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Where did you find software/games in the 80s in the US?

Hawkeye0914

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
54
Location
Dallas, TX
I grew up in the 90s and remember going to computer stores and such and looking at big box games and software. I am messing around with an IBM 5150 and looking for software and games to try. Are there any good old catalogs or magazines to look through to find good software/game ideas to try?
 
The day I discovered bulletin boards systems with my 300 baud modem!
 
Babbages and Software etc. had the best presentation for software in the 80's. But more often than not if I was getting something new (which was practically never) it came from Sears.

I downloaded most of my stuff from BBS's using 1200 and 2400 baud modems (yeah I know the argument about BAUD, but thats what we referred to at the time as thats what the box and selling points called them!)
 
Got a 300 baud modem as Christmas present from the little lady back in 1987. It was all BBS's for me on my SX. BBS's in the DC area were like going to a swap meet back in the day. Did get 'Leisure Suit Larry' from a guy at work.
 
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Got a 300 baud modem as Christmas present from the little lady back in 1987. It was all BBS's for me on my SX. BBS's in the DC area were like going to a swap meet back in the day. Did get 'Leisure Suit Larry' from a guy at work.

386 SX? Commodore Sx-64?
 
He's been gone for over 30 years. I kinda think my SX may be in better shape at this time than both, Tom and Fudgie.

We still have a Carvel in town and I can still get Fudgie the Whale cakes.. I bought one a couple years back and most likely going to buy one in January.
carvel.png

The first location in New York was demolished a few years back and I must have missed hearing about it as I would have gone.
There are still a few locations left. I remember in the 1980s possibly early 1990s when the franchise owners were really getting hosed on franchise fees and most locations almost overnight changed thier names from Carvel to Carnival, Carrosel, etc and dropped the franchise.
This location still has the patented Sliding Door Freezers Carvel made in the 1930's and 1940's. Shame.. Most kids wont remember locations like this. But yeah,, computers and such...
 
Von's Computers (long since gone) right off the Purdue Campus. I worked there as a Freshman. Dan Lawrence of Telengard Dungeon and micro-Emacs fame often held court there.

photo65012.jpg
 
From magazine ads plus a long gone discount software store front in Orange County, CA that had all the public domain CP/M software (FOG etc) on 3.5" disks and close out sealed brand name CP/M software. I got SuperCalc, dBase II and a few other main stream programs at deep deep discount. Sometimes the disk was the wrong size (5.25" vs 8" or - Osborne vs xyz), but one could often send for a new disk for zero to a few bucks as long as you had the S/N.
 
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