Ten Four Good Buddy. Longman was actually my CB Handle, given to me by someone who bought a rig on 2nd Nov 1981, the day CB became legal. I could do the Rubiks cube, but only by following the step by step instructions in a book I bought.
Convoy ("big ten four rubber-ducky") was my fave as a kid! Cheers- yes the only time I ever completed the cube was when I took it apart and restuck the bits back in- but not sure that technically counts
...what about some music-instruments: my beloved 1970 Ludwig "John Bonham" black diamond pearl drum kit (24/18/14/14)
Back to calculators, they were the 1970s / 80s equivalent to Smartphones. In fact I reckon they advanced quicker than smartphones have recently. While I am tempted to laugh at Smartphone Fanbois queing up to buy the latest model, in 1978 I spend over a weeks wages on a Casio FX8000 calculator, and a couple of years later went to a business stationers and bought a new one (that could do integration) on the first day I saw it advertised, so can't really criticise them. Following on from the Sharp commercial, the large calculator in this photo of two from my collection is an AKA of Sharps second "pocket calculator" the EL811 from 1971. Explanations for the large size are the six AA Nicads built into it, along with several ICs and a separate VFD tube for each digit. The solar powered EL836 card calculator in front of it is from 1981 just ten years later. An amazing advance in such a short time. The EL836 cost me 50p at a car boot sale this morning. There was no noteworthy audio equipment there. My other purchase was a 1977 newspaper (Queens Silver Jubilee issue). There were several job advertisements all quoting a "good salary" of around £4000 a year. The cheapest fridge in an advert of white goods was £70. Forty years later I could buy the equivalent new for £110 !
Talking about calculators, I've kept the one I used in school in 1986/1990 (the Sharp 1251 and the Casio FX 700G) That's the same for the computer (ZX Spectrum 48ko from 1983 to 1987, then the Amiga 500 from 87 to 90) There all working, my Amiga even got a USB slot (Gotek floppy emulator) And the story goes on with my watches (Casio, K'watch, etc..), gadgets, and even my bikes (only 80's) like my last one, a 1985 Yamaha XJ900 apart from that I'm not retro at all
If you haven't seen it you will enjoy the Old Computers thread http://www.stereo2go.com/forums/thr...tional-cassette-player.1581/page-2#post-13722 Back in the 1980s I had an Atari ST but since then I have ended up with four Amigas to see what the fuss was about. I have never had an A500 though. That is a nice collection. What is the white computer to the left of the Spectrums? I don't recognise it at all. As you are in France my best guess is a Minitel terminal. France was ahead of the rest of the world when it came to online access.
Mmmh @Tenfifteen that Thomson TO7-70 looks pristine with its gum keyboard, congratz! I guess that most of our non-french friends here never saw or used one, nor a Minitel or that kind of stuff... Fond memories for me though as it's the first computer I ever used --actually it was my neighbor's MO5, which he had loaned me during the summer vacation in 1984 if I remember correctly. I still have my Amiga 1200 in the attic BTW, last time I tried it it was still working perfectly, though they're known to have failing electrolytic capacitors, just like Aiwa walkmans. Edit: @Longman you posted while I was writing my own post so I didn't see yours, but mine answers to your question ;-)
Didn't see this thread !!! Thx Longman, I'm running there That's a typical french computer around 1984/1987 the government decided to push the computer in schools, Thomson developed the TO7 (and later TO8/TO9) A specialy designed computer for education with an optical pen that worked on any TV/monitor. The lack of good games made it far less atractive in compare with Spectrum, Amstrad and C64 But yes, it was at the same period than the Minitel !
If you watch the film Micro Men (linked to in the other thread) it is all about the competition between Sinclair and Acorn to win the contract to produce a computer to go with an Educational TV series. Acorn won it and as a result most UK schools bought Acorn BBC Micros, and quite a few (rich) people bought them to use at home. The Spectrums great popularity was due to it being about 1/3rd of the price of a BBC Computer. Could you buy a Thomson for home use ?
The TO7 was beetwen a 48ko Spectrum and a CPC464... It was affordable but the Speccy was the cheapest in France too (That's why I had a Spectrum But honestly, it was a far better machine than the TO7 ! Especialy when it comes to basic prog and games ! I even prefered the "fluo" finest graphics of the Speccy than the CPC !)
This year it appears the question is "How Retro is Argos"? Straight off their home page we have https://www.argos.co.uk/events/retr...on2:retrogifts&clickOrigin=header:retro+gifts Polaroid battling it out with Fuji. Yet another re-issue of the Commodore 64. Even the GPO Brooklyn gets a look in. 80s nostalgia is obviously fully mainstream these days. Northerner can get himself a new Rubik's cube ! Go back ten years and all the emphasis was on things like the latest iPod and digital cameras.
Holy cow, that's a lot of retro Longman, we might be entering overkill soon. The best part of retro is most of the original products are still obtainable, although Arcade 1 Up has a small hit on their hands with their brand new 3/4 size arcade units, word is they're pretty fun and they are not too expensive, Walmart is blowing some out the door this month at $185.00 USD. https://arcade1up.com/
One of the biggest disappointment of getting old is finding that most of the things you really wanted when you were younger are now only available in what you would call "roached out" condition. Of course whether we would be prepared to pay 1980s prices adjusted for inflation is questionable. I paid £250 (in 1984 money) for a Sharp 10" portable TV in 1984. The Panasonic I really wanted was £400 !! Back to Argos. Techmoan recently pointed out their official history site http://www.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/ I have worked out where they got the scans and it isn't Retromash.
I had to look up "Stranger Things" on Wikipedia to see what it is about. I see it was set in the 1980s so it isn't surprising it features 80s gadgets. I do know that the BBC Bitesize pages are aimed at Schoolchildren. However, I found this article a good read, although it does mention rewinding tapes with a pencil. That seems to be developing as an Urban myth. I'm sure we all did it once but not every month. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zhn6wty Do you have any other favourite 80s themes shows. In my opinion the best 80s themed drama series was https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=a...AKHYPvDFQQ_h0wIXoECAsQBw#imgrc=HAiWX-yPQFYnjM:
We love Netflix over here Longman, I actually liked it more a few years ago when they really had cool movies on like Trollhunter and OSS 117, European Movies that were 10x better then the crap Hollywood was putting out. Stranger Things had a strong first season but I've tried to watch the 2nd and it's pretty bad. It might take me a couple years to catch up if I ever do. As far as the pencil, I did it all of the time, my equipment used to eat tapes on a regular basis, how else did you get the tape back in the cassette?
The pencil thing reminded me of when my Father used to carry a lump hammer around in his car to hit the starter motor each time it wouldn't engage. While that was true with one particular car it certainly wasn't the case with all 1970s cars. I don't remember if he got the car fixed or traded it in for another. He seemed to change his car, which he needed for work, about every 3 years back then. None of his other cars had that problem, but it's the problems that stick in your mind.
I carried a hockey stick in my 86 work van, the curve worked out great to get around the exhaust manifold and bang that starter......
