I had always told myself I would never buy a computer. That is until I saw an ad for a certain item in a Popular Science magazine.
Like everyone else, my first computer was a T/S 1000, but perhaps unlike everyone else, I bought mine when they first came out for $250 (including $100 16K ram pack… of course!)
Being my first computer, I found it to be well worth every penny. That is until a few months later when A & B Sound was giving them away for $35 (including $5 ram pack… of course!) – Nevertheless, I was impressed by the wonderful block graphics and the sharp-looking black case, not to mention the neat keyboard.
Overall, I was amazed at what I could do with this little gem. I had it hooked up to a slightly defective 12″ black + white TV which I was able to obtain for no money down, no money later from a local TV repair shop.
Not long after this, I learned of our club meetings which were then being held at VVI. After attending a few (very crowded) meetings I came to the conclusion that in order to understand anything that was being said you needed to have an engineering degree in electronics, so I decided not to go back until I knew one end of a resistor from the other.
Having completed my first term at BCIT (and finding out that it makes no difference which way you hook up a resistor), I felt I was ready to take another crack at it.
By this time I had acquired much programming experience in BASIC on a used 2Ø68 I had picked up out of the BUY & SELL. and after rummaging through my papers, making a few phone calls, and driving half way across the province, I found myself face to face with Rod Humphreys.
He was more than willing to bring me up to date on the club, show me his impressive computer system [collection?!?] and relieve me of a $15 membership fee.
Having been a member for almost a year now I find the meetings more interesting (and much less crowded) than back at VVI. However, I was surprised at the number of people who are still using the 1øøø. But on the other hand, I suppose the people with QLs feel the same way about me.
My main computer applications run towards games entertainment and along with learning advanced programming techniques in BASIC and a little assembly language and machine code. I also like to experiment with interfacing projects and am currently working on designing an interface which will allow me to connect an analog joystick to the 2068. This I plan to use for creating computer graphics.
As a point of interest, the other day, while experimenting with the rear edge connector of my 2068, I managed to fry something inside the computer. I have sent it to Dan Elliot of Missouri for repairs (his ad appeared in the November newsletter) and with any luck I should be receiving a diagnosis from him soon.
So, until then I guess I’ll have to go back to using my 1øø0. Now if I can just remember which door it’s holding open…