Bring Home the Amiga 500 Demo

[@relativenormality]

7:02 - "...often more than a megabyte" 😀

[@Sirrom0206]

Yep. megabytes were a big deal at the time. Only rich people could own gigabytes of memory. Price of a Gigabyte in 1981 - $300,000. www.themarysue.com/gigabyte-cost-over-years/ The first Gigabyte hard drive was created by IBM in 1980. It was the size of a refrigerator and cost $40,000. forums.tomshardware.com/threads/what-was-the-cost-for-a-1gb-hard-drive-in-1986.2677689/

[@MK-ge2mh]

Did we live the same life? Between Radio Shack and now the Amiga 500, it's as if we're the same person. I got an early Amiga 500 in July 1987 when I turned 13. I didn't know it was an early issue until I saw a video about how they changed to a cheaper keyboard after the first few thousand. That's where I really learned to program. I taught myself AmigaBASIC and then bought the Manx Aztec C Compiler v3.6 and learned C which led to a lucrative career in software. If you cover the Heathkit ET-3400(A) Microprocessor Trainer next, I'm going to start thinking this is all a hoax. 😉

[@Sirrom0206]

Now I got to look around for that Heathkit ET-3400(A) Microprocessor Trainer. My dad loved Heath kits! I made their color bar generator when I was a kid.

[@Sirrom0206]

OOHH! I think my Dad had this thing. He was into Ham radios and he was mixing Ham and computer tech. The Heathkit ET-3400(A) Microprocessor Trainer sells for $174 - $220 USD on EBay.

[@MK-ge2mh]

@@Sirrom0206 I have three of them which are operational and one for parts. I also have three complete sets of courses for them (EE-340X). A couple of years ago, I taught my eldest son three courses (Microprocessors, Microprocessor Interfacing, and 6809 Microprocessors). He took the final exam on the first one and got a 96%. We then made a breadboarded computer using an HD63C09, which is a drop-in 6809 replacement, but runs faster and has additional registers and instructions. It can run Microsoft Extended BASIC and was continuously running a graphics demo I wrote for the 128x64 monochrome graphical LCD until a power surge blew out the chips this past summer. I need to buy replacements and go through the tedious process of rebuilding the circuit. I want to teach my other boys, but they won't hear of it. 😞