'Aeuk': Flashes from the past vol2: Computing stuff

So, ... about computers and stuff.

Again I'll write first in length, and in the end you'll find some selected pics from these ancient years even that I don't have that many pictures from that era, especially about computers. Back then if someone took a picture (film picture, remember) about some hardware, like some computer in front of you, it seemed like a crazy thing to do. Like ... what, are you crazy? You are wasting film (and paying for it) shooting just some devices? Do you think you are some journalist working for some magazine? Get real! ... so the fact that I have some pictures, computer related, from almost 40 years ago - I'm thankful for that. I'm especially thankful for my sister who no longer walks the earth (RIP), because most of these pictures included were taken by my sister ...

My computer era begun actually a nod later than my interest for music world. I'd say it begun around 1984/85 or so, not with getting my first computer but via friends: Visiting friends who had a computer. Typically either C64, MSX or Sinclair. In some cases also Vic20. But as you can guess, it was all about games and playing games in the early years. When it was about these machines it was nothing but gaming, I can't remember anything else. Well okay, one exception ... coding. What? Coding the games, with basic. This was especially or should I say only with Commedore machines, C64, C128 and Vic20.

I got my own first computer as christmas present in late 1986 as my parents noticed how computers were getting big for me, so to speak. You'd think I was filled with joy when I got my first ever computer? Nope, it was probably my biggest christmas present disappointment case. Funny in itself, but also very true. How come, you ask? Well, I was 100% certainly looking forward to getting C64 and I even got few copied tapes from friends filled with C64 games of course. Parents promised to get me C64 as christmas present and I was so sure it would happen as a 12 year old kid eagerly expecting his first computer. There was no talk of Santa, since I got to know the truth about Santa when I was just 5 years old. I probably ripped the heavy computer package open faster (than the speed of light) than any package I had ever opened until then. This is it, this is my C64, the package is shaped like C64, oh yeah baby ... and it all looked like it for sure, until my eyes understood that there wasn't C64 in the familiar shaped box, it read Commodore though ... it was freakin' Vic-20! Boy was I disappointed. Af first I was like ... yeah, close this box for me, I couldn't care less. Or burn the machine, I don't care, it's completely useless for me!

The reason behind this epic "wrong machine" tale was that my dad's younger sibling (one out of about dozen of em) had unknowingly kind of cheated my dad (= not understanding a bit acout computers, coulnt't tell difference between different home computers), saying that she has C64 in a box, because her child is not interested in it anymore but grew out of it already, so it's useless for us and computers ain't future in any case (yeah), buy this junk from us as a present for your youngest kid if he wants C64. Yeah, C64 ... Vic-20 wasn't exactly C64. If we would have had videocam back then, I guess there could have been a legendary "kid's present reaction video" out of me, opening that cursed present. :)

Well, I no longer remember how exactly this "beautiful christmas tale" (ha!) went on, or what actually happened - or was it just that nothing happened ... but anyway, the end result was that after the initial heavy disappointment I was spending the rest of christmas with Vic-20. Of course the C64 taped games I had were completely useless. There were zero games with the machine, there was literally nothing but the machine (which did work). I think there was basic programming book with it, so yeah, the time spent that christmas with the poor Vic meant basic programming (with big bro helping out) ... and I remember we were playing some very basic missile game then. That's my only memory of that christmas time. Numbers sliding across the TV screen from left to right, hit space and missile is launched from bottom of space. It's a miss or it's a hit - there were even very simple sounds. Beeps and static noises. Black and white "graphics". That's how it always was with Vic-20 from beginning to end. It was so freakin' basic (pun intended) from beginning to end. No games to be found, I went through local bookstores (which sold computer games back then exclusively, too) - nothing really. It was all C64 and then some MSX/Sinclair. The only way to have games was to program them - and the only place I could find program lists was finnish computer magazine MikroBitti. I bought a lot of that magazine, also especially older mags where I could find - because they had Vic-20 program lists too. With list I mean "complete basic program printed in the magazine" = you wrote the program with your machine and you had a game. Such an "easy" way to play a game ... not. No wonder that I kept visiting friends with C64 and MSX.

The Vic-20 was quite a brief season for me personally, it was truly a small star already fast burning out when I got it. There is not much to tell about it really, other than that yeah, it was my first computer.

So, the tale goes on ... my parents clearly saw the scale of my disappointment with Vic-20 and I also told it out loud, also the fact that "dad please, in the future never go buying computer stuff from your female relatives because they don't know the difference between a calculator and a computer!" ... and my dad definitely listened to what I said about the matter, too. How come? Well, as that 1986 christmas computer present was a huge disappointment, the 1987 christmas present was the completely opposite, and I can (and have always said) only praise dad (RIP) for that.

I was again expecting C64, or perhaps even C128? ... instead my jaw dropped when I opened the very heavy package(s), and I didn't at first really understand what I was watching. Yeah, Commodore ... what, this is not C64, but Amiga 500, what kind of computer is this!? The packaging was thought provoking, showcasing crystal clear pictures of Egypt, Tutankhamun's golden masks and stuff. Pictures of stereos, music etc ... it all gave a vision that this might be quite amazing computer to get into. But little did I know, how amazing it was in the end. And I got it so damn early, it cost my dad quite some (which he remembered to state here and there, and hey it didn't annoy me, I was always very thankful about that and I also said it out loud, too). It was so early, that I had zero friends who had Amiga, and it was like that for at least 1 year. It was only around late 1988 when I started knowing some other guys who had Amiga 500. During the first year the games were quite selected and hard to come by - but unlike with Vic, it wasn't a problem because all the games felt like gold and they were so fast to load, with 3,5" disk drive, and they often utilised not just your usual joystick or two, but a mouse which was essential in Amiga system. And it wasn't just games, but very soon I got into programs like Deluxe Paint (leading me to graphics' world and creating) and Sound Tracker (leading me to world of computer music and creating). It was completely new world all in all, it felt like ... going to space instead of going to school as pre'teenager, ehh!?

So, whereas the let's say half a year with Vic-20 was not much to remember and I feel it didn't shape anything in my life for me then or later (or if it did, instead it made to to despise programming languages in the forthcoming years!), the Amiga era started something much more massive and it pretty much shaped a lot of my hobbies too, even adult career life to certain extent if I think about it. It wasn't just about gaming anymore, even that Amiga's games were amazing and I can't even begin to count the hundreds and hundreds (probably thousands) of hours I spent playing games with Amiga during the intensive 3-4 years I had Amiga 500. I had already been doing photography as kid, and music meant a lot to me from young kid as I've stated - but Amiga era gave these two a massive boost in a way. Like said, there were programs like Deluxe Paint (I had several versions of it and I drew & planned a lot with it), I'd say it was the Photoshop of Amiga and I certainly spent hundreds of hours with that too ... and then there were of course Sound Tracker (also Noise Tracker) which literally started my hobby of having music projects. It started in 1989 with Sound Tracker and revolutionary thing "I can actually program music!" ... I had learned to almost hate programming as result of Vic-20's "games" (if you wanted to play, you had to write several hundreds lines of code first) but as years passed with sound tracker stuff, I developed a motto "I love programming drums". Or then something in the vein of "the only programming I like, is music programming" (which of course meant "tracking music with tracker software"). Amiga games had impressive graphics and more often also impressive music, the machine had groundbreaking music chip which made the beeps and blips of earlier Commodore machines a history and the music actually sounded like a real music. So, Amiga in itself was revolutionary computer and it was most certainly that for me personally, too. The era lasted for 3-4 years in my case, ending in late summer of 1991. It was time to make a massive leap into quite an unknown world ...

The idea of abandoning the sweet world of Amiga and exchanging it into PC world came to me around Spring 1991. It was a bittersweet situation, kind of: I loved Amiga world and it felt like Amiga was on top of its' game just then, perhaps some signs of decline were there already but it was still pretty much a hot machine doing well. At the same time ... as the 16-17 years old computing fella I was then, I saw the potential of PC world. Somehow I felt like even that at that stage PC world was lightyears behing Amiga world technically speaking (graphics, sounds, even computing power) the things will be changing quite soon. It felt like the change was around the corner. Many friends of mine were like "are you crazy!?" when they realized I am not just thinking about it, but seriously going to sell away my Amiga and jump into PC world. It meant abandoning the Amiga demogroups I was part of, too (I was member of one local finnish demogroup as musician/swapper and also member of one germanese demogroup as musician/swapper as well). It all happened fast as the ball got rolling - I had made a deal with my dad about buying me my first PC in the Autumn of 1991; I'd do certain work for dad at summer cottage and stuff, and the work I did partially gained me money for the PC so that the cost of new computing equipment wouldn't be just dad's burden. And that's how things went, too - I made the decision of abandoning Amiga in summer of 1991 and worked hard during the summer, sold away my Amiga (to my sister's future husband) which also added to my "PC funds" ... and then came the Autumn when dad bought the kind of PC I had chosen for me. If Amiga 500 cost a lot in 1987, that PC cost overall about 2,5 times more than Amiga did (ouch) ... but it wasn't just the PC, it was also a monitor first ever time (no longer small TV) and also a printer.

That first PC of mine was 386 / 40mhz with 120 mb hard drive, and 4 mb ram / internal memory. It was about the most powerful home PC on sale around that time, and that 120 mb hd was huge then. Display adapter had massive amount of 1mb memory (it was one of the best then, though). And hey! I had Sound Blaster sound card! It's just that at first it meant hardly anything (lack of software supporting SB). As funny as all these technical details might sound tens of years later, this PC changed everything for me personally speaking. And again, like with Amiga, the first "about a year" was a sweaty business, lack of software, games, beepy soundscapes too, poorer graphics ... I remember clearly how during first week or so I was going to sleep late some evening, and I was on the edge of tears (!) thinking just about how I am going to be such a disappointment for my dad who invested so much into this PC and I can't even get into it, it's all such a mess and I've ruined everything! ... I remember what made me think so and it makes me laugh these days: I had somehow thought about how I can "make the 120 mb hd even bigger and faster working!" and I had partitioned the hd into drives which each had some 5 mb space ... ha ha ha! Don't ask me, how and why I thought it would become bigger or faster ... the despair soon faded away as I got the system into shape where it was supposed to be. Perhaps those early hardcore experiments and failures teached me some good lessons as for next 20 years I always built my own PCs. This didn't happen right away though, because this very first PC of mine lasted heavy use for as long as 5 years. It was only Autumn 1996 when I abandoned it, having served me pretty much perfectly. And it didn't serve just me in ways I've told, but I remember how my big sister (RIP) crafted her thesis work for business school in around 1992-1993 or so and I helped her around with formatting the text. :)

Did you notice the word Sound Blaster above? Yeah, I had SB sound card already in the first PC, and it was something I especially wanted to have - the most important reason for this was ... tracking music. I had done my reasearch in the summer of 1991 and even before I got that first PC of mine, I contacted finnish guy Sami T. who had created tracking software Scream Tracker for PCs (check <here> for info) ... it was the only tracking software for PC I knew and so I bought the license / software directly from the guy and I even paid him for transferring my "best" Amiga tracked songs into Scream Tracker / PC format. All with 3,5" floppy disks of course. I think about the first year with my own PC the only thing I could fully use Sound Blaster for, was exactly Scream Tracker and yeah, that's what I did too ... tracking music continued, as you can guess. Of course games utilised SB already in 1991-1992 as well (and AdLib if not SB) but the soundscapes weren't even close to Amiga's music / soundworld back then.

There would be all kinds of tales, both from Amiga days as well as the early PC days ... If I think about games, with Amiga it's hard to pinpoint just one game which made the biggest impact, there were countless of amazing games (both content and music) but it would be impossible to choose just one which made the biggest impact. But I think with PC it could be possible to choose one game title, or at least easier anyway ... With PC, it was definitely Ultima Underworld which made a massive impact on me. The soundscapes aren't that amazing, but certain sounds from that game have sticked to my mind so well that I can immeditealy imagine them in my mind even after 30+ years of playing that game! :) But that game in itself, it felt then and it still feels like it was the first true slow 3D adventuring game. I don't mean games like Wolfensteing or Doom where you run around and kill - but emphasis on slow 3D adventuring game with a thick plot and storyline. Ultima Underworld truly sucked you in back in 1992.

If thinking about nerdy memoirs I have to write about the best "I made it!" type of memoir I had with this first PC of mine. It is about Doom. :) Wolfenstein 3D worked smoothly with my PC back in 1992 but as Doom came out in late 1993, it was soon clear that the limits of my PC were coming ahead. It wasn't so much about display adapter, nor about sound card, but it was about main memory of the PC. I had 4 mb ram, and I think Doom originally was like "recommended" (or was it even required?) 6 mb ram, internal PC memory. At first I couldn't get Doom working as you can guess. Back then and also still during late 1990s tweaking your PC's memory, optimizing it when starting MS-Dos was essential. I tweaked and booted, tweaked and booted (autoexec.bat, config.sys ... heck I remembered those even that I haven't touched to them in 20+ years!) ... sweating with tweaking the memory, I have to maximize it, I have to get Doom running ...! And I succeeded! I still remember the joy of success in the task that seemed impossible. I also remember it was extreme tweaking, because I only could play Doom with these certain tweaked system files, autoexec.bat and config.sys (I had multiple files of course for different uses) and nothing else. But that was enough for me and so I got the cultural experience of first Doom right when it happened. That first Doom worked smoothly enough from start to finish from what I remember and was of course a blast. But with Doom 2 things were already getting "out of hand" so to speak. I did manage get Doom 2 running on that first PC too, not too surprising since technically it wasn't that much different from first Doom ... but the problems came towards ending of that Doom 2. The last levels had lots of enemies and the game started going ... very slowly, FPS dropped noticeably. The worst part was the very last level, where if you came head to head with big bunch of those enemies, FPS dropped into something like 1-2 frames per second or so. It was "quite hard" to finish that game because of that but ... of course I did it! :)

So yeah, the first ever PC I bought myself, it cost almost exactly as much as my first PC which my dad paid - I bought my first own PC in Autumn of 1996. I think it lasted just as long as the first PC did; about 5 years. During 2000s I've had multiple PCs of course and there's no point going there (heaviest PC case I built myself weighed 25 kg and it had lights and 1:12 formula car inside of it, this was peak point of my "self built cases") but to my own surprise I managed to break that "how long PC lasted" record which was for a very long time with my first PC ... I bought one PC in Autumn 2015 and it lasted to end of 2021 so it lasted 6+ years of heavy usage. That's a record hard to break I guess.

I any case, here are some goofy computing pictures from distant past, below. The pictures are directly related to the stories described above. I've changed the faces again, but otherwise the pics are all 100% authentic events. The world sure looked different, just take a look at those hifi TV sets etc ... :D