What was your first computer?

93Polo · Mar 8, 2011

Commodore 64. Some of the games would still be fun to play today.

Beaux · Mar 8, 2011

a calculator

depley · Mar 8, 2011

My first computer was the original IBM PC. It would hold a whopping 16K of ram and came with 180 floppy drives. Yes 180! I think I still have the copy of DOS 1.1 that was on that computer around here somewhere.

Cecil · Mar 9, 2011

My "first" wasn't exactly a computer. All those punch cards (Hollerith cards, not IBM cards) had to be handled by machines (EAM equipment), sorters, collators, duplicators, etc. Some of them had big wire boards where you would "program" what you wanted to do with each card by wiring the inputs (1-80) to the outputs (1-80) with varying logic steps available in between. So, if you wanted to take a deck of cards and produce a duplicate deck with all the columns reversed, you'd wire input 1 to output 80, input 2 to output 79, etc. Not sure what you call this, but it was pretty interesting.

I won a MAC SE (not the high-powered SE-30) at a seminar. Got it home (along with the $2,300 notice I had to file with my taxes) and started putting it together. I had heard all about how solid and robust and bulletproof and all that about MACs, so I was surprised and dismayed when I found, in the box, the RESET button to install on the thing! So it was a real computer after all...

dsy1 · Mar 9, 2011

My first home computer was a DEC Rainbow, dual flopply drives, no hard drive, miniscule RAM. Ran both MS-DOS and CPM operating systems, depending on what floppy disk you used to boot from. About a 9" amber (monochrome) monitor. Cost north of $3k then.

Upgraded by adding a 5MB hard drive a year or two later, it was great to not have to boot off the floppy disks.

japar · Mar 9, 2011

My first computer was port-a-tree and I played that thing to death. But I still can't cut a light to save my life

Chris R · Mar 9, 2011

Im still using my 2003 Dell Demension. Still works fine for me.

Brian_d · Mar 9, 2011

Apple 2+. My parents still have it & it still works! I remember having to get more memory for it so it could run "Zaxon". My 2nd first computer (after moving out of my parents house) was a Pentium 100. I'll never forget my friend commenting on the 1.6 gig hard drive - "DUDE! You've got SO MUCH space!"

Coppertop · Mar 9, 2011

Well this topic made me dig my very first computer out of the closet for a long over-due photo op. It still works too!! I'm glad I kept it all these years...

A little history: Being the forward thinkers that they are, my parents bought me this, my very own computer when I was about 5. I spent a lot of time honing my computer skills on that machine. In fact, it rarely ever crashed, and when it did, it did not take much to get the operating system functioning properly again. It was way ahead of its time for being "green" when it came to power consumption and having a full-featured true color display.

Click on the image for a larger view of it.

:beers:

MDchanic · Mar 9, 2011

Pair of interfaced IBM System 370's, accessed through punch cards, and later (be still my beating heart!), through TTY's (teletypes).

First one I actually OWNED was years later - used Mac Plus - upgraded the RAM from 1mb to 4mb and had an outboard 40gb HD. 8mhz, if I recall. Ran it with a used LaserWriter Plus printer (weighed about 50 pounds). Printer was a tank, but blew an irreplaceable board one day.
Still got that computer...

- Eric

madspaniard · Mar 9, 2011

My parents first computer (the first one I used) was a commodore 128. The first one I owned was a green iMac (first one to come in colors)

jpete · Mar 9, 2011

And I didn't own it, but the first "laptop" I ever saw was a Compaq the size of a suitcase with 2 5.25" floppies and a 3" amber screen.

If you ever actually put it on your lap, you'd need the fire department to rescue you.

Andy69 · Mar 9, 2011

Beaux said:
a calculator

funny you should mention that. I remember my parents buyng a calculator from Sears in the early 70s. It was huge and had this giant power supply and all it did was the four basic functions. Iirc it cost around $35, which in the early 70s was not a small amount of money.

bikeron · Mar 9, 2011

PDP8..anybody remember DEC?
Then a Cromemco, with the Z80 processor, and CDOS as the operating system. I had a 1 Meg floppy which was 8"!
I still use my HP45 calculator...almost everyday.
Oh yes, I had a Honeywell 312 with the ASR33 Teletype terminal with mylar tape boot loader..better than setting front panel switches on the DEC PDP8..
Also got to use PDP11/70, that was nice...
I gave the Honeywell to the San Jose Tech Museum..
Ron

cessnarob · Mar 9, 2011

Some small Radio Shack computer..If memory is correct I think it was a T-10 ??? Couldn't do much..Tape deck back up..Didn't have enough memory to run much of anything..Moved on to the Apple a few months later..

Andy69 · Mar 9, 2011

cessnarob said:
Some small Radio Shack computer..If memory is correct I think it was a T-10 ??? Couldn't do much..Tape deck back up..Didn't have enough memory to run much of anything..Moved on to the Apple a few months later..

howdy stranger

Cecil · Mar 9, 2011

bikeron said:
PDP8..anybody remember DEC?

Awesome hardware, crappy marketing!

FlameOut · Mar 10, 2011

I bought mine at Radio Shack in the early 80's (I still have it) I remember it came with 4k of RAM, and I bought a 16k expansion pack for it. I can't remember what it was called though. Also went the Commodore 64 route (and was online with Q-Link) then the Amiga 500 and Amiga 3000 then added a $2500 Video Toaster to the Amiga) . I remember my first modem for the C=64 was a blazing fast 300 baud! I also remember paying over $300 for 105 MB hard drive for my Amiga. Still have the C=64, Amiga CD-32, Sega Dreamcast and Atari 2600

cessnarob · Mar 10, 2011

FlameOut said:
I bought mine at Radio Shack in the early 80's (I still have it) I remember it came with 4k of RAM, and I bought a 16k expansion pack for it. I can't remember what it was called though. Also went the Commodore 64 route (and was online with Q-Link) then the Amiga 500 and Amiga 3000 then added a $2500 Video Toaster to the Amiga) . I remember my first modem for the C=64 was a blazing fast 300 baud! I also remember paying over $300 for 105 MB hard drive for my Amiga. Still have the C=64, Amiga CD-32, Sega Dreamcast and Atari 2600

I have 3 of the Atari 2600's and yes they still work..:yes: 1 was my wife's when she was little, one was mine, and the third I bought at an estate sale with 100 +/- games for 10 bucks!!

Showalter · Mar 10, 2011

APPLE II E!!!! NUMBER MUNCHERS!!!!!!!!!!!:hurray:

What was your first computer?

93Polo

Beaux

depley

Cecil

dsy1

japar

Chris R

Brian_d

Coppertop

Attachments

MDchanic

madspaniard

jpete

Andy69

bikeron

cessnarob

Andy69

Cecil

FlameOut

cessnarob

Showalter

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