Your first home computer?
 

Found this while digging through the garage, my old Commodore SX64... Fired right up and even loaded an "app"....Had to look up the command- Load "*", 8, 1....lol...been awhile..still have a Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 on the same shelf...will fire those up next....I owe a lot to those old computers, done real well for my family learning on them early on....

My first actual computer was a Vic 20 a few years before this one...

What was yours?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503352072.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503352522.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503352536.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503352571.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503352590.jpg

Apple II+

Build-It-Yourself computer kit from Southwest Technical Products, the very first personal computer, (San Antonio) circa 1975, wirewrap motherboard and all. Was racing Porsches (911s and a 718 RSK Spyder) with Phil Ray from Datapoint at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWTPC

http://s7.computerhistory.org/is/ima...07?$re-zoomed$

Here's a link with Phil Ray driving the RSK (former European Hillclimb Champ car) and 911S at the 1972 Austin TX AquaFest Supercross. He placed second in Class 1C in the RSK and 1st in Class XB in his personal 911S
http://www.spokes.org/rattle/TSSCCRattle_197209.pdf

Brenda Flowers won Class XII in her Porsche 911 at a DoubleCross event as well.

Phil and Gus Roche designed and developed the first microprocessor the 8008 at Datapoint (formerly Computer Terminal Corp CTC) so we had lots of resources. And of course also the company of super intelligent, drop-dead gorgeous TechnoWitch Brenda Flowers.

It was an incredible time with a staggeringly powerful renegade brain trust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datapoint

https://books.google.com/books?id=idTeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT15&lpg=PT15&dq=phil+ray +porsche&source=bl&ots=cLz-DXRvNL&sig=RBox9UqPxndtKqp-fEtPABbymOs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_1P7I3unVAhVGzm MKHTYQD6oQ6AEIOzAG#v=onepage&q=phil%20ray%20porsch e&f=false

Another VIC-20 here, followed by a C-64 (still in the garage).

We bought a C64 before there was a floppy drive available. For the first 3 months, we had to use the cassette deck. I didn't really learn much off of that. My next computer was about 10 years later, I was a freshman in college and got a IBM compatible, Tandy 1000 TX.

About a year later I upgraded it to the 486 overdrive. Cranked up the clockspeed on the bus.

Intel 80486DX2 and 80486DX2 OverDrive

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503354752.JPG


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503354900.jpg

TI-99/4A
After that was an IBM clone

trs model 80 II
ibm pc xt (eventually added memory and over clocked it)
ibm pc at
then some clones
80286 followed by 80386DX 16

A Kaypro was my first machine. I really didn't like it, nor the Apple II or IIe. I got more use from Apple II Plus & McIntoshes. 486 machines were good workhorses. I used a lot of different ones over the years & kind of got away from using them much for work in the mid 90's.

Macintosh
It was just above Pong capability.

TRS-80 Mk IV - that had a white case (not silver like older models) *and* both floppy drives *and* a whole 32kb of RAM.

C64. still works, but i'm afraid to try a floppy.

Jumpman JR cartridge still works great!

Vic 20. Looking back, it was pretty much useless.

1st home computer was a Commodore 64. Upgraded to a 386 40mhz with 4 mb RAM and a
140 kb hard drive.

I still have it. An early IBM twin floppy PC. And have the two books with disks.

Sadly I bet on the wrong horse, if I'd kept an original Apple it would be worth something.

Mine was an AppleII europlus, which my dad bought me used for 8,000 francs. It came with an amber monitor, and a single floppy disc drive. I chose the Apple because many cracked games were available from friends at school...It is still in my parents attic in Normandy, I never took it back to its land of origin. I learned basic and machine language on it. Games had to be written directly in hexadecimal, it was the only way to get enough speed. I wrote funny little routines, like controlling the speakers with the joystick. Good times where things were still simple, like a Porsche 911 of the same era. At some point I upgraded the memory from 8 to 64kb, or something like that...

First use: teletype and cradle modem connected to Hofstra Univ.
First Software programing: Basic and Fortran.
First machine I owned: Commodore 64 with a floppy drive.
First IBM: XT Turbo (8 meg) running DOS 3.0 with a color EGA monitor and a 20 meg hard drive!
First internet access: 56k modem (good luck getting more than 35-40k).

Yeah, I'm an old geezer.

LOL Did the same/same pulling news off the wire ticker at Tulane Univ. for campus radio station WTUL in 1967.

Trs 80

Apple II. Then a Tandy PC. After that I worked on VAX terminals and later some sort of PC, with 386 laptops too. Got a personal HP200LX and did my first internet stuff on it (newsgroup, email). First personal laptop was a 486 Winbook. Then used a Apple Newton. There must have been amother personal desktop in there somewhere. Built my next PC, a dual Celeron system on a server chassis with a Tyan board and SCSI drives. Still have those drives but can't figure out how to get the days off them. Had a Toshiba Libretto mini laptop too. Then I switched to Macs at home, still using PCs at work.

Heathkit H-8
Then various heathkits, Apple ][, 2c, 2gs

First computer with a harddrive was Mac se, 20 megabyte drive. $2600, $3000 laserprinter, $1000 add on drive (40 megabyte)

Probably spent $20k on computers in the 80's

Late starter here. In 2000 I got a Dell laptop. 30 Gig HDD, CD burner DVD player. Pretty cool to me. I did use my work computers for personal stuff for years before that. Funny thing is, I am still using my 2nd laptop that I bought in 2005. Bumped up the RAM and loaded Linux on it and its still does a damn fine job.

Ours was a genuine IBM-PC. 256K of RAM, dual floppy drives, graphics card and an amber monitor that we purchased in 1982. Still the most expensive computer ($3,800) that I've ever purchased!

http://www.vintage-computer.com/imag...pcportable.jpg

I was poor. I only had a single floppy, iirc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503376801.jpg

TI 99A.......Black Friday price of $49.99....use little TV for monitor. To compute, write your own program in BASIC and save on a cassette tape. Games available in a cartridge.....Great learning tool.......

At least you had color. lol

You never forget your first....

1976 - My first computer was a PR1ME 300 minicomputer, 16bit processors, core memory boards, 1.5 and 3.0MB disk platters and removable packs. I think we got it up to 32 users, but it 2 of the serial lines were never "right", and one was reserved for system console.

1984 - My first home PC was a Commodore 64, sold as a deal for $600 including a green screen monitor, double 5.25" disk drive and a modem. Pretty amazing deal.

1988 - The first PC I bought and paid for was a Toshiba 1200HD, non-backlit LCD screen - 80c86 processor, 1MB RAM, 20MB disk drive and single 720K 3.5" floppy. I added a combination 1200bps modem and 1MB RAM memory expansion card. It served me well as a field engineer for several years.

Everything after is a blur of appliances...

I learned BASIC in middle school on a teletype connected to UCSB. We input our programs that were batched and run overnight. Got our results the next day. In HS we had PET computers that we programmed with BASIC and saved to audio cassette. Heck even in college (SBCC and SDSU) we used terminals connected school mainframes.

My first home computer was an Apple II in 1980 that a neighbor loaned to me. Had it for 6 months or so. Then it was a Toshiba T1200 that Dad got on trade and handed over to me. I didn't start programming until I got a 286 CPU PC and used Turbo Pascal. From then on it was all PC based systems until 2007 or so when I switched to Mac.

I guess being one of the "younger ones" here, my first PC was in 91 as I entered college - a 286 with 40MB hard drive and 1MB RAM. It was just starting to become more affordable, but still not everyone could afford one (at least in the 3rd world).

Leading Edge with a HD in 1987:

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1Av5ypVu8E?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm a dinosaur....wasn't until the mid-90s that I purchased my first PC (Pentium 133)....last thing in the world I wanted was to see a a damn computer in my house :). By then however, I had been accessing some of the most powerful computers on the planet for almost 20 years....Computer Science degree (mainframes at Research Triangle Park), and a heavyweight Communications Systems Programmer/Networking guy as my day job for some huge corporations....don't miss those daze either..."retired" at 48....loved being a techie...don't miss corporate bs :(.

Not mine, but speaking of early computers:

About 1970, i was in college and worked for a Property Mgt company that had six office buildings, downtown Seattle . One, the IBM Building, used most of the first floor for it's 4 computers. Elevated flooring to run cables, rooms enclosed in glass. IBM employees working the night shift wearing a white shirt and tie. Computer as big as a tractor....

All night long, cars pull up to the front door and couriers rush in with "punch cards".....Data is processed overnight and couriers come back in the morning for the reports......

Down in the parking garage, one of the IBM managers has a 300SL gull-wing......Early days of computing.........Happy times.

First was IBM selectric terminal with cradle modem and 2K space on the school system. One of only 3 students in my HS that were allowed to use it. After college got an Apple IIc as my first home computer.

At one point had a DOS 3.3 emulator for my Mac so I could run a Radio Controlled Airplane program. Was running an emulator to emulate a R/C plane and emulates flying a real plane. Way Geeky Cool.

Atari game console then a Atari 400 then a c64 and c128 then 8088 based home build and a mac#1
at work a ibm 360 punch card input

I bought this to print out my invoices with a dot matrix printer.
I had a client who asked me, "Are you on the Internet yet?" Of course, I wasn't.
I knew nothing about this world (and not much more now) so I called an Apple store to ask what my Mac needed to get on the Internet.
A long pause, and then he explained why not.
I asked what to do w/my Mac..."Use it as a door stop?", he said.
.

First gig out of college.....working in R&D at IBM @ Research Triangle...microcode dvelopment in their communications division...
we did NOT have to wear "the uniform" however :). Yep...later on I became a systems programmer...mainframes the size of a small bedroom....I recall when the price approached 10 million each :(. For some reason, I don't get excited over home computers....

Commodore PET.