LGR Tech Tales - CP/M & Digital Research

A few times, it's awesome. Also by the same guy is BBS: The Documentary, which is just fascinating.

LGR

I'd sure be happy to buy it, if you make it ;) Btw, have you seen "Get Lamp?" BIG recommendation here, give it a shot!

Heartwork79

Perhaps someday, we'll see!

LGR

Damn - LGR, I became a Patron because of your game reviews, but I stick around because of stuff like this. Great video! Tech Tales is a great new series in your portfolio. Seriously, you should think about making a full-sized documentary about stuff like that. Great work, thumbs up!

Heartwork79

Sad story about Gary... he was a great guy but not the best businessman...

Alyxx the Rat

I have a boxed copy of Novel DOS 7 and actually had it set up in a network in my house. I remember it had some network multi-player game (kind of like it's version of QBasic's nibbles.bas.

SNDTST

AFAIK a significant reason that DR-DOS failed to take on MS-DOS was that Microsoft was asking computer vendors for a fee for every computer they sold regardless of the computer containing MS-DOS or any other OS in order to continue licensing them MS-DOS. This meant that unless the customers explicitly asked for DR-DOS, the vendors would use MS-DOS to lower the costs. I cannot find any reference to this ATM, but i remember reading it in two different sources, an old Greek magazine from late 90s and a French book about Microsoft from early 90s, so i suspect that it is true or close to it (also it is similar to the story that was revealed much later about Windows' licensing).

Bad Sector

damn, Great mini-doc LGR. I did not know this at all. very sad indeed..

Cory M

Good thoughts everyone and very good video. A lesson when you are dealing with a 400 pound gorilla do not piss them off. They will rip your arms off just for spite. I agree about looking forward Kris. I was let go from my job a few years ago and stayed angry way too long. Now, I am doing things I did not have time to do before.

poor guy :(

Jason Potter

I'd definitely like to cover CP/M in more detail sometime.

LGR

Wow for all my reading about computer history, I don't recall learning of Kildall's fate. How crazy. BTW a great book is "Fire in the Valley".

Kevin Furr

All I can do is echo most of Kris' and Runefox's comments. Good work man, concise and respectful. Suggestion for your next video, maybe an Oddrware on CP/M itself. I know you did one on Ladder for the Kaypro, but maybe in this one a closer look at the OS, how similar CPM86 is to PC-DOS, and cool factoids like how CPM.SYS became IBMBIO.COM, which became MSDOS.SYS. And how things we use today like drive letters have their origins in CP/M.

RetroSwim

Thanks, no problem.

LGR

Totally. It's a story that deserves to be known, and I've got nothing but respect for those involved! History is wild.

LGR

Absolutely, it's a great lesson to learn. And hopefully, one can learn from stories like this rather than going through it oneself :)

LGR

GEM is still in there!

LGR

Quite similar indeed, though GEM predated GEOS.

LGR

Yeah... Like Kris, I knew the general story, but I had no idea how things had spiraled down into the abyss for Gary Kildall. Poor guy... He deserves a lot more credit than he gets for what he's done for the computer industy. Without CP/M to clone, we wouldn't have gotten DOS, and who knows where the computer industry would have gone from there. Would we still have been using BASIC for years and years instead of an actual OS? Or would someone else have stepped up to the plate? What would that have looked like? This is why I love history, even if it's sometimes bittersweet.

Runefox

Fantastic video as usual. :)

Mike Mason

GEM looks a lot like GEOS to me.

Daniel Nelms

Yikes... I knew some of the beginnings of that story but had no idea it ended like that. x_x; Speaking from my own experience of other people/companies making super popular games similar to my own ideas, (Minecraft being one of them), and from having a huge RPG project die on me due to a hard drive crash in the past, really, you just gotta keep moving forwards when stuff like that happens, otherwise yeah, you can end up severely bitter and/or depressed from focussing on your past losses so heavily. Retro stuff is fun, but when it comes to one's future, you always gotta look forwards! :)

Kris Asick

Really interesting! Thanks for the history lesson.

Therek

Man, I had to go through that depressing ending twice! Still, it was enjoyable on both occasions. You took GEM out, where did it go!? DR lost out with a similar deal on the (<a href="http://www.nostalgianerd.com/amstrad-pc1512)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.nostalgianerd.com/amstrad-pc1512)</a> Amstrad PC range of computers. With Sugar plumping to dual boot their version of DOS with MS-DOS. Looks like they had a tough time all round.

Nostalgia Nerd

Great job putting this story together. I've researched this thoroughly before and glad someone made a concise video. I always enjoyed Gary on the Computer Chronicles. A real shame what happened with his life after this. Wife's b-day today? It can wait (and yes, I'm married). Who in the hell turns down a meeting with IBM at such a critical time? Oh well.

Chad Keck

Yay! It's up! :D

Ian Guebert