Your First COMPUTER!

Man, goo idea Squid... i wish i could remember what my first computer was... It's hard to remember, as i was programming them at school long before i actually got my own...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 25 2007, 11:58 AM) [snapback]429810[/snapback]</div>

The first one I owned was an IBM compatible I got for HS graduation.

The first one I ever used was a TRS-80 Model III


And dad would sometimes bring us to his office and let us play around with the punch card machine. But that doesn't really count, does it?

 

Mine was a IBM 5150:


& a 2400 baud external modem. Ahh the BBS days... B)

 

TI99-4A was my first. Given to me as a gift.



Stats:

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
Released: June 1981
Price: US$525 (without monitor)
How many: 2.8 Million
CPU: TI TMS9900, 3MHz
Memory: 16K RAM, 26K ROM
Display: Video via an RF modulator
32 characters by 24 lines text
192 X 256, 16 color graphics
Ports: ROM cartridge (on front)
Data storage cassette
Audio/Video output
Joystick input
CPU bus expansion
Peripherals: Speech Synthesizer
Peripheral Expansion Box
Data storage cassette
300 baud modem
OS: ROM BASIC

 

[attachmentid=7656]Nearly new Toshiba Lap Top made in 1987. Couldn't afford it new, but by next year, used, I could shell out the $1,700 used. WOW, the first on my block with a notebook that actually had a hard drive . . . a whopping 20 meg'er at that. Word Perfect was the word processor of choice. On the mono color screen, if you pushed the macro keys for bold, or underline, you got different shades of mono color text, to let you know after the fact, what effect would print. Then you'd print on tractor paper. Sheesh!

Thanks for the link, so I could see that bit of nostalgia. $8,000 brand new? WOW, I don't remember it being that much ... guess I got a real deal! Those were funkie days . . . working off of DOS command prompts ... writing your own autoexec bat files ... the days of fortran and cobal? Some of the folks in law school did homework on notebook P.C. 's that had MONGO floppies ... I'd guess they were about 12" across ... giving real meaning to the expression, 'floppie' ... as they really were.

.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zapranoth @ Apr 25 2007, 11:20 AM) [snapback]429843[/snapback]</div>

That was my first too. I got it from a guy at work for 25 dollars. You think it was stolen?

 

Mine was NEC TK-80BS based on uPD8080A, a clone of intel i8080A, in 1977.
http://www.ipsj.or.jp/katsudou/museum/computer/4000.html

Ken@Japan

 

My first was a TRS-80 also, or as we liked to call it, a "Trash-80".
I was cleaning out the attic recently and found a box of 5 1/4" floppy disks. My daughters asked what they were, and they thought it was really funny that we measured storage in kilobytes, not gigabytes, back then.

 

Timex Sinclair - same as Evan. Weren't those membrane buttons just the BEST!?

Used my cassette player as the tape drive and a 9" B&W TV as the monitor. I did the program in the owner's manual to create an on-screen analog clock. Took me about three days of work.

Next was a Kaypro CPM machine.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zapranoth @ Apr 25 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]429843[/snapback]</div>

That was my first computer that I owned too. Did you have the game Avalanch? I had one other game I can't remember. It definitely wasn't a great computer but it was my first. Kind of like my first girlfriend.

The first computer I ever used was back in the mid '70s. It looked a little like a cash register with a thin paper tape. Our junior high science teacher had gotten it somehow and I programmed it to play tic tac toe (and pretty well too).

Next was learning how to program mainframes from 1979 to 1982 (COBOL, Fortran IV, RPG, BASIC). I think the mainframe was an IBM System 3 model D.

The first PC like computer was an Atari 400 with 4k of RAM and like some others here it used audio cassette recorder and tapes to load and save things.

My newest computer is a 24" iMac.

 

Sixth grade math class in the early '70's.

A rocket scientist neighbor gave me one when he found out we were learning how to use them in school.
I upgraded to a sliderule in junior high. :lol:

 

The first one in my household was the good old Commodore 64 sometime between 1983 and 1985. I was only 8 - 10 years old at the time!

 

My first computer was a DEC PDP-8. I don't think photography had been invented at that time, so I don't have a photo.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ Apr 25 2007, 12:37 PM) [snapback]429859[/snapback]</div>

That's what we called 'em, too.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Apr 25 2007, 12:59 PM) [snapback]429879[/snapback]</div>

Hey, Tom ... is this you?

 

Mine was a TRS-80 Color Computer



It came with 4K of RAM, but I immediately took a knife and soldering iron to it and upgraded it to 32K. This was back in 1980 and I was in the 9th grade at the time.

Stats:
NAME Color Computer
MANUFACTURER Tandy Radio Shack
TYPE Home Computer
ORIGIN U.S.A.
YEAR 1980
BUILT IN LANGUAGE Tandy (Microsoft) BASIC interpreter
KEYBOARD QWERTY, calculator type keyboard
CPU Motorola 6809 E
SPEED 0.895 MHz (or 1.79 MHz)
RAM 4 KB (up to 64 KB)
ROM 8 KB
TEXT MODES max : 16 x 32, min : 16 x 8
GRAPHIC MODES Several graphic modes, max : 256 x 192 (with 2 colors)
COLORS 9
SOUND 1 voice
SIZE / WEIGHT 36.9 (W) x 34.4 (D) x 9.4 (H) cm
I/O PORTS Tape, RGB, Joystick (2), Monitor, Cardridge, Serial RS232
OS OS-9 Level 1
POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit
PRICE $400