What was your first Computer?
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1986, summer of. Some young 18 year old came to look at my Triumph Acclaim I had for sale. He didn't buy my car, but I bought his A500 & software with Joysticks etc for £400.
We've been good friends since & still see each other from time to time despite 200 miles between us.
The first game I played was "It Came From the Desert" & the sound was wired through the HiFi. - I sh1t myself all the way through that game for the first 3 hours of play.
Kin
We've been good friends since & still see each other from time to time despite 200 miles between us.
The first game I played was "It Came From the Desert" & the sound was wired through the HiFi. - I sh1t myself all the way through that game for the first 3 hours of play.
Kin
Last edited:
Another Vic-20 here...
It was basically the US version of the ZX-81..
Not realistically, since there was the TS1000, but in the "Low cost computer that a lot of people got as their first" way...
Actually, I wanted a TS1000 kit (I thought it was a ZX-81 kit, but since it was in the US, it had to be a Timex I guess...). It was $99 unassembled in the magazine, and I bugged my family like crazy, but for some reason, spending $99 on something that would probably never work after I got it, wasn't something they wanted..
So they got me a Vic-20 later...
I was programming before that (we had a wandering teacher who would come by our school 1 day a week with his luggable (Kaypro I think) and we would get some minutes to enter our code and try it.. ;-) Better believe I made sure it was going to work, or it was a week for the next attempt.. ;-) ).
desiv
It was basically the US version of the ZX-81..
Not realistically, since there was the TS1000, but in the "Low cost computer that a lot of people got as their first" way...
Actually, I wanted a TS1000 kit (I thought it was a ZX-81 kit, but since it was in the US, it had to be a Timex I guess...). It was $99 unassembled in the magazine, and I bugged my family like crazy, but for some reason, spending $99 on something that would probably never work after I got it, wasn't something they wanted..
So they got me a Vic-20 later...
I was programming before that (we had a wandering teacher who would come by our school 1 day a week with his luggable (Kaypro I think) and we would get some minutes to enter our code and try it.. ;-) Better believe I made sure it was going to work, or it was a week for the next attempt.. ;-) ).
desiv
Started with a ZX81 in 1981, £69.99 from W. H. Smiths.
Followed by a ZX Spectrum which I had for a couple of years.
Then moved over to the Enterprise 64
before going onto an
Amiga 500 and then A1200
I still have all my old computers here! :help:
Followed by a ZX Spectrum which I had for a couple of years.
Then moved over to the Enterprise 64
before going onto an Amiga 500 and then A1200
I still have all my old computers here! :help:
whoa..... first computer....
The ZX80
well game console's aside... the first computer I had to build was the most awesome ZX80 (kit built white unit)... my father bought this kit on the cheap, from a friend at work (I suspect the friend thought it was going to be easy lol) however my father couldn't solder... so it was my job at 9 and a half years old to learn...
I would like to say that after a few burnt fingers and some marks in the dining table, which my mother was not best pleased about there was a working computer at the end of it all.. surprisingly =)
The irony is that my father then sold that 2 months later and bought another computer...
The ZX81
ZX81 with 16K RAM pack + speech & Sound (beep) + Joystick interface... one long trail of kludge-tastic happiness.... apparently he got it cheap from a m8 at work too...
For a couple of months I didn't sleep - programming furiously on my monochrome 16k Monster and saving even more furiously to tape at every given opportunity, keeping TDK, Scotch and BASF in business!
The Spectrum & Commodore 64
Before my 11th birthday we say the ZX81 go, a Spectrum 16+48k RAM pack join us... unfortunately that died within 2 months and we got a straight swap for a 48k from curries I think it was, since that's where my father worked at the time.
By the time my 11th birthday came round (since its near the end if the year) we ended up with a new addition the Spectrum 48k+... this eventually became mine and on Christmas day we got the CBM C64
and
So there we where, my younger brother and I, at the end of 1985 with two of the hottest computers on the market... I consider us quite lucky... with such a plethora of games and such a diverse wealth of titles across both platforms, there's was never anything not to play =)
Spectrum 128 +2
by the time I was half way through my 12th year I started programming machine code for my spectrum, unfortunately my parents split up not long after that - as everything does, such pursuits have no flavour when your being moved away from your friends etc... needless to say reduced to only the C64 for about a year... but then I got a Spectrum 128k +2... good days had come back =D
The A500 / Atari ST
In about 1990, our family had stabilized, it was here that my brother got an an Atari ST and I got an A500
While the A500 stayed by the following year the Atari ST had been replaced with an A600... where my A500 was traded up about 6 months later to an A1200.... then the we got a CDTV as well .... then the PSx - actualy... 14 PSx's... since they kept dying... no lie at one point it was new one every two weeks for about 3 months!!!
.... and on and on the computer purchases go , but I thought I would share with you the very late entry of mine to the x86/PC community ...
The x86 PC
Surprisingly, I was working IBM / Sys 32 and AS400 Mainframes and Telnet networks from 1994/5 onwards... I was responsible for purchasing/building and maintaining networks of over 100+ machines.. so in my job PC's really REALLY sucked.. If anyone has bothered to complie CL and then RPG II/ III programs / scripts then you will know the yawn of what I speak...
dont ask me how they did it but IBM took the fun out of programming...
Anyway... It was my Job and I was bored .... so.. so... bored.... for the most part I would cost and analyze projects.... I would put a purchase order in for 35 identical motherboards / components - enough for 30 machines and some spare....... and I would get the same brand... with the same capabilities.... just not the same bloody thing.... nightmare...
hence my loathing for PC chips motherboards.... (dont get me wrong there okay budget motherboards today... but back in 1995..... not so....)
Anyway - I deliberately put off buying a PC until... and are you ready for it... I bought my first x86 PC in June 2001, it was an Athlon Argon 700Mhz afair with 256MB, Ati Rage All in Wonder Pro and 30GB HDD with DVD/CDRW...
Yes.... I hear you gasp... 2001.... y'see I already had an 060@50 with 32MB Amiga with CGX / 16bit sound / CDRW and a Modem.. I would hit up BBS's and surf my penny a minute interwebs...
So why in 2001?
I wont lie.... it was Unreal Tournament that prompted me to get a PC.... and Quake 2 and Q3 Arena
The irony would be that by the time the PC computer arrived at my door I already had about a dozen more bits to upgrade it with... that should say something....
The ZX80
well game console's aside... the first computer I had to build was the most awesome ZX80 (kit built white unit)... my father bought this kit on the cheap, from a friend at work (I suspect the friend thought it was going to be easy lol) however my father couldn't solder... so it was my job at 9 and a half years old to learn...
I would like to say that after a few burnt fingers and some marks in the dining table, which my mother was not best pleased about there was a working computer at the end of it all.. surprisingly =)
The irony is that my father then sold that 2 months later and bought another computer...
The ZX81
ZX81 with 16K RAM pack + speech & Sound (beep) + Joystick interface... one long trail of kludge-tastic happiness.... apparently he got it cheap from a m8 at work too...
For a couple of months I didn't sleep - programming furiously on my monochrome 16k Monster and saving even more furiously to tape at every given opportunity, keeping TDK, Scotch and BASF in business!
The Spectrum & Commodore 64
Before my 11th birthday we say the ZX81 go, a Spectrum 16+48k RAM pack join us... unfortunately that died within 2 months and we got a straight swap for a 48k from curries I think it was, since that's where my father worked at the time.
By the time my 11th birthday came round (since its near the end if the year) we ended up with a new addition the Spectrum 48k+... this eventually became mine and on Christmas day we got the CBM C64
and
So there we where, my younger brother and I, at the end of 1985 with two of the hottest computers on the market... I consider us quite lucky... with such a plethora of games and such a diverse wealth of titles across both platforms, there's was never anything not to play =)
Spectrum 128 +2
by the time I was half way through my 12th year I started programming machine code for my spectrum, unfortunately my parents split up not long after that - as everything does, such pursuits have no flavour when your being moved away from your friends etc... needless to say reduced to only the C64 for about a year... but then I got a Spectrum 128k +2... good days had come back =D
The A500 / Atari ST
In about 1990, our family had stabilized, it was here that my brother got an an Atari ST and I got an A500
While the A500 stayed by the following year the Atari ST had been replaced with an A600... where my A500 was traded up about 6 months later to an A1200.... then the we got a CDTV as well .... then the PSx - actualy... 14 PSx's... since they kept dying... no lie at one point it was new one every two weeks for about 3 months!!!
.... and on and on the computer purchases go , but I thought I would share with you the very late entry of mine to the x86/PC community ...
The x86 PC
Surprisingly, I was working IBM / Sys 32 and AS400 Mainframes and Telnet networks from 1994/5 onwards... I was responsible for purchasing/building and maintaining networks of over 100+ machines.. so in my job PC's really REALLY sucked.. If anyone has bothered to complie CL and then RPG II/ III programs / scripts then you will know the yawn of what I speak...
dont ask me how they did it but IBM took the fun out of programming...
Anyway... It was my Job and I was bored .... so.. so... bored.... for the most part I would cost and analyze projects.... I would put a purchase order in for 35 identical motherboards / components - enough for 30 machines and some spare....... and I would get the same brand... with the same capabilities.... just not the same bloody thing.... nightmare...
hence my loathing for PC chips motherboards.... (dont get me wrong there okay budget motherboards today... but back in 1995..... not so....)
Anyway - I deliberately put off buying a PC until... and are you ready for it... I bought my first x86 PC in June 2001, it was an Athlon Argon 700Mhz afair with 256MB, Ati Rage All in Wonder Pro and 30GB HDD with DVD/CDRW...
Yes.... I hear you gasp... 2001.... y'see I already had an 060@50 with 32MB Amiga with CGX / 16bit sound / CDRW and a Modem.. I would hit up BBS's and surf my penny a minute interwebs...
So why in 2001?
I wont lie.... it was Unreal Tournament that prompted me to get a PC.... and Quake 2 and Q3 Arena
The irony would be that by the time the PC computer arrived at my door I already had about a dozen more bits to upgrade it with... that should say something....
1984 i got my first computer, a Commodore VIC20. It was great although i really wanted a C64 but could not afford it then as i was only in my second year of high school in which we had Microbee computers hooked up to black and white screens before the school upgraded to, (if i recall right) the Aplle II computer with green monitors.
mjnurney**
Yep I still have my Enterprise 64 and picked up an Enterprise 128 a few years ago. I still think they are great, the sound and graphics were ahead of their time, then.
I like them and I suppose that is why I have kept them AND still use the 128. Also allows me to play Spectrum games as well, as the Spectrum Emulation on it is good.
Lots of fun, still.......
Yep I still have my Enterprise 64 and picked up an Enterprise 128 a few years ago. I still think they are great, the sound and graphics were ahead of their time, then
.I like them and I suppose that is why I have kept them AND still use the 128. Also allows me to play Spectrum games as well, as the Spectrum Emulation on it is good.
Lots of fun, still.......blanghorst
New member
Mine was a Vic 20, around 1980 or 1981. I still have it boxed up somewhere (likely the attic).
Funny..I didn't get a Windows machine until around the same time and for the same reason. LOL I got mine earlier though, early to mid-2000 but I got it for the same reason... Unreal Tournament.
My first "computer" was a coleco pong game machine. At the time it was the coolest thing ever!
After that we got an Atari 2600. Everyone in the neighborhood had a 2600 and we would swap carts constantly.
From there some friends bought Atari 400's and or 800's. Some bought TI- 49/A. We bought a C= 64. Loved that machine. Played endless games on it but also taught myself the beginnings of writing code.
From there it was the Amiga 1000 when it first hit the streets. My friends that had Atari or TI's mostly went to Mac.
My first PC was back in the days of the 286. Built it myself. There was no autoconfig bios in those days. You had to manually config your ram and HD parameters. What as pain compared to the Amiga! I used the PC as a secondary machine. Buy then I also had an A2000 then an A3000 and 4000 as they became available.
After that we got an Atari 2600. Everyone in the neighborhood had a 2600 and we would swap carts constantly.
From there some friends bought Atari 400's and or 800's. Some bought TI- 49/A. We bought a C= 64. Loved that machine. Played endless games on it but also taught myself the beginnings of writing code.
From there it was the Amiga 1000 when it first hit the streets. My friends that had Atari or TI's mostly went to Mac.
My first PC was back in the days of the 286. Built it myself. There was no autoconfig bios in those days. You had to manually config your ram and HD parameters. What as pain compared to the Amiga! I used the PC as a secondary machine. Buy then I also had an A2000 then an A3000 and 4000 as they became available.
Not sure I would count a Pong machine or an Atari 2600 as a "computer" but that's cool.
wrksyssts
seu
dsplibl
AH!! Flashbacks!!! AH!!
Actually, I kinda liked RPG.. Totally different from anything else I'd done.. All circularly (Yes, I just made that word up! (tm) ;-) )
And it was kind of fun seeing how many sessions we could get off of a 56K leased line..
(which wasn't too many till we got the stat mux..)
Ah.. good times..
:nuts: 
desiv
Not sure I would count a Pong machine or an Atari 2600 as a "computer" but that's cool.
Yeah, pong is a bit of a stretch which is why I used "computer"
But I do think the 2600 is/was a computer. Just not end user programmable.
First computer I owned was a C=128D, in 1986, which is still on my desk being used almost daily.
Before that I had on loan a rubber Speccy 48K, which I didnt like since it was very sensitive to heat & I'm in a hot country.
I remember using a big fan to cool it down during summer, otherwise graphic glitches would show up & eventually the Speccy would crash...
My very first encounter with a home computer was in a Basic course way back in 1984, it was a Dragon 32.
It took me over 20 years to find one for my collection, seems they were not popular around here
Before that I had on loan a rubber Speccy 48K, which I didnt like since it was very sensitive to heat & I'm in a hot country.
I remember using a big fan to cool it down during summer, otherwise graphic glitches would show up & eventually the Speccy would crash...
My very first encounter with a home computer was in a Basic course way back in 1984, it was a Dragon 32.
It took me over 20 years to find one for my collection, seems they were not popular around here
Mine was an Amiga 500 + 1084S monitor newly purchased by my dad with 512 ram expansion and external floppydrive and an gameport extender (for attaching a mouse and 2 joysticks simultanously).
My first attempt at programming was on a games console that had a cartridge that you could program and allowed you to make up your own games.
For the life of me I can't remember the console but I do remember having to type it in with the hex pad on the joystick.
I created a version of the two cowboys shooting at each other as the wagon scrolled up the screen
Dave G
For the life of me I can't remember the console but I do remember having to type it in with the hex pad on the joystick.
I created a version of the two cowboys shooting at each other as the wagon scrolled up the screen
Dave G
protek
"Takai desu ne." -"Jinsei da."
Mine was a Vic-20 back in 1985. Had a tape drive, joystick, paddles and a few cartridges to go with it. I sold it to a friend of the family a year later and got a C64. The Vic's still there. I was going to buy it back about 8 years ago but never quite got around to it. I've since got another Vic. Yet it would probably be in the original box and all...
