About Fratm Part I

From Fratm.com

Fratm is your typical computer nerd, and started using computers in the early 80s. My first computer was a Tandy TRS80 Color Computer (COCO) with 14K of Ram, which I received as an christmas gift from my mother in 1982. It had a tape drive for data storage, and hooked up to a television set for a display. I quickly learned to program on the COCO in BASIC, and was on my way to becoming a true nerd when I found a book on assembly language.

After using my Tandy for several years, I finally upgraded to a Commodore64 (C64) computer, which also had a tape drive, and a VICModem. It wasn't until I received my C64 that I really got into programming. After mastering BASIC, I started to learn 6502 Assembly language, in the process of learning this language, I also figured out how to crack copy protection on most commercial software, and made a name for my self in the C64 world. I was knows as Lord Falcon.

The many years that I had my C64 I had written several programs, all were released into the public domain. One was Echo Term, which was a terminal program written in 100% assembly language. The C64 did not have a UART chip, so to use anything over 1200BPS in those days, you had to write your I/O code in assembly for the speed. Another program I wrote was a BBS program, which never really got a name.. I was proud of this because it used a combo of assembly and BASIC as its programming language. All I/O was written in assembly, but all the routines that handled the operations of the BBS software were written in BASIC.. It worked really well and was tested on a C64 at speeds up to 2400BPS and had no problems. I also re-wrote the C64's garbage collection routines, so that the BBS did not slow down due to garbage issues associated with strings.

I was published in RUN Magazine for a code snipped I wrote called 'Dir Hider', it was a little routine that would modify a floppy disks directory sector and make it so you could not see what was on the disk. All programs would run fine, if you knew the file name to run. This was a very useful program, at least I thought it was at the time ;)

Ahh, the 80s such a fun time in the 8 bit computing world.. I do miss it.. Maybe I will write more about that in my blog..

Some time in the late 80s I got experience my first 16bit computers. I did some volunteer work for the local Boys and Girls club, and they ended up giving me a IBM PCJr computer, needless to say I was fascinated by this machine, it had a color monitor, a wireless keyboard and it ran something called DOS. This was my first step into the world of the modern PC.

After using the PCJr for a while, I learned how to use DOS, and how do to some BASIC programming and found that I was hooked on this new world of computing. I quickly offered my C64 setup with about 200 or so games in trade to the Boys and Girls club for an IBM PC/XT that they had collecting dust in a closet. They accepted my offer, and the rest is history.. I've been on the PC platform ever since.

About Fratm Part II

Last updated by Fratm 10:16, 19 December 2006 (PST)