Atlantic Nostalgia

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

Wow, you guys were rich. I could only afford a Vic-20 with cassette drive that I bought with my tips from my paper route. A friend gave me a 16K ram expansion cartridge. Couldn't believe all the memory it had after that.

I had a Commodore 64, but, initially I only had a tape drive. I got a floppy disc later on (a couple of years later).

I had a lot of fun with that thing. DOS was a pain in the ass but I got reasonably proficient at it.

Fun fact. My first computer science class at UPEI was in 1976. We did all our programming using punch cards, and our computers stations were teletypes. No monitors. We ran the programs on dot matrix printers.

My how times have changed..............

[Taeolas]

I had no idea what it cost back then, but I think dad may have gotten a discount since he did work at CT when we got it. I'm pretty sure the grandparents chipped in for it too.

I cut my programming teeth on the C64 manuals, learning BASIC on it, as well doing some early graphics and sound programming with PEEK and POKE commands. I didn't have the full memory address space mapped out, but I could make some very simple bitmaps that I could move around based on what few programs I did have. (Typed in by hand, copied from manuals and some magazines I had back then). I had no idea what I was doing, but it usually worked.

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I had no idea what it cost back then, but I think dad may have gotten a discount since he did work at CT when we got it. I'm pretty sure the grandparents chipped in for it too.

I cut my programming teeth on the C64 manuals, learning BASIC on it, as well doing some early graphics and sound programming with PEEK and POKE commands. I didn't have the full memory address space mapped out, but I could make some very simple bitmaps that I could move around based on what few programs I did have. (Typed in by hand, copied from manuals and some magazines I had back then). I had no idea what I was doing, but it usually worked.

I did the same thing.... Commodore did more for the computer/tech industry than they realize I think. PEEK, POKE... wow, haven't heard that in years.

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I had a Commodore 64, but, initially I only had a tape drive. I got a floppy disc later on (a couple of years later).

I had a lot of fun with that thing. DOS was a pain in the ass but I got reasonably proficient at it.

Fun fact. My first computer science class at UPEI was in 1976. We did all our programming using punch cards, and our computers stations were teletypes. No monitors. We ran the programs printed on rolled paper.

My how times have changed..............

Yah, good old machine language cards.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

I did the same thing.... Commodore did more for the computer/tech industry than they realize I think. PEEK, POKE... wow, haven't heard that in years.

Indeed. Commodore was the go to machine for computer hobbyists. Things were much more fun back in those pioneering days.

[Nashe]

I remember playing with C64's at K-Mart in the day, long before I could afford one. At 16 I spent my summer job money to buy and build a Tandy 1000 TL/2 with 16 color monitor and 9 pin dot matrix. I couldn't even afford a hard drive at that point, as the system components I'd bought set me back about $2000 in 1988 money or about $4,600 today. So I operated everything off a 720K floppy, though at least the OS was in ROM so the thing booted lightning fast (for 1988). Taught myself BASIC programming and published a few games to online "Shareware" catalogs. Even built my own sprite painter that generated BASIC code arrays to be used in yet more BASIC programming.

It's really what redirected me from drafting/architecture towards IT, before I finished HS.

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by Nashe

I remember playing with C64's at K-Mart in the day, long before I could afford one. At 16 I spent my summer job money to buy and build a Tandy 1000 TL/2 with 16 color monitor and 9 pin dot matrix. I couldn't even afford a hard drive at that point, as the system components I'd bought set me back about $2000 in 1988 money or about $4,600 today. So I operated everything off a 720K floppy, though at least the OS was in ROM so the thing booted lightning fast (for 1988). Taught myself BASIC programming and published a few games to online "Shareware" catalogs. Even built my own sprite painter that generated BASIC code arrays to be used in yet more BASIC programming.

It's really what redirected me from drafting/architecture towards IT, before I finished HS.

Sounds like you had a lot more brains than I did. I programmed in basic and a few other languages but thats about it.

My big move from the Vic was to a 286-12 with a 40 meg hard drive the size of a brick and sounded like a popcorn popper.

[OliverD]

Taking NB 112 before the current divided Trans Canada was built, also known as the shortcut to Moncton – immortalized by the I Mother Earth song.

I've actually taken this route a couple times in the past few years. It's a neat alternative to the boring TCH.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I had a Commodore 64, but, initially I only had a tape drive. I got a floppy disc later on (a couple of years later).

I had a lot of fun with that thing. DOS was a pain in the ass but I got reasonably proficient at it.

Fun fact. My first computer science class at UPEI was in 1976. We did all our programming using punch cards, and our computers stations were teletypes. No monitors. We ran the programs printed on rolled paper.

My how times have changed..............

I remember my dad taking a computer course in the late 70's. It was Fortran. The punch cards... place one card out of order and nothing would work.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by OliverD

Taking NB 112 before the current divided Trans Canada was built, also known as the shortcut to Moncton – immortalized by the I Mother Earth song.

I've actually taken this route a couple times in the past few years. It's a neat alternative to the boring TCH.

That's the way my dad would go when driving to/from Fredericton. Don't think large trucks were allowed to the road; so it was an uneventful drive. I did convince he one summer to go via Sussex for a change.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Ozabald

That's the way my dad would go when driving to/from Fredericton. Don't think large trucks were allowed to the road; so it was an uneventful drive. I did convince he one summer to go via Sussex for a change.

Coles Island, Jemseg!!

[Taeolas]

Oh yeah, driving from Woodstock to Cape Breton to visit family way back then.

I remember the old route more or less. One of the "big" things I remember was that turn near the road to Sussex, with the overhead flashing light.

I've mostly forgotten the old routing otherwise, but when mom and dad took their RV up to Lutes Mountain near Moncton a few years ago, I suddenly recognized/remembered that stretch of the old highway. (I came down it from Salisbury).

I also took the 'backway' around Coles Island/Grand Lake around that time once and vaguely recognized a lot of the old route near the Coles Island Irving and stuff.

I still regularly take the old highway down to Jemseg, partly because I live on the Northside, and it is a scenic drive any time of the year.

[Sunnybrae]

Anyone remember much of Railroad Days in Moncton? They use to close down Main St. downtown. I think the mascot was Codiac Charlie? There was a parade and lots of things for the kids to do. A real sense of community. I can't remember the last time we had a parade in the summer....

[jonny golden]

The pink subway!

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I still regularly take the old highway down to Jemseg, partly because I live on the Northside, and it is a scenic drive any time of the year.

Yes, I always take the 105 when traveling east from Fredericton. Just a nicer drive than the TCH.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

Anyone remember much of Railroad Days in Moncton? They use to close down Main St. downtown. I think the mascot was Codiac Charlie? There was a parade and lots of things for the kids to do. A real sense of community. I can't remember the last time we had a parade in the summer....

Like Loyalist Days in Saint John. Starting in 1967 it was really big deal in the 70's and 80's but long gone.

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by sailor734

Like Loyalist Days in Saint John. Starting in 1967 it was really big deal in the 70's and 80's but long gone.

Yah, totally forgot about that too. Such a shame.

[gehrhardt]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I had a Commodore 64, but, initially I only had a tape drive. I got a floppy disc later on (a couple of years later).

I had a lot of fun with that thing. DOS was a pain in the ass but I got reasonably proficient at it.

Fun fact. My first computer science class at UPEI was in 1976. We did all our programming using punch cards, and our computers stations were teletypes. No monitors. We ran the programs on dot matrix printers.

My how times have changed..............

Funny, I still have my Commodore 64 AND VIC-20. They're what got me into programming when I was in elementary school.

Now I've been working as a software developer for almost 30 years, so I guess it was a smart decision by my parents to buy that VIC-20 for a little kid.

I was at UNB in the early '90s. We didn't use punch cards, but some courses required us to submit jobs to the mainframe for assignments.

Also, on the subject of Route 112 in Coles Island, I used to own property at the corner of the old TCH and the 112. We had to sell it because my kids just weren't interested in camping there anymore. That's where my profile picture was taken, BTW

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by gehrhardt

I was at UNB in the early '90s. We didn't use punch cards, but some courses required us to submit jobs to the mainframe for assignments.

We didn't use punch cards at NBCC in 1991 but we did have to submit our pre-plotted code (JCL) to be compiled and run at a mainframe downtown (ACOA? BlueCross?) in one class module. Made the MicroVax/VMS look like science fiction in comparison. Learned COBOL and a bit of C that year.

[MonctonRad]

Sounds like we were all a bunch of computer nerds.

I learned BASIC during my computer science course, but no nothing about any other computer languages.