47. The basics of the home computer revolution

🎧 00:00 Flashback – tracks from the past – Show intro

DJ Daemon 00:01.208 Time for another episode of Flashback. Tracks from the past. The Eric Hayes Radio Network. We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes. With those immortal words, Commodore's CEO Jack Tramiel threw his hat in the ring. In the early 80s, many companies knew that soon enough, everyone would sit at home programming in BASIC.and the world, it would change. It is however not exactly what ended up happening, but it was quite a ride. Today we'll discuss the home computing and basic era seen from a Swedish perspective.

🎧 00:10 DJ Daemon: “We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes”. With those immortal words, Commodore’s CEO Jack Tramiel, threw his hat in the ring. In the early 80s, many companies knew that soon enough, everyone would sit a home programming in Basic and the world will change. It’s not…

🎧 00:45 Poi5oN – For All We Know

DJ Daemon 04:54.606 Poison for all we know. The Texas land on Jupiter with the people's computer, Vic-20. You may be excused if you believe those words came from the Soviet Union or Red China, but no, it was written in Swedish in an advert from Handic. The Vic-20 was meant to be the computer dad used to calculate the spreadsheets. Mom stored her cookie recipes.and the kids played games on. And it kinda went a bit like that in the beginning. But it was expensive here in Sweden. Prices from various sources, adjusted for inflation and converted to today's dollar value says it all. In 1983, a Texas Instrument 99 with 16K of RAM cost about $750 and a Spectrum 48K set you back $900.And finally a Vic 20 also $750.

🎧 04:55 DJ Daemon: The text says, “Land on Jupiter with the people’s computer VIC-20”. You may be excused if you believe those words came from the Soviet Union or Red China, but no… It was written in Swedish in an advert from Handic. The VIC-20 was meant to be the computer dad used to calculate with…

🎧 05:57 Alex Menchi – Metamorphose

🎧 09:51 DJ Daemon: Among my stuff, I found a diskette for my old C64. It had a lot of Swedish software developer “Grana Software’s” programs. Those were trivial tax calculators, databases, and other software that pretty much anyone could cobble together. Amazingly enough, they were written in Basic, which…

DJ Daemon 09:51.342 Alex Menke Metaformas Among my stuff I founded this get for my old C64. It had a lot of programs from Swedish software developer Grana Software. Those were trivial text calculators, databases and other software that pretty much anyone could cobble together. Amazingly enough they were written in BASIC which meant that you could read the code and edit it.It also made it impossible to stop anyone from copying it. Despite this, they were able to sell this software for several years during the 8-bit era.

🎧 10:30 V.E.M – Irrespective of Age

🎧 17:22 DJ Daemon: So, Basic. A much-maligned programming language that just had to be included in all home computers during the first years in the 80s. What it lacked in speed, finesse, and capability, it made up for in ease to use. Anyone could learn to build programs and very limited games with it. The…

DJ Daemon 17:22.392 VAM irrespective of age. So basic. A much maligned programming language that just had to be included in all home computers during the first years of the 80s. While it lacked in speed, finesse and capability, it more than made up for when it came to ease of use. Anyone could learn to build programs and very limited games with it.The Commodore 64 had a primitive basic from Microsoft. Yeah, that Microsoft. It lacked most advanced functions. You had to write directly into the memory addresses to change a lot of stuff. The cool kids learned to write superior programs in assembly language and thus talking directly to the computer's processors.

🎧 18:12 Jiyoshi – Having a Blast!

🎧 20:34 DJ Daemon: My father bought a Texas Instruments TI99 home computer. It was very advanced for its time and partially 16-bit in an era where the others just had 8 bits. It came with a decent Basic that could be improved with the “TI Extended basic” module, that you plugged into the computer like a…

DJ Daemon 20:34.062 Yoshi having a blast. My father, he bought a Texas instrument TI-99 home computer and was very advanced for its time and age and partially a 16-bit machine in an era where the others just had 8 bits. It came with a decent basic that could be improved if you bought and installed the TI Extended Basic Module.It was something you plugged into the computer like a Nintendo game cartridge. It was more... advanced basic, if I may use that oxymoron. And it pretty much made it possible to work with graphics and sound. My father built a Donkey Kong clone for me and a birthday program with a song from the Smurfs.

🎧 21:22 Kevin Chow – The Epic

🎧 26:15 DJ Daemon: Basic seemed to be the future, but it was just not meant to be. The first Amiga that came out in 1985 had a properly branded version from Microsoft, that shipped with the operating system. Even my Amiga 500 came with it on Workbench 1.3. I hated it, as it was slow as morass. It was…

DJ Daemon 26:15.054 Kevin Chao, the epic. Basic seemed to be the future, but it just wasn't meant to be. The first Amiga that came out in 1985 had a properly branded version from Microsoft that shipped with operating system. Even my Amiga 500 came with it on Workbench 1.3 and I hated it. It was slow as morass.it was actually performing worse in some instances than my Commodore 64 Basic. But when languages such as Pascal, C and assembly language got more popular, it made Basic obsolete. And that happened by the end of the 80s.

🎧 26:59 Aceman – Cold Smoke

🎧 30:09 DJ Daemon: My first program in C64 basic was a School Utility, called… drumroll… School Utility. It featured a primitive calendar, a task list, and the possibility to store, edit, view and print a school schedule. I smile every time I load it into my C64 and see just how serious I was in creating…

DJ Daemon 30:09.91 Aceman Cold Smoke. My first program in the C64 Basic was a school utility called Drumroll School Utility. It featured a primitive calendar, a task list and the possibility to store, edit, view and print a school schedule. I smile every time I load it into my C64 and I do it just to see how serious I was about it when I created it.I had my own company called Ericade and I called myself Steel Pulse or System One. Not entirely sure as to why. That disappeared swiftly, but Ericade seems to be following me around.

🎧 30:53 Algar – They gave me my life back

🎧 34:59 DJ Daemon: As computers got more advanced, operating systems began loading from diskettes and later hard drives. And in that era. As I previously said, better programming options came available. And if you didn’t like them, you could get your own. In the days of the C64, “Simons basic” was one of…

DJ Daemon 34:59.63 they gave me my life back. As computers got more advanced, operating systems began loading from diskettes and later hard drives. And in that era, as I previously said, better programming options came available. And if you didn't like them, you could get your own. In the days of the C64, Simon's Basic was one of the few upgrades available for those still wanting to do Basic.I got Pascal from my Amiga, and later I learned the scripting language RX. Amiga rex that is. It still makes me happy to think about it. Maybe nothing today, but back then I could automate everything. I wrote loads of scripts for my BBS.

🎧 35:45 SofT MANiAC – Dance with me

🎧 38:25 DJ Daemon: When did the home computer era die? The way I see it, and this I’ve said in previous episodes, it was in the 90s as the PC and Mac could play all the cool games and give you access to all the useful business software. At that time, there were no place for a dedicated “at home computer”.…

DJ Daemon 38:25.55 Soft Maniac dance with me. So when did home computer era end? The way I see it, and this is something I said previously, it was in the 90s as the PC and Mac could play all the cool games and give you access to all the useful business software. At that time there were no plays for a dedicated at home computer. When did BASIC die? As I said,It really couldn't compete when it wasn't delivered on a chip inside a computer. It's really that simple. BASIC stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Yeah, maybe I should've started by saying that first.

🎧 39:09 DRAX of MoN – Boat on the road

🎧 43:04 DJ Daemon: Boat on the road. How does that even work? What about the Névoke demo party? No tracked music compos.

DJ Daemon 43:05.07 of Mon, boat on the road. I don't know how that works, cause I think they actually need Z to function. Maybe they are carrying it on a transport or something. When it comes to demo parties, well today it's the 14th of August as I'm broadcasting here. And Nevoq, or Nevoke, or...I don't know how to translate it, it's a demo party that's running right now. Alas, it doesn't seem to have much of tracker competition, so I'm sorry I will not be able to get anything out of it. And other demo parties coming up? Yeah, well, it's scarce. But we'll see what we can do.

🎧 43:44 Ben-Jam – Heaven watching us

🎧 47:26 DJ Daemon: New jingles.

DJ Daemon 47:26.03 Bernie Jam, heaven watching us. If you're listening to the radio station, you probably already know that we have a new package of jingles. That's the messages in between the songs. And we are using them only when I'm broadcasting live.but more will be added later and we also removed all the messages I think most people are tired of them right now after all those times they ran so I don't know I'm happy to have them gone too you know

🎧 47:58 Grubi of Brs – Beans and Rusk

🎧 53:27 DJ Daemon: summary.

DJ Daemon 53:28.11 of BRS, Beans and Rusk. I have no idea what Rusk is. It doesn't seem like something you want in your tea. At any rate, this is the Ericade Radio Network and flashback tracks from the past and we have been discussing basic and home computer era. Yeah, thanks for listening and next week, new topic, new music and everything. Go to Ericade.radio.get their latest schedules and everything else.

🎧 53:58 Hunz – I am way one son

🎧 58:02 DJ Daemon: Leading you into the good night. Jesper Kyd.

DJ Daemon 58:02.99 Hans really destroys the English language. Like me, basically. I am Way One Son. It sounds like Chinese. I don't know why. Anyway, this is DJ D-Bone, or my real name is Eric, and I thank you for listening and hope you will be back next week. And we are leading you out into the good night with Jasper, Tjyd and Space Song.

🎧 58:28 Jesper Kyd – Space song