[TheForge] OT - Telcom stuff

[Walter L. Mullett]

...6502 ....  I thought you were younger Andy!   I taught myself enough 6502
to make my own rocket ship game move around on an Apple - interlaced
graphics.  Hand assembled!  Then I wrote my own communications program
(since there were none) for my Apple III with a 300 baud (kickstart) modem.
(Ran off the phone line.)  That was when I was connected to theSource....
(pre-internet for the younger ones.)

As an architect, I just wanted something I could draw with.  The 6502
couldn't do it but the apple III with SOS (sophisticated operating system)
had some potential at the time since it had no program size limits.... no
64k problems.  (Microsoft took how long to fix that problem...?)  Since the
largest hard disk you could get for the III was 5 meg and it cost 2K, you
didn't waste space like they do now.

I was doing all this when Reagan was allowing industry to buy/sell
themselves, make tons of money and eliminate jobs.  Almost no industrial
growth in northeastern Ohio then.... just like today.  I was working hard on
a pascal database program on the III.  Had it just about ready when apple
dropped it.  I used some of my pascal knowledge to rework a Peter Norton
program that he threw out as share ware for the IBM.  Talked to Peter about
the problems but he wasn't much help.  I didn't know who he was at the time
but in reflection I guess he was busy with more important stuff.... (darn -
why didn't I work on that connection at the time)


-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Vida <osan at netlabs.net>
To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Date: Friday, September 17, 2004 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT - Telcom stuff


> ...I learned real
> programming when I was doing ... Assembly language, .... 6502...
>
>