom simm, so it was the school's photo editing center for the kids who knoew how to use it (Ahem...) I found it when I was told to sort thru the storage room of my school, and it was all dusty and the disk drive was too dusty to use (it was wrecked. I tried cleaning it.) but as soon as it get's an ethernet card, it'll be an IRC server, and will be in active use once again.
THnx
"first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the girls"
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Stryder
Junior Member
USA
382 Posts |
Posted - 04 Aug 2002 : 04:49:00
My first time on computers was back in school too, except Mac's weren't around yet. My first experience was programming turtle tracks on an old Commedore Pet computer at my elementary school. They were kept on those big A/V carts. From there, I went to Apple //e and bought my first computer at 12. A brand spanking new Apple //c with monochrome moniter on a stand and a converter to use it with the TV.
The first time I ever saw a Mac was at an old neighbors house. He worked at a store called Apple Lab where I had bought the //c. He was telling me about this new computer they got in and he brought home. I went over to check it out and saw this funny looking box with a really small monitor in it. What a difference that interface was back then. Before you just put the disk in and waited to see what popped up or get a list of files in dos. The whole desktop thing looked really cool. Later on, I started getting all the practice I needed navigating those things at a job I had. I big ol' LAN was set up of Mac Pluses. 4 upstairs and 5 downstairs. Common place now-a-days, but back then for a business set up in the home? It was wild. By the time they hit the High school, I had to help people get used to them because most had commadores and IBMs at home if they had a home computer at all. That was my real start to doing more than just use one. That's when I started thinking on how I could learn to help people more.Current Mac's:
Mac Plus, SE30, Classic, LCII, (2) LC550, Centris 650, 7100/80, Performa 6214, PB2300c Duo w/dock, G3/400 "Shine On" [;-)]
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Non-mac musings.
68k of the Week: kastegir's PowerBook 180.