What was your first exposure to the PC?

[Keatah]

What was your first exposure to the PC?

 

Mine was still in the days of the Apple II+ and warez. I was over at my one of my rich friend's house. His dad had bought him an airplane already and we weren't even out of grade school! I was so jealous and all that even though I was promised the car of my choice provided it could be bought and serviced at a dealership. That meant no exotics like Porsche or Lambo.

 

Like I was saying, I was over at my buddy's house and we were doing warez on the II+. I found the PC XT in the other room and we got to playing a little bit of flight simulator on it. And that was about all. They were very guarded about letting anyone near that machine. And that was it for many years.

 

No doubt I had seen them in the computer stores. But they all looked boring and stuff. They had words and charts on the screens and that was about it. It was nothing I understood to be sure. I asked about games and graphics and could it do any. I was told that it supported either 4 or 16 colors and had little to no games. And I kinda lost interest in it. I turned my attention back to the 16-machines like Atari-ST and Amiga 1000.

 

Later on some fat girl (we're still in school now) had me over to her dad's house for something. I forget already what. And he was fat too. He had an amber or green monochrome screen going on an XT setup. I was going to ask him something about the computer but was told not to bother him because he was backing up his HDD by way of command-line zip archiving. It was an important and critical operation.

 

Again I forgot about the PC platform. Soon enough my dad got a 286-12 from Packard Bell. And I jammed flight simulator for hours and hours. And it got upgraded to a 486SX-25 or something from RadioShack. And all the bastard did was play with mapping programs and fret with trying to make "Multi-media" work. 1X CD-ROMS, SoundBlaster clones, postage-stamp video.. that kinda shit.

 

By then, I was more into Academia and preparing my doctorate thesis in Electronic Communications and Modulation. I got to looking at the latest PC offerings from Gateway on a whim. I found some astronomy programs which I thought were totally kick ass and I had to get me one! I soon enough got me a 486DX2/50 from Gateway. I still have this machine and just cut out the beginning-to-corrode Ni-Cd CMOS battery now in 2014.

 

I got into fractal mathematics and eventually went online with AOL. I wasn't really sure what was the internet and what was a BBS. AOL had blurred the lines pretty good. I soon dumped the training wheels and got a real provider with Netscape.

 

It was around then I discovered computer games on the PC for real with the likes of DOOM and RAPTOR. Quickly followed by Commanche, Stunts, JetFighter, Descent and Quake and Tempest 2000. It was these, especially the first two that demonstrated to me the PC was a viable gaming platform.

 

 

[Rybags]

Hands-on, probably not a lot until about 1986. There was a work machine which was probably a turbo'd 8086 clone with floppy, small HDD of 10 or 20 Meg.

I developed a version of one of my games in Basic, unsure what version but it allowed defining and plotting soft-sprites which made things easier.

Never took a copy away so it's likely lost forever.

 

Next up was probably a couple of years later, likely '286 clone which I started doing config diagrams on using some app under GEM. From memory it also had Windows, probably version 1.

 

After that, another workplace got several machines in around 1990 - some '286 and '386. Leaderboard Golf, Wolf3D and Doom were probably the most played games there. Also spent a lot of time dialing into various BBSs.

 

I didn't really bother getting a machine at home until 1998 or so. Practically always had access to plenty of gear at workplaces and for games had the Amiga and PS1.

I didn't really take PC gaming seriously until Wolf3D came along. I knew that an 8 MHz ST or Amiga had next to no chance of matching that. Once Doom came out it became obvious that the competition was gone and the future of desktop gaming was here.

[+save2600]

Junior or Sophomore year, we had a lab full of PC Jr's that as far as I could tell, was only used to teach "keyboarding". Yes, you read that right: IBM PC Jr.! Idiots. I knew it was going to be an easy credit, half credit or whatever, so I took it. First day in, the teacher wanted to test our prowess. Umm, yeah... was told to go see the guidance counselor within minutes. Couldn't get one past them I guess!

 

Ended up Taking DBase IV in a lab full of old 5150's instead. Yay.

 

Before that and late in Grade School/Junior High, had TRS-80 Model III's, Apple ]['s and a single Atari 800.

 

Two of my friends growing up had PC compatibles. One had a Leading Edge PC and I believe the other had a real IBM 5150. Besides maybe a golf or card game, the one with the Leading Edge preferred to game on the Intellivision and my other buddy with the 5150 got into stuff like Starflight and some of the point and click adventure games. I pretty much could never stand to watch or otherwise look at PC gaming back in those days. CGA, then EGA - screw that. After the one friend with the 5150 got an Amiga, he ditched the PC right away. Course now, he's back to PC gaming.

Edited January 16, 2014 by save2600

[Osgeld]

bout 6th grade one of my best budies at the time had a tandy 1000 in the house

[JamesD]

I'm not quite sure if it was the fist time I was exposed to a PC but my work study job in college was running a business computer lab filled with IBM PCs and Apple IIe's.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Well, being into tech in all forms of course I saw the evolution and growing dominance of the "Beige Boxes", the original "Dos Boxes" never did anything for me and I just wasn't enough of a geek to get into it, I was one with more of a "creative" interest so I wasn't interested in anything outside of game consoles until the Amiga hit, and by hit I mean I discovered it in import magazines at my local Bookstore and was awed by what could be done with video, animation and artwork so everything else just seemed so pale in comparison. You must keep in mind at my school there were no "atari" computers either, I would go to a friends house for lunch and we might sneak some time on his big brothers Ti99 and Vic20. My own personal first machine was a C64 followed by Amiga and those were enough for me. The same friend who's house I would go for lunch later moved on his own and he was right into the beige box "P.C.'s" and he certainly seemed to love it, but he was always more of a "technical" person, he loved DOS and later Windows, but I remember every-time he added something, new sound card, graphic card, or even loading the latest PC game having to buy more memory or some other upgrade and then dealing with configurations, IRQ conflicts etc, he sure seemed to get frustrated at the whole thing. Once running I was impressed with all the simulations for flight, submarine, tanks (my friend was a hard core military fanatic) but it just seemed so much work I would come home, pop in Lemmings, or Stuntcar Racer floppy and it would just boot right up no fuss, no configuring, full color, stereo sound and awesome animation.

 

And so it was I stuck with Amiga / Workbench as ling as I could. I really tried to avoid the "PC" side of things, but I always kept up with it through articles, visiting friends and family I STILL seemed to know more then those that actually owned the machines (I know many here can relate to being the computer guy and tech support in the family) but at some point due to demands of work, requirements of school and the fact of commodore dying off (It already had a piss poor presence in Canada) reluctantly decided it was time to join what seemed to be the rest of the world. I seriously considered going APPLE / MAC this was I believe during the era of THINK DIFFERENT and candy colored iMACS etc, I was VERY tempted to go that route but two things weighed heavily against it. 1. COST, although cost of entry was comparable after looking into all the accessories and extras I would eventually want and crunching numbers I could not justify it. 2. Support. Don't get me wrong, clearly by this time APPLE computers had a large fanbase, support etc, but having come from AMIGA where I could never fine a damn thing hardware or software wise locally and knew nobody else who had the platform I did not want to repeat this with APPLE. I thought it was awesome but I knew NOBODY else into it, it seemed the entire world was on windows and if I ever had an computer problem I could practically find someone knowledgeable with the PC platform literally by turning around and looking over my shoulder lol. So going "PC" was a choice of finances, support and being compatible with others, after years of already being on what I considered a superior but unknown, poorly supported and little respected platform it was not like I could not handle it I just was tired of it and so chose to be one of the majority for sanity's sake.

 

This all brought me to my first USED cheap generic beige box with a minimal specification that came with Win95, I recall get it up to spec well enough to just run Win98 and soon after Win98 Second Edition, then after getting together with my wife who had not a great machine but better than mine I sold what I had, upgraded hers and it was on to WinXP which I enjoyed for a long time. Today the Desktop runs Win764bit (a machine I built) and the old laptop runs Win7 32bit.

 

 

Throughout this history I was intrigued by certain PC models like the IBM PC Jr, and many of the early attempts at wiz bang all in one "multi-media" PC's by the likes of companies like Gateway lol. But I just never quite bit on those.

Edited January 16, 2014 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[cncfreak]

Was at a friend's house in 87-88 and they had an AT&T XT machine. They had Ancient Art of War that we played.

 

[BassGuitari]

My first PC was probably the 286 (it could have been a 386) that my dad, an engineer, got to do CAD work at home in the early '90s. All I really remember about it, specs-wise, was that it could support EGA graphics and didn't have WIndows (which I think I first encountered in 3rd grade, in 1993). But I vividly remember playing some games on it, although they turned out to be some of the most-panned PC games of the early '90s: Street Fighter and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And I loved them!

[Osgeld]

Was at a friend's house in 87-88 and they had an AT&T XT machine. They had Ancient Art of War that we played.

 

First PC I personally bought was an AT&T XT, kind of wish I still had it but then again it had a funny monitor output

[+nanochess]

An electronics expo when I had 6 years by 1984-1985, there was an original IBM PC (the 5150 I believe) in a stand loaded with a disk of Digger http://www.digger.org/, and a dozen of kids including me surrounded the machine trying to play a game.

 

Ten or twenty minutes later we started laughing too loud on every game happening in screen, and an employee took out the disk, turn off the machine and said "this game has been prohibited," still I can remember the disappointed and surprised faces of every kid. Two minutes later the machine was alone in its stand.

 

But I can remember that after the 1985 earthquake, by December I was able to use a Televideo PC for playing Digger just like this one.

 

Edited January 16, 2014 by nanochess

[Omega-TI]

Speaking of the PC... where can I find a (FREE) place to download Castle Wolfenstein 3D WITHOUT a F$@k*^g loader or bogus utilities jammed into my browser?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Speaking of the PC... where can I find a (FREE) place to download Castle Wolfenstein 3D WITHOUT a F$@k*^g loader or bogus utilities jammed into my browser?

 

Damn man you really got to learn about that TORRENT thing all the kids are into. Until then It's for sale on STEAM :

http://store.steampowered.com/app/2270/

 

I am not sure the powers that be here will appreciate your asking for sources for PC game software?

 

If you need further help please start your own separate thread.

[Seob]

Think it was in 1987 or so. Parents of a friend of mine had a Commodore PC-1 or PC-10 can't remember. We played Leisure Suit Larry on it.

Later we bought a Philips P2230 a 80286 at 12.5 Mhz with CGA monochome graphics. Played a lot of great games on that machine. Added a adlib soundcard and 256Kb vga displaycard later.

Still have great memories playing A-10 Tank Killer, Knights of the Sky, F-19 Stealth Figther, Street Rod, Stunts, Test Drive.

[cimerians]

I wanted to play Ultima 6 and I knew I needed a PC to do it (at least) so around 1992 I finally got one mainly because thats the year I started college as a programmer.

 

My first actual computer was a C64 in 84' or early 85'

[MarkO]

This is my Favorite Topic... How I got started on my Life Long Hobby and Carer...

 

I started with computers in JAN-1982 at age 15, it was an Apple ][+ at High School, they had three of them in the Business Class room. 48K, single Floppy, except one machine had two..

 

Then my I got a Sinclair ZX81 kit with my Dad, and we assembled it in about DEC-1982, but I still used the apples at school..

 

I bought an Apple //e in NOV-1983, 64K, One Disk II, Monitor ///, it was used, $1,200.00, verses the $1,995.00 they went for new. I couldn't afford the whole price even used, so I went in as 50-50 partners with a friend, Randy and we would trade houses with it each week. That lasted until about FEB-1984, when my Partner wanted to Tutor, and needed it Full Time.... So he bought out my Share, so now I had my $600.00 back and no Apple ][e. My dad liked using the Apple ][e and with my $600.00 and additional $600.00 from him, we went back to the Computer Shop that still had some used ones at the $1,200.00 price.. My dad still has that one in storage, I am trying to get it from him... This Apple ][e was the Light colored keys with the White Lettering.

 

My Parther wanted to

[MarkO]

I'm not quite sure if it was the fist time I was exposed to a PC but my work study job in college was running a business computer lab filled with IBM PCs and Apple IIe's.

 

In Community College, I didn't have Financial Aid, so I couldn't get Work Study, but I did get paid Money to work in the Business Computer Lab.. They had REAL IBM PC and XT's and Franklin Ace 1000 and 1200.

[Aquaman]

My first encounter? When I was forced to leave my Amiga (in privat) and my Apple at work, which unfortunately was replaced by a Windows computer! I still used my Amiga in privat, but after a certain period of time I also got myself a Windows 98 PC and didn't found it much of an improvement over the Amiga. But the computer market didn't leave me much of a choice after the bankruptcy of Commodore!

Edited January 18, 2014 by Aquaman

[atarian63]

Probably back between CPM and Dos, original IBM PC, we ALL thought it was a joke, a worthless machine except for office stuff. Still cannot believe how far pc's have come and yet it's all a bigger and bigger DOS glove so to speak.Back in the day I would NEVER have bet on the PC (or Apple either) At least I had Atari 8 bit & Atari St and such,

After commodore died and Atari was still alive technically.. it was all over. Ended up back with consoles, however as they become more PC like, that will be ending and just doing classics.

[edweird13]

Started out with a TI994/A in 81 or 82. Moved up to a C=64 in late 84. In 1990 I completely got out of computers until 97 when I my brother gave me a 486 DX/50. He tried to to tell me it was better than the DX2/66 because it the clock wasn't doubled lol. It had Windows 95 on it with 2 HDD's. One was a 100MB and the other was 300MB. It only had one IDE port. Also had a VESA video card in it. The CD-ROM was hooked up through the Aztec Labs sound card. I taught myself how to use DOS cause I couldn't play game's in Windows. DOOM and Dark Forces would run in DOS so I had to learn how to make a DOS boot disk and figure out how to use config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Really got me back into computers which led to me going back to school and the IT field that I am in now.

[Keatah]

In a few niche and specific applications, the DX-50 would be faster than the DX2/66. Don't ask me what, I don't remember except they were i/o bound.

 

When I got my first PC (that I actually owned and paid for, the DX2/50) I got it mainly for professional and academic reasons. Not games. But soon enough I developed serious Dooming skills on it an was introduced to emulators. Even my old lady gramma played Doom! Thought it was cute and pretty of all things.

 

Surprisingly I used my Apple //e and the PC nearly equally for word processing for a few years.

[+wood_jl]

I call a distinction between my *first* experience, and my *first meaningful* experience.

 

My first experience was fooling around with XTs in about 1984-1985. Hercules graphics on a green screen and crappy PC speaker. Wordstar worked well, but everything else sucked and OH, THE PRICE!!!! Atari ST (and Amiga) were so much more fun for so much less money.

 

My first *meaningful* experience was around 1990 when a 16Mhz 286 with 40MB hard drive, SVGA (800 x 600 x 256 colors), and Sound Blaster had finally become affordable (the Rise of the Clones!), and I got one. In 5 years, the PC went from being an overpriced, boring green screen with worse-than-Apple2-sound to quite a fun gaming machine with impressive (for the time) graphics and sound, and at an affordable (for the time) price.

[+Gemintronic]

yeah. My first meaningful experience was actually picking up my first copy of Computer Shopper. They had their last article for the Coleco Adam that issue. It was a freakin' gynourmous magazine. Every ad was a list of barely imaginable wonders. I even saw a portable 8086 clone that ran on a billion C batteries. Good times.

[Keatah]

I had my 486 for not more than a couple of months, then I upgraded into a multi-media system by way of a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 board. I don't recall the precise reason why I traded it in almost immediately for a real SoundBlaster, could have been compatibility with one game or lack of wavetable daughtercard or something about the software "suite" that came with it. Or maybe it was the expensive SCSI CD ROM drives of the time. Most likely it had something to do with interrupts and DMA settings. Or me not knowing exactly how to get it rolling. Don't get me wrong, it was quality-built hardware and had good software and documentation, but for whatever reason it had to go. I believe it was the first in what would be a long series of product returns I would make throughout the years when purchasing PC hardware.

 

Never had that problem with Apple II paraphernalia, ever. Whenever I got something for it it was a keeper! And on the flipside, I got rid of a whole Amiga system for like-minded reasons. I could write a book on the Amiga's shortcomings. But that's for another thread.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Vision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Vision_Pro_AudioSpectrum#Sound_Blaster_compatibility

[Keatah]

My first genuinely meaningful experience with the PC was setting up Word. Not installing it, for it came pre-installed already.. but setting up some settings and figuring out how to "translate" some Apple II files into genuine text-only text files and all that.

 

Surprisingly, initially, I has used my Amiga as an intermediary, a $700 serial cable in essence. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing back then or why I used the Amiga. I think it had something to do with a macro or the Stop & Parity Bits in the communications protocol. Or something. It really was major fuck up.

 

Still till this day I don't know why we used the Amiga, but we did. That was the last time I did anything with the Amiga. Not out of disgust or hate, it just wasn't useful when compared against the new PC.

 

In retrospect today I would have done the task completely differently and more simplerly. But back then we were all green and often did things in bastardized roundabout way.

 

My second epiphany came when roaming around E1L1 in Doom. I was quite happy because by then I had my system all configured and it worked straight away. And epiphany is not too strong an expression either.

[bomberpunk]

my first computer was a Packard Bell with a 13-inch monitor and 500 MB of storage. it was a big flat desktop, not a tower model. 28.8k modem, and i played the shit out The Catacomb Abyss on it.

 

my first PC wasn't as awesome as my best friend's, though. he had a fucking TURBO button on his that did absolutely nothing.

Edited January 18, 2014 by bomberpunk