My Computing World - Part 3

I took the Z80 development kit back to Melaka, was trying to figure out what to do with it.

Sad to say, I am too slow in catching up with machine language, or assembly coz I do not have patience entering the code one by one on the hexadecimal keypad. Unlike Apple II and ZX81, I was forced to use low level language to achieve what I wanted. Tiny BASIC is too primitive compared to Applesoft BASIC or ZX81 BASIC.

After playing around with the kit for a short moment of time, I managed to build a simple home security system, with numeric password for door locks and activate/deactivate various relays connected, and have written some management routines to perform maintenance.

During the period, I was enrolled to TARC for my Pre-U. I brought together with me the ZX81 and Z80 Development Kit. However, I was only found out that I need a TV to get connected to and I do not have one.

The Landlord where I rented a room is sharing his TV with his family, and I cannot possibly disconnect and connect his TV when I need to use ZX81.

Thus, I was scouting around for another personal computer. This time I have short listed a few, i.e.

1. Commodore 64

2. Commodore Amiga

3. Atari ST

4. Apple II clone

5. IBM PC clone

I was looking from the point of view of having something that will allow me to run multiple OSs at the same time. This is where I have started my journey on multiple OSs on a single machine.

I chose Atari 1040ST at that point, with an Atari Hi-res black and white monitor.

It was a hard decision, Apple II clone and PC clone have the most software ever wanted, from the point of development, Apple II has Applesoft BASIC, UCSD Pascal, Apple Logo, LISP, and a bunch of programming languages under CP/M-80.

PC on the other hand has similar offering, bunch of programming tools.

Amiga, somehow tuned towards graphics, and tools are more on the graphics presentation.

Atari ST is based on GEM Desktop, a GUI developed by Digital Research, the originator of CP/M-80, and have descent set of programming tools.

What attracted me most is the ability for Atari ST and Commodore Amiga to run Macintosh OS with either hardware of software emulation.

I fell in love with Mac since its introduction 1984. But the price point deter me from getting a Mac, in addition, the Mac runs on one floppy, with only 128K RAM, you need to keep swapping disks in and out to run say, Microsoft Excel.

Atari ST is cheaper than Amiga, and capable of running MacOS, PCDOS, etc. won the bid.