RE: [Algorithms] FPS Questions

[Steve B. <st...@li...>]

On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Tom Forsyth wrote:

> Kim, you'll find that if you spend enough time in the pubs, the movies won't
> bother you any more. :-)
 
It'll bother you - you just won't *remember* that it bothered you :-)

> And yes, I think they can be trained. Maybe it's from years of sitting
> staring at a bright white ZX Spectrum(*) screen while coding in basic that
> I've become allergic to low frame rates.
 
Your memory is leaky.  The Spectrum was BLACK.  You're thinking of the
ZX80 and ZX81.

> (*) Home computer, contemporary (and clear superior, obviously) of the C64.
> I think it was called a TRS80 on the other side of the pond? Fantastically
> popular here in Britland.

No!  TRS-80 (Pronounced 'Trash-Eighty') was a Tandy/Radio-Shack machine
with a *real* keyboard, *real* display, etc, etc. V.Superior to anything
Sinclair produced.  I owned three of them at one time!

In the US, the ZX-80/81 was called "Timex 1000" or something like that,
I didn't think the Spectrubbish was ever marketted in the US.

Hmmm - Sinclair computers - the memories...

The wobbly RAM pack - the BlueTac to stop it sliding around
the desk - the 'dead flesh' feel to the so-called "keyboard" (on the
Spectrum).  That the display was generated in software (on the ZX80)
- so the screen went blank whenever you ran a program or hit a key
or something.

The adverts that said that you could control a nuclear power plant
with it. (That same advert showed the Spectrum displaying a Union
Jack - which it cannot do because it's graphics 'cells' could only
contain two colours per cell).

The migrane-simulation it displayed as it loaded stuff from tape.

The *requirement* that you use short-cut keys for all BASIC reserved
words - so their interpreter wouldn't have to actually parse the
source code!  Having to use THREE shift keys to get to some of the
more "unusual" BASIC operators...unusual like '<' and '>' :-)

<shudder>

I remember the ZX80/ZX81 and Spectrum *very* well.  Each was
truly a complete piece of shit - even by the low standards of
the time!

You thought it was better than C64?!?  I *don't* think so.

Still - you could always upgrade to the Sinclair QL (Quick-Lashup)
with it's infamous 'microdrives'.  (If you had two microdrives,
drive A couldn't read tapes written by drive B and vice-versa!)

Clive Sinclair made an "Electric Car" too...can you say "Death Trap" ?

  :-)


Steve Baker                      (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
L3Com/Link Simulation & Training (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: sj...@li...           http://www.link.com
Home: sjb...@ai...       http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1