Your First Computer?

[[AK]Nuts]

After retiring from the military my dad ([AK]Pops Murphy) worked for DataPoint that made, among other things, computers. I begged and begged for a computer like my friends IBM XT (this is back around 1985). So my dad brought home one of his work computers:

It ran on BTOS and it was completely modular. If the graphics failed, you simply removed that slice and added a new one. The Processor, Hard Drives, Floppy Drive, tape drive, everything... were independent modules that could replaced with the flip of switch. The screen was black/green only. The only thing I could do on it was run BASIC and a game called RATS, the best game EVER!

Later, after a transfer to Compaq in 1988, my dad brought home this beauty:

At 28lbs, this portable from Compaq was dreamy. I could actually plug in a color monitor and it ran Windows! Finally, I could run Falcon 3.0!!!! 8088's rocked!

Odd part of this is that when I joined the Coast Guard, they were using BTOS/CTOS on Unisys versions of the Datapoint computer (Up until 2000!). So while my co-workers were having to learn outdated technology, I was ready to go and quite pleased to move to the head of the class.

What was your first computer???

[[AK]Hylander]

My first computer was a Coleco Adam:

[[AK]Gunny Highway]

My first computer was the original IBM PC, my Dad retired from IBM last year after 37 years so we were lucky and got one before they were even available to the public. We had 16kb of ram until the 64kb upgrade kit was available.

[[AK]Squidly]

DEC Rainbow

The first one I ever used was an Apple ][...followed quickly by a TRS-80. The Rainbow is the first one I ever owned.

[Widowmaker]

Franklin Ace 1200, Apple 2 compatible. 2 floppy drives and Pirates Friend... I was a game copying maniac.

I had that computer for so many years it was insane. My favorite game for it was Warp Factor which was basicaly Star Fleet Battles with slightly different names to avoid copyrite infringement (yeah, like no one could figgure out who the Klargons or Remans were). Great game to play with a friend if you had an afternoon with nothing to do (turn based with an "execution" phase after you both set your moves and firing points in secret).

Graphics were for panzies who couldn't read.

[[AK]The Beast]

I had a Commodore 64 for a good part of my childhood. A couple years after I got it, I finally got a Commodore 1541 floppy drive, and was finally able to play disk-based games. Prior to that, I'd been a Solar Fox addict; early disk faves were Jumpman and Telengard; once I got a little older, I bought a little game called Gunship, and I was hooked. The learning curve was so steep that once I was able to successfully fly the sim Apache, my 12-year-old mind thought I was ready to enlist in the Army and fly the real thing. I've never played a flight sim that good since--in fact, I haven't really played ANY true flight sim since.

Oh yeah, I also learned a little bit of BASIC programming on that puppy, too.

[Slaughter]

My first computer: Packard Bell 486..

needless to say it was a piece of crap.

[[AK]StitchJones]

I had a Commodore 64 for a good part of my childhood. A couple years after I got it, I finally got a Commodore 1541 floppy drive, and was finally able to play disk-based games. Prior to that, I'd been a Solar Fox addict; early disk faves were Jumpman and Telengard; once I got a little older, I bought a little game called Gunship, and I was hooked. The learning curve was so steep that once I was able to successfully fly the sim Apache, my 12-year-old mind thought I was ready to enlist in the Army and fly the real thing. I've never played a flight sim that good since--in fact, I haven't really played ANY true flight sim since.

Oh yeah, I also learned a little bit of BASIC programming on that puppy, too.

DITTO

[[AK]Nuts]

My first computer: Packard Bell 486..

needless to say it was a piece of crap.

Wow. Packard Bell. I remember them. I just googled them and they are still making PC's and Laptops overseas.

[[AK]Rocks]

Sinclair 1000, with Tape recorder storage..

[Slaughter]

Wow. Packard Bell. I remember them. I just googled them and they are still making PC's and Laptops overseas.

Those poor, poor people.

[[AK]Abaddon]

My first computer was a Commodore 64 ... with two disk drives and a color TV as a monitor. I had that until around 1987, when I 'upgraded' to a Tandy 1000EX - one of Radio Shack's proprietary designs that kind of looked like an Apple IIE (keyboard and CPU unit combined, with a floppy drive on the side). That lasted until 1989. It ran at a whopping 7.16 mHz and had VGA graphics with an EGA color pallette.

Then I got an Amiga 500 that eventually wound up with FIVE ... count them, FIVE, megabytes of memory and a 105 mb hard drive. I really liked the Amiga ... It lasted me until 1992, when I parted it out over a USENET forsale group at Texas A&M and built an odd bastardized 386DX40. The motherboard had sockets for both a 386 and a 486 chip. I eventually upgraded that to a 486DX266 before trading it for a Yamaha TZR250 crotch rocket in 1994.

Then an Aptiva P-100 (unfortunate), a Pentium II 233, a Pentium II 400, Pentium III 733 ... and so on to the current P4 3.4.

[[AK]Clay]

IBM PC jr.

[[AK]Abaddon]

Cool! With that stylin' infra-red keyboard?

[Moon]

Timex Sinclair
C 64
Amiga 500

Currently in my possession for the last 15 years I have an early laptop dated 1982: Starlet NEC Portable Computer PC-8401A-LS

It has a ROM CP/M operating system with a built in word processor, spread sheet, and communications program and runs on four C batteries. Aside from the yellowing of the original cream colored top and sides, it looks like new particularly inside and it works.

Here is a website that I dug up but the color of the machine is all wrong:
http://www.sinasohn.com/cgi-bin/clas...mputer=starlet