Memories of Nostalgic Computing

[indolikaa]

Over the next 18 hours, I will be bringing all three of my PCs down for their semi-annual maintenance and upgrades, along with a complex routine of incremental and archival backups. This means opening very old files to check their integrity and updating them with new information, and I often stumble upon one or two files that gets me thinking back to earlier days when I first started this hobby.

Here are some of my more 'nostalgic' memories of computing in the last ten years. Feel free to add to this list.

* Command line MP3 encoding in a pure DOS environment,

* IBM OS/2,

* Upgrading from a 1X CD-ROM to 2X CD-ROM cost $200,

* SimAnt,

* The ZIP-100 Parallel drive we had backordered for four months,

* QEMM.


Ah, the march of technology...

[Sefy]

Oh the Memories! god I love OS/2 and sure wish IBM had a brain to push it to home users and not just business places! But how could you forget Win 3.11? i'm shocked!

I Think my nostalgic PC memories from the last 10 years would be these:

* A Card for each little thing in your PC (Joystick Card, IO card...)
* Installing DOS using 3 (and 5) Floppy Diskettes
* Actually Using that 1.44MB Floppy Drive! (will they ever upgrade it???)
* Needing to do Memory Management to get Hi Ram before QEMM days

Lastly from the more recent 4 years...

* 16 Hours to Create a VideoCD movie from a DVD source
* Breaking my bones trying to figure out how to use the guides that existed!

[indolikaa]

Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, no less.

[Sefy]

Well, I would say Windows 1.0 or 2.0 but I don't think they made that much of an impact on the market

[teegee420]

I remember when a 500mb hard drive was gargantuous, and a 16mhz cpu was screaming. "Turbo" mode to be exact.

[indolikaa]

And you were socially repugnant if you only had an SX processor instead of a DX processor...

[teegee420]

Yep. Math co-processor meant "bigger penis".

[Sefy]

IF we are going back to "Turbo" days, my first PC was a Fujitech XT Turbo! it had 10mhz! and it was "blazing" fast! even beat a 286 which ran at 10 mhz!

I remember how my friend taught me to put SEVERAL games on a single Floppy 360kb diskette! That was like awsome! having DIGGER and PACMAN and AlleyCat all on ONE floppy!

[Ripper2860]

*DIPP memory chips instead of SIMM or DIMM modules (RAM)
*Using Debug to format HDD's (MFM, RLL and early SCSI)
*Using SpinRite to change the "interleave" for faster disk performance
*Huge Honking 10MB drives !!! (full Ht -- 5/14")
*Plus HardCard (HDD bolted onto a controller and would fit in an ISA slot) -- great for the Compaq Portable 40lb SUITCASE
*LS-120 drives
*Automenu -- DOS-based menu generator
*Writing DOS batch files with Shift%1, and If ERRORLEVEL GOTO's
*IBM TopView -- pre-cursor to windows
*Digital Research GEM -- pre-cursor to Windows
*DR DOS
*IBM PS/2's with 720KB drive (5-1/4 was an external option) and no ISA/EISA or PCI -- only Micro-Channel

Those were the days when computer guys were Gods !!!

[Sefy]

Ripper2860, wow! you reminded me of the good old Batch Programming days I had!

And since everyone mentioned those huge HDD of back then, do you remember the "PARK" command you had to use before shouting down the PC and not to forget "STACKER" days

Almost forgot, anyone remembers the full sized 180kb Floppy Drives ??

PS: Has anyone even noticed i'm not a moderator anymore

[Ripper2860]

Yep -- I remeber the PARK command for those old drives. I also remember the 180KB drives -- although they had moved on to 360KB by the time I got into the business.

Anyone remember Q&A. It was a Database that used natural language queries. It was so cool and so ahead of it's time. Wish it was still around !!

OK here are some more ...

*Bernoulli Disk (10MB in an 8" cartidge)
*AST Expanded memory cards to access memory in excess of 640KB
*Copy2PC copy protection cracker for copy protected floppies
*Hercules MonoGraphics cards -- permitted CGA graphics on a true monochrome text screen
* When Serial ports were 25-pin and looked like male parallel ports
* When parallel ports were seperate cards and optional
* Using the backup *.* a:\ command to backup to floppies and having 20-30 in a backup set.
* MS Word for DOS with mouse support
* IBM PS/1
* 300 Baud Modem (and the difference between Baud and Bps)
* Bulletin Boards before there was such a thing as a public Internet

Good ole days !!

[teegee420]

I rememember being wowed when I saw the first EGA display. I just about creamed my shorts when I saw SVGA.

[Sefy]

I had a Super EGA (64 colors!) card which worked using a regular CGA monitor! that was so awsome!

[stiltman]

PS: Has anyone even noticed i'm not a moderator anymore

You still have blue text though

[indolikaa]

*DIPP memory chips instead of SIMM or DIMM modules (RAM)
*Using Debug to format HDD's (MFM, RLL and early SCSI)
*Using SpinRite to change the "interleave" for faster disk performance
*Huge Honking 10MB drives !!! (full Ht -- 5/14")
*Plus HardCard (HDD bolted onto a controller and would fit in an ISA slot) -- great for the Compaq Portable 40lb SUITCASE
*LS-120 drives
*Automenu -- DOS-based menu generator
*Writing DOS batch files with Shift%1, and If ERRORLEVEL GOTO's
*IBM TopView -- pre-cursor to windows
*Digital Research GEM -- pre-cursor to Windows
*DR DOS
*IBM PS/2's with 720KB drive (5-1/4 was an external option) and no ISA/EISA or PCI -- only Micro-Channel

Those were the days when computer guys were Gods !!!

Let's see where Dr. Khan falls on the timeline...

DIPP memory chips -- Yep.
Debug to Format -- Yep.
SpinRite Interleaving -- What? Only nerds did that kind of shit.
Full-Height 5¼" HDD -- Ah, the Winchester years...
Plus HardCard -- Now those kicked serious ass!
LS-120 -- Nope.
Automenu -- Nope.
Writing DOS Batches -- Nope.
IBM TopView -- AAUUGGHH!!!
D/I GEM -- Nope.
DR. DOS -- Rocks!
IBM PS/2 MCA --

IBM MicroChannel Architecture. I think that was the time I coined one of my favorite phrases: if it ain't fixed, go and **** it up some more.

[Sefy]

@stiltman, yeah I noticed, go figure
Maybe i'm now a Super Regular Forum User

[fmctm1sw]

When I first started out my Naval career, I worked on old DEC computers. Here's one of them:


I remember having the programming card and "micropopper" we used to step through individual instructions. Ah, the good old days....

*edit* Here's another one we had...

[fmctm1sw]

* Upgrading from a 1X CD-ROM to 2X CD-ROM cost $200,

What about parallel CD-ROMs? Some people swear by them. I still have one as well...

[Cobra]

I remember getting a 1x external SCSI CD-ROM. You had to put the CD into a caddy and then insert that into the drive. It took forever to copy stuff across, and read all the icon files MacFormat insisted on using in their CDs. I'd wait for 30 seconds for a single folder to become ready for access!

But the best bit of computing I remember was how to launch a game on my first computer:

LOAD"*",8,1

Cobra

[flaninacupboard]

no one remember qbasic? spending hours writing text adventures for your friends to complete in three minutes? no?

i remember running (i think it was called) gem on my 086, had to load off of about 6 5.25 floppies. and ******* floppy floppies!

anyone remember trying to balance their XMS and EMS so they could play descent? how about remming TSRs in auotexec so your memory hungry app had the 500k system ram it needed? manually configuring your soundlaster? set blaster a=220 etc. and configuring your cd-rom (which was inexplicably connected to your sound card) using mscdex?

[dxj40c]

500mb hard drives the size and weight of an automobile alternator.

[Capmaster]

no one remember qbasic? spending hours writing text adventures for your friends to complete in three minutes? no?

i remember running (i think it was called) gem on my 086, had to load off of about 6 5.25 floppies. and ******* floppy floppies!

anyone remember trying to balance their XMS and EMS so they could play descent? how about remming TSRs in auotexec so your memory hungry app had the 500k system ram it needed? manually configuring your soundlaster? set blaster a=220 etc. and configuring your cd-rom (which was inexplicably connected to your sound card) using mscdex?

Yep. QBasic and MS Basica. I wrote some math flashcard programs in those

[Ripper2860]

QBasic and Basica, here. Of course back then some machines had BASIC in ROM.

MSCDEX -- my god, what a beating!!

*How about having to put the little stickers over the notch on 5-1/4" floppies to write protect them. Invariably -- one would come off and get stuck in the freakin drive!!

*I remeber having to "calibrate" floppy drives using a calibration diskette and software along with a small/long screwdriver to align the heads so they centered over the tracks.

* Installing what seemed like a 1,000 friggin DIPP memory modules into sockets only find that 1 or more had a friggin leg folded under which meant I had to remove virtually every single ******* module to find the offending ****** !!!!!

* 40MB drives so big and heavy that when performing Random Seek tests the entire PC and desk shook! 8)

* Thinking 320x200 16 color CGA was Da Bomb!! -- then EGA, VGA, and SVGA and XVGA

* 20MB Techmar parallel attached tape drives

* The 1st Windows based Word Processor -- Ami Word?

* Lifting and dropping Compaq Portables (40 lb suitcase) from 12" to free-up heads sticking to the HDD platter. -- Compaq Portable+

* The 1st IBM Laptop -- the clam-shell

[Capmaster]

5 Megabyte hard disks.

5 MB Bernoulli cartridge the size of an attache case.

Seagate HD using servo head motors and the head was as big as a baby's fist. Access time was a screaming 470 milliseconds

Thinking the 8 MHz Vic20 upgrade for the 8088 socket kicked all sorts of ass

[Guest]

I got my first pc in Novemder 0f 1997. The only thing I might be able to add was buying a 15mb cf card for $237

[Capmaster]

In 1995 I spent $750 to buy 16MB of fast-page RAM for my new P133

[flaninacupboard]

you've moved gender to rams now? is there no end to your perversion?

[Capmaster]

you've moved gender to rams now? is there no end to your perversion?

I had to read that twice before I figured out your questions.

No. I may be a sick, perverted sheep-humping mofo, but I never bat for the other side

[flaninacupboard]

hahaha, i suppose your toys would need to be a bit stronger than 5PSI to enable your fantasy of being "the bitch"

[indolikaa]

Running AutoCAD on a computer with a 'green' screen for text commands and a CGA screen for the actual drawings...

On a 286 computer, too.