Vintage Computers, anyone into them? Interested in old MIDI with them also.

[sunvalleylaw]

Was listening to a pod cast on old New Wave music and synth stuff, and for other reasons also, got interested in the computers of my youth, and now have a couple of old Macs and even an old Apple IIe, not the gs that was supposed to be better at music (and art production) in that line of Apple computers before it died.

Starting to learn what these old things can do. Kinda fun to dork around with them. Anyone else get into that stuff? Also a nice diversion from, well…

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I made a huge mistake years ago.
I managed to acquire an Atari ST computer with Cuba’s installed and the hardware dongle included.
I tested it. It worked.
I put it on my pile of stuff.
Then sold it on eBay a few years later.

Apparently, it’s still the go-to for that kind of music.

 

[jrockbridge]

I'm only interested in the nostalgia of old computers. I started programming on Commodore Pet, Vic 20 and 64 computers. I made game software. I got my older brother into it as well. We partnered with my high school teacher to sell the game software on cassette tapes. As a senior in high school, I made the equivalent of about $80,000 in today's money. My brother and teacher each pocketed the same amount that year.

 

[GomezAddams]

Started out on a Vic-20 (sort of a stripped down Commodore 64) and moved up to an Atari 800. I learned 6502 assembler on the Atari.

The band I played in in to 80's had lights we built out of PVC pipe and coffee cans. They were controlled by an Atari 400.

I just sold the 800 and 400 a couple of months ago. They ended up at a local retro computer enthusiast club.

If you enjoy using these old 8 bit computers, there are emulators out there that run on a PC or mac.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I still have this that I picked up for 5 bucks at a sidewalk sale.

 

[jbj]

I'm only interested in the nostalgia of old computers. I started programming on Commodore Pet, Vic 20 and 64 computers. I made game software. I got my older brother into it as well. We partnered with my high school teacher to sell the game software on cassette tapes. As a senior in high school, I made the equivalent of about $80,000 in today's money. My brother and teacher each pocketed the same amount that year.

That's awesome man. What was the game?

We had a zx spectrum then commodore Amiga when I was young. Great games.

 

[jrockbridge]

That's awesome man. What was the game?

We had a zx spectrum then commodore Amiga when I was young. Great games.

There were multiple games. Most of the concepts were based on arcade games. I made Munchman which was similar to Pac-Man. My brother made a game called Asteroidz. Those sold really well until Atari’s lawyers sent us a cease and desist letter. I wish I had saved that letter.

We stopped advertising those 2 games after Atari threatened lawsuits and we stopped selling them. However, we continued to give them away for free with the purchase of other games. IIRC the advertisements were something like, “Buy Snakeout and get another famous arcade-style game for free.”

I think our best game was one my brother programmed that was called Paratrooper. I helped my brother with the look and concept. I seem to recall his code took up less than 3k of memory. It was a one player game where you controlled a gun that was at the bottom center. The gun could point left or right. Paratroopers would drop down from the sky and you had to shoot them or shoot their parachutes. IIRC if 3 paratroopers landed, they would drive a tank and blast the gunner/player. Game Over. The score was based on how many paratroopers were shot down and it would get progressively harder as time passed.

I can’t recall the names of the games we made for the Commodore 64. Some were rehashed Pet and Vic 20 games. We did not do well with the 64. Much more sophisticated programmers and companies had entered the business at that point. We were not able to compete well by then.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I was 34 yrs old in 1994 when I got my first home computer after a big work promotion. I got myself an Apple Performa, Cubase, and a Korg X5-D Keyboard/dig synth. Midi only, DAWs weren’t really a thing. Studios were using Pro Tools and video tape media. Had a blast writing tunes on that rig even tho I had no piano skills and still don’t. Got dial up and found guitar tabs on line. Next machine was one of those all in one plastic IMacs. Used Windows machines at work but always been a Mac guy at home, other than one brief stint with a Dell laptop. Still got the Korg btw.

 

[jrockbridge]

I was 34 yrs old in 1994 when I got my first home computer after a big work promotion. I got myself an Apple Performa, Cubase, and a Korg X5-D Keyboard/dig synth. Midi only, DAWs weren’t really a thing. Studios were using Pro Tools and video tape media. Had a blast writing tunes on that rig even tho I had no piano skills and still don’t. Got dial up and found guitar tabs on line. Next machine was one of those all in one plastic IMacs. Used Windows machines at work but always been a Mac guy at home, other than one brief stint with a Dell laptop. Still got the Korg btw.

In high school, we had a plethora of Commodore Pet Computers with cassette drives and One Apple II. The Apple was so much more sophisticated and had a huge floppy disc drive. Our classroom eventually got a 2nd Apple which must have been an Apple II +.

Apple was always much more expensive and I was poor. The computers I owned were Vic 20 and Commodore 64. I could not justify the cost of IBM, the more affordable Compaq, Hewlett Packard, nor Apple computers. I used the machines in the computer lab at college. After college it was various brands of PC’s running MS DOS or Windows including Hewlett Packard, Dell and Acer.

I used a Dell mini tower with an upgraded 1080i board fed into a 55” Mitsubishi HD CRT rear projection TV. I also added an HDTV broadcast tuner to it. When the Mitsubishi finally gave out, we replaced it with a 75” Sony LED hybrid TV and I bought my first Apple computer, an M1 Mac Mini which we still have.

My son has a gaming PC tower he built running Windows 11. I have a cheap Lenovo laptop running Windows 11.

I have several older PC’s running various versions of Linux. I have an old iBuy Power tower PC running Windows 10. It’s been updated multiple times with different motherboards, yet it’s a dinosaur.

Apple is so much more tight with the integration of hardware, operating system and software. Windows is much more open and flexible which opens up a can of worms for problems. With Linux, I often find myself deep in a rabbit hole. Yet, I stubbornly use them all. I spend a lot of time troubleshooting with Windows and Linux. Not so much with Apple Mac.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

In college (77ish) I took Fortran and Biological Statistics on punch cards that you took down to the basement of the Math building and handed over to a Pakistani grad student who barely spoke English and went back and retrieved you non functioning program full of errors the next morning.
Needless to say I never got on with programming.

 

[jrockbridge]

When I went to high school in Arizona, my older sister worked as a stock broker in New York. They had Apple II computers. So, I pirated a bunch of Apple games at my school, copying them to a big floppy disk. I recall the floppy disks were single sided. I used to cut a notch in the other side of the disk so that you could flip it over, and store more programs on the other side. I mailed my sister a floppy with games loaded on both sides of the disk and it was a big hit with her coworkers.

 

[jbj]

There were multiple games. Most of the concepts were based on arcade games. I made Munchman which was similar to Pac-Man. My brother made a game called Asteroidz. Those sold really well until Atari’s lawyers sent us a cease and desist letter. I wish I had saved that letter.

We stopped advertising those 2 games after Atari threatened lawsuits and we stopped selling them. However, we continued to give them away for free with the purchase of other games. IIRC the advertisements were something like, “Buy Snakeout and get another famous arcade-style game for free.”

I think our best game was one my brother programmed that was called Paratrooper. I helped my brother with the look and concept. I seem to recall his code took up less than 3k of memory. It was a one player game where you controlled a gun that was at the bottom center. The gun could point left or right. Paratroopers would drop down from the sky and you had to shoot them or shoot their parachutes. IIRC if 3 paratroopers landed, they would drive a tank and blast the gunner/player. Game Over. The score was based on how many paratroopers were shot down and it would get progressively harder as time passed.

I can’t recall the names of the games we made for the Commodore 64. Some were rehashed Pet and Vic 20 games. We did not do well with the 64. Much more sophisticated programmers and companies had entered the business at that point. We were not able to compete well by then.

That's awesome man.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I was 34 yrs old in 1994 when I got my first home computer after a big work promotion. I got myself an Apple Performa, Cubase, and a Korg X5-D Keyboard/dig synth. Midi only, DAWs weren’t really a thing. Studios were using Pro Tools and video tape media. Had a blast writing tunes on that rig even tho I had no piano skills and still don’t. Got dial up and found guitar tabs on line. Next machine was one of those all in one plastic IMacs. Used Windows machines at work but always been a Mac guy at home, other than one brief stint with a Dell laptop. Still got the Korg btw.

Which Korg was it? I ended up with some old Roland controllers and a full weighted key keyboard that will act as a controller. All 90’s stuff.

One of them is the same as in this dork video. I kinda looked like that as a young lawyer around the mid-90’s. Maybe slightly younger but about the same. And about as dorky. Ha! Getting into messing around with the old music production on this stuff as I also learn how to use my Logic Pro on current machines better. The MIDI controllers can be used still, and the Roland A-90 can produce its own PCM sound samples that can be recorded. And yeah, I would probably need to use “snap to grid”. LOL!

I have a restored and upgraded Mac SE/30 (runs best in System 7.1) and an Opcode MIDI to serial (ADB) interface too now.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

This is some of the stuff that got me interested.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

@sunvalleylaw “Which Korg was it? ”
X5D.
64 note polyphony 60 something full sized keys, midi in, out, thru, mod & pitch wheels. Keys are touch sensitive w aftertouch but not really weighted. My keyboard player still uses it for orgsn sounds and it still a great midi controller. It has tons of presets but it’s basically impossible to program your own sounds on. Tiny screen and mucho deep diving that would be beyond the patience of 99.9% of people.
But it’s still a very useful machine w some good drums, organs, pianos, and tons of other crazy synth presets many of which are dated or just silly.