Electronic nostalgia

Being nearly-perpetually close-to-poor (" . . . on a teacher's salary . . ."; U.S. Khia commercial joke) I've taken to looking on the internet for things that are free and fun.

No, this post will not be about cheap amateur porn. Go somewhere else for that.

Anyway, amongst all the crap of stuff out there I came across information about emulator programs. These things basically make your computer act and think as if it were another different system all together. The one I came across that really got me interested was a C-64 emulator . . . so I downloaded it (on my version of the world-wide wait because I still have dial-up).

Now you may be asking: why did you download something to make your computer think it's a C-64? Or, even, what in the world is a C-64?

Well, C-64 stands for Commodore 64 . . . no, this is not some naval term. It refers to a REALLY old school home computer system. Some people might recall them from when they were kids. I fondly remember the khaki coloured thing from when I was younger and my dad showed me how to program in BASIC. Wow, my "geek trainning" started early.

Anyway, coming across a C-64 emulator was like a blast from the way-deep past so I couldn't resist. I was jumping with excitement at the thought of being able to play the old games I remember from my youth, like: Zaxxon, Blue Max, Paper Boy, The Bard's Tale, Phantasie (1 through 3) and a score of others.

So, as I read through the user documentation I noticed that it said the emulator would make the computer run as if it were a C-64 . . . including operating speed, etc. This meant all the games would load as if the thing were a real C-64. No problem I thought . . . I remember being a kid and thinking "wow this game loaded fast!"

My how times have changed. Why I remember when 28.8 was a blazing fast modem speed . . . I remember when tapes were all the rage and could even be used like a computer disk . . . I remember when a big, ol' floppy disk seemed to load quickly.

Now is not the case any more. If you think Windows can get slow, try waiting for a C-64 to load a program. You have time to go make a sandwhich, walk the dog, wash the car and think about taking a shower all by the time the thing has loaded up. This used to be fast . . . and spandex used to be stylish.

Regardless of this, my nostalgia held firm and I still use the emulator on occaison (but I crank up the speed to 500% during loads). If you're really interested in a C-64 emulator (remember the funky, classic all blue screen?) just e-mail me and I'll tell you where I found mine.

My big, free trend at the moment deals with old DOS based games . . . at least these run on 486 or so equivalent emulators. You can find these things on Abandonware websites . . . but all of that is for another time . . .