[Ham-Computers] Re: windows stuff

Tue Aug 30 23:04:21 EDT 2005

Well, well. Aaron, finally I know why I know you! Do you know who ran the TI
99/4 group? I was there until the day in 1982 that J. Fred Bucy proved himself
to be less than truthful when he shut it down, after declaring he would not only
the month before, which was September.	

I have the original TI TTS code on a 5.25 90K diskette in my office bottom right
drawer. I helped with that Aaron. My daughter won the Science Fair with a
program I wrote using the Extended BASIC and I built the TTS code into the
program, as you could not run two plug in ROM modules at once. (TTS = Text To
Speech. It is what makes all that talks, talk.) The program taught junior high
school students and upper elementary students, the Presidents of the United
States.	

It showed the American Flag, play God Bless America, used color sprite graphics,
included sound effects employing the three voice sound chip, had student and
computer interaction via text and spoken speech, taught them, tested them and
rewarded them. I spent 100 hours writing that code for her.	

her part was to conduct a research project to see if students learned faster
with the speech reinforcement or without it. The test proved they did far better
with it.	

I stopped writing programs for anyone other than myself in 1986, as i got tired
of big corporations stealing them.	

Somewhere in a folder I still have the actual code for that program, maybe even
a disk! But no TI 99/4A computer. Sniff.	

As far as your first computer Aaron. Do I consider my Abacus to be my first
calculator? The Chinese used them five thousand years ago. It is a calculator,
right?	

While the Atari truly was a computer, I think you had to be able to program it
to qualify. I know that Atari did make a home computer, though I never saw one
or knew anyone that used one, which may be why it was short lived! 	

I wish I had my Atari back! Heck I could whip the butts of sighted opponents
with that sucker. I set some score records that were ridiculous! I figured out
the logic loop, determined where it could not blast me and sat there smoking
their ships!	

Now I do have my first microscope, made by the A.C. Gilbert Co. It is like new,
thanks to KP4FAR in Puerto Rico. I had lost the reflective mirror to it and one
of the lenses. It had three powers. guido had what I needed, he rebuilt and sold
them on the electronic auction place, (still does!) shipped it to him, got it
back working perfect. It is now fifty years old this year!	

I also have my first electric train engine, which I got for Christmas in 1950. I
remember getting it too. i also remember that it did not work! So back it went.	

I also have my first chemistry set, my first rifle, my first bow and arrow and
all that stuff. But alas, the electronics my ex-wife got rid of. They save mushy
love letters and we men save important things, like video games, computers, car
parts ...	

But I do have the first Sony PS2! I don't know how I got so lucky, but my
grandson got one of the first ones that shipped. If you recall, Sony had a
limited number, and only advance orders were shipped until production caught up.
Brandon got his the same day it was released in october.	

He just packed her up last Sunday in the original box, with controller, cords,
manuals and even an optional memory card. I talked him into it, being as he has
a brand new model here in the box that he was not using! He said it was his
friend, so I promised him we would get her out twice a year and play with her.
he agreed. he is fourteen, surprised I won that one. But who knows what strings
he attached the old blind dude has not yet found out about!	

So Aaron, I am that guy you used to read the game reviews by, typed the programs
I coded and so forth. Small world, heh? I can not take credit for your marvelous
skills, but I am very proud to have played a tiny part in the big picture. 	

My favorite game was Tunnels Of Doom, one of the first fully animated, 3D, D&D
games! I also enjoyed the space game Parsac too. One of the first with good
speech and really fast action due to enhancements we made to Extended BASIC.	

Aaron, thinking back, remembering the sprites, three voice sound ship and the TI
BASIC, do you see the pattern there that I see? Namely, MS BASIC and the GUI
that came later?	

Duane Fischer, W8DBF	

P.S. I often wondered how many of those readers knew they were reading game
reviews written by a totally blind man! Yes, I did have sighted people helping
me and describing things to me, but I did do the actual playing.

----------
From: Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal) <aaron.hsu at nbcuni.com>
To: 'I>Ham-Computers' <Ham-Computers at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: 'Duane Fischer, W8DBF' <dfischer at usol.com>
Subject: RE: windows stuff
Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 9:19 PM

Now you've done it, Duane...you've peaked my nostalgia!

IIRC, the C64 had a 1MHz 8-bit 6510 processor (a MOS customized version of
the 6502 used in Apple II's) and 64K of RAM (52K or 38K available, depending
on user mode).  I had more fun with that thing than just about all the other
systems I've had since.  But, then again, that was the hey-day  of home
computing!

But that C64 wasn't my first computer...did I ever mention that my first PC
was a TI-99/4A?  Let's see, 3.3MHz 16-bit processor, 16K RAM, 16K Video
RAM...mmmmm, those were the days.  I learned  BASIC on that thing...every
day after school, I would get home, crack open the latest issue of 99'er
magazine, and enter the various programs in print.  I eventually started
exploring how all the lines of code worked and built my BASIC proficiency.
Later, I saved enough money to buy the Extended BASIC cartridge which opened
me up to the graphics capabilities of the system.  In my Jr year in High
School, I officially learned Pascal and "structured BASIC" on the school's
Tandy TRS-80's and the brand new IBM PC's.  I loved Pascal so much that I
yearned for the p-System adapter for the TI-99/4A.  But, alas, the required
p-card, expansion box, RAM expansion, and floppy drive were too expensive at
the time ($1500), so I had to settle with what I had.  However, I still
spent many a sleepless night writing BASIC programs and playing games like
the Adventure series, Tunnels of Doom, Parsec, and others.  I still have
that 99/4A in a closet somewhere.  Last time I plugged it in (several years
ago), it still worked.  I'm leading a "Computers" patch for some Jr. High
kids in a few weeks...I was planning on digging out my old Atari 2600, NES,
the 99/4A, C64, and an NEC TurboGrafix-16 as a show-and-tell of the history
of computers and video games.  Hmmm, although the Atari 2600 is "officially"
a video gaming console, it's "technically" a computer, so could it really be
my first computer???  I'll have to ponder that one for a while...

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] RE: windows stuff

Holy Ham Hocks! Aaron you are older than I thought you were! You did not
tell these children out there in ether nut land, (sorry, that should be
ether net land), that most of the computers including the Commodore came
with 16K, some
even less!	

*** snip ***