BASIC, DOS, and 5.25 Inch Floppy Disks!!!!

It's amazing what my current phone will do. It has a disk the size of my pinky nail that holds 16 gigs of information, has an out of this world high resolution screen, an awesome camera with flash, lightning fast Internet access, and too many other features to mention. I'm pretty sure that if I traveled back in time, and handed my phone to the 1980's me, that my head would have exploded. It is this realization of how far technology has come just in my short life, that made me want to look back at what I started with.

I felt pretty computer savy when I was younger. In elementary school I was in the gifted class, and part of that class included working with and learning to use computers. We weren't just learning to use programs, but how to program them ourselves. We worked on the TRS-80 by Radio Shack.

It was a monitor, keyboard, and cpu in one monster with no mouse! The monitor color included Black and White. A couple of the computers in the room had color (the newer fancier models!). The color models I believe included white, black (background color), pink, green, a turquoise, and I think purple? 



Does that say "Radio Shack: The biggest name in LITTLE computers"!?!? lol



On these computers we would make our own computer programs and games using the BASIC programing, and then we would all switch seats and play the games that others had made. Usually it was simple things like making it seem as though the computer could think for itself.

example: The computer would ask (on the screen in type, there was no sound) "Are you having a good day?", then you would program IF the response is "yes" THEN reply "good to hear!" and IF "no" THEN reply "sad to hear that!". You could program a full scripted conversation with the computer to talk to your friends.

We were also big fans of making MadLibs on there. You could have the computer ask for verbs, nouns, sounds, etc. and then have it plug them into a story that you had already typed in there. These are the types of programs you make when the computers are being programed by 8 year olds. lol

I don't remember what kind of computer I had at home, but I do remember playing games on it! I had a huge Rolodex for 5.25 inch floppy disks full of games. Things like Wheel of Fortune, Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, and Golf. The 5.25 inch floppy disks could only hold between 89.5KB to 10MB, but still had some awesome games on them.

There were also 8 inch floppies, but I never had to use those.

These aren't games I had, but pictures I found online that show some examples of the graphics.

 The use of 4 colors was really creative!

The last picture is of the game "Win Lose or Draw" and looks the closest to the games that I had. I always loved how they made people look. Classic.

Thanks for taking this little trip back in time with me. :D