[etfb]

I learned Turbo Pascal in an MS-DOS emulator running on old green-screen Burroughs smart terminals, circa 1987. I knew the terminals had some sort of graphics capacity because their font changed when they left VMS mode and started emulating MS-DOS, so I wrote a program to rummage around in memory until I found where the font designs were stored. Then I wrote a font editor that changed the standard font whenever I logged in, to a design based on my own handwriting. After that, I took a leaf out of the Microbee computer's books and emulated hi-res graphics: I wrote a program that printed all the ASCII characters from 33 to 255 in a rectangle, set their font definitions to all zeroes, and then selectively set individual pixels back on according to a pattern that assumed the exact layout of characters. Implemented line, circle, flood fill and a few other graphics primitives. Fun!

[elliottcarlson]

One of my first "public" programs that I made was written in Turbo Pascal and was a read me style app for a demo group (I wasn't anywhere near capable of doing what the rest of the group could do - but at least I found a way to contribute) - I used a custom made font, had a scrolling buffer etc - always nice to take a stroll down memory lane.

[btbuildem]

> take a scroll down memory lane

[thom]

Ah, cool. You used to be able to define your own characters on Amstrads, and that's how I wrote most of my first games.

[etfb]

Pretty sure it was the way hi-res graphics worked on the VIC-20 too -- 22 characters by 8 pixels per character = 176 pixels wide, multi-colour mode where each block of 8x8 pixels had a background and a foreground colour. Deeply freaky.

[mzs]

I used semigraphics on a CoCoII, not my video, but gives an idea of what that means ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2rscrAGCaM

[tripzilch]

> You used to be able to define your own characters on Amstrads

ah so THAT is how you could make graphics on those machines? wish I had known that back when I was 10 :-P

ah well, good times :)

[Fr0styMatt]

Alright this is the most awesome post I've read all day :) I really need to get to work putting together the kit Microbee that's currently sitting on my other desk....

[etfb]

Are you old enough to remember daisy wheel printers? Basically, the computerised equivalent of a typewriter, with the individual letters on a daisy-like wheel that spun around under computer control to produce slow but "letter quality" printing. When I showed people my handwriting font, they were very impressed and asked if my printouts would be in my handwriting too. Given that the only printers we had were daisy wheels, I suggested that perhaps this would not be happening.