Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

I wonder what it would be like to have been the first person to play pong...

* /me wonders what the first computer game was...

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

First computer game? Probably something like Tic Tac Toe

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

CGA and EGA.... that brings back memories. I remember one time when I was in school, the best PC in the lab was something like a 286 and I think it had EGA and we thought it was so great because it was better than CGA. When we played games, we wanted to use the machines with the color monitors, because most of the other machines were IBM XT's with green monochrome monitors. Some of the games ran incredibly slowly on the XT's.

Also, some games, every time we wanted to play them we had to edit autoexec.bat and config.sys and change the files= and buffers= and stuff to make them run, and then after we finish playing the game, edit the configuration back. I remember it was a hassle and it was sometimes hard to get some games to work properly back then because they didn't fit in memory, or it barely fit or something, I forget the details... that was a long time ago.

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

DOS is evil... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/mad.gif[/img] (need some sort of twisted, evil emoticon... this is best available [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]... also need eye rolling emoticon!)

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

Oh, yeah, and some of the old machines didn't have the EDIT command in DOS, so we had to use the EDLIN command, which we all hated.

Back in those days, we used 5 1/4" floppy disks which held 360 K of data. Then those high-density 5 1/4" disks came out which held twice as much. We used to use scissors to cut a notch in our one-sided floppy disks so that we can flip them over and use the other side.

Then, later, when those 3.5" floppy disks came out, many people called them "hard disks" because the pLastic case is hard compared to those flimsy 5 1/4" diskettes. So those of us who knew better had to keep pointing out that the 3.5" diskettes are still called floppy disks, and they are not the same thing as hard disks.

When we formatted those 3.5" floppy disks, we had to type in some command in DOS like FORMAT A: /N:9 /T:80 or something like that, to specify the number of sectors and tracks.

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

I found it easier for people to accept that they were "floppys" if you showed them why they were called that. I kept an opened one around for the purpose.

Oh: They were called floppys because of the mylar that the data was written on.

Took folka quite a while to learn not to leave them in the direct sunlight. They seemed so durable.

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

What next though? Is Moore's Law still in effect. I'm not seeing anything too fancy or powerful coming out lately. That Quantum processing is still 10 years away at least. They always wait until I buy a new computer then something revolutionary comes out. I tricked them this year. I bought an XBOX. Strickly for shooters of course.

Still got my TI-99/4a & Commodore 64!

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

Moore's law is still in effect. It is good for probably another decade or so. Microprocessors still have a ways to go before the transistors become so small that the magnetic fields created by the currents flowing through them become a major issue and rewire the circuits constantly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I got my 2.0 GHz CPU 2 years ago, when the best around was maybe 2.2 or 2.4 GHz. Now, they have them approaching 4.0 GHz. Still roughly doubling. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hija
 

And they still don't parralel process, right?

Our amiga did that. Probably why our 8MHz amiga 500 had better graphics than our 33MHz ibm.

Re: OOT: Thread Overflow Depository (AKA: The Hijack This if you Dare Thread.)
 

I see this thread is going ALL over the place http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif