Whilst thinking up a new hobby project, I got to thinking back to the family's first computer,
and the games we played on it. Younger members will likely get lost here, but here goes.
Our first was a secondhand Vic20, and this would be about 30 years since, with a cassette tape drive, and connected to the tv, via a modulator, if memory serves.
All of the games were text, and each time you answered aquestion, or made adecision, you had to wait for the tape to re-wind, wind forward, and then load the reply! Oh the fun we had, a game that would take milliseconds now took hours then.
Next on our list came several game 'consols' as I recall, ping pong, tank battle, space invaders and the like.
We managed to upgrade to an atari, and that was exiting, real(??) graphics, i.e bunches of pixels representing
the rough shape of your car, spaceship etc.
We moved up to our first 'real' pc, an Amstrad, round about the early 80's, cost a fortune, and with only dial-up, so did the internet.
Just shows how far we've come in a few years.
Anyone remember all that?
Recommended Answers
Jump to PostYes I do. My first owned machine was an Acorn Atom. Learned to program assembly on it.
Jump to PostMy first real computer was a Zenith 100 with 16K ram and two 5 1/4" floppy drives, no hard drive, MS-DOS 1 operating system (folders were not supported then). We had a very fast 300 baud modem that took about 1 1/2 hours to send a 2k text file from …
Jump to PostI'm a bit younger than you guys... The first (real) computer we had was a Pentium MMX 200 MHz with I believe a blazing-fast 8Mb 3D accelerator card! So, my first experiences were more along the lines of playing one-on-one death-matches of Duke Nukem 3D over the dial-up modem (i.e., …
Jump to PostMy father-in-law got one of the first Vic-20s. I waited until the Commodore-64. I hacked away at that (even got a couple of articles published in The Transactor). I was also an early adopter of the first Amiga. I remember getting a 40 meg (huge capacity) hard drive for $800. …
Jump to PostI remember getting a 40 meg (huge capacity) hard drive for $800
I bought one of those too. Just recently bought a 3 tb external drive for $120.00. Can I have my $800.00 back now?
All 18 Replies
Yes I do. My first owned machine was an Acorn Atom. Learned to program assembly on it.
My first real computer was a Zenith 100 with 16K ram and two 5 1/4" floppy drives, no hard drive, MS-DOS 1 operating system (folders were not supported then). We had a very fast 300 baud modem that took about 1 1/2 hours to send a 2k text file from one computer to the other. I had a Lattice C compiler on one floppy disk and data on the other. I'd start a compile then read a book for an hour waiting for the compiler to finish. This was all in about 1982.
I'm a bit younger than you guys... The first (real) computer we had was a Pentium MMX 200 MHz with I believe a blazing-fast 8Mb 3D accelerator card! So, my first experiences were more along the lines of playing one-on-one death-matches of Duke Nukem 3D over the dial-up modem (i.e., punch in the telephone number on the computer, dial-up, and have your friend know (and his parents) to have his computer "answer" the call), and then talk about it over the phone after the game was over. Things have changed a lot since then, but it's also very much the same (but easier and faster).
My parents also had a black-and-white Macintosh Classic (for office work, with, wait for it... Microsoft Word!). But it did have a black-and-white version of Shufflepuck Café, I think I played that game for hours on end (getting a glimpse of the Princess' cleavage was good motivation to try and defeat her!).
My father-in-law got one of the first Vic-20s. I waited until the Commodore-64. I hacked away at that (even got a couple of articles published in The Transactor). I was also an early adopter of the first Amiga. I remember getting a 40 meg (huge capacity) hard drive for $800. The Amiga was an amazing machine. As far as I know, still the only personal computer capable of displaying two different resolutions on the screen at the same time. Too bad Commodore knew SFA about marketing.
I remember getting a 40 meg (huge capacity) hard drive for $800
I bought one of those too. Just recently bought a 3 tb external drive for $120.00. Can I have my $800.00 back now?
Our original AGC/SCADA system (in service 1983-1998) had two 300 mb hard drives. Each drive had a removable stack (10 or so platters about 16 inches in diameter). Hard to believe you can now get 64 gig on a USB stick.
Can I have my $800.00 back now?
You forgot to adjust for inflation. In present-value money, that hard-drive cost you about 2000$.
Well i am the youngest out of all you guys, not even able to drive, and i don't even recall of my first computer but i remember once my uncle brought his laptop to our presence for me to play with and i remember it was really small. It was a vaio, just dont remember the entire name. It was a few years ago.
I'm quite young as well, the first computer I can remember using though was my fathers, it ran Windows 98 or 2000 and had dial up. The dial up service we had was called "ToastNet", love the dial up noise.
I'm quite young as well, the first computer I can remember using though was my fathers, it ran Windows 98 or 2000 and had dial up. The dial up service we had was called "ToastNet", love the dial up noise
Wow that isn't that long ago. I was born in 98 (15 years ago), when windows 98 was around. :D
I always hankered for a Sinclair ZX, small and portable, the ancester of todays tablet, I suppose, the only difference was, you had to lug around a huge power supply, and a tv! Oh And a cassette deck, and batteries for that, phew!
well... that is why it is ancestor that is never coming back :)
My brother's first computer was a 286 (Intel 80286). Soon after he got it, he bricked it with an accidental DOS command. He wasn't much of a fan of computers after that. He works construction now.
Did you take over your brother's computer after?
My first computer was running on Windown 98 in way back 2001 & that time in India computers were just in development stages & then Vista released hear in 2007 & Windows & released just few months later.
I used to play NFS Porsche Unleashead in my old computer which was provided by the engineer that install the OS in our computer. It has about 160GB HDD & 256MB RAM. Now my specifications are no match for the older PC
I've just downloaded a copy of GW-BASIC, the first language I started with in '87, Mr Gates' early attempt at world domination!
It'll be a fun diversion trying to write something that works in it.
My parents also had a black-and-white Macintosh Classic (for office work, with, wait for it... Microsoft Word!). But it did have a black-and-white version of Shufflepuck Café, I think I played that game for hours on end (getting a glimpse of the Princess' cleavage was good motivation to try and defeat her!).
My folks brought me that when I was young. I always play the bunny and maze with my keybroad. I think it cost like $800 dollars back then. My folks wasn't really into computers but they felt it will improve my education.
We had Shufflepuck Cafe on the Amiga. My guys loved it.
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