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New User here

 Hello My name is Gene.
 
Back in Feb '84 I bought my first 64 and a datassette. After realizing that the Datassette was almost useless, (here in the U.S.anyway) I bought a 1541. I used a cheap 13" color tv for my monitor, (I was poor.)  Why did I buy one? Many reasons. One, I worked as a technician  for Cal Comp in Anaheim California, the inventor of the Pen and Ink Plotter. My friend Bill, (with two L's) and I worked on computers, we wanted to have our own. Two, I've always been into technology, and I hoped to learn more using my new computer, that was helped by me finding a vic-modem at a local swapmeet in Santa Ana, Calif that May. That of course, initiated me into the wonderful world of BBS's, a community which is sadly gone now. It sure was nice to be able to meet the friends you meet on-line.
I currently own 4 Commodores, 2 SX-64's, and two Amiga 2000's.
 
Gene

Post pictures. :)

Post pictures. :)

Re: New User here

Gene wrote:

> Back in Feb '84 I bought my first 64 and a datassette.

I got my first C64 in August 1983, and then the next month I bought an aftermarket datasette ($5 cheaper than the C= datasette!).

> After realizing that the Datassette was almost useless, (here in the U.S.anyway)...

I used that datasette for two years until I bought a SX-64 on close-out. I now had a disk drive. :)

> ...I used a cheap 13" color tv for my monitor, (I was poor.)

I was poorer; I used a black-and-white 12-inch t.v. and went through its 300-ohm antenna connectors. When that t.v. died, I got a Sears black-and-white 12-inch t.v. which had a composite input! I still have that t.v. (though I graduated to color when I got that SX).

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Because I could gereally fix

Because I could gereally fix the old hi-voltage TV sets I could usually lay my hands on someone's throwaway and get it running.  My favorite chassis was Zenith and I would keep them until they started blowing out too many voltage triplers (an arcing noise).  If you knew me in the 70's and 80's there was always a Zenith 23-25" near by.  Actually had one with a Round picture tube at one point.
Bil

Re: New User here

Bil Herd wrote:

> My favorite chassis was Zenith and I would keep them until they started blowing out too many voltage triplers (an arcing noise). If you knew me in the 70's and 80's there
> was always a Zenith 23-25" near by.

If I remember correctly, when I was a kid, our first color t.v. was a 25' Zenith color t.v.. It had a much bigger screen than our previous Motorola black-and-white t.v.. That Zenith came in time for us to watch the first episode of Star Trek. "The Man Trap," the episode with the "salt vampire." Being that we didn't know what Star Trek was, we couldn't figure out why the alien planet's sky was orange-red. So, we kept fiddling with the Zenith's hue control until we got a blue sky. Of course, that screwed up all the other colors in the show. We blamed the Zenith. ;)

We learned later on,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

That was back when people

That was back when people would get used to watching green or orange people and not notice that the tint control was is a silly position.  I was known for walking in the door at friends houses and heading straight for the TV to adjust their tint back to normal, usually before exchanging pleasantries.  I could also adjust convergence a fait amount by eye without the test generator.
One of the problems of the day was that TV's really did have a hard time making flesh tone (orange).  If you think of the color spectrum as as a circle like a tint wheel, the orange color falls at a place that is harder to make (close to the color burst position on the wheel)

Re: That was back when people...

Bil Herd wrote:

> One of the problems of the day was that TV's really did have a hard time making flesh tone (orange).

Very true. On our family Zenith we had to settle for the lightest shade of orange. :)

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

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