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The Computer Years | ||||||||||||||||
The Computer Years started around 1980, with instruction in Basic being offered to all employees of RHPcord Productions. These classes proved very useful in later years, teaching the staff that coding in textual, 3GL languages can cause sleepiness and total loss of creativity. But it was the best technology of the time, so we did it. This was also out first foray into the world of GUI, when we took on a project at a local educational institution and programmed the teacher's grade book to give a special message whenever Ms. Durazo used it. It is not known how well this project worked, as Ms. Durazo never made mention of our little foray into customization, but she will always have the honor of being our first GUI subject. This was also our first time experimenting with games and the computer. We did a lot of research, especially with Pac Man, Gallaga, and Defender. We were also interested in developing game systems that were very popular at the time, known as Dungeons & Dragons. We actually got a member of the company in to a D&D group under cover, so that he could report on what was important to this new possible client. Not much happened with this, however, as we lost touch with out informant and never heard from him again. This period was also our introduction to FORTRAN, and our realization that you could do almost anything with this language. Even figure out how to compute the cost of a tin can and get a passing grade from the client with it. This came about after our move of the company Headquarters to Annandale, MN, and our purchase of our first large scale PC, the ADAM. In addition, we became deeply interested in the workings of GUI interface, and spent innumerable hours researching this with a third-party, Mr. Brian Liles. Many of these hours were spent trying to determine the effect of different GUI styles based on the Atari 2600 machine. This was where the company learned of the importance of flowing graphics and easy to identify icons. It was also where we learned of the importance on maintaining hand-eye coordination. The Computer Years helped RHPcord Productions to enter a new phase of development, The Training Years. | ||||||||||||||||
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