171 replies to this topic

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST COMPUTER?

C64? VIC 20? COLECO ADAM? Ti99? CoCo? PERHAPS AN ACORN? ARCHIMEDES? SINCLAIR? 286? PENTIUM? APPLE IIe? MAC? Well whatever you considered your fist computer chime in with a comment or better yet a video response (on the old YOUTUBES!) and let us know what it was, did you like it? Was it what you wanted or asked for? Was it everything you hoped it would be? This is an open tag so please participate! Thanks for sharing.

[rmo70]

Atari VCS, it was actually a family Christmas present and I loved it.

We also got Laser Blast and Enduro cartridges with it, my Dad and my brothers enjoyed/played those games all day.

Edited by rmo70, Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:11 PM.

[Keatah]

Trs-80 Pocket Computer and an Apple II.

[Arkhan]

Amiga 500

[jaybird3rd]

My very first computer was a TI 99/4A, which my family got around 1982.  We got an Atari 2600 not long afterward, and at about the same time, some uncles of mine (only ten years older than me) got an Atari 800 and an 800XL.  The Atari machines had more games than I had for my 99/4A, obviously, but I still love the 99/4A to this day.

[SoulBlazer]

Not counting video game systems, our first computer was a Commodore 128D in 1985.  Sucker ran for 10 years without a problem before we sold it.  Also picked up a PC clone for the first time in 1989, and I've been using PC's exclusivly since 1994.  Didn't switch over to Windows full time until 98.

[Keatah]

If we consider programmable calculators computers of a sort, then, it would be the TI-59 for me!

[atarian63]

Atari 400 then 800, yes it was everything I thought it would be! Led to my carreer in what has become IT and my arcade machine collecting hobby!

Edited by atarian63, Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:19 PM.

[jtoubeaux]

Atari 400 in 1979. I used birthday money, Christmas money, and chore money to buy this.

[Wickeycolumbus]

iMac DV Special Edition in 2000.  Was my parents' first computer too!

[high voltage]

Atari 2600 and German CompuMate (1984)
Atari 130XE (1985) + 1050 + Seikosha printer + Sanyo monitor + XC11
C64 (1986) + 1570 + 1530

Edited by high voltage, Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:27 AM.

[Asaki]

We had a Macintish (Pro? the black & white one with the tiny screen) for a while when I was 9. I think we were supposed to be fixing it or something, but we kept it for quite some time, and I played a heck of a lot of Deja Vu and Uninvited. My uncle had a few Macs too, he was the one we borrowed the games from. He also had a game called Enchanted Scepters.

But our first computer was a pair of IBM PC Jr.s when I was 13. I forget the exact specs, but I remember one was a bit upgraded. Came with quite a few disks, but some didn't work. King's Quest (CIB) got the most play. Also had BASIC (of course) and Crossfire on a cart, Donkey Kong, some random BASIC game compilations (I remember there was craps and some maze game, and a racing game where you tried not to hit donkeys, and an oil speculating "game"), ended up scoring a couple other games from friends: Hugo, StarQuake, Space Quest, Temple of Apshai Trilogy...

We ended up getting a Pentium 150 shortly thereafter.

[BillyHW]

386sx clone.  DOS + Win 3.1.   Oh the pain.  

[MrPastGlory]

The Commodore 128D. Still have it, it works and I love it.

[mimo]

1981, my two younger brothers and I got a Sinclair ZX81 with the 16k wobbly ram upgrade.Bought from one of the tabloid newspapers I believe. It was a Christmas present. We also got a cassette recorder to and a bright red Hitachi 14" B+W TV.
To be honest I hated it, I know that sounds ungrateful, and that lot would have cost my parents a small fortune at the time, but, in the same newspaper I remember seeing the Atari home computers advertised.
We did a lot of typing in of programs, and played a lot of games, but we still yearned for an Atari.
A couple of years later, again for xmas we got a 16K 400,410,joysticks and some games (Missile Command,Asteroids and Atari Invaders on cart) That year we also got a colour portable TV from my Grandparents. I guess this would have been around the time of the XL range being launched and the 400 being price dropped. A few months later we got the 400 upgraded to 48K.
Awesome times, 3 player Asteroids, trying to be quiet 'cus we should have been in bed. It was a regular thing for my dad to shut off the power for the whole house if we were playing games too late. He knew that we wouldn't try and load Bruce Lee from cassette (20 mins) again that night god rest him. Happy days

[Ransom]

My memory and the dates of product introduction don't seem to match up.  But here's how I remember it.

In 1983, my parents bought me "The Basic Computer" (Atari 400), "The Entertainer," "The Programmer," and "The Educator."  A short enough time later that the computer could still be returned, they bought me a 1200XL and a 1050.  A few months after that they bought me the Assembler/Editor cartridge and an Okimate 10 printer.

Yet I keep seeing that the 1200XL was introduced in 1982 and that it was quickly pulled from the market.  I don't recall it being on display when we bought the 400.  I recall the 400 and the 800 being there.  Maybe the 1200XL was on display, but I don't remember it being there at all.

[gooner73]

First up for me was the 128k zx spectrum in about 84??? we did also have prior to that the atari 2600, but that was a "family" console!
Loved the 128 but also got the 800xl when it was reduced before the xe came out. Tapes only though, as the price of disc drives in the uk was ridiculous!
The c64 was basically double the price of the computer if i remember correctly.

loved the 80's computer and scene in general though and was never a "my computer is better than yours" type of person.
I appreciated them all really and enjoyed playing on different systems and seeing what they could do.

[tep392]

I won't count my VCS with Basic cartidge. So my first computer would be the 400 with 410 tape drive.  The games were so much better than the VCS, I abosutely loved that machine.  Probably played Defender and Donkey Kong the most.  Spent many hours typing in programs from antic, analog, etc.  Had sore fingers but good memories. Learned assembly on that machine with the Assembler Editor cart.  Next computer was an Apple IIe with floppy drive that I bought used.  It was a great tool for college but not nearly as fun as the Atari.

[31336haxx0r]

My first computer: 800XE with XC-12. Later my dad bought a XF-551 and 1027. I still have it and I'd rather die than sell it or give it away or something.

[magnusfalkirk]

Not counting a Sears clone of the Atari VCS, my first computer was a TRS-80 (Trash 80) model 1 level II with 16k of memory, a cassette driveand a 12 inch monochrome monitor that I bought in 1980. Here's a page about that computer: http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html I bought it because a friend had one but all he had was 4k of memory so he told me to buy the one with 16k. For a starter computer it wasn't bad but within a year I moved from it to an Apple II+ with 48k of memory and a disk drive. Didn't have the money for a monitor so I bought an RF modulator and hooked the computer up to my small color tv.

[save2600]

TI99/4A first - early 80's, Then I was bit. Owned an Aquarius, Apple ][+, Atari 400, C64, Amiga 1000, Amiga 500 and a Timex Sinclair 1000 after that and all through the 80's.

[Keatah]

Incidentally I learned basic from the yellow "Beginning Basic" manual from RadioShack. The thick one with the plastic binder ring and the anthropomorphous computer figure. I applied those ideas and concepts to Pocket Computer Basic, and later Applesoft.

I learned Applesoft in great detail from those Beagle Bros. Charts.

[Dauber]

My first computer was a Commodore 64C, which I got as an 8th-grade graduation present in 1988. Unfortunately, it didn't come with any kind of storage, so it was pretty useless for a while unless I wanted to type in code for everything I wanted to run every time I ran it.    Thankfully my neighbor had a Datassette he didn't use anymore so he let me have that, so at least I had tape storage until I got a 1541-II for Christmas that year...

Heck, I can tell you my complete computer history....

May 1988 --> Commodore 64C
February 1993 --> Amiga 600
December 1998 --> Amiga 4000 (used)
January 19, 2005 --> microAmiga1-C
July 2006 --> used Dell Dimension 2400
December 2007 --> MacBook
November 2010 --> used eMachine something-or-other (shows you how often I use it!)
December 2011 --> iMac

[TrekMD]

My first computer (not counting the VCS) was a 286 with a 16 MB hard drive.  I was so excited because it had TONS of memory!  LOL

[ClausB]

TrekMD, on Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:46 PM, said:

... it had TONS of memory!

Mine had ounces of memory, about 1/4K user RAM. Bought it senior year of high school with my summer job money. Loved it!

Edited by ClausB, Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:52 PM.