Hey, Hey, 16k. What Does That Get You Today?

[Jonathon Watkins]

http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

Off topic-weekend-retro time. Do the names ZX Spectrum, ZX 81, Dragon Vic, Oric1, Commodore 64, Amstrad, Acorn Electron and BBC Micro mean anything to you? In a musical mood? Then you may wish to point your browser here for a cheerfully nostalgia rousing chorus of " Hey, hey, 16k"
Please note, some of the animations at the root site may be less than G rated/U rated.

"…Then five minutes with finger crossed, hoping not to witness the terror, of a tape loading error." Ah, those were they days! The scary thing is that I have played nearly every game mentioned in that song. 8O A well spent youth I think! :lol:

So, if you're in the mood for more classic gaming after this, and are near Milwaukee in the US, then the Mid West Gaming Classic event may be just the thing for you. It's on today and tomorrow at the Brookfield Sheraton Hotel.

And if you're STILL interested in retro gaming, and want to do some hard-core hacking, there's a yearly contest to write a game within a constrained amount of space. Last year's competition was for 1K or 4K. Meaning that the program code for the games was only permitted to occupy either one or four kilobytes of memory! The 2003 winners are shown here. The 2004 contest will be announced in a couple weeks, so if you're interested, keep an eye out!

So, who's for another chorus of "Hey, hey, 16k. What does that get you today"? :mrgreen:

[Jonathon Watkins]

http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

Off topic-weekend-retro time. Do the names ZX Spectrum, ZX 81, Dragon Vic, Oric1, Commodore 64, Amstrad, Acorn Electron and BBC Micro mean anything to you? In a musical mood? Then you may wish to point your browser here for a cheerfully nostalgia rousing chorus of " Hey, hey, 16k"
Please note, some of the animations at the root site may be less than G rated/U rated.

"…Then five minutes with finger crossed, hoping not to witness the terror, of a tape loading error." Ah, those were they days! The scary thing is that I have played nearly every game mentioned in that song. 8O A well spent youth I think! :lol:

So, if you're in the mood for more classic gaming after this, and are near Milwaukee in the US, then the Mid West Gaming Classic event may be just the thing for you. It's on today and tomorrow at the Brookfield Sheraton Hotel.

And if you're STILL interested in retro gaming, and want to do some hard-core hacking, there's a yearly contest to write a game within a constrained amount of space. Last year's competition was for 1K or 4K. Meaning that the program code for the games was only permitted to occupy either one or four kilobytes of memory! The 2003 winners are shown here. The 2004 contest will be announced in a couple weeks, so if you're interested, keep an eye out!

So, who's for another chorus of "Hey, hey, 16k. What does that get you today"? :mrgreen:

[OSUKid7]

lol...I saw that a few days ago. A little scary to say the least. 8O :?

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by OSUKid7

lol...I saw that a few days ago. A little scary to say the least. 8O :?

I saw it last Monday, but have been too busy to post it. Plus I thought it would make a good weekend off-topic post. 8)

Why is it scary?

[dean_shan]

Nice. Some of those game look really fun.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by dean_shan

Nice. Some of those game look really fun.

They were, they *really* were. (Or are, if you have an emulator :wink.

[OSUKid7]

Originally Posted by Jonathon Watkins

Why is it scary?

lol...maybe not scarey in that way, but who had the time to make such a strange music video...kinda makes you think.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by OSUKid7

lol...maybe not scarey in that way, but who had the time to make such a strange music video...kinda makes you think.

You ain't seen the half of it. Most of the really talented/weird ones have seemed to be British as well. 8O :lol:

Some people just have too much time on thier hands! :lol:

As did we when we were younger and playing the games. :lol:

[dommasters]

ZX81 was my first computer. Changed my life LOL. Fab machine. Shame Clive went crazy and tried to sell gocarts with hoover motors LOL. You could do LOADS in 1K never mind 16K.... but then the graphics were kind of poor
Remember pirating with two tape recorders linked together ... well I was very young and the pocket money didn't stretch far.
Anybody remember the commercial ZX81 apps ? Those guys must have made a fortune given they only had to write a 1K game.

READY.

1K Chess LOL

[SeanH]

Back in the day I used to know 6502 ASM inside and out. It was amazing how good the apps were on a micro with that limited address space. Here is a link of a bunch of machines that bring back memories of the past.

http://www.geocities.com/oneelkruns/65machines.html

Sean

[DaleReeck]

Back in the day, 16K was a whole game in itself. Now, only one page of a game's "Readme" file takes up 16K