When I was in the 8th grade back in 1975-76 the school had a tele-type like hookup to a mainframe somewhere. The students could book time on it to play tic-tac-toe! Of course just like the paper and pencil version it ALWAYS played out ot a draw Much like the video game "PONG" that was a BIG deal to us back then!

Hugh

> Hi Mary!

> Mary, I LOVE reminiscing about the "old
> days" of computing.... :)

> I was actually a teen when we got our first
> home PC (a Commodore-64). I had to save up
> money from my paper-delivery round to help
> pay for it. :)

> Ahhh... tape backups! Yes, I remember
> programs on cassette tapes.... It seems
> almost unbelievable nowadays!

> A friend of mine had a VIC-20 computer - it
> came with just 2k of RAM! (Expandable to
> 8k!) Can you imagine that.... Wow. The
> memory contents of about 750 standard
> VIC-20s would nowadays fit on one floppy
> disk!!!!

> Anyhow, it was fun.... I couldn't afford to
> buy all the games for my computer, so I
> bought magazines and typed in the BASIC
> games (from magazines like Compute!). I
> learned BASIC programming that way.... :)

> I don't program much now, but I keep telling
> myself I'll get back into it one day.... :)
> (I think programming can be very profitable,
> when you couple it with marketing skills
> too....)

> My first experience though was with an old
> Apple II (around 1982)... My school had
> exactly one Apple II, and my friends and I
> used to "book" it at lunch time.
> After experiencing the Apple II, I knew I
> just HAD to get my own.... :)

> (Yeah, I'm pretty much a geek
> through-and-through...!)

> Thanks Mary for this walk down memory lane!
> :)

> I love hearing about people's experiences
> with computers in the 70s and 80s.... It
> really seems like a world away nowadays. It
> helps you to also appreciate the raw
> computing power we now take for granted at
> our fingertips! :)

> - Dien