Well, for me.. my Computer Nostalgia (good word) is..

1981 - My VIC-20 !!

They even had a commercial on tv for it, and then the C64 was next. Anyways..

This 2k machine helped me become the person that I am today - VHELP.

I've spent countless, I said, Countless hours up late night, w/ 2 pots of coffee
and couple of packs of cigarettes (Parliaments) mostly all weekenders
at this machine, creating spider-gulashs and whatnots, and dreaming of
creating the tool that would do it all, and so on and so forth, hehe..

For a while, I was not using any storage medium.. so anything I worked on
that could have ben saved, went to ablivia when I turned off the VIC-20.

At a later time, I finally stepped up to a Tape drive, to record all my hard
typed source codes. All I remember, was popping in my Orange tape full
of source code I was working on, and loving every minute of its load.

The VIC-20 is the computer I learned my 6502 assembler from.
.
.
Every weekend I plugged away at it (down in the furnished basement, pooltable
and tv set and comfee couch) and even invited some freinds over (to show
off, hehe) Plus, my Atari gamming system was right next to it. Favorite
fame was Astoroids and Pac-Man. Anyways..
I loved (and cherrish) the moments w/ this machine.

I next, moved on to the C16 (a slightely enhanced VIC-20 model but w/ better
features and more ram) I got this one when I moved on, from home.
.
.
Then, I finally took the next step.. got a 1541 floppy drive. I was in pure
heaven w/ this drive. I had it all - almost.

I shortly later, moved on to the C64 (Comedore 64) along w/ my 1541/1542
floppy drive, and was really pluggin away now. There was a tv commercial done for
this one too. On this machine, I did a lot of 6502 assembly programming on it.
Mostly spent late nights on this, and weekends were great on this.

Anyone remember that popular Gazzettes freeware, "SpeedScript".
It was a wordprocessor, (that broke the mold) that this puplisher put out via
source code you had to type in. It took me all weekend to plug into my computer.
This was a by-weekly or montly magazine that published lots of source code at
the end, and you had to plug in (in short) 3-digit numbers arross the page, and
this was pure madness. But, when it worked, horray!! I can say, I typed in
MANY source codes like this. If memory serves me, I think it went like this:

001: 000 020 178 008 080 080: 242
002: 100 030 218 180 080 080: 277
003: 010 120 255 009 091 010: 154

Very briefly...
The last 3 digits had what they called a "checksum" number, that if it didn't
match that which was in the page, you typed an error, and you could re-key in
the line. This was an effeciant means to plug in source code (at the time)
and it worked quite well. I may be off on the above, but it's the best I can
do w/ such a short memory. So, please do forgive me if I'm in error
Imagine typing in pages and pages of this stuff. Yeah, that's what I did!!
And, it was fun.. at the time.

Life was SOO much simpler way back them days. You turned on your computer,
and it was up in an instant. Today, you wait 3 to 5 minutes

Some of ther fond memories were of prior experience with:
* TRS-80 w/ tape drive (school)
* PET computer - (school)
* 1983 - first IBM PC w/ 10MB hd network (school, and first love letter)
* 1986 my first 8088 pc, ITT Extra w/ 256k ram and Amber CGA monitor
* more to this day

I moved on lots further, but this is one of my cherrished Nostalgia times.

Lots more to say on this, but I don't want to bore you all w/ MY Nostalgia
but it was fun share bits and pieces w/ you all here, thanks.

-vhelp

Not boring at all vhelp
I remember all of that
I never had a VIC-20 ( or a C64 ), but 6502 was SO simple, that it was a LOT of fun to program

I still remebter ( circa 1983 ), I used to work for a company ( a mobile communications company, before cellular technology here in P.R. ), I wrote a program with my Atari 800 to control a sequence of LEDs ( light emitting diodes ) and create a "light flow" sequence on a huge display ( a map ) for a big convention. What I did is I programmed the joystick ports ( 6522 PIA chip ( I still remember that name ) as Input/Output, and I used a bunch of transistors as "switches" to drive the LEDs. So then a little program, actually written in "Atari Basic", I controlled the LED's with different patterns. Back at that time, most people thought that a joystick was only for input. But the chip in the Atari ( I believe it is the same on a C64?,, PIA or VIA? ) can be programmed as I/O. So I had 16 ports (bits) available for control. So I used ( I think it was ) 4 ports for address ( controlling a 74LS154? addess decoder ( Gee, I'm not sure if that was the chip number ) and 8 bits for data ( with some other 74LS??? ( latch ) chip )
Now I'm really going back in time

-kwag

Yes, you're really going back in time w/ port controls and switching. I too
remember several attempts at this. But, I was more into the programing
part than the robotics parts hehe.. But, those numbers you wrote, rang
some similar bells to my years too... 74LS154 and VIA sound similar in
memory to me too. Yeah, I had a friend that was even MORE into electronics
than I was. And, let me tell you, I WAS into electronics. I wanted to be an
Electonics Engineer (aka, inventor) I wanted to create gadgets that we all
could use. But, luck had it, that my schools classes too over booked w/
students (wanting the same dream) and I was bumped down to auto machnics.
But, there too, had too many students. And, I had to be bumped down to
Data Process, Computer Programming.. at a Trade School, during my early
HS years. That's how I got into Computers and things. I can't look back at
what could have ben, because quite frankly, I don't care. I wound't
turn back the clock for those other courses now. I'm ever so happy in what
I do now! and w/ no regrets

Yeah, I do remember making a keyboard switch that controled motor, now
that I think about it. I "talked" to the outside world via the Expansion
ports, from a schematic (when I used to be able to read them ) and it
was just a few wires that I aligator cliped somehow, inside the box.

But, you ARE right. Back then, you could conjur up a crazy gizmo, and people
would love you for it. I mean, then would hire you cause you was gifted or
something - like a brain they couldn't be w/out Yeah, those were the
gold old day.. the best, were there WERE no rules, and you didn't get banned
for not following ISO or something domb sht like that today. It's all
copy infringment this days if you conjur up something. There's other things
I did, but you've ben there too and know what I'm talking about

Hay, thanks for the extra memories,
-vhelp

Do you guys ever think about how lucky we've been to live through that era?

I just love to run some old games and programs on an emulator..actually I think that I play games via an emulator more often than true PC games

Yes Me too
My favorites of all times: Star Raider, Galaga(Galaxian), Zaxxon, Space Invaders
I still have the original Star Raider cartridge for my Atari, and it works fine on an old Atari 400 I have (My 800 bombed out a long time ago )

-kwag