Thanks to a new job (which was unthankfully due to my old one being
outsourced to India) I ended up having to get a car to commute. This
meant I could drive to my parents' place for Christmas rather than using
the train, and finally pick up a bunch of bulky old stuff that's been
stuck there for the last ten years getting in their way. Amongst the
dusty cardboard boxes lay my SAM Coupe, now a rather disturbing shade
of deep yellow compared to its original pristine white.
I was going to sell it on eBay - boxed, dual disc drive, 512K,
everything working, SAM Bus, mouse interface, loads of discs (which
amazingly appear to still work after all this time)... Even has the
original Blu-Tac I used to stick the mouse interface box to the joystick
interface on the SAM Bus to keep things tidy. Then I started playing
with it [that's *testing* it - Ed.].
Before long [1], three hours had gone by and I was remembering just
*why* it was I always hated Windows and got into programming in the
first place. Oh, and how annoying it is that you have to wait for the
syntax error beep to finish playing before the machine starts accepting
keyboard input again.
(Being a typist of questionable accuracy, I rely on having possibly the
fastest backspace finger in the West).
I'd forgotten all about the little jingle I wrote for Rachel, half of
the jingles in Puzzled, or what on Earth you were supposed to do in
Hexagonia, but it looks pretty and still has a great tune playing on
the main menu. Now, if only I can find the Silly Demo 1 disc...
Maybe I won't sell it. Only problem is, my top floor, 1 bedroom flat is
already far too small to accommodate the 3 computers, 4 games consoles
and extensive AV equipment inventory (including ginormous LD player). It
certainly can't fit in another one with a TV hanging off the back.
Emulation just isn't the same, though.
Does anybody know if there's a company that produces conservatories that
sort of protrude out of the walls of top floor flats?
[1] About three hours, I reckon.
--
Andrew Hodgkinson, Webmaster Cambridge 99 Rowing Club
Tel: 07855 866 780 (mobile) The Boathouse, Kimberley Road,
01223 369 408 (evening) Cambridge, CB4 1HJ. 01223 367 521
http://www.nines.rowing.org.uk/
