Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 366

My first computer is also my current one

My first and only computer is a dinosaur that has been upgraded more than Michael Jackson has had plastic surgeries. When I got it from my brother who got it from my dad, it had a 4x CD-ROM, 750 MB HD, 133 MHz processor, 15 in. moniter, and a 28.8 modem. Now it has a 4x DVD-ROM, 32/4/4 CD-RW, 30 GB Harddrive, 800 MHz processor, a cable modem, USB port, and a 19-in. moniter.

Jason

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Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 58

Commodore 64 all the way! My first game ever was Gateway to Apshai by Epyx, on cartridge. I've never seen a ROM for it on any of the C64 sites. (And since I still own the game, downloading a ROM would be fair use!)

Probably my all time favorite game, though, was Racing Destruction Set by Electronic Arts - a great two-player 3D (3rd person) scrolling destruction derby game. The coolest thing about it was that you could build and save your own tracks! (And drop landmines and oil slicks :cool

Our first I/O device was the datasette recorder. I had a couple of programs on cassette, but the only one I ever played was Blue Max by Synapse. Put tape in datasette, type LOAD "*", push play on datasette, come back in 25 minutes

Then we got a 5 1/4 floppy, which I wore out after a few years of constant gaming and saving BASIC programs to disk. We got another, which as far as I know still works.

When I was 7th or 8th grade I got obsessed with creating alternate fonts; I had noticed some games used different text than the standard one, and there was a section in one of the C64 books we had about how to make them (In BASIC, it amounted to drawing new characters out in 8x8 graphs, poking a whole lot of numbers into an empty area of the computer's memory, and then issuing another poke telling the computer to point at the new memory location for font information.)

This was too darn slow, so somehow I managed to figure out how to do it in assembly code. To this day I don't know what I was thinking, or how I pulled it off.

When I was in high school my dad got a PC running DOS, and I used that for typing my reports & fiddling around with databases, but the commodore was still hooked up for games. During my senior year I got to use Deluxe Paint III on Commodore Amiga 500 and 1000 computers in one of my art classes, and when I went to college in 1992 my parents graciously gave me my own Amiga 500, which I still miss sometimes - it was amazing what you could do with 1 meg of RAM and a 7Mhz processor on that thing. A couple of years later (about a month before Commodore closed its doors for good ) I bought a used Amiga 2000 that I used right through 1996. Since then it's been Wintel PC's at home, and the occaisional Mac at work.

I've decided my next computer is going to be a Macintosh Ti Powerbook. My infatuation started out with the hardware spec, but thanks to Microsoft's creepy activation & licensing with Windows XP I'm now looking forward to ditching Windows for good. I'm thinking dual-boot system with OS X and Mandrake Linux.

Well, that wound up going well beyond the scope of the original question, but reminiscing is fun. I like this thread!

-Andy (AKA MOONDOG8 on the Q-Link network, 1989-1991 )

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 34

Atari 2600

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 109

First computer

TI994A, then a Colico something with dual high speed cassettes.

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I got a turtle head poking out!

Registered: May 2001
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Posts: 90

Re: First computer

quote:

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Originally posted by Fleabag
TI994A, then a Colico something with dual high speed cassettes.

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Registered: May 2001
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Posts: 90

The first computer I worked on was a DEC PDP-11/70. The first Microcomputer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III. The first computer I owned (not having any money for such things) was an Atari 600XL. The first portable I got was a Radio Shack Model 100. Which led to getting a few others -- <http://www.sinasohn.com/clascomp/>.

btw, if you're interested in such things, check out the Vintage Computer Festival at <http://www.vintage.org/>. And see if you know what the first personal computer was: <http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml>

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 25

An HP-34c calculator -- if you're suggesting something that could be programmed. Otherwise, an Apple IIe 128k RevB (so I could tie those two li'l pins together and have double-hiRes graphics), 2 quarter-pounder drives (ol' 5.25" floppy boxes), and a screechy Panasonic 9-pin printer.

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Get someContent.

Last edited by Aardvark on 10-23-2001 at 03:40 AM

Registered: May 2000
Location: Cleveland, Ohio 44067
Posts: 242

My brother-in-law worked on a PDP11/70, he says thanks for the memories. I also liked the link to the VCF, it was fun to read through. I know we had some Apple IIE when I was in school but most of the school was running DECs (don't remember what model though I do remember using punch cards).

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 604

The original IBM PC, right after they were released. Two 5 1/2" floppy drives, I think we upgraded the memory to 64k (I think), and we also had a graphics adapter so we could play color games on a regular old TV screen. The game I remember playing the most was the text-based "Adventure" game.

My next computer in college was the IBM "portable" which was this suitcase-sized PC with two floppy drives and this little tiny amber crt screen built into the unit.

From there I purchased an early Toshiba laptop with a 20 mb hard drive and an 8086 chip running DOS. I had that a long time, and it's still probably my favorite computer experience - mostly because I really understood how everything worked together and was able to tweak the system to get the most out of it performance-wise. Since then I've been in Windows hell, or pergatory at least.

We also had Pong when I was a kid, which was the coolest thing in the world at the time.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

I had a technology obsessed grandfather...

Vic-20 - Superslow tape drive
Some Apple (the 800?)
C-64 - 5 1/4" Disk Drive
C-128 (Anybody ever use this thing in 128 mode?
Amiga 1000
NEC Multispeed laptop w/ 2 3.5" drives
386 Mhz PC clone
433 Mhz Compaq - Still use it
HP Jornado 545
VDx
VPrism
and.... just recently inherited my brothers old PS/1 he used in college

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 380

Commodore 64 - My favorite game was Empire. I still play Empire Deluxe (look at my avatar), and soon on my Palm.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 48

My first computer is Sinclair ZX81. I built it from scratch with a soldering iron. It was $99. After a year or so, I got the Apple IIe.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

C-64 with a Okidata Color Printer, that I never did get to work. Had a Motorcycle game for it that absolutely ruled.

Also had Karateka (I think that is how it is spelled). You know, I had forgotten about that game. I played and played, got all the way to the end went to rescue the girl, and then she killed me. Anyone know anything about this game? I would love to know what I was doing wrong.

I also had a Skateboard game, where you did tricks on a Half-Pipe.

Unfortunately, I never did use it for anything productive.

Then I got an Apple IIE that my Grandmother gave me. I never did anything much with it.

Years later I got a PacBell Pentium 66Mhz Processor, 8MB RAM, 2X CDROM. All the computer I would ever need...


UPDATE:

I just got curious about the Karateka game and did a Search on Google. Unbelievable, they have it for the PalmOS.

Karateka

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

First computer was a C-64. Then when we moved over-seas (Kenya) my Dad bought a "portable" Kaypro (or K-Pro). It was supposedly portable because you could fold the keyboard up into the box and carry it by a handle. You still had to plug it in and the thing was as big as a suitcase. It has a little 4"x4" green text screen with a 5-1/4" floppy drive to boot from. The very first game I played besides the Atari console games was "Catch the Wumpus", a text game with beep sounds. I programmed my first basic on that horrible green thing.

- Burns

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

quote:

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Originally posted by GSR13

Unfortunately, I never did use it for anything productive.

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You mean the C-64 had apps?

Registered: May 2001
Location: NY metro area
Posts: 219

I first learned programming (COBOL and FORTRAN) in high school on an IBM 360 main frame. Ah, all those punch cards.

First computer I owned was the original IBM PC when it was first released. Dual 5 1/4 inch 360K single sided floppy drives, I spent the extra money to upgrade to the highest memory configuration available - 64K, again sprang for the extra bucks for the Hercules monochrome graphics board, the large 11" orange phosphor monitor, and (drum roll please) a 5 pin Star Micronics dot matrix printer. It came with PC DOS and Basic. The whole thing back then cost about $3500. Boy what I could get today for the same money.

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Jonathan

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: TX
Posts: 80

quote:

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Originally posted by chitown
Timex Sinclair 1000.

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Oh my gosh! That was the first one I ever had. After that I couldn't afford anything until about 4 or 5 years ago. (Not that the TS1000 was expensive, I was busy having a family.) I remember being able to program it to scroll my name over and over again. I thought that was all it did. I wasn't very bright.

Teri

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

TI 99/4A (a pair of 'em actually)
IBM PCjr (with the "chicklet" keyboard and a 300 baud modem!)
IBM PC XT
IBM PC AT
DEC Rainbow (from work)
Wang something-or-other word processor (from work)
Packard Bell 286 (the PCjr was a better machine1)
Gateway 386
Gateway 486
Home built P233
Home built AMD Athlon 1 ghz (current system)

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God bless America, my home sweet home...

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 61

Im only 16 but first computer : 386
Game : kid pix/prince of persia/commander keen

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Our first family computer was a C-64. I remember the first game we got...it was a cartrige called Balloon Bobble or something...you were a clown on a unicycle who had to catch ballons on it's head.

Those were the days...

We then added a tape drive. It took 20 minutes to load some of those games.

We eventually upgraded to a IBM PS2 I believe...but the C-64 was still out gaming computer. My brother actually dug it out of the closet last year and it works as good as it ever did (well, except for the 'L' key...)

My first computer (that I purhased on my own) wasn't until college. It was an Apple Powermac 7200/90. I think I paid something like $1800 for it.

I think the C-64 is worh more than the 7200 nowadays.

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