Computers and me

Back when we were in Mississauga in the mid-70s we bought a Texas Instruments pocket calculator back when that was the new thing.  Then in 1978 we got a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer.  It had tiny memory power by today's measure, but I did learn Basic programming with it.  The manual had programs for some simple games, like one where you had to guide a lunar module to the moon's surface so it would have zero velocity when it touched down.  If the touchdown velocity was high, it would print out S Q U I D G E!  

Then in 1979 my brothers and I would go to Father's university office to play the early game Adventure on his computer, using the early form of the internet.  That's a game where you go exploring in a cave system and find a lot of treasures.  In one place there's a big troll blocking your way across a bridge and you have to throw him a treasure.  You can throw an axe at him, but this is all that happens: "The troll deftly catches the axe, then throws it back, saying 'Nice workmanship, but it isn't a treasure.'"

In 1983, when IBM's PC was the new thing, Donald drove down to Boston to buy one. (He's now a computer professional.) My father bought an Atari home computer in 1987.  I have a feeling he chose that one because it was the cheapest in the store, and we had a few problems with it.  We got a few games for it, including Bureaucracy, written by HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY author Douglas Adams.  At one point you have to eat at a restaurant that accepts only cash but you have no cash, so the only thing you can do is sneak out. (This happened to Adams in real life once.)

We got a Mac computer in 1989, and that's the model I swear by.  I got my first laptop in 1992.  We got connected to the internet in 1996, on my initiative.  Moira had recently got a PC, and it was around then that I started playing KING'S QUEST VII:  THE PRINCELESS BRIDE, a game about a fairy-tale princess and her mother wandering through a land perilous adventure after being separated.  At first I went online in Moira's room, then the following year we set up a computer in the attic.  It's only since 2008 that I've been accessing the internet on the computer in my room.