Your first PC

[Blade Runner]

What was your first PC?

In 1982 I got one of the first Sinclair ZX Spectrum's with a massive 16k RAM :mrgreen:

[caseOrange]

i think i was in 6th grade when i got a Commodore VIC20. All it was was a keyboard that hooked up to the tv, and all you could do was program in BASIC or play a couple of games, like Omega Race. And if you bought a modem (old-style...like dial the number then put the receiver of the phone on top of the modem) you could post on BBSes. You could buy a cable to hook the keyboard up to a tape recorder to save any programs you wrote, which was a good idea because the computer could only hold a whopping...3K.

Later, Commodore came out with the Commodore 64, which had 64K. Wow.

[CylonGod]

I had a C64 with floppy drive and Okidati printer! ;D

Much fun spent many hours with that thing. Spend even more now with my current pc.

[ViperPilotMomma]

CylonGod said:

I had a C64 with floppy drive and Okidati printer! ;D

Much fun spent many hours with that thing. Spend even more now with my current pc.

My dad had a C64! Actually, he started with a VIC20. All of us kids spent a lot of time playing games on both computers. I expecially remember the typing tutor software that dad had for the vic20 - it included a game called 'Word Invaders', like space invaders but with letters and you had to type in the same letter in on the keyboard to make the letters on the screen disappear! That was in the early 80's. Another game was "Amok", there were these little robots running amok (hence the name) and you had to kill them or run away from them so they wouldn't kill you.

My first computer (if you don't count my sewing machine - Bernina 1530. ) is my current laptop. I really don't count my dad's computers or my husband's computer even though they are where I got my feet wet so to speak. This one I bought with my own money *sniffs with pride*, so its really MINE! A Dell Latitude.

[Xenu]

1st ever - C64

1st PC - Packard Bell P75 with 1 MB video ram *|& 4 megs of RAM on a huge 850 meg HD That thing ran like a one-legged man in a sack race.

[mattw65]

I never had a Spectrum, a Commodore or a BBC Basic.

I do remember using a PET at school.

The first PC I bought was in 1991. A Tiny 486 SX25, Running DOS and Windows 3.1. It cost me £1,200.00.

[Jackezifez]

I have still got my original 850MB hard drive and 4 sticks of 2MB RAM.

I keep them in a box somewhere so they can appreciate in value.

xx

[Darth Marley]

Dare I mention the 8" floppy drive?

[MHall]

8" floppies? You were fortunate. When I was a kid, we had to use cassette tapes. My first computer was a Commodore PET, with 8K and a cassette drive. I wanted an Apple, but price caused my Dad to choose the PET. Pity, since the Apple would have had a longer useful life.

[Darth Marley]

The 8" floppies were never part of a consumer edition computer as far as I know.

Wow, you can still buy them: www.cadigital.com/flopdriv.htm

www.science.uva.nl/faculteit/museum/flop8.html

indicates the TRS line did use some 8" drives.

[Callipygian]

I used a TRS 80 back in the Jurassic period.

[ViperPilotMomma]

We had those in junior high school in the computer lab. I barely remember having computer class on those things...
Line 10 goto line 20
Line 20 if line 30 is > 5 go to line 80...etc.

or something like that!

[mattw65]

ViperPilotMomma said:

We had those in junior high school in the computer lab. I barely remember having computer class on those things...
Line 10 goto line 20
Line 20 if line 30 is > 5 go to line 80...etc.

or something like that!

Oh, boy do I remember that.

Used one of those in upper secondary school when I was 16 (nearly 24 years ago).

My lower secondary school (the same school but physically separated by about half a mile, hence the split of upper and lower) had a computer that ran on puch cards and was about the size of the average small bathroom (I'm not joking about this! If your too young to remember ask your mum or dad).

This was the era when you were clased as "COOL" if you had an LED Watch and not a cheap wind-up Timex (which was one of the first watches I had as a kid).

Now we've come full circle and it cool to have a wind-up watch again.

Soon we'll see bell-bottom back in fashion, unless I've missed that already.

[ady86245]

I had a ZX81 with a 16K RamPack, which plugged into the back. If you knocked the machine too hard, the RamPack wobbled and the whole machine locked up.

It also had one of those "membrane" keyboards - I managed to rip it whilst trying to take it apart (as you do when you're 13).

[ViperPilotMomma]

mattw65 said:

Oh, boy do I remember that.

Used one of those in upper secondary school when I was 16 (nearly 24 years ago).

My lower secondary school (the same school but physically separated by about half a mile, hence the split of upper and lower) had a computer that ran on puch cards and was about the size of the average small bathroom (I'm not joking about this! If your too young to remember ask your mum or dad).

This was the era when you were clased as "COOL" if you had an LED Watch and not a cheap wind-up Timex (which was one of the first watches I had as a kid).

Now we've come full circle and it cool to have a wind-up watch again.

Soon we'll see bell-bottom back in fashion, unless I've missed that already.

No the bell-bottoms (or at least a similar style) was "in" here in the states 3 years ago. I remember it vividly and with much annoyance. I was pregnant at the time with my son, and a ridiculously large portion of the maternity pants were bell bottom or flair bottom style. As it wasn't my choice of style, I had a particularly difficult time finding 3 "normal" pairs of maternity pants to wear to work everyday. Luckily, I did find those few pairs, saving me the task of bringing out needle and thread to alter them.

But I digress...

My dad, who is a software engineer, used to bring home old punch cards for us kids to play with when we were growing up. I think we used to color on them with crayons among other things!