Algus Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Hmm, I ended up tinkering with Basilisk a few weeks ago on my Mac Mini and got a really good System 7 setup. There's some rock solid emulation out there and the software is freely available too. Still not the same as running it on one of those old machines. I guess I want the old CRT but a plug n play with USB attachments and some other amenities might be cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Commodore 64! After the video game crash in 1984 it was all I had! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slab0meat Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Commodore 64 as well. Loved it. Still have everything other than the 64 itself, which was replaced by a 64c. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serguei2 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 An IBM PCjr in 1986. I played the Rogue, Thexder, Space Quest, Gauntlet, Mine Shaft, Robocop, Questron II, into the eagle's nest on the PCjr. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ripdubski Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 (edited) Atari 800 (16k) with 410 cassette in 1980. Later upgraded to 48k. Still have it. Still worked about 10 years ago. Edited December 14, 2013 by Ripdubski 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Kim-1 from MOS in 1977, not the commodore version. Even came in a nice wood grain enclosure with an inspectors sticker. Demo model maybe? Someone donated it to our Electronics Classroom and I asked the teacher if I could have it, thought it was a calculator 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 (edited) While I had a very computer-like looking G7000 (Odyssey 2) the first computer I actually programmed was a ZX-81 borrowed during the Summer of 1982 from a friend while he was on vacation. I remember hooking it up to the kitchen TV and programming it while standing next to a kitchen cabinet. My very first OWN (well almost, nominally it belonged to my father's office) computer was a 48K Atari 800 with 810 disc drive which arrived Christmas the same year. As it came without games I started programming my own BASIC game the next day and had to wait through two endless holidays before I could carry my savings to one of the few stores carrying Atari and get a Star Raiders cart, a joystick and three floppies (I couldn't afford a box of 10 as they cost the equivalent of 10 cones of ice cream each). The kitchen TV moved to my bedroom but as it was missed in the kitchen it was soon replaced by a Taxan monitor. Edited December 22, 2013 by slx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yak Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Sinclair ZX80 was the first I owned, although I learned prior to that on an 8K Pet from school. then it was: ZX81, Vic20, Speccy, Atari 400, C64, Atari 800, Beeb, MSX, Apple II, C128, then off into 16 bit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) 1997: Our first family computer was a Compaq Presario with Windows 95 and Pentium MMX. 166Mhz and 16Mb RAM. The non-upgradable RAM embedded on the motherboard made it nigh impossible to upgrade the danged thing even though it had a spare SD slot. I stuck in a 32Mb upgrade the stupid PC only recognised 8Mb of it for 24Mb total. I called tech support and it was something about the chips weren't the right size. The motherboard had 8x 2Mb chips embedded in it, so the 32Mb RAM upgrade needed to have 2Mb chips as well. The RAM chip I installed only had 4x 8Mb chips, so the motherboard only recognised 8Mb each chip as 2Mb. If it weren't for the stupid RAM being permanantly soldered to the motherboard, I could have easily dropped in a 64Mb upgrade. The PC was advertised as upgradable to 48Mb and 233Mhz, but you had to use their special RAM with 16x 2Mb chips on it, and I wasn't about to pay $100+ for a NOS 32Mb SDRAM slot that would actually match the PC when I could buy a 32Mb stick at Office Depot for $17.99 Stupid companies use proprietary parts instead of industry standard components, why I don't know. As for the Mhz upgrade, there were jumpers on the motherboard to change the clock speed for a free speed boost, so yeah, people actually pay a tech guy to upgrade their system by swapping out a jumper on the motherboard and think they were getting a CPU upgrade. I did the jumper upgrade myself for free, but it did not matter much since the PC spent all it's time constantly write-caching memory wearing out the hard drive in the process. My next PC (and the first computer I had all to myself) was a custom built white Box PC in 1999 my freshman semester in college, with 400Mhz Celeron and 128Mb memory which I later upgraded to 256. That Compaq family PC dinosaur finally went in the dumpster in 2003 and I had no regrets getting rid of it. Edited December 23, 2013 by stardust4ever 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 (edited) VIC-20 "The Friendly Computer" This was my first, purchased new at Toys R US. I was in the actual TRU store where I purchased my Vic-20 tonight with my 3 year old daughter (to use a Xmas gift card someone bought her) and while the store is massively different, I still could envision the store how it "was" and where I went to look at the Vic-20 in the glass case. I loved....love....that computer. It was what started me on a lifetime of computer work/play. I do not think I would be the person I am today in regards to what I do for a living if I had not started there to be honest. Did I mention I love the Vic? Edited December 29, 2013 by eightbit 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Sinclair ZX80 was the first I owned, although I learned prior to that on an 8K Pet from school. then it was: ZX81, Vic20, Speccy, Atari 400, C64, Atari 800, Beeb, MSX, Apple II, C128, then off into 16 bit. Welcome Jeff!!! nice to see you here. Mine was a Vic 20, with C2N and 16K(oooh exotic!). Mmmm Andes Attack, Matrix, Gridrunner, Metagalactic Llama's Thanks buddy, kept me amused for ages, still play then now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmetal88 Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I feel that every smartphone-toting youngster needs to understand what P5, and P6 are on a Disk II controller card for the Apple II series. Seriously I know youngsters even aged 15 that have no clue about wiring up any sort of console. Fer cryinoutloud! Me and my buddies aged 7 and 10 were begging for rides to the local TV repair shop for parts and to pester the technician about something computer related. An activity that was as commonplace for us as it is for a modern-day gamer to subscribe to DLC. This of course was back in the day when your local supermarket had valve testers. And now that I think about it, was a TV repairman a hip job back then? And could a neighborhood, today, use an electronics repair guy? Somebody that might change laptop parts or solder wires and connectors together or fix mechanical things. I mean what other alternative is there? Throw the device away and buy a new one? Heh, I let my roommate use my game consoles when he wants to, but he usually doesn't because he has no clue how to hook them up. Can't match the right cords to the right consoles, can't find the right connectors on the back of the TV, can't find the proper input option to view the input he wants, etc. He usually just ends up asking me to leave the Playstation 2 hooked up before I leave so he has a console he's familiar with to use while I'm gone, haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yak Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Welcome Jeff!!! nice to see you here. Mine was a Vic 20, with C2N and 16K(oooh exotic!). Mmmm Andes Attack, Matrix, Gridrunner, Metagalactic Llama's Thanks buddy, kept me amused for ages, still play then now. cheers, glad you had fun with those old games:). I loved my Vic too - yeah, I know Uncle Clive was awesome with the ZX machines, and I was thrilled to bits to get my first ZX80 since it was the first computer I could actually afford to own,prior to that all my computing was perforce done in a few minutes here and there scrounged on the college PET. But when the Vic came out it just felt more like home, unsurprising really given that I'd learned on the PET. And you could have a ton of fun with those big chunky characters and that noisy sound chip. Built like a tank too (my various c64s didn't survive into the new millennium but my original old VIC still works). Curiously enough because I wasn't much of a Speccy boy back in the day, now it's one of my favourite machines to explore in emulation as there's loads of stuff I never really looked at back then. It's just such a quintessentially British machine, and it's amazing what some of the best coders managed to get out of that little thing. On the Vic I think Tom Griner was about the best coder there was. And Peter Fokos, Spiders of Mars dude. He's still going, he works for God now, made a Jesus version of Dance Dance Revolution called Dance Praise. But I'll always bless him for his Spiders of Mars . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Got my first machine back in 1983, a sparkly new ti99/4a(silver), with Alpiner module. I eventuall got the speech synth, wired controllers, some more modules and tapes. Not quite as big as my current TI collection! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 My first computer was a TI-99/4A. It changed it's look and usefulness over the years... ** CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE ** This is what it originally looked like... Later things got condensed down a bit... At the end of my run with the T-99/4A it looked like this... I liked that computer so much that after a 23 year break, I'm back into it. This is my system now... 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chug Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 My first computer was an Oric-1. Programming it was a pleasure, and the sound chip, a variant of which would latter be used in the Atari ST was brilliant. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomaios Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Unfortunately, I don't remember, I was too young. I do remember it being Windows 3/3.1, though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Nice shiny TI994a for Christmas 1983. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Heh, how crazy is it that Minter found his way here? Anyway, if I haven't already mentioned it before, the VIC-20 was my first computer. It wasn't a very versatile machine, though... it can play video games and let you program others in BASIC, but heaven help you if you try to use it professionally. Could you imagine a word processor on this machine with its super chunky font? Also, I just can't groove with Clive Sinclair's computers. They were designed with a shoestring budget... and it shows. It's hard to believe that the Spectrum was so popular in Great Britain... pretty much every computer of the time with a Z80 processor outperforms it. It's not even as flexible as the friggin' ColecoVision, which is doubly sad when you consider the number of games available for it. Games like Street Fighter II and Strider were ported to the Spectrum, which had no business being on any 8-bit system but are especially laughable on the color-deprived, sprite-free Spectrum. The first computer I wanted more than anything in the world was the Amiga. I didn't get one until well after the system was taken off store shelves, though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Heh, how crazy is it that Minter found his way here? Anyway, if I haven't already mentioned it before, the VIC-20 was my first computer. It wasn't a very versatile machine, though... it can play video games and let you program others in BASIC, but heaven help you if you try to use it professionally. Could you imagine a word processor on this machine with its super chunky font? Also, I just can't groove with Clive Sinclair's computers. They were designed with a shoestring budget... and it shows. It's hard to believe that the Spectrum was so popular in Great Britain... pretty much every computer of the time with a Z80 processor outperforms it. It's not even as flexible as the friggin' ColecoVision, which is doubly sad when you consider the number of games available for it. Games like Street Fighter II and Strider were ported to the Spectrum, which had no business being on any 8-bit system but are especially laughable on the color-deprived, sprite-free Spectrum. The first computer I wanted more than anything in the world was the Amiga. I didn't get one until well after the system was taken off store shelves, though. I always "tended to believe" that the first cool word processors were those terminal-like machines hooked to mainframes. Those and the Apple II, TRS-80, early Mac, & PC. When you hit a key on one of those machines you just knew it was being placed into a memory location. Confident, snappy, instantly. No doubt about it. Cold! Crystal! Word processing on anything else, like VIC-20, C-64, Atari 400/800, Amiga, ST, seemed hit or miss. Squishy like a sponge. Your text got placed into memory somewhere, somehow, with formatting commands and all that. Not to mention the campy candy-ass color choice of the screens on these other machines. About the Amiga, I, too wanted one so horribly badly. I got one, got it home, and couldn't do jack on it. And I hated the unprofessional Blue and White CLI, I felt like it was a cheap toy, a souped-up Vic or 64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPA5 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 An Atari 400, as far as I can remember. That was back in 93, so way past the prime of the Atari, but my dad's always had a soft spot for his Atari, so when I was a wee nip of about 3 he got me playing and using the 400. Other then that, around the same era it was a MS-DOS PC he built. That's the reason I love my 400 today and I'm working on building vintage Pentium PC's from that era and a little later. So many great memories playing Commander Keen, King's Quest, and Roger Wilco with my dad. Those really were great days of gaming and PC use for me, everything was exciting and new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seob Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 My first computer was a TI-99/4A. It changed it's look and usefulness over the years... ** CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE ** This is what it originally looked like... Later things got condensed down a bit... At the end of my run with the T-99/4A it looked like this... I liked that computer so much that after a 23 year break, I'm back into it. This is my system now... Love the coffeecup detail in the third picture. Pretty much shows the loading times of the days.What happend to the diskdrives? Pictures 1,2 and 4 show black diskdrives, picture 3 shows grey diskdrives? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Love the coffeecup detail in the third picture. Pretty much shows the loading times of the days. What happend to the diskdrives? Pictures 1,2 and 4 show black diskdrives, picture 3 shows grey diskdrives? It was an attempt to get 'everything to match'. When I upgraded to the CorComp DSDD disk controller I needed new drives, so I got a couple that matched my printer. After that, I 'just had to get' a new console to match everything else. The beige TI in that photo was an offer I could not refuse... I picked it up at a garage sale, in the box... for 5 bucks! I remember about 1989 or 1990 one could pickup TI's any day of the week for 5 to 10 bucks each. Now that I'm finally back into the TI, photo number four is of an entirely new box. In fact the drives are 3.5's not the old clunky monster sized 5.25's. I sure do miss the DSDD of the Corcomp controller though. Now investigating the 80 track mod for the TI controller that would give me essentially the same amount of space. Hopefully it'll all work out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mika73 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Vic20 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mika73 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Vic20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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