What was your first Computer?

[Cluster]

Well for me it was the Atari 65XE... I got this after bugging me dad for a C64! I could not, however, find any games for this damn machine and during the time I owned this I had about ten games whilst my m8 had 100's for his C64!

After that I started to bug the old man for an A500, which my m8 had got again, so after a while he gave in a bought me an Atari 520 STFM which as we know is no A500!

I must admit I was totally hooked with this computer, and still have it after 20+ years, but make no mistake it is the Atari that got me hooked on computers!

After that it was pc I am afraid! I remember it well! It was an Escom Pentium 60 with 500mb HDD, 1mb graphics card etc... and all I used to play on it was Star Wars Tie Fighter.

Ohhh!... Slightly more than my first computer but hey!

 

[Memphis]

not until you bought yourself Sound Blaster card for PC

man i think i paid $180 bucks for it back in the day at compusa

oh and a freakin printer that cost me 600 bucks! that did colors, yawn.

yeah my first PC was 286 25mhz 1mb hercules graphic card, no HD, on 5.25 floppy, no color monitor. I remember beating myself up , it sucked so bad

ZX Spectrum 48k rubber key version was the first family computer.

My first machine was a Sega Game Gear but it in terms of the first computer I ever owned, it was a Pentium 100mhz second hand from Rumblelows (remember them?)

Way back then I had a friend who bought a 286 with a green monitor. While we were playing Kings Quest and I heard the god awful sounds coming from the PC Speaker, I secretly patted myself on the back for not buying one of those. I loved my C64. It was superior in every way to a PC back then for games. (back then we didn't call them that though...we called them DOS Boxes, or IBMs) The c64 had full color and realistic sound. PC gaming didn't actually get good until the advent of the Sound Blaster and VGA graphics. Shortly before Doom came out. But even then I would rather play at a friends house and keep my Amiga than get a lousy DOS Box. Keep in mind that I only ever used computers as a gaming machine. Now I am not as snooty about it...I love games. But I have a special place in my heart for my the C64 and Amiga because those were my weapons of choice. I will freely admit that I did miss out on some good games that were exclusive to DOS by being a C= elitist but whatever...I have an old PC now to experience these games. Jazzy Jackrabbit, Shadow Warrior, Police Quest, Full Throttle, Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle...there's a few more.

 

[AmiNeo]

My first ever was probably a ZX Speccy, rubber keys 48k. I was 4 years old

...Later came the commodore 64 hand me down and I've loved computers since.

Games consoles ofcourse came into it when I was around 8 years old. My first was a Sega Mastersystem after playing Sonic 2 on the megadrive in a friends house. I recall begging to get the awesome Sonic Chaos when in John Menzies one time (35 quid!). I got it and Sonic has been my hero ever since . (really annoyed at what he's become today though...:dry.

Later at alternate Xmasses and birthdays came a Megadrive, SNES and SegaCD.

At 10 or round abouts I had a friend in school who had an Amiga 600! I started buying Amiga format with my pocket moneys and got a demo of Worms!!! OMG I loved that game!
That Xmas I got an Amiga 600 of my own! Lots of fond memories, (including Tobias Trek public domain disk I bought from the back of amiga format, hehe).

Got my first PeeCee aged 14, HP Brio Pentium II.

Aged 17 did a course (NVQ) in IT system maintenance and repair.

Now aged 26 and have been Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA certified IT technician since aged 23 .

 

[Memphis]

nice going man, yah me myself never jumped ahead of technology. always went from small to big. ;d

My first ever was probably a ZX Speccy, rubber keys 48k. I was 4 years old

...Later came the commodore 64 hand me down and I've loved computers since.

Games consoles ofcourse came into it when I was around 8 years old. My first was a Sega Mastersystem. I recall begging to get the awesome Sonic Chaos when in John Menzies one time (35 quid!). I got it and Sonic has been my hero ever since . (really annoyed at what he's become today though...:dry.

At 10 or round abouts I had a friend in school who had an Amiga 600! I started buying Amiga format with my pocket moneys and got a demo of Worms!!! OMG I loved that game!
That Xmas I got an Amiga 600 of my own! Lots of fond memories, (including Tobias Trek public domain disk I bought from the back of amiga format, hehe).

Got my first PeeCee aged 14, HP Brio Pentium II.
Aged 17 did a course (NVQ) in IT system maintenance and repair.

Now aged 26 and have been Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA certified IT technician since aged 23 .

 

[AmiNeo]

Thanks memphis. Truth is I've had family and health issues the past couple of years and I've been out of the game a while. Just about ready to pick up where I left off and look for some work again more or less. Gonna be tough now though! I've got great quals but not a heck of a lot of experienced compared to most holding the same certs and its the experience what counts most. In this economy I can see myself having a difficult time.

Wish me luck!

---------- Post added at 01:48 ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 ----------

Well for me it was the Atari 65XE... I got this after bugging me dad for a C64! I could not, however, find any games for this damn machine and during the time I owned this I had about ten games whilst my m8 had 100's for his C64!

After that I started to bug the old man for an A500, which my m8 had got again, so after a while he gave in a bought me an Atari 520 STFM which as we know is no A500!

I must admit I was totally hooked with this computer, and still have it after 20+ years, but make no mistake it is the Atari that got me hooked on computers!

After that it was pc I am afraid! I remember it well! It was an Escom Pentium 60 with 500mb HDD, 1mb graphics card etc... and all I used to play on it was Star Wars Tie Fighter.

Ohhh!... Slightly more than my first computer but hey!

Sounds like your dad had a thing for Atari's!

 

[John58]

My first computer, a Compukit uk101.

Bought as a kit which was probably a mistake considering the amount of soldering required, remember having a sore throat after breathing in all the fumes.

John

 

[davideo]

My first computer, a Compukit uk101.

Bought as a kit which was probably a mistake considering the amount of soldering required, remember having a sore throat after breathing in all the fumes.

John

The one I got was pre-assembled. Which with my knowledge in the old days was perhaps a good thing

Have you seen the couple of emulators kicking around for it?

Dave G

 

[Memphis]

do you guys remember on C64 tape deck messing with the head and screw driver to get the game to load up? i remember i bought some games, got home so excided and the games woulnt work, than the guy told me about it that i need small screw driver to adjust the head and watch the lines lol, i never understood, why.

 

[John58]

The one I got was pre-assembled. Which with my knowledge in the old days was perhaps a good thing

Have you seen the couple of emulators kicking around for it?

Dave G

With my knowledge back then I wish I’d got a preassembled one. After all my work assembling it I could not get it to work, had to use the get you working service. I’ve still got mine, might get it out some time to see if it still works.
It’s been a while since I’ve looked but I think I did see an emulator for it but please don’t ask me were.

John

 

[davideo]

The one I got was pre-assembled. Which with my knowledge in the old days was perhaps a good thing

Have you seen the couple of emulators kicking around for it?

Dave G

With my knowledge back then I wish I’d got a preassembled one. After all my work assembling it I could not get it to work, had to use the get you working service. I’ve still got mine, might get it out some time to see if it still works.
It’s been a while since I’ve looked but I think I did see an emulator for it but please don’t ask me were.

John

Unfortunatley I finished up dumping mine when downsizing house :nuts:

There's an emulator on Aminet for the Miggy and I found another for the PC. Brought back some happy memories for me

I learnt to solder once I started buying the add-ons for it, sound board, SEK, ROM and RAM boards, colour kit, etc. I even managed to design/build a speech board for it.

Happy days

Dave G

 

[mjnurney]

The mighty Ti99/4a .....16bits of slow basic and zero software but i loved it!

as i recall my mum paid £30 for it in '85 - a theme that continued until i could afford to buy my own years later - the A500 for £399 in March / june 1988

learnt to program in basic on it and made my own games until i found Parco electrics in Devon (UK) that sold the old stock of Ti 99 stuff in around 1985

 

[moijk]

First computer I used was the Vic 20, my (late) father whom was an enthusiast in radio listening saw and ad in a radio listeners magazine and curious as he always was bought one. When the c64 came to Norway, he traded the vic 20 in for that one despite my sisters complaints (she loved the vic 20 games, pity I was growing older and took over the use of the c64).

My first computer that I paid for my own money however was the Amiga 500. It was bundled with James Pond and two other games. Well, one can easily see what that did to me.

 

[Scarlettkitten]

The awesome Commodore 64

 

[rkauer]

looks like a lot of people started with spectrum ;d

I think most people start on computers using a Sinclair. The nerdy ones, mostly.

Ah..... Learn the poor basic the ZX80 have... Then start on machine code... Then start to learn electronics to mess around with the darn thing and add one more 1kb of RAM (piggybacked!).

It reset itself when in Summer, after almost three hours coding a program (games, mostly) on that (ahem) marvellous keyboard and no backup...oh::tantrum::banghead:

After that I swapped the screw on the LM7805 for a very long one plenty of washers and nuts. Everything to cool the damn thing down.

Fond memories.

 

[gazstone]

Acorn Electron.
Absolutely loved that machine, especially writing my own programs.
That knowledge has always stayed with me and has been built upon throughout my life.

I feel that now, although people can use computers fairly well, that they don't really have a grasp of what is going on at low level. So when problems arise that are out of the ordinary, they are not equiped with the problems solving skills and knowledge to put it right.

Anyway, didn't have a lot of frills with it. Tape recorder and monitor.
Favourite game ... probably Repton 3.

Gareth

 

[Bootay]

looks like a lot of people started with spectrum ;d

I think most people start on computers using a Sinclair. The nerdy ones, mostly.

Ah..... Learn the poor basic the ZX80 have... Then start on machine code... Then start to learn electronics to mess around with the darn thing and add one more 1kb of RAM (piggybacked!).

It reset itself when in Summer, after almost three hours coding a program (games, mostly) on that (ahem) marvellous keyboard and no backup...oh::tantrum::banghead:

After that I swapped the screw on the LM7805 for a very long one plenty of washers and nuts. Everything to cool the damn thing down.

Fond memories.

Not the US people. They didn't sell Spectrums here. :|

 

[quarkx]

looks like a lot of people started with spectrum ;d

I think most people start on computers using a Sinclair. The nerdy ones, mostly.

Ah..... Learn the poor basic the ZX80 have... Then start on machine code... Then start to learn electronics to mess around with the darn thing and add one more 1kb of RAM (piggybacked!).

It reset itself when in Summer, after almost three hours coding a program (games, mostly) on that (ahem) marvellous keyboard and no backup...oh::tantrum::banghead:

After that I swapped the screw on the LM7805 for a very long one plenty of washers and nuts. Everything to cool the damn thing down.

Fond memories.

Not the US people. They didn't sell Spectrums here. :|

Or Canada. We did have the TIMEX Sinclairs 100 here, most people bought them for $50 to give to Commodore for the $100 rebate on the C64, but that is a whole other story

 

[JLPedro]

A Spectrum 48K+ for me in 1986, my neigbour got later a c64 and my cousin had a MSX so I pretty much experienced alot!!
The next big thing was an Amiga 600 Wild Weird Wicked pack....

 

[Dagger]

Commodore C16 for me 1984/85 cannot quite remember when. Learning to program the Basic which was very good just wasted so much of my time. Up and to then all I had was an intellivision which had some very good games.

 

[Buzzfuzz]

First computer was a C64II around the end of 1989, a year later my aunt sold her Amiga 500 to me.
A second Amiga 500 soon followed.

1995 my first PC arrived, a Pentium 75 with 8MB ram and a 1GB HDD and CDrom drive and Sounblaster card.
A year later this system would be a trade in for a Pentium 133 with 32MB.
2 years later a PII 350Mhz.
1 year later a PIII 450Mhz.

2003, a Pentium 2.53 Ghz with 1GB memory, 36GB WDC Raptor and a WDC 250GB, Soundblaster Audigy 2 and a Nvidia Ti4200 with 64MB.

2009, a Core I7 975 Extreme Edition on an Intel DS58, 6GB, 160GB Intel Postville, 2TB RE4 WDC, LG Bluray burner, Plextor 880SA and an Asus 260GTS which is now replaced by an ATI Radeon 6990HD.

2010, some 30 Amiga's including accelerators like Blizzard 2060, 1260, Cyberstorm PPC, Cyberstorm MK III, 3 GVP Combos 030, 2 ACA 1230/56, 2 Blizzard 1230IV's and lots more.