Apparently I'm Officially Old

[cblmc1296]

You're old when:
You wear your pants above your waste.

"Waste" . . .

Hmm. . . as in small intestines or bum?

Below the former; above the latter.

Ah, but you're REALLY old when you wear your pants with your waste! Ugh, that was bad. Sorry. (thankfully, I'm not quite there yet)

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

You're old when:
You wear your pants above your waste.
You remember that when Star Wars was first released it was in that new fangled sound system called stereo.
You remember Watergate.
You remember Patty Hearst.
You remember the last moon landing.
You remember, or were a part of, the campaign to name the prototype Space Shuttle "Enterprise."

I don't know computer programming so I used pop culture.

You remember Yasser Arafat.
You remember S.A.L.T. stood for Stategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
You remember when the NASA Skylab Spacestation came crashing back to Earth in July 1979 (I saw the film "Alien" the night before Skylab crashed).
You remember some nuts believed NASA had faked the moon landings.
You remember Tang, the stuff astronaunts drank as they went to the moon.
You remember when the NASA space shuttle was transported on top of a 747 aircraft.
You remember the unbelievable fictional film "Capricorn One" which used the 3 man Apollo spacecraft to fake a Mars landing trip.
You remember the Star Trek simulation board game Star Fleet Battles.
You remember "Soylent Green is people!".
You remember "In space...no one can hear you scream.".
You remember all the main characters of the television show "Thirtysomething" were older than you at the time when it originally aired.
You remember Bruce Willis as the funny wise guy character David Addison on the tv show "Moonlighting".

That's ok, I do know computer programming and I remember:


In high school:

Learning BASIC on a TRS 80 (Tandy Radio Shack) Model 1 microcomputer (Trash 80 as someone has already stated above) and saving my programs on a cassette tape recorder.

Learning RPG (Report Program Generator) by writing the program on blank coding sheets and using 80 column punch cards to create the program on, waiting 3 days for my program to come back from another high school in the county because that is where the IBM 360 or 370 mainframe was located. In the meantime typing up the documentation on an electric typewriter, drawing flowcharts, and start working on the next program or debugging the previous program.


In college:

Writing BASIC programs using an editor on an HP 2000 timeshare mainframe.

Leaning WATFIV (similar to FORTRAN 77) using blank coding sheets and punch cards on an IBM 4331 mainframe.

Learning (Motorola) 6502 Assembly Language using the BIG MAC Editor Assembler on an Apple IIe microcomputer with 64K of RAM, expandable to 128K, which had a clock speed of 1 MegaHertz and a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive to save your programs on the 5.25 inch floppy disk. At the time the IBM PC had 640K of RAM, expandable to 1,024K (1 Megabyte) and a clock speed of 8 MegaHertz.

Learning (Motorola) 6800 Assembly Language on a Heathkit ET-3400 Microprocessor Trainer, punching in the programs as hexidecimal digits displayed on 7 segment light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Leaning UCSD Pascal using an editor and compiler on an Apple IIe which compiled into pseudo code and translated into executable machine code at run time, instead of compiling into executable machine code.

Learning COBOL using an editor on a DEC VAX 11/780 mainframe.

Writing Standard Pascal programs using an editor on a DEC VAX 11/780 mainframe.


In the work force circa 1987 to 1988:

Writing COBOL programs using the CANDE Editor on an Burrough B1990 mainframe at a Savings and Loan as an Operator/Programmer and getting underpaid. Using reel to reel tape drives that only wrote data at 1,600 bpi (bits per inch) instead of at 6,250 bpi.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[WRStone]

You remember the Star Trek simulation board game Star Fleet Battles.

Hrm ... I'm not remembering. What was the game that pre-dated SFB in which you used yardsticks, thread, and metal miniatures of the starships on the floor? I'll never forget the games played on the basement floor of the church with half my local Star Trek fan club in attendance.

And actually I just checked: the club is still in existence: Star Base Andromeda. I'm amazed how many of the current members' names I recognize. Man, would that be depressing, to show up at a meeting now to see how badly we've all aged.

And Betty Burch has died! She was only 52! Damn, I was hot for her ca. 1980 ...

Anyway, you had metal miniatures spread over a room at least 10'x10' -- as big as possible, really. It was turn based: you'd move, fire, wait for other players to do the same, etc. You'd aim weapons by sight: getting your face down on the floor next to the minature, then run a thread out from the base to where you hoped the enemy ship was.

Damn, why can't I remember the name?

Wait, isn't memory the second thing to go ... ?

Dakota Smith

 

[WRStone]

Actually, in all seriousness, I've started to wonder if someone shouldn't make a Web site explicitly devoted to obscure fanac that none of the youngsters even know about. Think of all the fanzines that have been lost to history ...

I'll never forget Star Trekon '76, the Trek convention in Kansas City. There was a huge, 20'x20' hand-woven mural of the marriage scene from "Amok Time." Plus a rather portly woman who went to the costume ball as a giant tribble.

Ca. 1980, I spotted the same woman at a con in Omaha, NE. She was dressed as Vejur.

Dakota Smith

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

You remember the Star Trek simulation board game Star Fleet Battles.

Hrm ... I'm not remembering. What was the game that pre-dated SFB in which you used yardsticks, thread, and metal miniatures of the starships on the floor?

Anyway, you had metal miniatures spread over a room at least 10'x10' -- as big as possible, really. It was turn based: you'd move, fire, wait for other players to do the same, etc. You'd aim weapons by sight: getting your face down on the floor next to the minature, then run a thread out from the base to where you hoped the enemy ship was.


Dakota Smith

I don't know, it sounds like fun, but it was not in my area, as far as I know. I do remember first seeing the text based Star Trek computer game at a small Star Trek convention. A few years later my friend's father had a modem connection to a mainframe and we would play it. Then a few years later I would play it on the HP 2000 timeshare mainframe in college and a few years later play it at the Savings and Loan on the Burrough B1990 mainframe.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

I'll never forget Star Trekon '76, the Trek convention in Kansas City. There was a huge, 20'x20' hand-woven mural of the marriage scene from "Amok Time." Plus a rather portly woman who went to the costume ball as a giant tribble.

Ca. 1980, I spotted the same woman at a con in Omaha, NE. She was dressed as Vejur.

Dakota Smith

Well, to paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I would pay good money to see that.". Do you have any photographs of her that you could post? I mean no disrespect to people overweight, I am dieting and exercising myself to loose a few pounds and live a long healthy life. I am genuinely curious to see what she looked like.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[WRStone]

Well, to paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I would pay good money to see that.". Do you have any photographs of her that you could post? I mean no disrespect to people overweight, I am dieting and exercising myself to loose a few pounds and live a long healthy life. I am genuinely curious to see what she looked like.

I've not photos whatsoever from that period. I was too young to care about posterity.

Everyone found her costumes funny -- she did, too. She was actually morbidly obese, and she knew it. She used it to her advantage.

And another aspect of aging: I lost 70 pound a couple of years ago after being diagnosed with diabetes. It's fortunately minor and can be controlled by diet. However, when I was diagnosed, I was sent to a hospital -- an experience so generally shocking in terms of quality of care that I've sworn to only be in a hospital if I'm absolutely on my deathbed. I'd only been in a hospital for outpatient sinus surgery prior to then, and I had no idea how bad things had become. Consequently, I've pretty much cut anything resembling sugar out of my diet. Small wonder that I'd lose weight.

Dakota Smith

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

^

Wow. Congrats on the weight loss. Sorry to hear about diabetes, type 2?


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[scotpens]

I think there just isn't anything frenetic in my nature. I don't need to know now, I would just like to know.

When some arcane question pops into my head, I want to know the answer now, dammit! God bless Google.

At this point, I'm starting to think that you're old if you remember when every movie in the Disney Renaissance was good, if you saw the Star Wars special editions in theaters, or if you can remember having a political opinion when Bill Clinton was President.

I can remember having political opinions — the opinions of a hotheaded adolescent, but opinions nonetheless — when Nixon was President. I suppose that makes me a certifiable antique.

You know you’re really old when you can sing TV cigarette commercial jingles from memory.

“The right place, the right time,
The right people, the right cigarette,
Parliament, with the filter that’s in — recessed in!”

 

[Noname Given]

You remember the Star Trek simulation board game Star Fleet Battles.

^^^
You're even a bit older, if you boought the very first "Pocket Edition" of the game (circa 1979); that came in a plastic baggie.

Hrm ... I'm not remembering. What was the game that pre-dated SFB in which you used yardsticks, thread, and metal miniatures of the starships on the floor? I'll never forget the games played on the basement floor of the church with half my local Star Trek fan club in attendance.

And actually I just checked: the club is still in existence: Star Base Andromeda. I'm amazed how many of the current members' names I recognize. Man, would that be depressing, to show up at a meeting now to see how badly we've all aged.

And Betty Burch has died! She was only 52! Damn, I was hot for her ca. 1980 ...

Anyway, you had metal miniatures spread over a room at least 10'x10' -- as big as possible, really. It was turn based: you'd move, fire, wait for other players to do the same, etc. You'd aim weapons by sight: getting your face down on the floor next to the minature, then run a thread out from the base to where you hoped the enemy ship was.

Damn, why can't I remember the name?

Wait, isn't memory the second thing to go ... ?

Dakota Smith

I think the game you're remembering is Lou Zocchi's Star Fleet Battle Manual - where the ships continued to drift after thrusting to whatever Warp Speed you took them to (ie intertia was constant in deep space.)

 

[WRStone]

I think the game you're remembering is Lou Zocchi's Star Fleet Battle Manual - where the ships continued to drift after thrusting to whatever Warp Speed you took them to (ie intertia was constant in deep space.)

Yes! Star Fleet Battle Manual, that was it.

First was Star Fleet Battle Manual, then Star Fleet Battles. Then came the low-end roleplaying game where character creation was fast, and following that FASA's Star Trek - The Role-Playing Game. I hated the FASA version because just creating a character was an art form in itself. :P

I don't remember who did the first iteration of an RPG, but I recall that it included extra things you never saw in the show like body armor, needler weapons, etc.

I'll never forget playing that with a couple of buddies. Two of us were players and the other the GM. The down-side of the simplistic nature of the game was that the GM had to kill him/herself to make it very challenging. After a while, ours had to keep throwing in alien animals that would attack out of nowhere.

We got to the point where we'd routinely go on landing parties with full body armor, minus helmet. From then on, the alien animals would drop out of the trees onto our heads.

Then there was the day when I called the ship:

Me: Kirk to Enterprise.

GM (using the first name that came to mind): Enterprise, Kelso, here.

Me (not skipping a beat and wondering if it was part of the game in some way): Lee?? I thought you were dead?!

For a couple of years afterward, we'd greet each other, "Lee?? I thought you were dead?!"

Dakota Smith

 

[WRStone]

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <dos.h>

...

You'll be happy to learn that I just used this code as the basis for a quiz that I'm giving today.

Dakota Smith

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <dos.h>
 
...

You'll be happy to learn that I just used this code as the basis for a quiz that I'm giving today.

Dakota Smith

Thanks Dakota. I am surprised and pleased. I just created that small C program on a whim, composed it at the keyboard, and posted it that day.



By the way, I forgot to mention, did you ever play a computer game called "The Warp Factor"? The game was created by Strategic Simulation Inc. (SSI) for the Apple II computer in 1981 and for the IBM PC in 1982.

You could play against the computer or against another person using the same computer. I used to play it on my lunch break on an Apple IIe with a co-worker, circa 1986. He had it on a 5.25 inch floppy disk. Instead of the normal Apple DOS 3.0 Format the game disk was formatted for the R-DOS Operating System. This meant I could not copy it. But, I had a friend from college who was an Apple II guru, who broke the copy protection and made me a copy of it. I eventually gave my copy of it away to someone I met on the internet that still had an Apple IIe or IIc or IIgs computer, around 1992 or 1993.

Anyway, in 1986 my co-worker and I would play the Dogfight scenario. I would be the Alliance (UFP) Fleet and he would be the Klargon (Klingon) Fleet. The game was a computerized version of Star Fleet Battles. He would always beat me. He had 5 years of playing experience on the computer before I met him.

I found a free copy of the PC version of "The Warp Factor" on the internet and downloaded it yesterday. I started to play it on my lunch break, the Dogfight scenario, me against the computer, but I did not stick with it. I was spoiled from years of playing the real-time 3D computer version of the Star Fleet Battles game called Starfleet Command by Interplay, released July 1999. I bought Starfleet Command for half the original price at Best Buy 18 months after its release and I still enjoy playing it. I replaced the crude ship models, space station models, planets, and space creatures (for example the Doomsday Machine) with free and more accurate versions that I downloaded. I also replaced the music and sound effects with the music and sound effects from either TOS or TMP or TNG, depending on which era I am playing and wrote some skirmish missions with the free FMSE (Fleet Mission Script Editor) program.



For anyone who may be interested in downloading and playing "The Warp Factor" on your PC here is the link: http://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-warp-factor-1g
It is a zip file called the-warp-factor.zip. Use the download button on the right with the Space Invaders video game Alien image on it and "233 KiB" below it. The download button on the left is not for "The Warp Factor".


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[NTRPRZ]

I turned 57 on Sept. 23, and was out sick (bronchitis). But when I returned Monday, I found myself successfully answering trivia questions from my 20-something coworkers. The official verdict: "Jeff, you're really smart!"
Sadly, not really, I just managed to live through about everything they asked me about from Christine Jorgenson to Men Without Hats.
Like many of you, I've also given up on trying to hide the gray. In fact, I've even let the goatee grow out and now sport my first full spread of facial hair. Unfortunately, little of the original color remains!
And I remember watching TOS in black and white and thrilling to seeing Lost in Space for the first time in color.

 

[Mr.AtoZ]

I don't even remember what I was going to write. That's how old I am.

 

[WRStone]

Thanks Dakota. I am surprised and pleased. I just created that small C program on a whim, composed it at the keyboard, and posted it that day.

I figured that was probably the case (and that's what I told my students). I made some minor changes so that it would run with the Pelles C Compiler that the school uses and simplified it slightly. It's a beginning class, so I didn't want to overwhelm them with too much code.

I did, however, tell them they could keep the code and key it in during lab to see what it did. Some of them did and were astounded that you could get smiley-faces on a command prompt.

The funny thing is that teaching six courses, after a while your mind starts to go blank on making quizzes and such. When I remembered your code, I figured I could use it for students to identify the relevant parts (#include, #define, printf(), etc). They're slightly past the "Hello, World!" stage.

As this is the first time I've taught the class, it's the first time I've made up a quiz for it. If after grading it I like the way the grades work out, I'll use it each time I teach the course.

By the way, I forgot to mention, did you ever play a computer game called "The Warp Factor"? The game was created by Strategic Simulation Inc. (SSI) for the Apple II computer in 1981 and for the IBM PC in 1982.

That's one of the few I've never heard of. It's probably because by then I was busy on the C=64. If the software wasn't available for the C=64, I probably never heard of it during that time period.

For anyone who may be interested in downloading and playing "The Warp Factor" on your PC here is the link: http://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-warp-factor-1g

Cool -- I'll grab it later tonight. It ought to run lickety-split in DOSBox under Linux.

Dakota Smith