Derek Andrews Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 I learnt some FORTRAN while I was still at school. We wrote the program on coding forms which were sent off to Bristol University where someone punched cards, the program was run, and if it didn't exceed our allocated processing time etc, we got a print-out back in a week or so time I also vaguely remember us having some sort of weird programmable calculator that involved a paper tape punch. Things weren't much better a few years later after I graduated and got a job at TI(UK) programming ATE for memory chips. More punched cards and reams of paper! Eventually allowed time on a TI990 for writing programs, then had to lug reels of tape around, which were just as heavy as the cards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrBlackCat Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 (edited) Commodore Vic 20's. My father got us one fairly early on. Actually, I attended a small red-neck school near where we lived and I was the only student with a computer at the time. For a while, I would bring the Vic-20 to school each day and let the principle play with and taught him some programming in BASIC for a few minutes after school each day. He got his own by the next year as I remember. Shortly after that, I got a Vic-Modem (300!) and got on Compuserve I think it was at the time... so I have been BlackCat or MrBlackCat since 1984. Second was a Commondore 64 (SX Actually) I got at a pawn shop very reasonably. With its awesome Floppy Disk drive I could save stuff crazy fast, and fairly reliably. MrBlackCat Edited June 21, 2017 by MrBlackCat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SignGuy81 Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 IBM PC AT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Basic on the TI-99 4a. I read through the "beginners basic" manual that came with it and was hooked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I think it was a Commodore PET. I took a basic programming class on them shortly before getting my Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRTGAMER Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) Would punching in a selection the Space Wars Cabinet count? I always selected fast and gravity. As far as programming it would be the Vic-20 and Commodore 64; all the Gazette magazine listings. Edited July 2, 2017 by CRTGAMER 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 (edited) When I was 10 years old my older brother taught me a few BASIC commands. One day for some reason I had to go to work with my mother, who taught at a community college. I got to use the computers there while she worked, and I wrote a bunch of simple BASIC programs on the Apple ][+ they had in the lab. That was it for me, hooked forever. I made a career out of it, too, although I moved into management about 5 years ago and haven't done much programming since. Last week I started some 7800 basic stuff for fun, though. This is the first code I've written in a long while. Edited August 27, 2017 by BydoEmpire 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 I just saw this thread... I had a STAR BIRD,...My friend had the BIG TRAK (But I'm still counting it)...Also Space War cabs!! (Genius CRTGamer!) Our school had Apple II something or others so that would be where I did BASIC (and later FORTRAN, PASCAL, etc, Then KOBOL in college, I don't remember what machines though)...Shame I really don't remember any of it...And I had BASIC at home on my Coleco ADAM... Still have the ADAM! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcgldr Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 (edited) I'm an old guy, started programming in high school back in 1967 on a monrobot, which had a typewriter console, paper tape reader and punch and used a drum memory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monrobot_XI The next year we got an IBM 1130 with a line printer, and on Saturdays, the school had a class at an IBM data center, on an IBM 360 model 25 or 30, whatever was available that day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1130 In the 12th grade, I also went to a Control Data data center to program a CDC 3150. They also had a CDC 6600 there, but I rarely programmed on it, due to the demand and cost of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_3000_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_6600 My first job was in 1973, a multi-computer, multi-threaded, database application using multiple HP 2100 mini-computers. There were 10 CDC 9760 hard drives, each one bigger than the mini-computers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_2100 http://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/cdc-disk-drive-departs-from-ibm-standards Edited June 9, 2018 by rcgldr 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMenard Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I did adapt a few coco listing for my MC-10, but the first computer I created a program from scratch was the Atari 130XE. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikebloke Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 My first system was an Amstrad 464 with BASIC, made a lot of things with that and its bulky manual. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Msx Sony hit bit 75p 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger03 Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 (edited) Atari 800 at PCS one of the programs in lodi, without the tape drive or controllers. just simple 8k basic. i lamented the lack of a disk drive or BASIC manual but made do anyway, teaching one of the kids and managing some paltry graphics through the XIO command. i think the code was XIO # 3,4,5 or something. really wanted a spectrum but we couldn't secure one. would've loved to teach Sinclair Basic through a zx81 or TS1000 Edited July 22, 2018 by Ranger03 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onemoretime Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 (edited) An elevator. I got sick when I was a youngster, and would sneak out of my room and go on midnight elevator rides at Methodist hospital. It was old enough that it didn t reset if you pushed all of the buttons. Edited July 22, 2018 by onemoretime 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitrofurano Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 trs-80 model i 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMenard Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 Trs-80 MC-10 with 16k ram expansion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 I bought a Coco in early-1983, and that was the system on which I learned BASIC (and later Logo). I badly wanted to try Pascal, but the compiler package required a disk drive, and I only had a cassette system. I wrote a handful of original games, all now sadly lost to history. My My Elementary/Junior High had a TRS-80 Model III (just one), and I was able to occasionally play a few games on it -- mainly written by a brilliant older classmate. I signed-up for the programming class in about Grade 7, but I was told that typing class (using a manual typewriter!) was a co-requisite, so I was forced to drop the class. My High School had a lab of networked Cocos; we received some new Coco 3 systems when I was in Grade 12. I first used a PC when I started University, but I did not do very much programming beyond learning Turbo Pascal. I also experimented a bit with Vax BASIC on the University's mainframe system. To this day, I have never touched an Apple II. There was one available at the local public library, but I never had the opportunity to use it. My experience with the TI 99/4A and the C-64 is almost entirely limited to store demo systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spriggy Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Dick Smith System 80 (TRS-80 Model 1 clone) I remember having to program 'Snake' on it, for a High School project (80's). God bless the glow of a green screen! https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/system-80/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 TI-99 4/A. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibstov Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 TI-99 4/A. Yeah, me to. TI-99/4A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman000 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 An off-brand DOS PC, Hy-Tech I think, in GW-BASIC. Couldn't get it to take in input, but I could make a clock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 The very first "computer" I had, and also the one on which I learned to program, was the Intellivision Entertainment Computer System (ECS). I took my very first foray into the greater world of BASIC, on the worst dialect of that language ever created by man or machine. Even though I was 11 years-old and didn't know any better, it being my very first time, I still felt it was crap and did not have much fun with it at all. 10 PRIN "HELLO" 20 GOTO 10 Four-character keywords managed to mangle what was to me an already cryptic language. 100 GSUB 200 110 INPU "HELLO?",A 200 PRIN "HERE!" 210 RTRN It was slow, starved of RAM (I believe it had about 2K), weirdly color-coded, and although it supposedly gave you access to the built-in EXEC operating system/game engine used in the original Mattel Electronics games, it was just too slow to be of any practical use. At most you got some interesting toy programs and simple and lame games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG2PWR3x2-A&feature=youtu.be&t=46 It was really painful to use. By the very next year, my dad got me a Commodore 64 and I never looked back!!! For decades afterwards I claimed that the C=64 was my very first computer, mainly because I didn't consider the ECS an actual computer, more like a toy -- you know like one of those V-TECH thingies. However, if I'm honest with myself, I have to admit that the ECS was my first. -dZ. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 I'm sure it was an atari 8-bit computer (if not some forgotten machine at school like a TRS-80) but "Etch-a-Sketch animator" is a darkhorse candidate - you could making long 96 frame sequences from 12 40x30 pixel images 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tickled_Pink Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) Type-in listings? Sinclair Spectrum. First time I played Snake. 1983.My own Hello World? Atari 800XL. Probably. 1986.Commercially? PC ... converting PET business software in GWBASIC on a Random Tandon (stupid autocorrect) AT. Later in '86. Edited April 10, 2019 by Tickled_Pink 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serguei2 Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 IBM PCjr at school then, I owned one in 1986. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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