Oldsters

[GreyGeek]

Re: Oldsters

lol
we used to get our phone bill that way and those were what the "keypunch operators" transferred our R.O.P.Eval data to in the 60s 70s!

EVERYBODY said THOSE were the "jobs of the future" and would NEVER go away! lol

woodsmoke

I bought that, and after the Army said, "No thanks, son, you have hammer-toes", I went to the Barns School of Business in Denver, CO and trained on IBM 402 Tabulators, 540 Gangpunches, etc., so I could get one of those "jobs of the future". Never could find one. Prospective employers said I looked too young.

[pwabrahams]

Re: Oldsters

Our Navy paychecks used to be hollerith cards.

Lo and behold, the Navy shouteth and hollerith.


By the way, those cards make excellent bookmarks. I have a good supply of them still.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Oldsters

shouteth and hollerith.

ROTFL ROTFL ROTFL ROTFL ROTFL

woodsmoke

[oldgeek]

Re: Oldsters

I'm 61 and my first experience with a computer was in 1969 during an evening math class when my teacher brought in a primitive portable computer and taught us how to write simple BASIC programs. I don't know the make of the computer, but it came in 2 parts--one, an electric typewriter with a roll of paper to serve as the monitor, and the other was the size of a laptop case and had all the electronics. Don't know how much memory it had either, but I doubt it was very much. I was fascinated, and determined to own a computer some day. I worked with computers throughout the 70s in the microfilm business, but didn't own one until 1984 when I bought a Sinclair ZX-81, the kind with 1K memory and a membrane keyboard. I eventually expanded the memory to 16K--which worked fine until you moved the attachment just slightly--and pasted a small tactile keyboard, which didn't help at all. My greatest joy was playing around with programs, trying to put small programs together to make a simple grading system, for example. My greatest triumph was being able to translate an Apple Basic program on Halley's Comet to Sinclair Basic and getting it to work. After that I had an Atari 800XL using SpartaDos and a 256K memory extension. I tried to learn Pascal and C on the Atari, but there were too many variations to make, so I gave up. Since then I've been upgrading fairly regularly and still like to experiment, this time with Linux. I've been using Kubuntu since the 8.10 version, and like it quite a bit. At the moment I've got 3 partitions--one for Windows 7, another for Kubuntu and a 3rd for Ubuntu. I want to test them all out as I go along. So far, all 3 are responding well.

[rpg_poser]

Re: Oldsters

I am 47 years old.
My first computer use was on Digital Microcomputer at a local Community College. I was 11 years old. It was shaped as a desk and you sat at it. It had a single 8 1/2 inch floppy drive, 4k of memory and a green monochrome monitor.

This was the beginning of the home computer age, two years later, TRS-80's were popular and they were what I used until high school graduation. I remember going with my father to OSU's (OR) computer lab and seeing gigantic spinning platters under plexiglass hoods. I think those were primitive hard drives and remember hearing horror stories about those platters flying through the air and smashing through walls when they crashed.

The first computer I owned (borrowed) was an Atari 600xl with a 32k expansion unit and a 1050 floppy drive with a "disk doubler" chip.

I then tried to avoid my fate as a career IT person, sold all my possessions and wandered for 10 years finally settling in Santa Cruz, CA. I then worked as an aide for a physically disabled young man (who has since passed on) and reintroduced me to PC gaming. He gave me my nickname "RPG Poser" because I love RPG's but never have time to finish them.

I joined this forum to help others like myself who are adjusting to Linux. You will see me answering questions regarding game emulation, since that is my major interest.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Oldsters

Hi RPG,
You have an interesting story and people who know games are ALWAYS in demand!

I, personally, think that if the major games had a "non-death" mode" and you pay an extra ten bucks for the thing the game companies would make even MORE millions! I never can get past the first levels let alone finish them! lol

The only game that I could reasonably often finish was the classic Space Harrier.

Loooooved the music. I wouldpay to get a copy that would run under Wine or Linux or anything...loved the music, the graphics you name it.. lol

http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/sp...CoverId,91488/

http://www.retrocopy.com/sega-master...e-harrier.aspx

woodsmoke

[rpg_poser]

Re: Oldsters

Most games have some sort of "God Mode" which can be accessed by typing in a code in the game console or applying a hex "cheat code" to the game code itself.
You may be disappointed, however. Games get boring when you can't die in them.
Space Harrier is a great game, one that uses rotating and scaling sprites for pseudo 3D.
It's not an easy game either, finishing it is an accomplishment. I think you just really liked it, and didn't like the others.
www.system16.com has the best list of Sega arcade games and you can check out other games that use the same hardware as Space Harrier.
Mame (www.mame.net) supports Space Harrier. If you decide to go this route, I would suggest purchasing a gaming stick (http://forums.shoryuken.com/forumdisplay.php?f=177). I have one, have customized it with Sanwa parts and am very happy with it.
PM me with any questions you have. If it's stuff worth sharing with the community I will post it.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Oldsters

I dislike shoot'm ups. A couple days ago someone resolved a problem installing Enemy Territory. I looked at a YouTube of that game. I used to hunt deer, bear, and smaller game and birds in my youth. A lot. If I had a nickle .... etc.. I would study the effects of the bullets on the animal to improve my choice of the point of impact for the projectile used. I eventually settled on head shots as the most effective and fastest kill. In my business I did several homicide investigations and processed a lot of gory photos. Bullets rip up people as easily as they rip up animals. Eventually I switched to bows and arrows but after only one deer hunt, while watching a live deer from 15 feet, I dropped hunting all together and took up cameras. Only police officers and our soldiers returning home from the Mid-East have seen the blood and gore of war. News videos don't begin to give you a real experience, especially since you can't smell the gore or death itself.

I think computer and video games should be intellectually challenging and cause one to think, not just mindlessly aiming a mouse and clicking it to shoot an avatar.

A couple days ago someone mentioned Minecraft. I took a look at it. In the "Survival" mode it has "creepers" that explode, skeletons and spiders that kill, the avatar can starve to death or be fatally injured climbing rocks, or drown, causing the avatar to lose their personal possessions, but not the things they've stored in "chests" and placed at strategic locations, and "start over". There is a "Peaceful" mode which doesn't have the creepers, etc..., but folks claim that mode is boring.

I installed it a couple days ago and have been playing around with it. I found a mode called "Creative", where you have access to an inventory of all the things that you can make in Minecraft, and in unlimited quantities. Things like torches, glowstones, ladders, etc.... Everything a spelunker would need. I'm using Minecraft as if it were a spelunker game, exploring all the caves and caverns, springs and lava flows under ground. I am, in affect, exploring the limits of the game, sans killers, and its quite fun! Where do the springs come from, where do they go? Ditto for lava flows. Is there a pattern to the location or association of the various ores?

I am down about a couple hundred blocks (if one assumes a block is 1 cubic meter I am down a couple hundred meters), and today I am going to see how far down I can drill, and if I will uncover any more caverns than those at the current depths I am exploring.

Doing this "spelunking" in the Creative mode is obviously not as hard as doing it in the "Peaceful" mode, where frequent "deaths" would make progress in exploration go much slower, but it is just as much fun!

[rpg_poser]

Re: Oldsters

Glad you are enjoying Minecraft! It is one of the few indie games that becomes a success. I suppose, as a sandbox type game, exploration with no death would be fun. I still enjoy SimCity 2000 via Wine.
Before my time with Linux, I played WoW (World of Warcraft) on and off over a period of 3 years. I really enjoyed doing quests by myself, and running dungeons in a group as a healer. I didn't enjoy PvP (Player Vs. Player) until I joined a bunch of friends on a PVP server.
The constant thrill (dread) of being attacked while running around by yourself or ganging up with your friends to beat on the opposite faction REALLY adds something to a game. Frustration and Thrills!
If you have an XBox 360, Deadly Premonition is a fun sandbox game in the style of David Lynch movies. Death is a possibility, but only in certain sections and the monsters are easily defeated.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Oldsters

I LOVED SimCity, and it Linux counterpart, LinCity. Great game! Sometimes, despite your best efforts, the economy falters.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Oldsters

I'm 50+...and that's all I'm going to say! :P

I started computing--for fun--in the early '80s, first on a Commodore VIC-20, then a Commodore 64. In college I took an intro to computing course and worked on an Apple IIE. I was a pre-med student--and LOVED it--and had every intention of going to medical school (and had the grades! yay me! ) but a twist of fate changed everything. I was working at a furniture store chain doing data entry [on a Decision Data 9610] while in college; the owners knew what I was studying and knew what kind of grades I was getting. I decided that I needed to take a semester off (you know what burn out is? Try going to college, studying one of the hardest majors, being an A student with honors in it, AND working AND being a mother to an elementary school, then junior high school, child AND running a house and paying bills. BURN OUT!). One thing led to another, and next thing I know I'm talking to one of the owners about transitioning them off their IBM System/3 mainframes and on to a multi-location, multi-user UNIX system.

I started out with a Tandy Xenix system which quickly became inadequate. So I got to spend a ton of the company's money buying an ALR 386, which I put SCO Xenix on, plus printers, Wyse terminals, modems, multiplexers, etc. I did all the programming and system administration--self taught. Within a year I not only had most applications off the mainframes but I also decided I didn't want to go back to school. I asked myself, "Do I REALLY want to spend another 4-1/2 years in school, and then work my ass off in residency for 5 years...for a pittance?" No, I didn't. I'd never intended to do anything but be a physician, but there it is. We changed gears, decided to buy a house--which we could now do because of my income--and that was that.

Eventually I moved on to a data processing company where I did the majority of the in-house programming (i.e., for the data entry operators) but taught some of the supervisors how to do some basic coding, then handing the programs over to me for the complicated stuff, and I did all the programming for our clients.

Unfortunately, I became disabled in my 40s; I'm now in my 8th year of being unable to work, and it sucks for this former workaholic. I did start some web sites and when I feel up to it I add new designs to merchandise in my shops, but I really miss the daily grind, the pressure, the challenges, and, yes, even the stress that I used to complain about!