Hello everyone. The newbie speaks ;-).

[MystikShadows]

For those of you that don't know, i'm the other 1/2 of ascii-world (http://www.ascii-world.com) . I guess that makes me and E.K. errr a couple!!?!?

.oO( what will my wife say? hehe )

Glad to be there, I hear there's alot of kewl people so well, here I am. I've always loved text development (first due to lack of choice, back in 1975, graphics were in scifi movies . then because if the sheer processing power of text apps which weren't interrupted or interfered with by the burden of a heavily bloated GUI.

And well, no matter what, alot of classic text only games I still find hard to be (as far as story line, alternate possibilities, and the likes). so I have no reason to hate them any less today just because 3D games are taking over. .

Anyway, hope to talk to you all soon...enjoy the place, I know I plan on it

[DOSGuy]

My first computer was a Kaypro 4, and the first great game I played was Adventure, aka Colossal Cave. I loved everything about that game. I had to make a map so that I could explore. The descriptions were just like being there. I can understand why people got so absorbed in games like Zork.

This site is a bit light on text adventures at the moment, because I have to play every game on the site in order to review it. It takes a while to get a feel for whether or not a text adventure is any good, whereas I can play a round of Dotso (recently added), write a review and add it to the database in two minutes. Rest assured, more ASCII games are coming.

I'm afraid I wasn't around in 1975, but I remember Tron, and the Atari/Intellivision games that were based on it. Graphics truly were limited to science fiction movies at the time. Look how long it took them to be able to make a game like Tron 2.0! Technology has finally caught up, but I'll always enjoy kicking back with an hour of Hocus Pocus or Major Stryker, and my new favorite strategy game, Blind Wars. And every once in a while, I still venture into Colossal Cave to see if I can beat the game without dying. Stupid dwarves.

[E.K.Virtanen]

Wuhuu, Mystik you made all the way here
Back at 1975...hmm...i did born then and i got my first computer 1982 so im right behind you...err...dont please misunderstund that lol

[MystikShadows]

Ahhh...well that explained alot ....lol

yeah ( was 7 when I officially started with computers and computer programming..Ahhh those were the days ...

[DOSGuy]

I go with 9. I started by writing games for my Vic 20 in Commodore BASIC.

[E.K.Virtanen]

Golden days
My friend has Vic-20 as first computer. My first was BASIC2000. Havent heard of it after that 3 months i had it. Whole 2k ram It was pretty easy to fill you know

Then i got Spectravideo 328 wich had pretty similar basic to QB. From 328 i moved to Spectravideo 738 wich was MSX clone. I had C-64 there too before i got my first pc, Sanyo MI6 (8086).

[edit] it was 8086, not 80486

[Lendorien]

I cut my teeth on a Kaypro 2X my Dad got back in 85. He was the president of a Kaypro Computer Club (WAAAAY before the internet here) and got all sorts of public domain software as a result. I really do wish there was some interest in Kaypro CP/M software. I have a ton of public domain stuff (and lots of mbasic games and a good number of executable ones.) for the Kaypro just sitting in a box. Of course, it'll all go to pot eventually and I have no clue how to convert it to some form that an emulator could read, or for that matter if there even IS an emulator for CP/M at all. I do have a copy of Uniform, which can convert files from CP/M to Dos ont he kaypro itself, but beyond that...

Don't have a 5.25 floppy drive on my pc anyway.

Sad really. On slow days I pull Dad's old computer out of the closet and play Ladder.

Seriously, do keep at the Text adventures. There were some great ones. For folks like me, that's what we grew up on.

[DOSGuy]

My first computer was a Kaypro 4. I haven't looked up the difference between Kaypro models, but I'm sure I could find compatibility information on Wikipedia.

I keep a 5.25" floppy drive in my computer, and I have a pile of 5.25" drives in a box in my basement. I got a bunch of them for $2 each from a computer recycler when I realized that they weren't being made any more. The problem is that the Kaypro used a 390K disk format that may not be readable by a PC.

Kaypro emulation exists in the form of the MESS emulator. I'm not sure how they get their data onto their computers, but TOSEC (The Old School Emulation Center) attempts to archive the entire software libraries of old computers and video game consoles. You could easily download a Kaypro TOSEC archive to play old Kaypro games in an emulator.

I have boxes of 5.25" floppy disks for DOS, Kaypro, Commodore, and Apple that I fear will be unreadable soon, so I created the DOS Historical Preservation Society in the hopes of making bit-perfect copies of those disks. I was contacted by other preservation societies and made aware of software that controls the floppy disk of an Amiga to allow not only bit-perfect disk images, but enough control to detect and correct bit errors! Unfortunately, I don't have an Amiga, or the slightest clue as to where to get one, so the society never got off the ground. If I get an Amiga, I'll archive every floppy disk I can get my hands on. Hold on to your Kaypro disks!

[MystikShadows]

yeah great idea...let me know how I can help. I'd love to be part of this initiative.

[eugeneman42]

DOSGuy: I have what's called a "CatWeasel" floppy controller on my PC. It's a special controller that's capable of reading just about any format of floppy disk. I also have special software for doing bit-for-bit imaging of all sorts of formats using this controller. So far, I've been using it to image hundreds of TRS-80 and Kaypro disks that I have (mostly TRS-80). I'd like to help you with this project very much. Of all the disks I've imaged, there's been only 1 that I haven't been able to get a good read for. Send me your e-mail address and I'll send you my phone number so we can talk, if you're interested. I'd really like to help you do this. My e-mail address is trs80@marmotking.com.

Z80 machines and especially Kaypro, TRS-80 and VT180 machines have a special place in my heart.

My most recent aquisition:


Please be in touch...BTW, I'm scanning and archiving boxes upon boxes of manuals too. Many have been submitted to Ira's site. If you go to http://www.trs-80.com you'll see some of my submissions listed under the "Site News" (look for those from David Cooper). I have boxes more to scan and archive. I'm also working on a project that uses an actual Kaypro II to image a disk (using the 1793 controller directly) and sending the image to the serial port and visa versa so that images can be made on the kapro and transfered to any system as well as making new floppies from images using the 1793.

[DOSGuy]

Awesome! I'm so glad that you contacted me about this.

I think the people around here are pretty trustworthy, but with spambots and spiders around, you may want to reconsider putting your email address in your post, unless that's an address you only use for forums and registrations.

I love that pile of Kaypros. What models are those? I loved my Kaypro 4 to death. I can't believe how long I spent staring at that tiny green monochrome screen. I won't buy anything less than 17" now!

[developertn]

I don't have a Kaypro however I wish I had a real DOS machine hehe