Umfolozi From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 4531 times:
Can you still remember your first PC? My first one was the Sinclair ZX81, way back in 1982. Thereafter I upgraded to the more advanced ZX Spectrum in 1983. The Spectrum was very nice, it had full colour graphics (the ZX81 only had black and white), and different sound effects. The games and programs for these two computers were all on casette tapes. I can't believe my first computing experience was over a quarter of a century ago! How things have advanced!
RFields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6150 posts, RR: 25 Reply 1, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 4528 times:
An Apple II, I built from parts purchased in Akihabara in late 1982.
Andz From South Africa, joined Feb 2004, 8298 posts, RR: 11 Reply 2, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 4512 times:
The first PC I had was also my first laptop. It was a Toshiba similar to this one and had a 486DX50 processor, but I don't remember any of the other powerful specs One nice feature was a clip on roller ball pointing device, you sort of cupped it in your hand and rolled the ball with your thumb, clicking with your index finger.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF...
ManuCH From Switzerland, joined Jun 2005, 2971 posts, RR: 51 Reply 3, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 4503 times:
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Quoting Umfolozi (Thread starter): My first one was the Sinclair ZX81, way back in 1982. Thereafter I upgraded to the more advanced ZX Spectrum in 1983.
I started with a ZX Spectrum in 1983 ...
After that, I received a homebuilt Macintosh 512K (yes, it was built from old pieces of a Mac which my dad had in his office, because it got upgraded) connected to an Atari B&W monitor
LTU932 From Germany, joined Jan 2006, 13864 posts, RR: 51 Reply 4, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 4490 times:
My first real computer was an Atari XE. I also had one of those Atari VCS consoles, but that doesn't really count, because with the XE, I got exposed to the Basic interface. Another computer I first used back in the day was a Commodore 64 that we had in our elementary school. We used it mostly to play Hangman on it.
My first personal computer was a no-name 286 desktop system bought at Karstadt, with a 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drive, 40 MB harddrive, 2 MB RAM (can't remember how much RAM it actually had, it was a long time ago), MS-DOS 4.01 (later MS-DOS 5 and upgraded to MS-DOS 6), and it also ran Windows 3.0 and later 3.1.
My first Mac was a Performa 5200, one of those first generation PowerPC Macs, it had a TV tuner, integrated modem, and some other stuff I can't recall rigth now.
My first laptop was one of the early generation Powerbooks, don't know if it was a 150 or a 180. It still had a 68k processor and had a 4 greyscale LCD monitor.
Sbworcs From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2005, 793 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 4488 times:
Mine was the Orik 1. No games available on disk that I could find so had to spend days typing endless lines of code just to play a stupid game on pong or something similar!
COrocks From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 1199 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4462 times:
I know way back then i had a lot of old computers. I cannot recall which came first without looking them up. At one time or another I had an IBM PET, a Commodore 64, and a TRS-80.
Whappeh From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1560 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4461 times:
Ihadapheo From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 6026 posts, RR: 59 Reply 8, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4459 times:
woo hoo late 1981 the all powerful commodore Vic 20. Ah the power, the graphics.. Later the fun of my first modem.. hell I still have my old compuserve account from back then and in a drawer is the hard drive from a PC from my mod days that has all 48,000 A.net mod emails that went to a ""CS" email accont (though not on the trusty Vic-20 which has long since turned to dust.. though the 64 is still buried somewhere in the garage. Ah the fun of the commodore 64 cartridge soccer!)
IHAP
Pray hard but pray with care For the tears that you are crying now Are just your answered prayers
Oa260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 24924 posts, RR: 60 Reply 9, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4454 times:
Quoting Ihadapheo (Reply 8): woo hoo late 1981 the all powerful commodore Vic 20.
Haha me also I had that and the 64 . The games used to have to load in a cassette player and sometimes if there was an error you had to rewind the tape and load again . Those were the days !!! After that we got a disc drive .......
OLYMPIC AIR - ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗ "Η ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΨΗΛΑ" "GREECE FLYING HIGH"
Cadet57 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 9081 posts, RR: 34 Reply 10, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4448 times:
a white box 300mhz pentium 2 powerhouse, 17 in monitor and SimTown
Doors open, right hand side, next stop is Springfield.
N801NW From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 741 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 4434 times:
Atari 130XE (128k) with optional 5.25 floppy drive and Atari Daisy Wheel Printer. Replaced by an Amiga 500. 1994 added a 486 based white box PC. Bought new Dell PC's in 2001 and 2005.
Slider From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6518 posts, RR: 37 Reply 13, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4425 times:
Dougloid From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4424 times:
The first computer I owned was an Apple IIVX.
However, I have a good story.
When I worked in the shop and on the test stand one of the things we'd have to do was adjust an EGT compensating resistor, Basically what it did was add in a certain number of degrees so that if all was working properly you'd reach peak torque and temperature more or less at the same time. That's simplifying quite a bit but nevermind.
There were two ways to adjust the resistor. One was called "Dial a torque" and it was a bootleg tweak, usually done by somebody chasing power in a deteriorating engine. The other was called recompensation.
What you'd do is get your engine set up on the test stand with all the instrumentation hung and do a ten point run, recording about eight parameters for each 10 per cent of torque. Then you'd head back in the office and spend the next day with a book of equations and a calculator to arrive at the magic number for adjusting the resistor.
Then, Garrett provided the shop with a Texas Instruments programmable calculator with the tape reader and a bundle of tapes to program the thing with. You'd program it and punch in each data point and it'd chunk the numbers. It took about four hours to run it all.
A guy in the shop owned an Apple II and he brought it into work and programmed it to do the same set of equations. You'd input the data and punch the button and in about fifteen seconds the printer would start spitting out your data points. This was in 1982, I think.
I remember thinking at the time it was going to be big. Little did I know.
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 16824 posts, RR: 57 Reply 15, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4420 times:
I think it was a TI-99 home computer. Shortly after that we got an Apple IIc. The next computer was a Mac LC. And it's been macs ever since.
A332 From Canada, joined Feb 2005, 1644 posts, RR: 2 Reply 16, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4402 times:
Add me to list of folks who had a Commodore 64 as their first computer... I had so many games and utilities for that set up, all on those old school 5.25" floppy disks. I actually ended up using that machine for about 8 years!
My first true PC was a 386 SX 25... can't remember all of the specs, but I do remember it was about $3500 new and resulted in 2 years of payments for my parents!
ShyFlyer From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4403 times:
First computer I ever used was an Apple II. Owned by the school, they were primarily used to play Oregon Trail.
Then about the time 6th Grade came around, the school district upgraded to the Apple IIgs.
Then highschool came about and we had some model of IBM PC with 286 chips in them. These were thankfully replaced by Gateways with Pentium 133MHz chips and Windows 95 (when that OS was the latest and greatest).
But the first PC I owned was bought in late 1997. It too had a Pentium 133MHz chip, but it was custom built machine by a local computer shop.
Ryan h From Australia, joined Aug 2001, 1451 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4396 times:
The first computer was a Commodore 64 that was used by the family.
My first computer was a 286 which had a green screen monitor (everything came up in shades of green), 20 MB hard drive, 2 MB RAM and window 3.0 and later 3.1.
VonRichtofen From Canada, joined Nov 2000, 4621 posts, RR: 40 Reply 19, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4397 times:
AST 286. Don't remember the CPU specs, but I know it had a staggering 4mb of RAM and a massive 40mb hard-drive It had VGA graphics! Great for playing Space Quest, Police Quest and Battle of Britain 1940
NoWorries From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 523 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 4383 times:
It wasn't really mine -- the whole department shared it in 1970. The Olivetti Programma 101 -- but it really was programmable -- weighed about 70 lbs.
ScrubbsYWG From Canada, joined Mar 2007, 1486 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 4375 times:
funny story about older computers...
we were talking at work about old computer technology and how it was used to impress clients in the past(engineering/CAD field). One guy said that when computers were first starting to show up in workplaces they got a room full of them that could do basic CAD work. The boss, while bringing prospective clients on tours of the office, spoke about their technology and cost saving measures. He explained that they kept the monitors on monochromatic mode to save energy. Believe it or not, many customers believed it. Also, little did they know that the door the boss never opened contained a large room full of draftsmen and engineers with drafting tables and t-squares.
BAViscount From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2004, 2338 posts, RR: 4 Reply 22, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 4374 times:
Mine was a Dragon 32, back in the mid 80s...that I inherited from my nephew!! Bear in mind that my nephew is 10 years younger than me, but his paternal grandmother was rolling in cash, so used to buy him whatever the latest gizmo was! He was gracious enough to give me his Dragon 32 (when he got something better) that had a dodgy tape drive connection, which meant that I had to sit and hold the lead incase the connection went down when I was trying to upload a game. More often than not the game wouldn't load, so in the end I just threw the thing in the rubbish!!
Ladies & gentlemen this is Captain Tobias Wilcock welcoming you aboard Coconut Airways flight 372 to Bridgetown Barb
Cadet57 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 9081 posts, RR: 34 Reply 23, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 4365 times:
CanadianNorth From Canada, joined Aug 2002, 3371 posts, RR: 10 Reply 24, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 4356 times:
Can't remember too many details, but it was in the mid 90s with an IBM machine, the amazing Windows 95, and if I remember right something along the lines of a whole entire 64Mb of ram, and it was considered to be a gooder at the time.
CanadianNorth
What could possibly go wrong?
25 SmithAir747: My family's first computer, in 1985, was a Zenith Data Systems PC. Dad used it to take care of his clients' income taxes, via TurboTax. Once in a whil
26 SAN787: That's exactly it. Oregon Trail on the 5-1/4" floppy disks.
27 Jetstar: My first computer was in 1982 and was an Apple 2 with 48k ram, and one floppy drive, no hard drive, every time I booted it up I had to load the DOS di
28 Phoenix9: My first computer was an HP. Blazingly fast pentium 200mmx, a WHOPPING 4 GB hard drive and a mind numbing 32 MB of RAM which I later upgraded to 64MB.
29 JAGflyer: If I recall correctly, my first computer had a monotone yellow screen and used those 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. My first real computer was a 400mhz pent
30 ShyFlyer: My biggest obstacle was always crossing the rivers. Good times.....good times.
31 MD80fanatic: I had both of the Sinclair's you posted, with 16KB memory cartridge. We wrote all kinds of cool games with them in their native BASIC, and fooled aro
32 Braby: Here is my first computer, the Acorn Electron. We never had a disk drive for it, all the games and an data you wanted to save was done on normal audio
33 MD11Engineer: I still have mine in my barn. My brother and myself pooled our pocket money savings and bought it in the early 1980s. Jan
35 N174UA: Now it's on Facebook and runs without effort... And yeah...you can still die of dysentery, like the good ol' days! I remember playing it on Apple bac
36 Francoflier: The first computer I used in school was the Thomson TO7... Complete with cassette reader and optical pencil (device with which you would click at stuf
38 CPDC10-30: First computer was a C64 from my aunt in 1990, and then a Mac Plus over Christmas that year from my school. My first computer that we actually owned w
39 Andz: Further to my post above, the first PC I used, although it was a communal device was an NCR thingie like this: We also used an Apple Lisa for producin
40 Radarbeam: My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 6128 Plus. I received it as a gift for my 10th birthday. Pretty cool machine for the time.
42 MadameConcorde: At the University in the very early 70's. The computers would take up a whole room, parts of the room were kept very cool and the computers worked wit
43 Sunshine79: My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. I only had a couple of cassettes for it, and they were games I remember it's green screen and would take upt
44 Dougloid: I've got a 1982 edition of Personal Computing magazine around here that makes hilarious reading, particularly the prices for everything.
45 BlackProjects: My 1st Comp was the C= Comodore C16 followed by the C64 and then the A500 which i still have with 1 megga Byte of RAM and a Protar External hard Drive
47 ThePRGuy: Like a mac 7520 or something No idea - but it was a powerhouse back in its day.
48 MWHCVT: I had a Commodore 1200, I think this was in the early 90's maybe late 80's but in comparison to the current sony vaio that i'm running it is truly sta
49 MD-90: The first one at home was a 286. That's all I can remember about it. I remember playing Sokoban and some Sesame Street kids game and the original Star
50 Af773atmsp: I had some of kind of Apple computer. It would freeze a couple times a week. I remember playing Oregon Trail on it. I remember when we upgraded to wir
51 HorizonGirl: I really don't know what kind of laptop it was, but all I know is that I was 6 and it was some ancient form of windows. It didn't have internet so I j
52 NorthStarDC4M: Ahhh the VIC 20... My 1st computer as well. Omega Glory, Garden Wars, Rat Race... on those cool cartridges! They all seemed so advanced to a 4 year o
53 Levent: I don't know if it counts but my first game computer was an Atari, I think it was the 2600 with those huge cartridges. Then I got a Commodore 64, firs
54 FRAspotter: Those were the computers my school had around the time I was in Kindergarten to about the 2nd grade (93-95). Though the first computer I can remember
55 Dougloid: You bet. My wife worked at a place where the 386 computers used DOS and when they finally got W95 she thought she was shittin' in some tall cotton in
56 Skytrain: Just barely, haha. At school I think we had a bunch of old Commodore 64s: And at home, my dad had (and actually, to this day, still has) a Macintosh L
57 Allrite: My first computer was a Multitech (now Acer) MPF-II in 1982 that Dad purchased from Radio Parts in Melbourne. I learned to program BASIC on it. Then (
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One nice feature was a clip on roller ball pointing device, you sort of cupped it in your hand and rolled the ball with your thumb, clicking with your index finger.
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