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September 14, 2005
Generation VIC20
At the breakfast table this morning, the following conversation took place between Christopher (11) and myself. Enjoy.
Chris: So Dad, what's a computer science class for at school?
Me: Well, you learn to program there for example.
Chris: Program?
Me: Yes, to write computer programs using a special language.
Chris: You mean like games?
Me: Well, yes I suppose.
Chris: Like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic?
Me: Umm, no.
Chris: Well what then?
Me: That sort of game takes a whole team and years to make. When we first wrote programs we learnt as we typed them in.
Chris: Typed them in? Why didn't you use a CD?
Me: Umm, well we didn't have CDs back then.
Chris: - laughs -
Me: We typed the programs in from a magazine. And those were games we then played.
Chris: How much did you have to type in? Maybe I could do that.
Me: I don't think you'll find magazines like that around any more. We typed in pages of code - say 4 or 5.
Chris: And then you had a game you could play?
Me: Yes.
Chris: Like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic?
Me: Umm - well - no. Say, isn't it time you went to school?
Posted by Matthew at September 14, 2005 10:34 AM
Comments
LOL!
Reminds me of "What? You had no mouse and no windows on the screen? So how could you use the computer at all?".
Posted by: Sylvain Wallez at September 14, 2005 01:06 PM
As a vic20 owner I recall somekind of cassette tape contraption as well.
Posted by: Steve Mallett at September 14, 2005 03:44 PM
Matthew,
If you want to show your son what you were talking about, have him take a look at http://www.gizmo-a-gogo.org/compute/. This is a program I wrote and had accepted for publication when I was a freshman in high school. I scanned the pages in to show the Mobitopia crew.
Craig
Posted by: Craig Setera at September 15, 2005 04:23 PM