this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
567 points (97.6% liked)

Technology

59735 readers
2690 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

How much would you pay for a PC with 128KB RAM, and no hard disk?

In today's money (inflation adjusted)

This an ad from Personal Computer World (UK) from 1985

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Who remembers the Sinclair ZX-80 with a massive 1kb ram?!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was starting writing here to correct you that it had 48KB (like the spectrums) but thought to check on wikipedia and... you are right! Oh my goodness! 1kb and called a computer! And was a computer!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember they had a space invaders type game for it, written and run IN 1k RAM!! Just amazing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

theres 1K programming demo contests now that would blow your mind. like https://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?type%5B%5D=1k

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ooh! I had a ZX-81 with a 16k ram pack on it (and cassette recorder to save with!) as a kid haha….god I’m old!!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't mind me. Just showing off the Sinclair ZX Spectrum bag I got a couple of weeks ago. I'm nostalgic for 5 minute loading screens that could trigger an epileptic fit!

The 80s were a different time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh that’s amazing!

The 80’s were certainly a different time. Especially when only allowed to access a computer at school for a few minutes in the day (Apple IIe) so all of us could “have a go at the computer in the library”!

I would never have imagined as a kid what it was going to be like today with smartphones and the internet everywhere….

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You were lucky! We only had BBC's in our computer room.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Only had BBCs". The best 8-bit computer of their generation? ONLY had a BBC? You have any idea how lucky we were growing up with those amazing machines in the 80s-90s? I owe my whole career to the BBC, with an honorable mention to the ZX Spectrum I had at home.

Even today, they're still in use.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I guess I went to a well funded public school... In 1984-5 we had a whole bunch of apple ][s so we had an hour or so per week of programming in basic- I had a commodore 64 at home so I could do the classwork in the first 5-10 minutes, then spend the rest of the time playing with it to see what it could do...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Shut up and take my money!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Possibly the worst keyboard ever too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I do, wonderful machine. You could get a 16K RAM pack (most did) that made a huge difference. Problem is, if an ant sneezed in the next town over it'd wobble loose and the machine would crash. A dab of Blu-Tac was just the ticket.

The ZX Spectrum came out 2 years later and was far more capable, and reasonably priced.