# Who remembers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822 "2020-08-11T16:29:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/81 "2020-08-21T18:41:41Z")
I still see coffee cup dispensing machines at roadside rest in Ohio. Wasn’t long ago we had them at work and they had poker hands on the cups so that you play poker with your coworkers. Problem was when people got a good hand they would keep using that cup! ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/82 "2020-08-21T18:49:33Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > EPROMs. Not EEPROMs, but EPROMs. Non-electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. I had a summer job where one of my duties was to erase and reprogram EPROMs. I remember the biggest problem was that the writing would frequently fail, and had to be redone. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/83 "2020-08-21T19:13:42Z")
We had a coffee machine which dispensed coffee, non-dairy creamer and sugar, plus hot chocolate, and variations thereof. During the initial six week home office stint the machine disappeared without any notice. Maybe just too much maintenance for a machine that wasn’t being used every day? The other coffee machine, which has coffee, milk powder and cocoa powder is still there. Plus the actual vending machine with assorted snacks and beverages. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/84 "2020-08-21T19:14:03Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Oh, wow. You reminded me of when there were cigarette vending machines. I never wanted a pack of cigarettes from them… Once upon a time Bonn was the capital of West Germany and I had business there. Next to the railroad tracks someplace I see this mini cigarette vending machine with only four slots. One dispensed unfiltered Pall Malls. Another was Dunhills. The third slot was condoms, and the fourth slot sold a pack containing a couple of disposable syringes and needles. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/85 "2020-08-21T19:30:49Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > We had a coffee machine which dispensed coffee, non-dairy creamer and sugar, plus hot chocolate, and variations thereof. During the initial six week home office stint the machine disappeared without any notice. Maybe just too much maintenance for a machine that wasn’t being used every day? Yes, sugar gums up the lines and if not cleaned regularly gnats will stick to the outlet. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/86 "2020-08-21T22:26:57Z")
I don’t think I’ve seen one of those soda in a cup vending machines since I was in college. The key feature is they’re served with ICE! Guess that’s a special version of ice? I’m wondering if the poker hand coffee cups fell out of favor after _Terminator 2_ came out. “Hey, it’s my lucky day!” [stab] ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/87 "2020-08-21T23:08:21Z")
I bought a soft drink from one of those machines when I was a kid and when I got to the bottom there was a layer of tiny bugs in it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/88 "2020-08-22T00:15:18Z")
Old computer room line printer. Basically, a belt looped around at high speed, and hammers were timed to hit it, transferring image to paper. Fun joke: program output to print “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX” for an entire line. The hammers all strike at very close to the same time, producing a really loud “BANG.” Then do this for, say, twenty lines. BANG BANG BANG BANG… You remember the Bastard Operator From Hell? Payback, man! ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/89 "2020-08-22T05:54:59Z")
Oh , yeah. I remember working with an IBM 3262 printer years ago. Noisy and slow. It was very satisfying when my boss and I eventually hauled it to the dump and pushed it out of the bed of his truck and down into the ravine. Good times… ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/90 "2020-08-22T08:50:50Z")
> [@Guy\_Incognito](#): > > i remember saving and loading BASIC programs from a cassette tape player hooked up to my old TI99/4a system back in the early 80s… lol I was going to mention the good ole ti and VIC 20 and c64 …not only did I use the tape machine s anyone remembers when buying a computer game was one of 4 things : 1 buying an expensive crappy port of a game on a disk or cartridge that didn’t work half the time 2 getting a magazine and typing a game in and then buying a new issue every so often because they had to correct the errors in the program 3 buying an expensive book of "150 official games for your brand "x that you typed in by hand " 4 the cheap way buying a copy of A 2 -10 page stapled game pamphlet what this was someone would make a game in basic print it out where it looked like a book with occasional cover art usually costs like 5 bucks some were pretty much homemade and some were done by what would be real game companies/designers in later years oh and we need a new version of hunt the wumpus and blasto … ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/91 "2020-08-22T09:10:43Z")
actually occasionally i see a modern day vending machine that sells candy and chips and such have a pack of cigs in them …i remember seeing the old ones in restaurant lobbies all the time tho i never knew anyone who bought a pack from the machines because they were so expensive like 4 bucks for a pack that was maybe . 75-1.00 heres one i just remembered the video game arcade i basically lived in as a teen was owned by a family that had been in the vending machine business since the 30s and they didn’t want to put in a new candy machine because well you know bratty teenagers … so they had this “antique” one pit in … it was horizontal and had about 5 kinds of candy in it not there was a small display window for each and what you had to do was grab this handle on a bar pull it down to what kind you wanted and push the handle up a slot under the window so you’d hear a “clink” and the candy would come out it and boy was it was harder to do than it sounds they finally gave it up after we got tired of the thing and bought our candy at the movies next door ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/92 "2020-08-22T20:08:09Z")
> [@Guy\_Incognito](#): > > It was very satisfying when my boss and I eventually hauled it to the dump and pushed it out of the bed of his truck and down into the ravine. We had a raffle, and the winner got to push an old (very large and very clunky) “dumb terminal” off the roof and down into a dump-truck. Ka-wham! That was a well-participated raffle! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/93 "2020-08-23T07:03:47Z")
But does anyone remember when they didn’t have to fight to prove they were right, when they got their back into their living? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/94 "2020-08-23T20:36:27Z")
Oh, I remember that! That was mostly VIC-20 though. By the time I got to the c64, the published games were pretty solid. It was the cracked ones that were janky. But we played 'em anyway, because nobody had much money to buy all the games we wanted. Speaking of bygone stuff… remember being able to take a game back to the store because it just sucked, even if it actually ran fine? Does anyone remember in about 1989 or so, that you could mail order disks of shareware games and programs for your PC? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/95 "2020-08-23T21:15:05Z")
yeah but they took the idea to ofar … it turned into the mess that’s on the mobile platforms and is seeping over to consoles and pcs … ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/96 "2020-08-23T21:32:40Z")
Are you talking about the shareware disks? Back then, it was pre-internet, so if you wanted anything beyond what you could get in your local Babbage’s or Toys 'R Us, then you found these ads in the back of computer magazines and got what you get. What we have today is a situation where anyone can develop their own app and put it on the play/app store. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/97 "2020-08-23T21:36:37Z")
I was part of an Amiga club for shareware games. There were some really good ones too. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/98 "2020-08-23T21:44:24Z")
oh I was remarking it went from buying extra levels or the rest of the game to almost every little thing like these days ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/99 "2020-08-23T21:52:30Z")
Oh, absolutely. While I generally like games having DLC, I don’t like the pay-to-win model, whereby people can pay real money for gear, and jump the queue, so to speak versus players who play it out and get the gear the long way. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822/100 "2020-08-24T01:50:12Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When I was a kid, back in the 50s, all elevators had operators. I don’t remember any self-service elevators. Back in 1971 a friend from college was in the elevator operator’s union and ran one over the summer. They were mostly automatic then. However in about 1990 we visited an agent whose office was in back of a Broadway theater, and to get to the office you had to ride a really old funky elevator. I don’t think there was an operator, but there were instructions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers/917822.md?page=6)