1/4/2024 It's a bird... It's a plane... It's an Atari 800xl. Yes, the famed Atari. I found my old Atari, whilst I was searching for a lost Pog-Maker from the mid '90s. Unlike the original 800/400 series, the 800xl has a smaller form factor, as well as it being a lot shorter and weighing about the same as my Acorn Electron (about 1.6 kilograms). Sadly, unlike the original Ataris it only has 2 controller ports, instead of the stupidly absurd 4 controller ports of the previous models. One could admire its' daring 2 colour design' of white and black, and its' premium-looking' brushed aluminium controller buttons, but cosmetically that's about it. I also had 2 books for it:- "Discovering Atari 800xl Basic" (Consisting of very short programs, that might excite a bored 6 year old) and "Atari 600xl Games" (Basically same as the 800xl but smaller.) I connected up the computer to my television and turned it on. I was greeted by just a word saying "Ready" on a blue background (Reminiscent of that of a Commodore 64) and a flashing cursor. But no "Atari Basic" header or anything similar to. Just one word "Ready". I decided to enter the 2 page long basic program "Space Shooter" on the computer. A plus to the computer is its' rather nice keyboard'. Unlike the later Ataris-like the XE Games System and the ST, the computer has a rather nice mechanical keyboard with real switches. Although it suffers the typical problem with '80s keyboards of them being too loud, it provides a pleasent yet tactile experience upon ones' fingertips'. 10 minutes later; the game was coded. It firsts asks you to "Enter Your Speed" between 1-10, oddly 10 being the slowest and 1 being quicker than a proffessional runner. I selected 1 (presuming it would be the slowest). It provides you with the skyline of a cit at night, and your "spaceship" being a square block that runs across the screen. Your square block or rather "spaceship" releases blocks which slowly destroy the city, and your spaceship descends slowly down to the city skyline. If it hits the skyline then you die. You have to destroy the city before your spaceship hits it. It is a rather slow and standard game, but for 1985 and only 2 pages long, it provides a fun and worthy experience and may satisfy the retro-gamers palate.
2/4/2024
A Call With The Twitmarshes
Anyone who has the late, great Sir Patrick Moores' Autobiography' will know excactly what I mean by the title-if not I shall explain. Sir Patrick Moore, makes talk abut "Twitmarshes" in his autobiography, and it is a term that he coined. It refers to a money grabbing man of any local company whose only aim is to provide deceit and illicit information (take gas board managers.) Well, this morning I received a so called call of one of these Twitmarshes from the local gasboard. For purposes not to embarass, I shall use a fake name for him Mr "Julian Trotxy" called me up asking for a 50p deposit, for a 50p that I had already paid 2 months ago. I used Patricks' tried and tested claim' of using a rambling sense of non-direct words to throw him off his tracks and I do think I did so. So there. -->Back To Home-The Hive Of All Useless InformationCopyright 2024 Chessplaying Dogs Productions All Rights Reserved No Copying Either Electronic or Mechanical Without Approval and Correspondence With The Author
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