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The School Years

richarjo

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2022
Messages
51
Location
Tasmania Australia
Hello and Greetings from Tasmania. I've just managed to gather the machines I used throughout school in the 70's-80's. These were property of the school in question at the time and we didn't buy the same. We actually went with a Colecovision (didn't get the ADAM but I'm glad I have one) and an Amiga years later in '86. Here is a TRS-80 Model 1, same as used in yr 5 here and then an Apple II plus, same as used in yr 6. Rounding out up to High school is the trusty BBC Micro B. We had access to Macs in College (Matric here) and I have one but it need re-capping etc. Cheers
 

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I've just completed the PAL conversion on the TRS-80 for its Australian monitor and it's perfect. Also have a 14" NEC Accusync tft on the Beeb now which is great as it has width and height adjustment which the pictured Acer didn't.
 
:)

For me it all started with a chiclet PET at the age of 12. The school quickly progressed to 3032 and 8032's while I acquired a ZX81 and then a BBC B.
 
Hello, nice collection. The only computers I remember from school is the chicklet PET in about 1979 and some Apple II's in about 1980. I have been looking out for a PET but they are usually out of my price range. I did get an Apple IIe out of a dumpster at the local college a few years ago.

Seaken
 
Not a bad collection. There were no computers in my school.
 
:)

For me it all started with a chiclet PET at the age of 12. The school quickly progressed to 3032 and 8032's while I acquired a ZX81 and then a BBC B.
Sounds like you were drawn in at an early age. It's great to remember. I was totally attracted to the TRS-80 at primary school around '82 but was one of the few that used it. I remember trying to master it. We didn't have a computer at home but had a Colecovision. I wanted an ADAM expansion for it and then a Wang PC but they weren't available here so I had to wait till High School when we had an Amiga A1000. The school were running BBC B's then.
 
Hello, nice collection. The only computers I remember from school is the chicklet PET in about 1979 and some Apple II's in about 1980. I have been looking out for a PET but they are usually out of my price range. I did get an Apple IIe out of a dumpster at the local college a few years ago.

Seaken
Hello, Thanks. I haven't ever seen a PET nor wanted one but there are a few floating around the Melbourne area here in Australia from what I've seen online. I'd rather a unit that looks like EDGAR from Electric Dreams.
 
We had a PET 4016 and TRS-80 Model III briefly shown to us in 1982. We had use of it for one or two days, then they were gone. I think they went school to school "on tour".

I was in grade 11 when my school had its first ever computer class - with the Commodore 64. Next year, we got the Burroughs ICON. (...which I have no hope of getting because they were all trashed by the government)
 
We had a PET 4016 and TRS-80 Model III briefly shown to us in 1982. We had use of it for one or two days, then they were gone. I think they went school to school "on tour".

I was in grade 11 when my school had its first ever computer class - with the Commodore 64. Next year, we got the Burrougs ICON. (...which I have no hope of getting because they were all trashed by the government)
Never been a Breadbin guy but they're popular surely. It's hard to make government goods and chattels a reality but I guess we're older now.
 
Very nice and welcome to the forum. I have said it before but I love the model 1 CRT monitor that you guys had down under better than the one here in north America.
 
The closest thing to a computer I saw at school was a slide rule 😆.
Bah! That's because you're way down there in the backwards South Pacific, not because you're an old man who used to walk through deep snow uphill both ways 5km to school every day. (...like I did, wishing I was a bloody Kiwi with a slide rule 🤪)
 
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Ah yes, well we did have slide rules, and books of log and trigonometry tables. But no computers in the usual sense of the word.

In my final year the teacher brought in a small unit that had nixie-tube digital displays, 23 memories and could be programmed. It also had a small printer attached (something like supermarket-receipt size of paper). He was able to program Lunar Lander into it.

I've never seen that kind of computer since.

In the next year or so, the TRS-80 appeared and so began the computer revolution. Apple wasn't a big thing here for some time, and the first Commodores to be noticed were the Vic-20 and the C-64.
 
I remember I went to a Math Olympics competition in Jr. High in Seattle and they allowed the kids to use calculators. I didn't own one so I think they let me borrow one. I had a friend who's dad owned a Tandy 100? (no, it wasn't a 100. It was one of those single line pocket computers. It was around 1981) and he brought it to school a few times. I don't think that was allowed in the math competition though. But slide rules were allowed!

Seaken
 
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