this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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How much would you pay for a PC with 128KB RAM, and no hard disk?

In today's money (inflation adjusted)

This an ad from Personal Computer World (UK) from 1985

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[–] supercheesecake@aussie.zone 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Who remembers the Sinclair ZX-80 with a massive 1kb ram?!

[–] TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was starting writing here to correct you that it had 48KB (like the spectrums) but thought to check on wikipedia and... you are right! Oh my goodness! 1kb and called a computer! And was a computer!

[–] supercheesecake@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember they had a space invaders type game for it, written and run IN 1k RAM!! Just amazing.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

theres 1K programming demo contests now that would blow your mind. like https://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?type%5B%5D=1k

[–] peanutyam@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ooh! I had a ZX-81 with a 16k ram pack on it (and cassette recorder to save with!) as a kid haha….god I’m old!!

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't mind me. Just showing off the Sinclair ZX Spectrum bag I got a couple of weeks ago. I'm nostalgic for 5 minute loading screens that could trigger an epileptic fit!

The 80s were a different time.

[–] peanutyam@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh that’s amazing!

The 80’s were certainly a different time. Especially when only allowed to access a computer at school for a few minutes in the day (Apple IIe) so all of us could “have a go at the computer in the library”!

I would never have imagined as a kid what it was going to be like today with smartphones and the internet everywhere….

[–] BrownianMotion@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You were lucky! We only had BBC's in our computer room.

[–] zerbey@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Only had BBCs". The best 8-bit computer of their generation? ONLY had a BBC? You have any idea how lucky we were growing up with those amazing machines in the 80s-90s? I owe my whole career to the BBC, with an honorable mention to the ZX Spectrum I had at home.

Even today, they're still in use.

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I guess I went to a well funded public school... In 1984-5 we had a whole bunch of apple ][s so we had an hour or so per week of programming in basic- I had a commodore 64 at home so I could do the classwork in the first 5-10 minutes, then spend the rest of the time playing with it to see what it could do...

[–] zerbey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Shut up and take my money!

[–] zerbey@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I do, wonderful machine. You could get a 16K RAM pack (most did) that made a huge difference. Problem is, if an ant sneezed in the next town over it'd wobble loose and the machine would crash. A dab of Blu-Tac was just the ticket.

The ZX Spectrum came out 2 years later and was far more capable, and reasonably priced.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Possibly the worst keyboard ever too.