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I was just thinking abou the good old days of computer infancy and thought about how my first computer was an atari 800. Wanted to pose the question to everyone if they remember their first computer with as many fond memories or not.
** Edit ** Posted in the other section by accident.
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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My father worked for IBM... we had an old 8086 series!! I do remember none of us kids were allowed to touch it. Wasn't till Dad came home with a Zeos 386 with Win 3.1 that we finally got to use one.... even before we got to use computers at school, in fact.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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First one I actually owned was an Apple ][e. But I started programming on an Atari 400, Commodore PET and TRS-80 at my elementary school.
I remember I was able to write a program big enough on the ][e that the program source collided with the graphics memory. I would do a "clear screen" command and lose fifty lines of code.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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My first computer was a TRS-80. Well, actually, it was my brother's first computer, but I used it a lot. The first one that was wholly mine was my Commodore 64.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Aw I loved old school Oregon Trail. I always shot more meat than my wagon could carry. The buffalo and bears really should have learned to stay away from that trail.
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Do programable calculators count? If so, my first computer was an HP 11C. It was stolen from my pack in the library so I don't own it anymore. I do still have an HP 15C, but I haven't programmed in decades.
My first nonhandheld computer was an Apple MacIntosh with 128 kB of RAM if I remember correctly.
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Commodore Vic 20. The storage was on audio cassettes. The 64 was our first upgrade -- it had a disk drive!
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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It was one of the original Apple Macintoshes for me. Now that was a solid machine.
Anyone remember Crystal Quest? I bet I got farther than anyone here on that game. How about Dark Castle? That was a classic. Or Fool's Errand, anyone?
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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My first computer had patch bays. I never could get it to work -- didn't have the manual that went with it. It was given to me to "play with" and "see if it does anything." Feh.
My NEXT computer was a TRS-80 model 1. It belonged to the lab where I worked, but I wrote all the programs to make it do things in the lab, so it was "mine."
Then...I finally purchased a computer of my very own. It was a Lobo Max 80; it ran CP/M and TRS-DOS (well, LDOS really).
I miss that computer. It broke down less than the Model 1s in the lab, and had 64K of bank-swappable memory. I could write MONSTER programs with that. Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: My first computer had patch bays. I never could get it to work -- didn't have the manual that went with it. It was given to me to "play with" and "see if it does anything." Feh.
My NEXT computer was a TRS-80 model 1. It belonged to the lab where I worked, but I wrote all the programs to make it do things in the lab, so it was "mine."
Then...I finally purchased a computer of my very own. It was a Lobo Max 80; it ran CP/M and TRS-DOS (well, LDOS really).
I miss that computer. It broke down less than the Model 1s in the lab, and had 64K of bank-swappable memory. I could write MONSTER programs with that.
Now that's just awesome!
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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Heh. My family got ripped off on our first computer. It was billed as an Intel 486-SX 25mhz processor. Turned out to be an equivalent AMD processor. We were given an SVGA monitor, and a VGA Graphics card (Well, SVGA worked in DOS, but not in Windows for some odd reason). It cost 1495 dollars (I say ripped off because Intel was much more expensive than AMD at the time. It even had an "Intel Inside" sticker on the case). It lasted us about 3 years before I talked my parents into buying a Cyrix 5x86 133mhz system from the computer shop I worked for for 600 dollars (I got it at cost cause I built it myself). That was when computers still had nearly 100% markup. Yeah. Not that way no more.
[ August 21, 2006, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Boris ]
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Earendil18: Commander Keen FTW!
Yeeeeeeaah!! I LOVED Commander Keen. I would wake up at like, 5 in the morning and play it allll day. I was awesome at that game.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Wait - saw Oregon Trail and quickly page-downed to say LOVE IT! I fondly remember the days of playing until my eyes were squinted... and that the toughest thing for me was fording a river.
As for my first computer - I don't remember the house not having them... I come from a family of people much geekier than me. While I can get along, I don't know 1/2 as much as the rest of the clan and usually end up calling when in doubt. I don't know the lingo, I don't know the programs, I just know how to make it do ridiculous things that sometimes my geeky family asks me how I did it. My answer's the same almost all the time 'Don't know - I just play'.
What I do know - is that I Love them.
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I mention this because this topic seemed awfully familiar - and I didn't want to duplicate my answer. Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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The first one I could call mine was an Commodore 64, assuming you don't count the Atari 2600. (I wonder if the Atari Basic cartridge for the 2600 sold even as many copies as the infamous E.T. game?...)
My first exposure to a computer was, I think, an Atari 800. And there were Apple IIs at my elementary school.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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The first computer my family owned had some old school Chestmaster, a fishing game that I spent hours on, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, and I believe ran on DOS. I don't remember, to be honest. I was, like, 9.
I don't remember much after that until Star Craft.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Commodore64. Bored me to tears, so I stuck with the Atari 2600 my cousin gave me. The Gateway DX/2 66 we upgraded to much later had the poorly designed Cyrex processor which always gave me divide overflows in MS Flight Simulator, Descent, Doom and X-wing. In my ignorance I was always trying to fix that by adjusting the jumpers on my sound card and editing settings in my .ini and .bat.
Posts: 686 | Registered: Sep 2001
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I mention this because this topic seemed awfully familiar - and I didn't want to duplicate my answer.
Well don't post again? But I wasn't really interested in age but actually people's first computer but in your thread I think people probably gave what their first computer was. But I will state my age I think I was 6 or 7 when i got my first computer.
And I don't really think the Atari 2600 really counts as a computer, it was more the parent of the nintendo. I always thought of it as a game console, but that's really just a dumbed down computer, i guess.
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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It was back in '87 or '88. We had an IBM something-or-other with DOS. Don't remember much more than that as I was only about six. Had a lot of fun playing something called, "Montezuma's Revenge." I had even more fun running rampant through DOS just trying to make it do different things.
At school we had Apple IIes which were primarily used for Oregon Trail ("Oh no! Susanna has cholera! Set grueling pace and meager rations!") and Logowriter, in which you programmed a small turtle to draw things.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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The first computer I recall having was an old IBM 8088 with DOS. Good times. I used to play Brick on it (a version of breakout). My brother played D&D. It had some sort of word processor I can't remember and an amazing 64k RAM. I remember one night my dad spending hours trying to get a modem to work to connect with the computer of some guy he worked with. I'm not sure if it ever happened or not.
Posts: 609 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Apple II GS. I was four. I, too, love Oregon Trail. It plays really well on the Apple II, which is now set up on my desk in my parents' house. It's fully functional.
quote:Originally posted by Kasie H: Apple II GS. I was four. I, too, love Oregon Trail. It plays really well on the Apple II, which is now set up on my desk in my parents' house. It's fully functional.
Wow, now that is workmanship. A relic in computer years and still runs, that's so awesome.
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I don't remember which one came into our home first, but I remember the Commodore Vic 20, later a 64 and an Apple III. The Apple III was my computer until I went to college.
I loved, loved, loved Oregon trail!
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Kasie H: Apple II GS. I was four. I, too, love Oregon Trail. It plays really well on the Apple II, which is now set up on my desk in my parents' house. It's fully functional.
Wow, now that is workmanship. A relic in computer years and still runs, that's so awesome.
My father still used my Apple ][e for word processing until about two or three years ago. I'm sure the thing still works.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I started on a TRS-80 Color Computer Model II. Though at 6 I was a bit too young to wait for the programs on cassete drive to load (it had cartridges too). The Mac Plus I'd say was my first computer-computer, and Mike, re Dark Castle, you know Delta Tao has remade it in color? There's a playable demo. Also, Fool's Errand has gone freeware I believe, and the developer has a new project.
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I don't remember the specs of my first computer; it was an IBM PC of some sorts running DOS. I used it mainly for a handful of games.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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I was too poor to get a real computer. By the time I could afford an old computer people were moving to something called a Pentium... I had a Tandy 386 SX, all of 25mhz that had come with 8 MB RAM and a 4.something modem. The hard drive was not even a gig.
I was poor but I added a new modem, sound card, RAM et al. A local ISP actually fixed it for me for free and loaded Netcape 1.33 on it as a browser.
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My first computer was an Apple MacPlus. It had an external 20Mb hard drive the size of an unabridged dictionary. I occasionally think of it when I am slipping a 1G flash card into my camera...
It's hard to remember this, but the Mac had a B&W screen.
I loved HyperCard.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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We had a Macintosh 1, and a Mac II, then we got the Mac IIse, and I think for a while we had a Mac IIsi, with a seperate large BW moniter, then eventually a color moniter. Then years passed and we finally got a Mac Performa 6330, then an imac G3 330, then (against my strenuous objections) my mom chose an imac g3 700 over a G4, because it was cheaper. I have lived in the shadow of that mistake for 6 years now, and next week I will finally be able to afford to replace that underpowered, overworked, overhyped load of garbage.
I am buying an Mac Intel power book in a week. HURRAY FOR ME!!!
edit: oh and I slaved away for most of my undergrad years on a Dell Pentium 4. Also a mistake- every component had to be replaced within 3 years. Now I can't wait to stop using it.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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No such thing as a Intel PowerBook. They are MacBook's and MacBook Pro's. They are awesomely fast! I love my MacBook. Widescreen is to die for too.
Still have Crystal Quest... Unfortunately it doesn't run on my MacBook Good thing I still got PPC Macs...
I have no idea which was the first computer. C64, Vic20, or Atari 400. Probably the Atari 400.
Amiga's are cool. I've still got an A2000. And an A500. Never turn them on though.
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yeah, the MacBook Pro rocks! Very fast, very fun and pretty stable on the Mac side, and the Win side runs pretty good 91% of the time.
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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Well, whatever, I haven't researched them yet. I will have to go to the apple store and face down the apple "genius" gnome who sold me my ipod. The little turd. I thought geniuses would at least have good dental hygiene. But noooooo..
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Posted in the other section by accident.
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Now that's just awesome!
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Good thing I still got PPC Macs...
