Hello from Paris, France !

[fbal]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but not new to vintage computers. So far, I have been mainly participating to french forums, and Next or SGI dedicated forums.

My interest is mainly in Apple hardware and in workstations (SGI, SUN, HP, DEC...), or systems that I was dreaming to have when I was younger, but could not as they were too expensive for me e.g. HP87. A long, long time ago (when I was 14 years old), my parents bought my first computer i.e. a "used" Commodore PET 2001 with 8Kb only (unfortunately sold some years after ). I spent hours playing with it and had so much fun that I decided to become a software engineer (although I'm now involved more in project management than programming).

Really happy to join the forum !

Best regards,

Franck

 

[Rick Ethridge]

Welcome!

 

[barythrin]

Welcome to the forums! Do you find that a lot of those servers were used in Paris/France? Do you remember what you did with the Pet or what you played? Just curious and enjoy listening to stories

- John

 

[fbal]

Yes, certainly. Although I sometimes buy hardware directly in the US (Lucky guys...you have all kind of machines there :D).

First of all, I learnt programming and the BASIC language with the Pet (although I had already some programming experience with a TI57 at school). I spent a lot of time developing software with the limited graphics capabilities (peek and poke, my best friends), as well as reviewing/trying/adapting sample programs I could find in a very popular magazine in France at that time i.e. "l'ordinateur individuel" (the personal computer). Every month it was possible to find listings for the Pet, TRS80, Apple II, etc...I bought some games as well, in particular I remember Space Invaders, Breakout, Chess and Othello. Of course nothing that can compete with today's video consoles, but I would say "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age".