OT: Complete the following statement, "My first computer was a..."

[geoschmo]

...A Timex Sinclair ZX1000. Z-80 processor, 4 Mhz, 2K (Yes, K!) RAM, no disk drive, not even a floppy. They sold a tape drive for it, but I never got one. PLastic Membrane keyboard.

Hooked up to your TV's VHF input for a display if I recall correctly. This was before TV's had Cable jacks and AV inputs mind you.

Booted up into Basic from a ROM chip. Now your cookin' with gas! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

For those under 30, just imagine your digital watch with a keyboard and you'll about have the idea of the awesome processing power from this baby. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]</p>

[Bman]

My friend was the envy of the neighborhood with his Commodore 64.
Until I got my TRS80 I think it was called. A computer I could use on my lap! It was basically a keyboard with a little 2inch by 6inch (approx) LCD display. I don't recall if it had any sort of drive or way to get stuff on/off it besides using the trusty old keyboard to type it in. I remember spending lots of time writing little BASIC programs that would draw moire art and play neat sounds.

[Gryphin]

Leading Edge Model D (Early IBM Compatible)
4.77Mhz
640k RAM
30MB hard Drive
12" Amber monochrome screen
Price: $3000 1987 (plus or minus)
First Error Message: "Abort, Retry, Fail"
Solution: the stores tech suport told me to RTFM and call back later. I did not know what RTFM ment so I tried reading the "DOS" 3.3 book.

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: Gryphin ]</p>

[adder_inf]

Mine was an apple IIe.

I was maybe 6-8, and loved to play in basic.
esp. the beep function http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Still suprised my parents did not kill me.

[Val]

The first PC I owned was an Atari 800 - and boy was I impressed with all I could do in basic! I must have made a dozen choose your own adventures by the end of the first week http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The first PC I ever used (many years earlier) was the commodore PET (our school received one as a gift), which I believe was the predecessor to the C64.

I do remember the Sinclair as well, mostly being frustrated by it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

homemade mix & match by my Dad.
Still around, don't know exact stats, but its got something less than 2 MHz, Green & Black monitor, 40 Meg HD, full 640K RAM.

Still plays sopwith, wheel of fortune, and various Basic games: Dad's lunar lander sim, my StarTrek battle game, a bunch of random graphics lifey sims, etc.

[wr8th]

C-64 after I graduated from the Atari 5200 (more of a game console IIRC).

Seven Cities of Gold by EA was my first game, followed by M.U.L.E., Beachhead, Silent Service and RFTS.

Those were the days... used an old 13" B/W for a monitor until the 19" color came along.

[PvK]

Atari 1200 XL. Still set up. Still the most likable. Still plays the best action games.

PvK

[Baron Munchausen]

Tandy 1000SX, which originally used an 8088 at 7.something Mhz (not quite 8) but I found out about the V20 from NEC and bought one. One chip extraction and replacement operation later I had a non-standard but faster machine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif So I was tinkering with even my first computer. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]</p>

[Grayhorse]

A TRS80 IBM. Use to play a old word based game called Midway. Was the most fun I had ever had with a computer game. Got me hooked on all forms of strategy games. From the TRS80, I upgraded to the Comodore 64, complete with Disk drive. Boy those were the days, and boy does that show my age. Soon Ill be gray in hair as I am in name. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[geoschmo]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Grayhorse:
A TRS80 IBM. Use to play a old word based game called Midway. Was the most fun I had ever had with a computer game. Got me hooked on all forms of strategy games <hr></blockquote>
YES! I loved that game. I found it Online a few months ago at a site dedicated to abandoned computer games. It works, but it's not totally compatible with the Version of basic now I have because the order prompts don't pause and wait for your input. I am tinkering with it to see if I can get it working right. But I forgotten so much...

Geoschmo

[Tsukku]

First computer....hmmmmmm.....
My First civilian work computer: IBM Systems 3 business computer - had just graduated from programming by plug board (don't you miss plug Boards?), loved the new Systems 3 because you could run a program with punch cards in Hollerith Code. 1972
My First handheld: a TI something or other calculator. Could actually add/sub/mult/div, and new this year, square roots! $79 in 1973.
My First military computer: Univac 642B, huge, one gate on a card, we repaired the cards to fix failures. Ran the combat system on cruisers and carriers, had the most incredible "star trek" program where each combat console controlled a ship flying through 2D space, with computer controlled Klingons. Caused much wear and tear on the consoles..... 1974
My First PC: TI-99/4A, cassette tape drive, used the TV for a monitor. Bill Cosby sent me a $100 rebate off of the $400 price. Had an incredible 4k of memory. 1980

Sigh. Those were the days. I'm not even going to start on the Univac Digital Trainer..... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

Geo:
I'll take a look at it if you like.
If the only difficulty is the prompts, like you mentioned, it should be fixable.

[TerranC]

... Newtec 365.

Don't know if that was sold here in Canada or the USA but it sure sold in Korea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

And just like everybody else, The unforgettable Turbo button was left on, and even though I don't use it anymore, I still leave it on http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Jmenschenfresser]

TI99/4A

Father brought it home...not sure where he got it. Looked up the specs on the net:

Model: TI99/4A
Year: 1981
CPU: TMS9900 (3MHz - 16 bit)
RAM: 16k

Played games like Space Invaders, Parsec, and a nuke game I don't remember now.

[Val]

Geo:

Mind posting the link to the 'forgotten' game site? Loved Midway as well! Though I think I miss MULE more than any of the games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[geoschmo]

I'd love to Val, however it appears the site is now defunct. It may be a temporary problem. Any way it was http://www.theunderdogs.org

SJ, I can send you the program. Do you want to send me an email? I don't have yours.

Geoschmo

[mac5732]

computer wise it was the Atari 800, then the 128XL, the Commodore, etc, as for game units, lst one was "Pong" (anyone remeber that one), atari 2600, then Coleco. simple games back then, but still some were a lot of fun....

just some ideas age is showing Mac

[BadAxe]

Go to the site below for Underdogs.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/

[Lemmy]

Atari 520 ST..not bad for a 19 year old eh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

well, technically it was my dad's, but i played the most games on it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
one of my Favorites was some space shoot 'm up...can't remember the name...

that thing must be old, i can't remember a time that we didn't have it...

[TerranC]

Galaga... Or Galatica... Something like that eh?

Or Space Invaders?

[Grayhorse]

Geo, You get it working, and I will be in your debt forever if you send it to me. Ive looked forever for it, and could never find it.

That game, even as old as it is, will still be a bLast.

[PvK]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by LemmyM:
Atari 520 ST..not bad for a 19 year old eh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

...
one of my Favorites was some space shoot 'm up...can't remember the name...

...<hr></blockquote>

Oids?

[Puke]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PvK:


Oids?<hr></blockquote>

I LOVED Oids! that game Rocked! in fact, I was a winner in the 'submit your own galaxy' contest. I was about 10 at the time, and i am sure everything in my submission was more horribly misspelled than this post (galaxy name was 'deth oids'). I think getting the disk with all the winning enteries on it was far better than the $100 check they sent.

first computer was an XT class clone, prior to that i had an atari 400 (upgraded to 8K ram). anybody remember the PCs when PC stood for 'Portable Computer?' built in monitor and flip down keyboard, but i think they meant Man Portable in the same way that the military means Man Portable. if it has a handle, you can move it.

[Jmenschenfresser]

I seriously recommend MAME for those of you who don't know of it.

It's an emulator for real deal arcade games...there are something like 3000 roms out there you can d/l.

I have the original galaga, shinobi, space invaders, renegade, double dragon, SmashTV, etc.

It's good for a trip down memory lane.

I think the url is mameworld.net, but I'm not sure about that.

[Puke]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Val:
Geo:

Mind posting the link to the 'forgotten' game site? Loved Midway as well! Though I think I miss MULE more than any of the games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <hr></blockquote>

do a search for abandon ware (1 or 2 words) and you will find all sorts of downloadable games from the days of yore.

[geoschmo]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Grayhorse:
Geo, You get it working, and I will be in your debt forever if you send it to me. Ive looked forever for it, and could never find it.

That game, even as old as it is, will still be a bLast.<hr></blockquote>Well, you'll be in S.J.'s debt. I sent it to him to poke aroound with. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I think I have forgotten more about Basic programming then I knew to begin with, if that is possible.

Geoschmo

[Deathstalker]

"I adore my 64!..my Commadore 64!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Damn I miss Gateway/Temple of Apshai! (Diablo before there was Diablo!)

[rand029]

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1
4k in the keyboard, 16K expansion module to use the 360k single side 5.25" floppy drive. Black and white screen.

The thing only had capital letters, no sound, graphics consistiong of a 2x3 block, and reset every time someone walked by with a little static on them.

Programmed in basic and assembly into L-DOS ($399) from 80 Micro Magazine.

Ah, the good old days. And everyone thinks silver computers are new. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/trs80-m1.html

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: rand029 ]</p>

[geoschmo]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by rand029:
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1
4k in the keyboard, 16K expansion module to use the 360k single side 5.25" floppy drive. Black and white screen. [ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: rand029 ]<hr></blockquote>

Oh my! My best friend in grade school had one of those. Well, his dad did anyway. We'd play really cheesy video games on it. His dad used it for his real estate buisness or something.

Single sided floppy disks! Remember how cool it was when you found out you could cut a notch on the other side and format it too? Oh man we were rebels... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Anybody remember the goofy comic books at Radio Shack with the kids using a TRS-80 helping Superman to save the planet. What a hoot!

Geoschmo

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]</p>

[Alpha Kodiak]

Apple II+ w/48K of RAM. Initially used a tape player for storage, then graduated to 120K floppy drive. Finally upgraded it to 64K of RAM.

My favorite games on it were Wizardry 1 and 2, and Might and Magic 1. (Yes, I was big into RPGs then. Of course, I still am http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

MM9 coming soon! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[dmm]

First "computer" I ever programmed was myself, writing up D&D-like adventures for my brother and me to play in, complete with triggers, i/o, subroutines, calls to random number generators, etc.

First electronic "computer" I ever programmed was a programmable calculator (Texas Instruments). You could save something like 40 keystrokes, then replay them. Good for crunching lab data.

First real computer I ever programmed: some mainframe, used punch cards, in Fortran.

First "portable" computer I ever programmed: a PDP-11, you programmed it in assembly using switches, and the answers were delivered in octal using LEDs. That was old even then, but it sure did teach me how computers actually worked.

First computer I actually owned: 66 MHz 486 clone. I'm too cheap to be a trend-setter.

And yes, I too had Pong. Actually, Super Pong!

[TerranC]

The foul stench of youth...

The horrifying odor of Old People...

Bah! To heck with you all!

[Tenryu]

1980, Atari 800, 32KB Ram, Tape Deck for "mass storage", LOL!!!

I had to save for 3 YEARS to buy that baby! And, more difficult, convince the dear wife what a wonderful effect it would have on our child's education, as well as she being able to keep her reciepies and our check book balanced on there. Oh yeah, we could use it as a CALCULATOR too.
Sadly, she never really took the time to put it to such use. So, not wanting it to go to waste, I used it for entertainment.

Wanted an Apple IIC but couldn't get the joint that sold them to come down in price. Atari was the new kid on the block and after pestering the guy that owned the shop that sold these for about a year, he finally sold me the 800 for $800. Mainly to get rid of me, I think. He even threw in two games!!! Awesome!! Star Raiders and some space ship fleet battle game!!! I've been screwed ever since, a sucker for just about any space strategy game.

I had a friend who had a Commador Pet computer. When i told him I had 32 KB of RAM he exclaimed: "32 Kilobytes!!! What the hell for?! You can do anything ya want with 8K!"

Those were da days!

[Richard]

81 or 82, a Vic-20. That fried in a few years (lightning) and I didn't have another computer of my own until 1995 when I got my first PC.

In the mean time I used the schools Apple's, my friend and my grandfathers, TI99/4A, the schools IBM compat's, some college macs, and then graduated to Unix workstations...

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tenryu:
1980, Atari 800, 32KB Ram, Tape Deck for "mass storage", LOL!!!

I had to save for 3 YEARS to buy that baby! And, more difficult, convince the dear wife what a wonderful effect it would have on our child's education, as well as she being able to keep her reciepies and our check book balanced on there. Oh yeah, we could use it as a CALCULATOR too.
Sadly, she never really took the time to put it to such use. So, not wanting it to go to waste, I used it for entertainment.

Wanted an Apple IIC but couldn't get the joint that sold them to come down in price. Atari was the new kid on the block and after pestering the guy that owned the shop that sold these for about a year, he finally sold me the 800 for $800. Mainly to get rid of me, I think. He even threw in two games!!! Awesome!! Star Raiders and some space ship fleet battle game!!! I've been screwed ever since, a sucker for just about any space strategy game.

I had a friend who had a Commador Pet computer. When i told him I had 32 KB of RAM he exclaimed: "32 Kilobytes!!! What the hell for?! You can do anything ya want with 8K!"

Those were da days!<hr></blockquote>

[tesco samoa]

atari 2600 with the programming pack.

Then a trs-80 ( I still have both, and workable.)

Never had a floppy drive for the trs-80 just the tape player.

I remember when Some guy across town got a floppy drive, 1982 i think. ( First guy in my school)

If anyone is looking for mame stuff join the exchange The catalog for the mame 32 ver 5.0 is sitting at 7 cd's and counting.

Also you can get the games for all the old systems,,, vic-20, c64, trs-80, colleco,, etc....

[Saxon]

I was surprised to see no one had mentioned the Vic 20 until Richard piped up. Of course, my parents figured I would learn to program, become a computer genius, start my own games company and be famous. I always thought it was parental hype, but now I have Richard to prove me wrong! If I had just spent a bit more time on BASIC…

Anyway you can remember all the cool games you want, but Gorf was the King! And now you know what I was doing instead of learning programing.

[brainman.9Hells]

a toshiba laptop T-1000
It was a cool 4.77mhz 512kb XT powered by M$ dos 2.11

It had a cool 3.5" drive, which was cutting-edge tech back there in the 80's http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[capnq]

I'm surprised that I'm the first in this thread who started with an Amiga 500. I still have it, but it doesn't work, because I had to scavenge a couple replacement parts from it for my second A500, which is just about on its Last legs, too. I still play the original Sid Meier's Civilization (on 4 DD floppies!) on it when this Gateway PC is doing long downloads or defrags.

[Val]

Actually the Amiga was by far my favorite PC. I'm just waiting for my roomate to move out so I can set her back up again!

[rdouglass]

Had to add mine:

Was at school 1974. Data General running CPM and 4K of memory. No video here folks - everything came out on a teletype (paper rolls; not even perforated!!) and all my basic programs on paper tape with holes punched in it....

(I'm really not THAT old.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[Lemmy]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by LemmyM:
Atari 520 ST..not bad for a 19 year old eh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

well, technically it was my dad's, but i played the most games on it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
one of my Favorites was some space shoot 'm up...can't remember the name...

that thing must be old, i can't remember a time that we didn't have it...<hr></blockquote>


i've been looking through my old atari games and i found it, it's called Star Battles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
i also found another one of my Favorites, Super Sprint (also known as Buggy Boy), but it wouldn't run for a while now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
then there was Time Bandit...a lot different games in one, very nicely done, oh Major Motion was fun to, sort of like an early Grand Theft Auto, it had a top-down view, the road would only go up, and you would have to try and push as many cars of the road as possible..yeah, Major Motion was a great game...

[Askan Nightbringer]

Commodore 64!
I remember playing cricket while spy hunter loaded up on the tape deck. Ended up having two disk drives and some 500+ umm disks.
Then I sucumbed and got an Amiga. Way ahead of its time that little box. However it ended running nothing more than a terminal emulator so I could connect to the uni's unix servers and MUD.
Then one day I sold out and got a 486dx. Dumb machine.


Askan

[Gozra]

Honest to goodness Apple II with a 4 digit serial number. Still have it. Still works.

[Phoenix-D]

Piece of crap.

Phoenix-D

[y.a.newbe]

Apple II

[Texfire]

My first computer was an Atari 800 with the optional tape drive and Basic cartridge. My computer programmer father was the only one who wrote programs for it. An attempt to get me interested in programming I think, all for naught.

Us children played with the Atari 2600 he also bought us. Anybody remember having to use rubber bands to keep the switches from resetting when the springs wore out? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif It came with one cartridge, Battle I think was the name, and I was a goner.

My next real computer was a 386 with 4 megs of memory! The was for paper writing in college and ran DOS and Windows 3.0, the first program run on it was Wing Commander. Remember tweaking your config.sys and autoexec.bat to get enough free high memory?

Texfire

[Sylvius]

Sinclair (from Xerox?). 1 KB of memory.

I tried to get it to play tic-tac-toe, but it ran out of memory after drawing the board on the screen.

[Captain Kwok]

My first computer was a Tandy TRS-80 Colour computer (4 colours?). I think it had 128k of memory. I remember using programs like CocoMax III and some stupid word processor that would allow you to type just 500 words and then run out of memory and you'd have to restart. It was fun, but it was sad because it was in the ninties...

[PvK]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by LemmyM:
i've been looking through my old atari games and i found it, it's called Star Battles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
...<hr></blockquote>

Star Battles for the Atari ST? I know the Intellivision cartridge by that name... what's Star Battles for the ST like?

PvK

[Urendi Maleldil]

1st was a Coleco ADAM

[Dracus]

My first computer was a cheap gen that my parents got for looking at lake lots. it look like a keyboard that pulled into the tv. had not drive storage. So each time you wanted to do something you have to type in all the code for that program.

[Lemmy]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PvK:


Star Battles for the Atari ST? I know the Intellivision cartridge by that name... what's Star Battles for the ST like?

PvK<hr></blockquote>

it looks like it was Star Battle, without the 's'

let's see about a screenshot...
ok, here it is : http://planetlemmy.virtualave.net/starbattle.jpg

try to ignore the pop-ups http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Solipsis]

An old C64, from the days tape decks were hot stuff and you could 'download' new games by tuning in to rogue radio stations that would broadcast them on the short band. All you had to do was put your tape in and record. My first pc was a 286 clocked at 20 mhz ( I think ), with a 40 meg HD, two megs of ram and a black & white monitor.

[bstripp]

First computer was the Atari 400, all tricked out with a membrane keyboard and tape drive! Let me tell you there is nothing like typing on a membrane keyboard especially when you enabled the 'clicking' sounds!

Migrated through several generations after that.
XT (8mhz), 286-16, 386sx-25, 486sx-50, P100, P133, AMD 200, P200, Celeron 466, Celeron 533 oc to 800, P933.

However, I just acquired a C-64 off ebay to play Mail Order Monsters! What a great game!

[Arbitrary Aardvark]

Apple II with 16 KB, integer only Basic, Radio-shack tape drive, pixiverter (to connect with channel 3 on the TV), back in 1977 or 78. I believe it was in the low 4 or high 3 digit serial
numbers. I do know that it was before they added the slits on the side for cooling, and we had
trouble with heat buildup.

[Instar]

Apple ][e that was older than I am

[Aub]

ZX-81 (Sinclair) with memory expanded from 1K to 16K (!)... and a huge reel-to-reel tape recorder as a storage device...

[ZeroAdunn]

An Etcha Sketch

[Growltigga]

Mesh 800 hertz athlon

do you get the feeling I am joining the computer revolution late?

[Clovis]

It was an IBM PC-AT, with a whopping 6MHz 80286 processor! Had the math co-processor, a Finnish-made EGA monitor (sold by IBM), a 20MB hard drive, and some sort of IBM graphics card that I could never find the piggy-back card for to increase the memory. I bought this sucker NEW in 1984, and with the fancy dot-matrix printer I picked out, the whole system came to well over $6,000.00. Still, I used the darn thing right up until about 1995 when someone gave me an old 386, which I then upgraded to a 486 DX2-66. Oh, and I bought one of those TI-99 something-or-other programmable calculators when I was in grad school about 1979. My god that case weighed a ton - it was built like they were gonna install it on Army tanks - who knows, maybe they did!

[Instar]

you know maybe its just me, I had fun playing oregon trail on the Apple ][e, but man, I sure as heck do not want to play it again. Ever. Unlike some of you weirdos here. Sorry, you'll never get me to use a computer without an AGP port man
and what the heck just happened with my computer?
Windows says that I have run out of stack sp's or something. ? Terminating a thread or some stuff. Well, I guess the apple ][e was good for something, then.

[Atrocities]

p75 Acer 4x CDROM with a 14" monitor. 4 megs of ram and a 850 meg HD. I paid $1,800 bucks for it and only wanted it so I could play Dark Forces.

Now, 4 computers later, I have AMD 1.4 ghz Atholon, MSI Main, 512 Megs DDR-Ram, 30 Gig HD, Geforce 3 video card, Sony CD-RW, Creative Labs DVD Rom, Creative Sound BLaster Live with MS dirct sound system and a 19" Sylvania monitor. Bunch of extra's too, but who cares.

[Schwarzbart]

My first Computer was a ZX81 with only 1kb Ram. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif It was a nice litle computer (especial if you used a radio near it) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .