# Guilty pleasure?



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

So... What is your guilty pleasure in the electronic world? What have you owned in the past that you would never admit to? (except to us of course) 

Mine is the CB radio. As a teenager I talked to other neighborhood teenagers for hours on end. It was like being part of a very exclusive community. What's funny is that things haven't changed much. DBSTalk is very much like the old CB Radio days, just on a different platform and on a larger scale. Basically, people chatting about common interests.

Another was having a Radio Shack Micronta LED watch circa 1979. It's long gone now but it was my first electronic watch. Very exciting in those days. 

Oh, and one more. The Amiga CD-32 gaming platform. Was great at the time but what a waste. It had such potential but Amiga marketing was practically non-existent.


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

An Atari 400 computer...complete with 8K memory and cassette tape recorder.

Of course, I eventually upgraded to the 600 XL series and a whopping 16K.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Celecovision Adam.... and a Commadore 64


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Well, start with these:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1303524&postcount=1

And add to that I used to carry around a 1st generation Sony Watchman, about the size of a Motorola "Brick" cellphone, black and white only.

Guiltiest though? I used to carry a pocket watch.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

Commadore 64 I was the happiest kid in the world when my parents got it for me.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I started with the C64 and graduated to the Amiga 1000. Lots of programming and tinkering with expansions and add-ons.

After a couple of years, I acquired an Amiga A2500 and eventually added a Video Toaster and Flyer. Still wrote programs and tinkered with alternative programming languages and operating systems.

Now my daily driver is a W2K machine and I have to say that I've substantially lost interest in computers as a hobby.

Computers have become a pedestrian tool that can suck up as money as you can throw at them and still not be a whole lot better.


I've occasionally indulged in tech toys but couldn't justify the expense of doing HAM or Children's Band radio.

Cars used to be fun too, but now most of what is involved is chip programming, turbo theory and how to get your car through DEQ.

Maybe I'm just getting old.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

Chris Blount said:


> As a teenager I talked to other neighborhood teenagers for hours on end.


We did the same, but we "disguised" our 13 year old voices as girls and tried to coax truck drivers into meeting up with us at fictional places around town. :lol:


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

I still carry a nearly 100 year old mint condition pocket watch...

Past "transgressions":

1. CB
2. a car 45 record player
3. a "reverb"


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Vic 20 ---> Commodor 64 ----> Commodore SX-64 
HP41CX hand held computer with printer and card reader.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

LarryFlowers said:


> Past "transgressions":
> 
> 2. a car 45 record player


There's a first.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Richard King said:


> There's a first.


Larry's showing his age now.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Commodore 8 digit calculator with LED display, Bally Arcade with Tiny Basic; Atari 800; IBM PCjr modded with 512K RAM and two diskette drives; 4 (count 'em, 4! and all in use) TiVo's.


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## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

I'm embarrassed to write it now, but it worked really well! I had an 8-track recorder/player.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Well, since the thread is about "guilty pleasures" (GP)
and those things I would never admit to having, except
to you people, of course, being 69k of my closest 
friends). :sure:

My only GP is automation. Except, of course, for hi-tech,
cutting edge, state-of-the-art DVDs of the _pronografick_
variety that I'm sure many of you secretly own as well. :grin:


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## noursegod (Dec 19, 2006)

My first tech guilty pleasure was the Sega Saturn. I was a little sad the day they discontinued it. Today, it is playing my kids' 360 games to boost my xbox Live gamerscore.


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## jilardi2 (Mar 6, 2008)

texas instruments ti994a and i still have it in the original box


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

jilardi2 said:


> texas instruments ti994a and i still have it in the original box


Same here!!! One of these days I'm going to pull it out to see if it still works. That was my first computer.

I also have a collection of Amiga A-500's.

One thing I forgot. I purchased one of the Kodak Disc Cameras back in 1982. It was a flat camera about the size of a thin wallet. It was convenient to carry but the pictures were fuzzy since the negative was so small.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

Mine was a Northern Telecom Display Phone.. 

These were great little dumb terminals. At the time I got my first one, I was in college and had just blown up my Color Computer and the display phone allowed me to use basic programs such as "PC Write" and continue to call my favorite Bulltin Boards.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Charise said:


> I'm embarrassed to write it now, but it worked really well! I had an 8-track recorder/player.


I used to have an eight track recorder/player also. Here's a picture of it in the lower picture on the left hand side...


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Jason Nipp said:


> Larry's showing his age now.


HEY!!! I bought it used... :lol:


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

iPhone?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Nah, that's too new..


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## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

Ahhh....... .all this Amiga talk brings a tear to my eye! 

I worked ALL summer as a 13 year old at the local Little League to save up enough money to get an Amiga 500. And I worked all summer the next year to get a Hard drive (500 Megs, IIRC) for it.

Then I worked all summer as a 17 year old to buy an Amiga 3000.

A bunch of us in High School did the CB radio thing.

I'm not necessarily afraid to admit those things though.... I can't really think of any that I wouldn't want to admit.

BUT, since we're talking about electronic things we don't want to admit to... I was 16 or 17 years old and I had purchased a Discman with 30 second anti-skip. It was a big deal. I was going on a trip to Southern California with the church and we wanted a CD player, but the one I bought didn't have a cigarette lighter adapter. So I headed down to Radio Shack with my discman and told them I needed a lighter adapter.

They pulled one off the shelf and handed it to me and I was on my way. Before we left, I hopped in the church van, plugged in my new discman to the CLA and plugged it into the cigarette lighter. We turned on the key, and smoke came billowing forth from my now melted CD player.

They gave me an adapter that could be switched to supply power to a bunch of different devices. Of course, they didn't tell me that, and I didn't pay any attention, and I literally melted my CD player. DOH!


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

tcusta00 said:


> iPhone?


It may be new... but it should definitely qualify!!!!


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

Richard King said:


> I used to have an eight track recorder/player also. Here's a picture of it in the lower picture on the left hand side...


look at the size of that stuff:lol:


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## Capmeister (Sep 16, 2003)

My first computer was a Vic20, and then... a KayproIIx (or as a friend dubbed it, "Darth Vader's Lunch Box").


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

jilardi2 said:


> texas instruments ti994a and i still have it in the original box


I don't have mine but that was the first one I owned. We had great plans to figure out all the proprietary stuff and we were going to make a mint by marketing things that would work with it!:lol:

The first computer I used was a Pet and I learned to "Program in Basic" over a weekend with some cassettes that walked me through the code. By the end of the weekend I was creating engineering programs for the engineer that loaned it to me!


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## chuckyHDDTV (Aug 30, 2007)

I was a big hand held game guy. In 1979, I got electornic football by Mattel. It was my first computer and I loved the hell out of it. We would have races during recess to see who could get the highest score before the bell rang.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

chuckyHDDTV said:


> I was a big hand held game guy. In 1979, I got electornic football by Mattel. It was my first computer and I loved the hell out of it. We would have races during recess to see who could get the highest score before the bell rang.


Oh gosh! I spent hours on that thing. Loved it!


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

not something I owned, but something I did.

Worked for the Cable Co. (many years ago) and we used to call people at random, tell them that we were blowing the used electrons out of the cable lines, and asked them to place their cable boxes in a paper bag and tape it closed, then leave it for 48 hours.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

curt8403 said:


> not something I owned, but something I did.
> 
> Worked for the Cable Co. (many years ago) and we used to call people at random, tell them that we were blowing the used electrons out of the cable lines, and asked them to place their cable boxes in a paper bag and tape it closed, then leave it for 48 hours.


:thats: :lol:

That sounds similar to what some recent posters are claiming D* is doing by calling subscribers and claiming that their signal strength is low. :sure:


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

Nick said:


> :thats: :lol:
> 
> That sounds similar to what some recent posters are claiming D* is doing by calling subscribers and claiming that their signal strength is low. :sure:


nope. Cust calls in, CSR asks how they are doing, they say very good, CSR checks service health and says, Your RCVR says you are doing very bad. you need a service call


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

curt8403 said:


> nope. Cust calls in, CSR asks how they are doing, they say very good, CSR checks service health and says, Your RCVR says you are doing very bad. you need a service call


Sure, just like my doctor's nurse calls and tells me that, according to
their telemetry, I'm feeling bad and I should come in for a checkup. :lol:


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

I had a Motorola Mocat 23 channels CB and base station mic. it was a car radio with a home dock. 
it looked just like this 40 channel model


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

Nick said:


> Sure, just like my doctor's nurse calls and tells me that, according to
> their telemetry, I'm feeling bad and I should come in for a checkup. :lol:


if you had a device that monitored your body temperature, and it started recording temperatures of 103 degrees, would you not want to see a doctor. Maybe you would rather he make you an appointment with an undertaker.


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

I once had an Atari 2600 game system, and Laser Blast. My brother and I maxed the game out (1,000,000 points) the day we got it.

we also found the hidden invisible dot and Robin's name in Adventure


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

First real computers (CoCo 2 was close but not quite) were an Atari 520ST and a 1040ST with the 20MB HDD. I wouldn't touch a PC-compatible until Windows 95 came out. The Ataris are still in the closet but I used to have one set up beside the PC until I ran out of room.

I play my MiniDiscs on a portable and in a car deck.

My learning universal remote sits as dumb as the day I bought it on clearance while I continue to juggle multiple device remotes.

Then there's my first "PDA," the Timex Model 150 DataLink watch. And the newer version with the clasp-on USB port, and its identical replacement after the alarm and light died. Or, as a friend calls it while rolling his eyes, "nerdlink."


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

What a list.. Seems like I've had them all, from CB radios to pet rocks. And the number of different personal computers I've had? Sheesh! I had the video games (Atari VCS, which was renamed the 2600 after it's part number, the Coleco and the add-on Adam, the 5200), the computers (Atari 800, Atari 1040ST, Amiga 2000), the list of 'stuff' goes on and on.....


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

I bought one of the first 4 function calculators way back when $175 was more money than it is now. I never could get arithmetic (as opposed to math) right. It was a pleasure to use it even though everyone was telling me I should feel guilty for using it.

--- CHAS


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## Rob77 (Sep 24, 2007)

My first computer was an IBM PS/1, 16MHz, 512kb memory which I upgraded to the maximum allowed of a whopping 2mb, complete with a 3.5 diskette drive and also had the very latest in interactive internet software called Prodigy


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

In 1973 my adoptive mother bought a Bowmar Brain - 4 function calculator - $85 since it was an older model.


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

Is it wrong to not feel guilty? I have never felt guilty...and I must admit that I've owned some really whacky marrital aids (whoa, I was going to write something else, but I figured I'd go easy today), which I was proud of to use and abuse (there are some funky gadgets there, trust me). But seeing as we're talking geek fests I would say I had one of those LED football games, that didn't come close to representing a football game at all, but I loved that thing. I wish I still had it, I would sit around for hours playing it.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

HIPAR said:


> I bought one of the first 4 function calculators way back when $175 was more money than it is now. I never could get arithmetic (as opposed to math) right. It was a pleasure to use it even though everyone was telling me I should feel guilty for using it.
> 
> --- CHAS


I still remember the first calculator that I ever saw. At the time I was working for a stock brokerage company. The wife of one of the brokers worked for Northwest Airlines so they would take frequent trips to Northwest destinations. They flew to Tokyo for a weekend one time and he brought back a calculator that would add, subtract, multiply and divide AND it had a % key. It was the hit of the office when he was showing it around. He claims to have spent $650 for it, way back then.

Was your's a Bomar Brain?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I used to use a slide rule. :nono:


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

djlong said:


> In 1973 my adoptive mother bought a Bowmar Brain - 4 function calculator - $85 since it was an older model.


You beat me to it. :lol: but you forgot the picture.


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

Richard King said:


> I used to use a slide rule. :nono:


So did I .. still have it. It's a Picket with a nice leather case. The instruction book is called 'how to use log log SLIDE RULES'. Copyright 1953!

I can't remember if the 4 function was a Bomar Brain but your image sure looks familiar. I wish I still had it.

My current calculator collection:

1. The Slide Rule
2. Texas Instruments SR-50
3. TI Programmer (Does HEX, OCTAL, DEC conversions and Boolean operations)
4. Radio Shack TRS-80 Pocket Computer (Programmable in BASIC)
5. TI-30Xa Scientific Calculator
6. A recently purchased 'Big Button' calculator useful around tax time.

--- CHAS


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

I guess my current guilty pleasure is digital cameras. I have a Nikon D40X 10 megapixel SLR with 18-55 mm and 55-200 mm lenses and a newly acquired Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS point and shoot camera (12X zoom, 7.1 megapixels), having given my Canon PowerShot A80 (3X z00m, 4 megapixels) to my daughter in-law.
My film cameras (Pentax ME SLR and Samsung Maxima Zoom 105) gather dust.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

HIPAR said:


> So did I .. still have it. It's a Picket with a nice leather case. The instruction book is called 'how to use log log SLIDE RULES'. Copyright 1953!
> 
> I can't remember if the 4 function was a Bomar Brain but your image sure looks familiar. I wish I still had it.
> 
> ...


I had always been an HP calculator fan. There was something about the RPN logic that just made sense for me and I got pretty good with it.

My first is pictured below, and HP21. I then moved on to the HP-65 and then to the HP41 that I mentioned above.


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## jadams716 (Apr 5, 2007)

The old Coleco Vibrating Football Game
Playing "Lemonade Stand" on the Apple II


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## Brandon428 (Mar 21, 2007)

My god this is the nerdiest website ever. I have never felt more at home!:cuttle:


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Sega Dreamcast probably being one of the ones that comes to mind right away.

Absolutly loved it, better than anything else at the time ( IMO ) and then it failed a slowly disappeared while Grentz tried to hold on and keep it alive 

It is still in a storage box today, just waiting to get dusted off and used sometime for a little blast to the past!


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## SPECIES11703 (Oct 10, 2004)

That's cool!!!!!!!!



Richard King said:


> Vic 20 ---> Commodor 64 ----> Commodore SX-64
> HP41CX hand held computer with printer and card reader.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Nerdiest website? Hmm.. How many of us shop at thinkgeek.com?


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Hughes Aircraft LED digital watch (mid-1970s), HP-45 LED calculator (I still have and use a HP-11C). I also still have a Pickett slide rule from 1954.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

Channel M was a single channel microwave pay tv station before cable tv was big. It later changed to StarTV. In eighth grade (1978), I talked my parents into signing up, but we lived too far away to get a clear signal. The installer said he couldn't hook us up, but if we wanted to tinker around, he gave us a list of parts and stuff. It took a couple of months to collect everything. I soldered together a bunch of parts on a coffee can and could almost get decent quality video that came in and out at will, mostly only at night. 

Then, I moved to Washington DC in 1988 and they didn't have cable in our little area of southwest Washington, so my roommates and I signed up for the 5 or six channel microwave service that was up and running in DC. Same problem though, the installer could not get a locked signal. But he left the equipment on the roof of the townhouse (flat roof which was nice) with the advice that if I could get a signal, he'd come back in a month and lock it down. I tried but never could get more than a fleeting picture for several seconds at a time.


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## JeffChap (Feb 10, 2007)

I had the original TRS-80 Color Computer with a whopping 16K of RAM.

But even this is trumped by my current, remote controlled electronic toilet seat/bidet. It was given to me as a joke, but hey, it's kinda fun in a quirky sort of way.

Check it out -- I'm sure you'll want one of your own: http://www.brondell.com/swash_movie/swash.html


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

A HP-41CV calculator.

A HP caluclator isn't that unusual....However, I also had the card reader, the leatherette case for storing/sorting cards and add-on modules, and the thermal printer. We won't get into the assorted add-on modules.  

Mike


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

I had a portable 8 track player and a few years ago I decided to track down a atari2600 to play pac man, pong and old games like that lol.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Grentz said:


> Sega Dreamcast probably being one of the ones that comes to mind right away.
> 
> Absolutly loved it, better than anything else at the time ( IMO ) and then it failed a slowly disappeared while Grentz tried to hold on and keep it alive
> 
> It is still in a storage box today, just waiting to get dusted off and used sometime for a little blast to the past!


I still have my Dreamcast. It was a good system just not enough games to support it. I loved the NBA game on it and the Sega Bass Fishing. They were some of the best games ever. I play it once in a blue moon. Still pretty fun. It sits but then again so does my PS3.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

MicroBeta said:


> A HP-41CV calculator.
> 
> A HP caluclator isn't that unusual....However, I also had the card reader, the leatherette case for storing/sorting cards and add-on modules, and the thermal printer. We won't get into the assorted add-on modules.
> 
> Mike


Believe it or not, I just found my printer and a whole pile of cards for my old 41CV. I think the calculator itself vanished years ago. I'll post some pix later.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

Richard King said:


> Believe it or not, I just found my printer and a whole pile of cards for my old 41CV. I think the calculator itself vanished years ago. I'll post some pix later.


I still have all the stuff but the 41CV just displays dashes.

Mike


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

chuckyHDDTV said:


> I was a big hand held game guy. In 1979, I got electornic football by Mattel. It was my first computer and I loved the hell out of it. We would have races during recess to see who could get the highest score before the bell rang.


I still have mine and even play it once in a while!


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Oh man, I used to have Sub Chase... aside from being very cool looking it was a lot of fun until one realized that it was possible to find the sub 100% of the time by pushing left-up fire in the first second or two.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

The iPod. While the iPod is no doubt the best MP3 player on the market, I'm so ashamed that I'm supporting Apple. When I got my 5G 30GB iPod, I felt like I sold my soul to Satan, buying the 6G 80GB was a little easier, but not much. I'm also extremely uncomfortable when I step foot into an Apple Sore to check out the latest overpriced accessories.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Buy your overpriced accessories anywhere but the Apple Store and you should be ok. I bought my outer protection "shell" on line for pennies. I bought my IPod (an HP version) from Woot.


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## barryb (Aug 27, 2007)

IBM 8088

(with the upgraded 2meg HD, of course)


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Look what I found today.... This is the printer from the old HP-41cv and a bunch of program cards for the same. The programs are mostly sound system design programs for designing speaker clusters and cabinets, etc. Wow... lens conversions, throw calculations, crossover design, all built around ancient Altec Lansing components.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Richard King said:


> Buy your overpriced accessories anywhere but the Apple Store and you should be ok. I bought my outer protection "shell" on line for pennies. I bought my IPod (an HP version) from Woot.


My skin came from RadioShack, my dock from the Apple Store and both iPods from Best Buy. I keep checking the Apple Store for a skin with a belt clip, I'd rather have a skin then a hardshell. The dock is about the same price everywhere, but the cases and skins, holy crap the Apple store is expensive, I paid $7 for the one I have now at RS.


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## techrep (Sep 15, 2007)

Sega___Earthworm Jim

I would sit down to play for a couple of hours, before bed, and the next thing you know; it was daylight.


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## JcT21 (Nov 30, 2004)

i had an apple IIe and played snakebite on those 5 inch floppy discs 
had the commodore 64, and my fav, a Q-bert wrist watch that i played for hours on end. i had a cb, handheld game called "merlin", coleco vision, atari game system(which is till got and it works). ...shew what a trip down memory lane.....


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

JcT21 said:


> i had an apple IIe and played snakebite on those 5 inch floppy discs
> had the commodore 64, and my fav, a Q-bert wrist watch that i played for hours on end. i had a cb, handheld game called "merlin", coleco vision, atari game system(which is till got and it works). ...shew what a trip down memory lane.....


I had a IIe (upgraded) and an external Hard drive. I ran a BBS service on it.\


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

JcT21 said:


> i had an apple IIe and played snakebite on those 5 inch floppy discs
> had the commodore 64, and my fav, a Q-bert wrist watch that i played for hours on end. i had a cb, handheld game called "merlin", coleco vision, atari game system(which is till got and it works). ...shew what a trip down memory lane.....


I was going to ask if anyone remembered Merlin! When all of these handhelds came out, I was working the liquor counter in a Sav-on Drugstore. The liquor counter was also where they had cameras and these handhelds. My job? Demonstrating the cameras and the handheld games - hurt me hurt me, I had to practice alot!

Later I went to work for Atari, in the corporate offices (secretary in the patents office). They had a full-blown arcade downstairs (complete with disco ball) and encouraged anyone to go down and use the machines (no quarters required) if they were feeling 'tense' or 'bored'. Boredom happens alot being a secretary in the patents office! One of the 'big' guys knew I had a thing for the arcade games and when they were about to introduce "Firefox", he had one installed in his office and told me to go play on it whenever I could to give them feedback. Fun stuff!

And people wonder where I get my love of technology!


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

Does anyone know what a KWM-2 is? It's another one of my guilty pleasures.

--- CHAS


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

I remember Merlin.


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

HIPAR said:


> Does anyone know what a KWM-2 is? It's another one of my guilty pleasures.
> 
> --- CHAS


Ham Radio?


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

Richard King said:


> Look what I found today.... This is the printer from the old HP-41cv and a bunch of program cards for the same. The programs are mostly sound system design programs for designing speaker clusters and cabinets, etc. Wow... lens conversions, throw calculations, crossover design, all built around ancient Altec Lansing components.


I just found my HP-41CV. Two of the batteries leaked. 

BTW, anyone ever tried to clean the alkali out of a battery compartment. :sure:

Now to find some N-size batteries. :grin:

Mike


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I also owned a Memorex CP-8 Turbo remote control. This was one of the first totally programmable remote controls. I had it set up to do macros very similar to the way a Harmony 880 handles them. This was a very nice remote in its day. It had a clock built in so you could program timed events (as long as you left the remote pointing at your devices). I could set it up to turn on the satellite receiver and vcr at 7:59 and tune the satellite receiver to the proper satellite and channel then tell the VCR to record, all unattended. At the time I had a C-band motorized dish and it controlled it just fine.


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## Tinymon (Sep 21, 2007)

My first computer was a C64...Then I got a C128. My first laptop was a Canon that had no hard drive.

Dad brought home a Magnavox Odyssey game system. For the shooting game you had a shotgun and put overlays on the tv screen to simulate a duck hunt or whatever...It was fun until I realized you could aim the shotgun at the table lamp and hit every target every time. <heh, heh, heh>

And I also owned a set of Bose 901's.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> And I also owned a set of Bose 901's.


NO!! You dare to admit that.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

http://www.midnightbox.com/
Atari Flashback 2.0 Console (40 Built-in Games)
$27.95 + $5.00 shipping. Hurry -- today only.


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## jerry downing (Mar 7, 2004)

I have a Curta calculator. It is a cylindrical thing. You enter numbers on the side, turn the crank and get results on top. It is completely mechanical. It dates back to the late '60s.


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## CJTE (Sep 18, 2007)

Chris Blount said:


> Mine is the CB radio. As a teenager I talked to other neighborhood teenagers for hours on end. It was like being part of a very exclusive community. What's funny is that things haven't changed much. DBSTalk is very much like the old CB Radio days, just on a different platform and on a larger scale. Basically, people chatting about common interests.


:lol:
I used my CB almost every day for the last 2 years until a recent job change found me working with Nextel DirectConnect (but I still use my CB on personal time).
So that is definetly a good guilty pleasure


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## Brandon428 (Mar 21, 2007)

joshjr said:


> I still have my Dreamcast. It was a good system just not enough games to support it. I loved the NBA game on it and the Sega Bass Fishing. They were some of the best games ever. I play it once in a blue moon. Still pretty fun. It sits but then again so does my PS3.


The Dreamcast was a great system with tons of great games. Its Achilles heel was the lack of DVD support. PS2 capitalized on it and Sega knew they had lost to much ground to compete and really did the smart thing and quit manufacturing the system and ultimately getting out of the hardware industry entirely to save the company. If you like the DC I suggest Shenmue. It was the best DC title imho.


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## junkhead (Jul 5, 2008)

Chris Blount said:


> One thing I forgot. I purchased one of the Kodak Disc Cameras back in 1982. It was a flat camera about the size of a thin wallet. It was convenient to carry but the pictures were fuzzy since the negative was so small.


LOL, wow I completely forgot about those! Wonder where mine went?


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

This was my first PC.

http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=1193&st=1

My configuration had 512k RAM and a thirteen inch amber monitor (it didn't have the LCD), MS-DOS 2.1, two 5¼" floppies, and 4.77 Mhz 8088 processor. My HP48GX calculator has as fast a processor and more memory. :eek2: :lol:

I got it from a catalog. I don't know does DAK still have catalogs.

I'm here to tell ya that it was "portable " in name only. It had a footprint a little smaller than the XT. All the weight was in one corner so it carried a little funny.

However, I was glad to have it. I had been using PCs in the Navy but this was my first home machine.

Ah, the hours playing Zork and Hitchers Guide. Anyone want any No-Tea? :lol:

Mike


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

Motorola DynaTAC 8000 "full brick" phone.


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

Richard King said:


> Vic 20 ---> Commodor 64 ----> Commodore SX-64
> HP41CX hand held computer with printer and card reader.


Got you beat. I had one of the first led pocket calculators, a mighty Craig 4501 4 banger, then an HP35- Then an HP55 with stopwatch functions ( I miss that one) Then an HP41CV with the card reader, printer, wand and data cassette unit.

But before all that, in Junior High I had a Stewart Warner wood case AM/4 band shortwave radio with 9 tubes, electrodynamic speaker, and a 300ft long wire antenna strung between trees in the back lot. I would DX the broadcast band for hours at night! I even once tried to build a shortwave antenna out of parts from my three Erector sets! Probably inspired by the fact that my dad had a 40ft TV antenna on a telescoping mast with a rotor and 16 guy wires ON THE ROOF!!
I wish I had a picture of him on the next to the top rung of a step ladder that was bridged across the peak of the roof while he worked on the antenna connections that were still 10ft off the peak of the roof!
Those were the days!


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

jerry downing said:


> I have a Curta calculator. It is a cylindrical thing. You enter numbers on the side, turn the crank and get results on top. It is completely mechanical. It dates back to the late '60s.


My buddy in college had one. He was my navigator. I had a 1966 Corvair Corsa turbo. We did Road Rallys together and the Curta was very handy for speed and distance calcs.


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

Richard King said:


> NO!! You dare to admit that.


I once ripped a set out of a club ceiling that were being used for PA, hauled them to the back parking lot and set fire to them! Does that count??:dance07:


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

Richard King said:


> Look what I found today.... This is the printer from the old HP-41cv and a bunch of program cards for the same. The programs are mostly sound system design programs for designing speaker clusters and cabinets, etc. Wow... lens conversions, throw calculations, crossover design, all built around ancient Altec Lansing components.


I had one called "vent" for designing and tuning speaker enclosures. took 4 or 5 cards to load. 
The card readers had a rubber drive wheel that turns to gum over time, but I think there are replacement kits. 
All my HP went on Ebay last year.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

audiomaster said:


> I once ripped a set out of a club ceiling that were being used for PA, hauled them to the back parking lot and set fire to them! Does that count??:dance07:


You did a good thing.  Due to their portability, I actually sold a bunch of Bose 802 speakers http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...602041&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=26047323 when I was in the pro audio business. Their main problem was that they were VERY power hungry and required a very high power amp to make them sound close to decent, which made them quite expensive when the package was done. I once ran sound a few times for the most popular reggae band in the twin cities. As an experiment one time we used the 802's for both fronts and monitors. The band loved them. I actually got the monitors so loud that the band told me "turn them down, mon",  a rare occasion.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

audiomaster said:


> I had one called "vent" for designing and tuning speaker enclosures. took 4 or 5 cards to load.
> The card readers had a rubber drive wheel that turns to gum over time, but I think there are replacement kits.
> All my HP went on Ebay last year.


I probably had that same program back in the old days.  I got most of the programs at the Syn-Aud-Con class http://www.synaudcon.com/website08/about.php that I took back then. They actually required that everyone bring an HP-41 with the accessories to class to take the class. The HP-41 was a very large part of the class at that time. I suspect they require a laptop for the current class.


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

Richard King said:


> I probably had that same program back in the old days.  I got most of the programs at the Syn-Aud-Con class http://www.synaudcon.com/website08/index.php that I took back then. They actually required that everyone bring an HP-41 with the accessories to class to take the class. The HP-41 was a very large part of the class at that time. I suspect they require a laptop for the current class.


And a LOT more money! When I took it Don and Carolyn were just getting started at it. I still have the three ring binder here somewhere.

"I met a man. We each had a dollar. We exchanged dollars, now we each still had a dollar!
I met a man. We each had an idea. We exchanged ideas. Now we each had two ideas!
Or something like that?


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

Richard King said:


> You did a good thing.  Due to their portability, I actually sold a bunch of Bose 802 speakers http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...602041&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=26047323 when I was in the pro audio business. Their main problem was that they were VERY power hungry and required a very high power amp to make them sound close to decent, which made them quite expensive when the package was done. I once ran sound a few times for the most popular reggae band in the twin cities. As an experiment one time we used the 802's for both fronts and monitors. The band loved them. I actually got the monitors so loud that the band told me "turn them down, mon",  a rare occasion.


But these were the HOME versions in wood boxes! And since they were running an old Peavey mixer/amp, they didn't know how to hook in the "processer" unit nor did they have enough power. Probably burned better than the pro ones anyway.


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

jerry downing said:


> I have a Curta calculator. It is a cylindrical thing. You enter numbers on the side, turn the crank and get results on top. It is completely mechanical. It dates back to the late '60s.


I just looked on Ebay out of curiosity. Yikes! Do you know what they are going for now days?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I still have my copyright 1959/1969 Audio Cyclopedia. Mine is the 5th printing from 1977. Anyone want to know anything about vacuum tubes?


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

Richard King said:


> I still have my copyright 1959/1969 Audio Cyclopedia. Mine is the 5th printing from 1977. Anyone want to know anything about vacuum tubes?


yes, can you tell me what the old name for a vacuum tube was?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Probably "Valve". You didn't think I would get that did you????


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## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

Richard King said:


> Probably "Valve". You didn't think I would get that did you????


valve, right. what was the advantage of Vacuum tubes (Valves) over early transisters.


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

My valve stereo amplifier runs rings around my Haffler FET transistor amplifier for sonic quality. I use a Conrad Johnson preamp with it. I don't use the valves during the summer.

I plead guilty on numerous counts.

I believe the term 'valve' (electron valve) might have been more used by the British. They also referred to high voltage as 'tension' and the grounded side of a circuit as the 'earthy' side.

--- CHAS


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## LOCODUDE (Aug 8, 2007)

Commodore 128............. Loved that system.


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## jerry downing (Mar 7, 2004)

audiomaster said:


> My buddy in college had one. He was my navigator. I had a 1966 Corvair Corsa turbo. We did Road Rallys together and the Curta was very handy for speed and distance calcs.


That's what we used it for. We had a '67 Mustang and a a Halda Twinmaster for navigating.


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