h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was getting Amstrads to print

jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here
jon m was here

back then

Ahhh, the joys of ZX81 ownership.... type for 2 hours on an impossibly small keyboard, sneeze/place your coffee mug too near the computer/breathe too heavily and the RAM pack moved, wiping everything you'd just typed from memory...


I often wonder how many ZX81s met their maker by being thrown out of a bedroom window

Ours still resides in the loft with all the magazines and a few cassettes

I think that is because my Dad took it away from my sister before she could really ruin it!

Mel

I used to play with BBC Basic a lot. Too much, in fact. I remember we had an emulator on my last school's network. There was some sort of command like VDU 2 or something, which made the text appear character by character - and also, unbeknown to us, filled the entire server hard disk up gradually with '[Insert name here] smells bad!!!!' in technicolor, capital letters...

Ah, the good old days...

Whoami?

Arcadians on the BBC we had at my primary school was ace!

I just remember spending twice as long trying to program anything as playing on it!

Mel

My first job was programming for the BBC Micro.

What programs did you... program...? how annoying that the noun and the verb are so similar that they almost make an Austin Powers joke...

Mel

I wrote ROMs. Among others, I worked on Wordwise Plus, InterWord, InterSheet, InterChart and Spellmaster.

Tracey,

"We have 8-track at the radio station and I cannot wait to get editing on it"

Not one of those then.
The 8 track was a ghastly cartridge player. The cartridges looked a bit like small handbags, they were pre-recorded and all the ones I encountered were worse than naff - mainly country and western it seemed. If memory serves, the tape was looped, about three or four times the width of yer actual audio cassette.
They were awful.
I don't want to think about it any more.

Surely that's your own fault for getting country and western cassettes. I think we had "Take Five" and "Windmills Of Your Mind" among other things. I don't know who has the player etc now though.

Aaaah, Windmills of your mind

Plaguesville, you hit 60 and didn't tell me?

"Aaaah, Windmills of your mind "
Ideal material for an 8 Track - going on and on and round and round.

"Plaguesville, you hit 60 and didn't tell me? "
I did make an announcement but it was in a cavern in a canyon where the sun has never shone.
I lie. It was just another day.
I once hit 90 in a mkI Zodiac in a built up area, but I didn't tell you about that, either.

"...Wordwise Plus, InterWord, InterSheet, InterChart and Spellmaster..."

I have Wordwise Plus and Spellmaster lying around the house somewhere... Also some of the magazines Mark Moxon edited at about the same time...

Granny's Garden for the BBC Micro. Nice music.

the fugs, lothar and the hand people, fevertree,the flock, big momma thornton,albert king, three dog night
cereally though folks, many of these are showing up in commercials.
(and kansas is touring. who'd a thunk it?)
a-ling

Ooh I like Granny's Garden. We got it (and the BBC B) 8 years ago .

Z81. That's a Spectrum innit? My son programmed the Speccy to flash different colours when he was 8. I still haven't figured that one out.

Hey plaguesville, I once hit 90 in an ancient Marina. The policeman that stopped me obviously didn't believe his eyes - he eventually did me for having a broken tail light.

About that list a few posts back..

I was born in 1986 and I did know all of those things, I did have a record player etc etc...

So

Wordwise Plus

Jim, a belated Thank you" for your participation.
*W. ran the communications of a modest-sized trade union for more years than I care to remember in the 80s (including a "successfully" concluded 18 month work to rule). The BBC model B with ROM is atop my wardrobe, the TV and cassette tapes and discs are in the loft - hidden from my wife's disapproving glare. My daughter, who learned her alphabet and colours with its help, is about to start at university.

I never did master all of the tweaks that Wordwise Plus introduced. It was certainly a masterpiece, far better than anything my acquaintances were running.