Old Gaming Consoles

Following on from the Ping thread it got me thinking and remembering and my colleague and I were talking today about games we played when younger.

I remember when my son was 3 we bought him a Commodore 64 gaming console for Christmas. We were amazed at how good he was with the computer at such a young age.

Me and my husband had hours of fun out of our sons present and played lots of games. My favourite was Hunchback, I looked it up on you tube this afternoon and boy oh boy did it bring back wonderful memories for me.

I'd love to have a go again, really great fun was had back in the day on that console.


Did you have a C64 and can you remember the games you played.

See hunchback here, awwwwwww I love to reminisce the good times

https://youtu.be/6HEUwFx1gWs

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

Aaahh... the old 8-bit video games with clunky graphics. I learned BASIC programming on a Sinclair ZX80 - 1k memory to run everything. The screen used to go blank when the computer (for want of a better name) used to run parts of the program as it couldn't do both at the same time. Next up was a Commodore Vic 20. That had more memory but for some reason, the video memory was sandwiched in between the operating system memory and the program(s) part of the memory and if you added more memory, the graphic memory relocated to another section so any programs you may have written wouldn't work.

Graduated to an Amstrad PC (very sophisticated in its day because it had a built-in cassette recorder for programs). My very favourite PC was an Amiga 1000 - one of the best in its class at the time. It had a whopping 20mb hard-drive attached to one end and everything just worked. None of this looking around for printer drivers or sound-card drivers. The machine had a dedicated chip that made sure that anything connected worked as it should.
The operating system used to be loaded from a 3.5" floppy disc - it came with a BASIC disc but you could run the machine on any programming language you chose - all you needed was the correct disc. Happy days.

Just my luck, as soon as I learned 8-bit machine code, everything went to 16-bit, then 32-bit and finally 64-bit like we have now.

Anyway, I digress. After the original Asteroids and Space-Invader type games, I went with playing adventure games and Star-Trek spin-off games.

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

you are very technically minded. I remember we had an amstrad at one time. I remember teaching myself HTML and a little JAVA, I was trying to make my own website from html but I got fed up as I was struggling so I ended up cheating and using Netscape Navigators editor.

I can't remember a single bit of the java or html now because the editors got easier and easier to use and I went with them for my websites. I do remember programming a small a java game on my site and being really proud of it yet I can't remember what the game was now? I wish I had stuck with it really and gone to college to learn more, who knows where I'd be now if I did, I might have been the female bill gates!

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

Learning that was all the rage at one time, the computer mags were full of the stuff. There used to be an earlier version whose name escapes me now (it's me age you know) but was more dedicated to carrying out presentations at technical conferences - this was before MS PowerPoint took over.

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

try and remember, see if I heard of it

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

We also bought our son the Commodore 64 gaming console for Christmas when he was younger, he loved it and was great at playing the games.

Of course we had to have a go as well and found it to be great fun.

My favourite game was Fire Ant, I managed to finished that one right to the end before anyone else!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrjjurdtoXo

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

If only you’d kept those consoles, they’re quite collectible now

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

I had zero interest in computers and games consoles back in those early years but our sons were always on their Commodore and ZX Spectrum. The eldest son began writing games for one or the other of them.

He is now a sought after developer of Java-based software that performs various operations. All from small beginnings on early computers and games consoles.

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

I've wracked what's left of my brain but still can't remember it.

Well, it was forty years ago... Maybe it will flash into my memory later? XML seems to ring a bell but I can't be certain.

Re: Old Gaming Consoles

Learnt on a Research Machines RML380Z

First computer - VIC20.....

....and I still have it !