It's all about the 8-bits this week, isn't it?
And yes, I still know far too much about the 8-bit(s) I owned - a succession of Amstrad CPCs. In fact my b3ta name (the only place I still use it) was originally my Amstrad demo coding name, which probably explains why it's the sort of crap name that only a 13 year old would dream up.

Anyway. I spent far too much time with CALL &BC02 and CALL &BB18 and putting in the right number of NOPs to get the raster timing right and all of that. Split modes. Horizontal splitting (stop that). Different CRTC types. I could bore for Britain.

But in the manner of annoying (by then) 15 year-old entrepreneurs, I also ran this thing called a "PD library". How this worked: some spotty kid sent you, another spotty kid, a C15 tape and 50p. You copied some BASIC games onto it (strictly legit - PD is "public domain", not far off what we now call open source, but more crap and less self-righteous) and sent it back. With all these 50ps you could afford hard drugs, or better still, an Amstrad DDI-1 disc drive, which meant you never had to bother with tapes again.

Copying tapes is slow and it's a rubbish way to earn pocket money. But C15s were bearable. What pissed me off the most, I remember, was when some greasy spotty kid sent me five - five - C90s. That was going to be a whole lot of copying. And yeah, I'd get a few more 50ps for it. But still, there goes the weekend.

So, the old stuff I still know? The name of that greasy, spotty kid... because after copying BASIC game after BASIC game for five times 90 minutes, it's been ingrained on my memory ever since.

Stand up and take a bow, Rob Manuel.
(ChaRleyTroniC is invincible with his chips and cheese, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 19:47, 3 replies)

Ah the good old pre-internet public domain years..
I spent many a summer holiday weekend watching the letterbox, eagerly awaiting the arrival of bubble-wrapped cassettes from places such as Germany, Poland, yugoslavia etc. (speccy PD scene for me..)

Music demos were my thing, and scrolly demos ruled!
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 14:43, closed)

Is this board
the last hiding place of all the ex-CPC owners? My claim to fame was having a couple of infinite lives cheats published in Amstrad Action.
(ianisme, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 14:37, closed)

I think it must be
I ended up as AA's freelance technical editor in its dying years, somehow.
(ChaRleyTroniC is invincible with his chips and cheese, Wed 6 Jul 2011, 16:05, closed)