Favorite Things: Computers

It was back in grade school, sometime in the early 1970s, that the principal informed us over the intercom that the district had obtained a "computer," which was going to tour from school to school so that everyone would have a chance to see it. My school had the computer for just a week, and we were ushered into the principal's office only once. There, we were trained to excel in a game called "Moon Lander." Do you remember it?

There were no graphics, of course, but only text--mostly numbers. All my classmates crashed into the moon. Later, in high school, we would play Star Trek over the district's time-sharing network. Old-timers will remember how you connected the local teletype machine to the distant mainframe by inserting a telephone into a tight-fitting rubber device.

Star Trek was text-based, too, although the text printed out into arrays that suggested graphics. On a shelf behind my desk, I actually have the code to Star Trek, written in Basic: it's on page 157 of Basic Computer Games, by David H. Ahl, copyright 1978. I once typed it into my first "microcomputer"--the Amstrad PC6400 shown in the picture. I bought the Amstrad when I was in law school. It had "dual floppies"--that is, no hard drive--and it came with three operating systems: MS-DOS, Digital Research's DOS-Plus, and CP/M. It's still in the basement, and I still boot it up from time to time.

In 1990, when I started working at a law firm, I took my Amstrad with me and set it on my desk. Many of the partners were openly derisive: if I insisted on typing, which was a secretary's job, I must remember to keep the door shut. Within two years, however, all of those partners had PCs on their desks, and were attending mandatory classes on how to turn them on.

Although my story is not unique to anyone near my age who was a hobbyist (see this short article, for example, which I just found), I'd like to write a long essay someday about my lifelong attachment to computers, interspersed with the stories that are told in the advertisements contained in the stacks of Computer Shopper magazines I have stored in the basement, just in case I ever need them.

Maybe I'll write the essay on the Amstrad.

[Below the Fold: Other "favorite things" posts]

Other "favorite things" posts:

1. Drinking, Smoking & Screwing

2. The Fender Jaguar Electric Guitar

Comments

[Steve]

I used to play Star Trek in jr high on the Apple IIe. It was pretty sweet jumping to warp speed and watching the 'E' fly across the screen.

I wasted so much time mistyping those Basic games out of those books.

[Evan]

Steve: But wasn't it fun staying up all night, trying to pinpoint the typing errors?

[Matt Schuh]

I'll date myself as being a little younger here...we spent hours playing The Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe. We died many times from cholera, but aside from any educational value this game may have had, I'm fully convinced we only played it for the excitement of hunting for the buffalo along the way.

[Carolyn Elefant]

Hey Evan, thanks for the trip down memory lane (memories have certainly gotten bigger these days of course!) I bought my first computer, an Apple II SE in 1987, at the beginning of my third year of law school with savings from high paying biglaw summer job. Even with the school's student discount, the machine and printer were something like $1850 - it was the biggest check I'd ever written. Of course, I quickly began to earn back my investment by starting a resume and letter writing service. Back then, so few students knew how to draft a resume on a computer that they'd pay me $35-$50 per resume and a $1.00 a cover letter. I made several hundred dollars from my business by the end of the year (only to have to spend it to pay for my Bar Review course)
Unfortunately, my computer met its untimely demise two years after I graduated. I was out of town for the weekend and a pipe burst in my apartment building, destroying my computer. I received an insurance check for $600 salvage value but at that time (1990), it wasn't enough to buy a new machine. I didn't get my own machine again until 1994 when I started my law firm and then, it was a PC, not an Apple.

[Mike]

I played the "Oregon Trail" or something like that. Around '86, I think.

[JR]

Matt: Oregan Trail was THE game in elementary school. I would love to play that game again.

[Charlsie]

Oregan trail was the best thing about school. It taught me that even if I killed four buffalo, I would only be able to carry about 1/10 the weight of a single buffalo and would have to leave the rest to the wolves.