1970s Electronic Games

The 1st moon shot had a computer with a whole 8Kbytes on board. Most games today require more than 8Gb just to use the system!

It's funny to see those devices now and then in thrift stores. I never had any interest in them at the time. I was more interested in the more consumer oriented computers like Commodore and Atari. Those were good to learn on and then play a game or two.

I still have all the old computers. My son has collected every old video game system there is I think. He even found a Fairchild system which was more popular in Europe.

As for old games I still enjoy playing MAME. I have several thousand ROM files for it.

Was anyone else in WUlandia stupid enough to buy a Sinlair computer in about 1974.I don't remember how much RAM it had, but a short program to roll two die maxed it out.

Should be Sinclair.

@BMN : I still have my Sinclair ZX-80 I built from a kit (You could get it kit or pre-built). 1K of RAM and a membrane keyboard. It eventually went on to become the Timex 1000.

Yes, I still have a Timex. Bought it on a closeout. Purchased the 16K memory add-on also and pretty much all the software that was available. An interesting attempt at a really low-cost machine. The keyboard was what held it out of the market. But if you were inclined to build input-output boards for it, it made an acceptable process controller and data recorder. I came across one being used for that purpose in the chemistry lab at university in 1990.

Gaming tech has grown by leaps and bounds, well, all tech really but we are talking about gaming. Imagine what we will have in 10 years.

BMN: My dad was intelligent enough to buy a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, although that was in 1984.

I got a whole career out of that thing. And a better education in English that school gave me, and my school wasn't bad. And, thanks to The Hobbit and similar programs, an interest in fantasy literature, then science fiction, then general fiction. I read Ulysses and the Canterbury Tales in the original language, ultimately thanks to Uncle Clive.

This is a pattern I've been noticing before, too. People who had a Speccy grew up to become programmes, scientists and geeks in general. People who had a *hack* *spit* Commodore grew up to be software leeches, games nerds, and in general people who think they know a lot about computers, but don't. And people who had a Beeb... managers, I think. (I don't know what the equivalents in the USA would be - those are all Western European computers and people.)

Mr. BD & Mr. Bos...STUPID in that my Sinclar COST me about a month wages. It was pre ZX-80. But I learned coding.

What, an MK14? I suppose forty quid could've been a month's wages in those days, but still...
Although, come to think of it, that was later. In '74 he didn't have any computers out, only the radio kit, that LED calculator, and maybe the Black Watch.

I did buy the calculator, so I was thinking of it when I said 1974. The Mk14 in 1977 was the one. 256 Bytes. And no it would not have cost a month's wages. And the $300 or $400 may have included other items on the mail order?

It was close to 40 years ago.

Yeah, it's been a while. Children these days don't know what a real computer is!
(BTW, if you're still interested in Sinclair computers, have you seen <http://www.worldofspectrum.org>?)

The 1st moon shot had a computer with a whole 8Kbytes on board. Most games today require more than 8Gb just to use the system!