So - how about you lot? What has unexpectedly slapped you in the face with nostalgia over the years?
Apam wrote to Bob Worm <=-
My son has a toy computer which makes sounds, mostly talking / singing, but every now and then it goes "online" and makes a modem connection sound.
My son has a toy computer which makes sounds, mostly talking / singing, but every now and then it goes "online" and makes a modem connection sound.
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Bob Worm <=-
Re: Big nostalgia hits
By: Bob Worm to All on Thu Nov 16 2023 11:53 am
So - how about you lot? What has unexpectedly slapped you in the face with nostalgia over the years?
Telix connect tones.
The beeeeeeeeP of an IBM PC posting.
The loud click a PC AT power supply switch made.
the DOOM E1M1 midi file.
The sound of a dot-matrix printer.
The bootup sound of a Macintosh Quadra.
For some people it's the smell of waxed electronic components inside an old radio. For me, seeing the VGA 80x25 font for the first time in years almost crashed my brain from nostalgia overload. Even something as
simple as seeing the word "CLICK!" when disconnecting from a (telnet)
BBS sometimes sets me off.
Last night I heard the distinctive ding-ding-ding of a Quake grenade and it triggered an immediate rush of excitement and fond memories, way out
of proportion to the stimulus.
So - how about you lot? What has unexpectedly slapped you in the face
with nostalgia over the years?
Telix connect tones.
The beeeeeeeeP of an IBM PC posting.
the DOOM E1M1 midi file.
The sound of a dot-matrix printer.
The bootup sound of a Macintosh Quadra.
A long time ago, ThinkGeek had a little box that looks like it was molded from the same molds as the U.S. Robotics 56K modem - just in a different color. Instead of lights, it had buttons and pushing each button generated a different modem sound.
The sound of a floppy drive reading/writing a disk.
The various modem connection/negotiation tones.
Duke Nukem saying "Let's rock".
The 4.3BSD boot banner after the kernel loads on a VAX-11.
The sound of the floppy diskette on the original Macintosh.
Using VM/CMS on an IBM mainframe with x3270 and the 3179G
fonts and color scheme. The "RUNNING" string in the lower
right corner.
The "Username:" prompt from VMS.
Logging into a Plan 9 terminal.
Reading C.
I always loved the overlapping "neeeeer neeer noot" noises of dual 5.25" floppies self testing at boot.
Nowadays when I'm listening to a floppy drive it's usually because I'm looking out for that horrible scraping noise that tells me "that one's got dirt in it".
Reading C.
If reading C gives you warm and fuzzy feelings then it's clearly not my
C :)
Heh. That one was a bit of a subtle dig at C for being
outdated. But I write (and read!) a lot of C....
Years ago, I found a YouTube channel where someone has made a setup he calls the "Floppotron", which plays music with floppy drives. He has a bunch of floppy disk drives connected to a computer that uses software to engage the floppy drives' motors to produce various tones, and it looked to me like the software can load a MIDI file and play it with the floppy drives.
Years ago, I found a YouTube channel where someone has made a setup he
calls the "Floppotron", which plays music with floppy drives. He has a
I remember that, yes. The first few of those seemed really well done, a lot of effort put in to remake tracks around the limitations of the medium. Then I ran into more videos years later which included stepper motors and played multiple tones at once. It just seemed like analogue audio was being fed into the motors, not so much art to it, kind of spoiled it for me.
The sound of a floppy drive reading/writing a disk.
I always loved the overlapping "neeeeer neeer noot" noises of dual 5.25" floppies self testing at boot.
Call me whatever you like. That's my taste :)
Bob Worm wrote to Dr. What <=-
That sounds delightfully pointless.
I know it's bad form to regret being generous, and actually it allowed some good friends of mine to get online before they otherwise would
have, but damn - I'd love to get that back now.
Bob Worm wrote to Gamgee <=-
Re: Re: Big nostalgia hits
By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Nov 17 2023 07:32:00
Hi, Gamgee.
The sound of a floppy drive reading/writing a disk.
I always loved the overlapping "neeeeer neeer noot" noises of
dual 5.25" floppies self testing at boot.
Nowadays when I'm listening to a floppy drive it's usually
because I'm looking out for that horrible scraping noise that
tells me "that one's got dirt in it".
The various modem connection/negotiation tones.
My mate Martin claimed he could tell what rate a modem was going
to sync at by listening to the connection tones. Annoyingly he
actually could, +/- a couple of kbaud. Nerd.
Duke Nukem saying "Let's rock".
Oh, wow - you just gave me a flashback to Dan Douglas' Duke
Smoochem 3D, an amazingly accurate replica of UK life built in
the Duke3D engine. It's the most British thing ever...
Gamgee wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
The bootup sound of a Macintosh Quadra.
Can't say as I've heard that last one.
tenser wrote to Bob Worm <=-
The sound of the floppy diskette on the original Macintosh.
Reading C.
Bob Worm wrote to Dr. What <=-
I know it's bad form to regret being generous, and actually it allowed some good friends of mine to get online before they otherwise would
have, but damn - I'd love to get that back now.
Dr. What wrote to Bob Worm <=-
I think we all have our "vintage regrets" for one thing or another.
hmm.. I hadn't really noticed. I thought the tones were all from the motors of the various floppy drives.
tenser wrote to Bob Worm <=-
The sound of the floppy diskette on the original Macintosh.
I was at university when the Mac 512K model became "the" thing for
students. Get your Apple Credit card at the local university, pick up a
Mac, Applewriter printer and external floppy drive (you'll need it!)
and you're on your way.
I think those cards were something like 28% interest. Robbery, but it
had to be given the potential risk they were taking - even with parents
co-signing for them.
Reading C.
I bought K&R C a while ago to put into my bookcase. I'd thought about
writing some C code again, it's been years.
There's always the Disk ][.
Goes through the chugga chugga chugga during
boot, as it ramps the head across 24 tracks to make sure its at 0 for boot load. if the head is sitting anywhere closer than track 24, it just beats the head against the mechanical stop cause it can't tell where the head is positioned.
Careful or we'll spin your nipple nuts and call you Frank....
Well, the different speeds/protocols did negotiate differently. I never
did it, but with enough practice/effort, I'd think one could learn the differences. :-)
Oh, wow - you just gave me a flashback to Dan Douglas' Duke
Smoochem 3D, an amazingly accurate replica of UK life built in
the Duke3D engine. It's the most British thing ever...
Hehe, haven't heard of that one.
A year or so later when I asked a caller how he heard about my BBS, he
said someone had given him a modem and a floppy disk with my BBS in the
dialing directory... It was one of mine!
That's a fantastic pay off. Did you work out if you were the "someone" in that story or if one of the original recipients had passed it on?
poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dr. What <=-
I think we all have our "vintage regrets" for one thing or another.
AT&T 6300
At a previous company, I discovered an AT&T 6300 system (CPU, terminals, printers, cables, the works) on a pallet in the warehouse. It was slated
There's always the Disk ][.
I assume that's an Apple thing?
Well, the different speeds/protocols did negotiate differently. I
Oh this was not the "that's a 14.4k melody" vs. "that's 33.6k" - this was
Yup the original Apple 5.25" drive. The whole thing was dumber than rocks and could be made to do all sorts of non standard things with any software that someone cared to write for it.
I vaguely remember in Woz's book he said that floppy controllers were phenomenally expensive, to the point where it put them out of reach for home applications, so he knocked something together from shift registers and whatever else could be obtained at a good price.
While that meant more work for the host it "freed" everyone from the rigid notion of tracks and sectors. You could send the head wherever you liked while it was reading and writing, with spiral writing being one common way to do it. Apparently spiral written disks sound nice, but I've never heard it myself.
Most drives, at least the original Disk ]['s could also cope
with more than 24 tracks, patch the DOS to allow more some would
do 25/6 out of box otherwise you could wind in the stop and get
a few extra tracks.
My first computer was a TI 99/4a. It had the cassette tape drive instead of floppies. Much like the sound of that modems make, the sound of the cassette deck reading the programs from tape is a big nostalgia thing.
Years ago, I found a YouTube channel where someone has made a setup he the "Floppotron", which plays music with floppy drives. He has a bunch floppy disk drives connected to a computer that uses software to engage floppy drives' motors to produce various tones, and it looked to me lik software can load a MIDI file and play it with the floppy drives.
I remember that, yes. The first few of those seemed really well done, a lot of effort put in to remake tracks around the limitations of the medium. Then I ran into more videos years later which included stepper motors and played multiple tones at once. It just seemed like analogue audio was being fed into the motors, not so much art to it, kind of spoiled it for me.
Maybe I'm just grumpy.
For some people it's the smell of waxed electronic components inside an old radio. For me, seeing the VGA 80x25 font for the first time in years almost crashed my brain from nostalgia overload. Even something as
simple as seeing the word "CLICK!" when disconnecting from a (telnet)
BBS sometimes sets me off.
Last night I heard the distinctive ding-ding-ding of a Quake grenade and it triggered an immediate rush of excitement and fond memories, way out
of proportion to the stimulus.
So - how about you lot? What has unexpectedly slapped you in the face
with nostalgia over the years?
BobW
BobW
On 16 Nov 2023 at 11:53a, Bob Worm pondered and said...
For some people it's the smell of waxed electronic components
inside an old radio. For me, seeing the VGA 80x25 font for the
first time in years almost crashed my brain from nostalgia
overload. Even something as simple as seeing the word "CLICK!"
when disconnecting from a (telnet) BBS sometimes sets me off.
Last night I heard the distinctive ding-ding-ding of a Quake
grenade and it triggered an immediate rush of excitement and
fond memories, way out of proportion to the stimulus.
So - how about you lot? What has unexpectedly slapped you in the
face with nostalgia over the years?
The 4.3BSD boot banner after the kernel loads on a VAX-11.
The sound of the floppy diskette on the original Macintosh.
Using VM/CMS on an IBM mainframe with x3270 and the 3179G fonts and
color scheme. The "RUNNING" string in the lower right corner.
The "Username:" prompt from VMS.
Logging into a Plan 9 terminal.
Reading C.
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64) * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin,
New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
| Sysop: | altere |
|---|---|
| Location: | Houston, TX |
| Users: | 60 |
| Nodes: | 4 (0 / 4) |
| Uptime: | 00:38:25 |
| Calls: | 516 |
| Files: | 7,023 |
| Messages: | 286,423 |