Author Topic: What was your first computer?  (Read 64370 times)

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Offline BeaminTopic starter

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #125 on: October 11, 2018, 01:14:40 pm »
TI 994a.  Cassette storage, RF adapter to small TV, 300 baud modem, 5” Floppy and extender cabinet, lived close to the distributor when they announced they were going out of business. Stood in line for hours to buy tons of software I would never use.  $3,000. Invested. Bad decision. 

Learned on Data General Mini at work especially after hours stumbling with some assistance but no classes, running clunky RDOS.  We had office IBM PC’s for the secretaries so by 84-85’ I was able to use after hours.
Then IBM PC Jr. w 1024 expansion side cards 1200 baud modem and used Compuserve a bit, logging into BBS’s all over.  Next IBM Clone AT 286 1987’ w 2400 baud modem, DOS 3.1 stuck with it many years.  IBM ThinkPad running Windows 95, then about 30+ computers in my business and at home since then.  Started on internet in 1995 and did first HTML websites in 1996. Top of Yahoo search position all my product keywords for business and ready for 2000 surge.  Switched to Apple mostly in 2006.  Things were great until about 2008.

Unfortunately, I dislike where we are now where Google controls way too much information and 5 companies seem to control everything and owning a website feels like owning a house you need to protect like in an online ghetto. Ranking websites is super difficult.  The amount of bots stealing data and brute force attempts from all over is disgusting. The internet has changed so much since the early days and to be so much spying, tracking, phishing, bot scrapers, etc. 

On the bright side though and By choice, I Don’t do any social media, I believe in forums like this nice one and websites and wish more people would create websites instead of using Facebook.  The vast amount of reference information and Youtube tutorials by so many creative people are great. 

Thanks to all good people out there on this forum and Youtube!

I don't know whats scarier all the personal info facebook gets when you use it or that people don't care they are giving up all their privacy and don't care... yet until some fuck up confuses them. Even if your relatives use it your info comes up. I hate that you can type my name into google and find all my info that I didn't submit. 
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Offline Fraser

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #126 on: October 11, 2018, 01:59:32 pm »
My first computer was purchased to help me gain my Information Technology qualification (called computer science back then) in the early 1980's. I remember buying it with my parents from Boots the chemist in the UK !

The computer was a Dragon Data "Dragon 32" running an 8 bit MC6809E CPU and 32K of DRAM  ;D

The Dragon 32 was basically a clone of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Colour Computer (CoCo). It was so similar in design that Radio Shack sued Dragon Data claiming it was a clone of their product. The trouble was that in those days the Data sheets and application notes basically provided the manufacturer with the comp,eye computer architecture and there are only so many ways to wire up the chipset ! Radio Shack failed in their court case against Dragon Data as there were enough differences between the two computers to claim the Dragon was not a clone of a CoCo.

It is interesting though that I purchased the service manual for a CoCo from RS and it was almost identical to the Dragon 32 except for the Dragon using a Parallel printer port whereas the CoCo used Serial ! The CoCo EPROM based program cartridges even worked in the Dragon 32 including the correct dimensions of the ports surround tonallow such ! Dragon Data and Radio Shack CoCo computers could normall use eachothers program cartridges and the cassette based software. There were a few exceptions but they were few.

Dragon Data developed the Dragon 32 into the Dragon 64 during the products life. It was not much of a development though. Just another bank of DRAM which is what 3rd party companies had beem offering via daughter boards for some time. In fact, IIRC, the Dragon 32 actually contained enough memory chips for 64K but the chips were production rejects and only half their capacity was accessed !  These were the days when DRAM was very expensive and so some users chose to use production binning rejects that were tested "half good" in order to acquire DRAM at good prices. That was all a long time ago though and my memory may be in error.

I actually repaired Dragon 32's and CoCo computers as a hobby. I still have a late model CoCo and six Dragon 32's in my attic ! I also have some unusual accessories like the 5 1/4" Floppy Drive, Winchester Drive, Maplin RS232 port, Maplin I/O port and an EPROM programmer. All are connected to the Dragon as Cartridges in the Data Cartridge Port. ThecEPROM programmer saw a lot of use as such devices were normally very expensive in the 1980's.

I have also owned and repaired the venerable Commodore VIC20, Commodore 64, Sinclair Zx81 and ZX Spectrum. Never a BBC Micro though. I still have a few ZX81's in their boxes in my attic. Likely expired over the years... their ASIC was never very reliable !

I know technology moves on, but I still have a huge soft spot for my Dragon 32. I have kept it and will likely never rehome it. In those days I learnt to program an 8 bit computer in Basic, Assembly language and even machine code ! I also knew how to diagnose and repair those simple 8 bit architectures with just basic test equipment, namely a 20MHz CRO, Logic probe, home made 16 channel Logic state display (add on for the CRO) and a multimeter. These days I am not able to program a PC, I am teaching myself to program PIC chips and Arduino. Repairing a modern PC motherboard is anything but enjoyable for me ! I preferred the simpler life of the Z80, 6809 and 6502 based 8 bit architectures  ;D I do carry out repairs on modern PC's but I now need better test equipment to do it. I have expensive POST hardware, diagnostic software, high speed 32 channel Logic Analyzer and DSO's as well a the basic test equipment. It is so much more complicated and, for me anyway, so much less enjoyable.

Oh, did I get my IT qualification at school ? ...... yes I did. A CSE grade 1 and my example program submission was Lunar Lander for the Dragon 32 :) I wrote other course programming on a mixture of the Commodore PET and Z80 Research Machines that my school owned. Happy days :)

Fraser
« Last Edit: October 11, 2018, 04:43:04 pm by Fraser »
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Offline TheEPROM9

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #127 on: October 14, 2018, 12:55:08 am »
Generic PC from the mid 90s. Think it was called a Colosous. Sadly the parents chucked it. I wanted to keep it as my PC.
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Offline SLJ

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #128 on: November 06, 2018, 01:05:47 am »
1980/81 built a a Ferguson Big-Board computer that was offered by Digital Research Computers as a bare board, a kit, or a ready-to-go populated board. Just add power supplies, 8 inch disk drives, a keyboard, case, and monitor. It was powered by a Z-80 processor with 64K of RAM and ran the CP/M operating system.
Since home computers had not arrived yet, or at least any that I could afford at the time, I decided to build the "Big Board" so I could do work at home. Started with just the unpopulated board and parts list. Tracked down all the parts, machined the panels and keyboard case, built the chassis, found a bare keyboard and 8" drives, and power supplies. Took me a year. By the time I got it done they were switching to IBM/DOS computers. |O  I still have it and it still works.






 
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Offline Housedad

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #129 on: November 22, 2018, 12:54:34 pm »
Wish I had taken pictures of it.  Junior in high school a wire wrapped 8008 system in 1975.  Made it in the basement and never did write a fully working OS for it, but the OS was about 75% done. Not too shabby for a 16 year old.  I would go to the local electronics scrap yard in Philly to find chips, sockets, and parts. 

Wild times.  The three friends I had thought I was kind of kooky messing around with "that stuff"   They did not see the use in it until they played packman in later years.  Then they thought I was a genius.  Go figure.

It was a natural thing for me.  My father was a Numerical Control programmer with a Masters in industrial and mechanical Engineering, My sister was a Fortran and Cobol programmer for Sperry Univac, and my two brothers were Navy Missile control technicians (nuclear).   Yeah, it ran in the family.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2018, 12:56:57 pm by Housedad »
At least I'm still older than my test equipment
 
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Offline tocsa120ls

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #130 on: November 22, 2018, 03:29:14 pm »
C64C, my dad still tells me the story of smuggling it into the country... (Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain at that time) Had a Datasette with it, quickly progressed to a 1541-II, then another, then I modded the first one with the usual parallel cable mod that was prone to kill the VIA... but it was hellish fast. Got an Action Replay mkVII, did the SID filter mod, then sold it to pay for my fist PC compatible, a 386DX. Regretted that decision for years. But today I still have 2-3 sixtyfours kicking around, all working, just the bulky disk drives are replaced by a single SD2IEC adapter. When the desktop decides to throw a fit I just look into the corner shelf where the 64s are, and think about that I haven't found a 64 to this date that I wasn't able to repair.  Keep :box:
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Offline cruff

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #131 on: November 22, 2018, 06:04:31 pm »
The first computer I owned was an HP 41C.  Despite it being a calculator form factor, it had alphanumeric display, I/O expansion and storage via an HP-IL interface loop.  If the attached image displays, that is not the actual 41C I first owned, but is a later acquisition that has been modded with the Systemyde 41CL FPGA based CPU board that is capable of running at 50x the speed of the original.
The first desktop computer I owned was a Macintosh 128MiB model.
 
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Offline calin

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #132 on: November 28, 2018, 07:46:55 pm »
HC-85 Ice Felix -- communist Romanian ZX Spectrum clone - see here http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=629 The keyboard was well .. extremely shitty, I remember the key were getting stuck down (pushed) and having to poke them out with a screwdriver. Oh the good ol' days of PUT and POKE .. with a screwdriver  :)
 

Offline technix

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #133 on: November 29, 2018, 09:13:37 pm »
I am much younger than most of you here, so... AMD K6 166MHz, 64MB DRAM, 8GB HDD, 1.44MB IBM Floppy, 52x CD-ROM, nVidia GeForce 2 AGP graphics, SoundBlaster 16, runs Windows 95 and then Windows 98 and for a brief while Windows 2000. I got rid of that machine long ago.

I still have my first laptop though, a 2004 Dell Latitude D620 upgraded to the max, and it runs 64-bit Windows 10.
 

Offline Wan Huang Luo

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #134 on: December 05, 2018, 03:57:33 pm »
Macintosh Plus 1mb, later upgraded to 4mb. Then I got a Macintosh SE. Big difference, let me tell you!  :-DD


..... I never did get the Macintosh SE/30 however. My heart still pines for one. :(
 

Offline precaud

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #135 on: December 06, 2018, 12:50:35 am »
The first computer I owned was an HP 41C.

I still have my 41C and use it almost daily. It just feels "right".
 

Offline albert001

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #136 on: December 25, 2018, 09:17:34 pm »
First was an Osborne One. Found one used back in the early 80s, new retail approx. ~$1800.00. Came with a software package -  database, spreadsheet, word processor and utilities. I use to belong to the First Osborne Group in my area, we used to have meetings to hash over computer designs, hardware, software, bios, problems, ideas, upgrades, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1



« Last Edit: December 25, 2018, 09:28:49 pm by albert001 »
 

Offline hwj-d

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #137 on: January 10, 2019, 09:24:50 pm »
Computer? Which computer?
That's a NASCOM-1 (Z80) ;-)
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/21/unsung_heroes_dr_chris_shelton/?page=1

Later a Kim-1 (6502)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1

Than an original Apple][
with an expensive 16kB UCSD-Pascal extension card,

what I upgraded with other motherboard with additional Z80 that allowed to install CP/M.

So, my first hardware and languages was manuall Z80, -Assembler and Pascal, and on the CP/M System DBase and later Clipper, which begun to have a commercial background.

After that there comes the Atari-ST (68000)

Those were the days.  :scared:
 

Offline hwj-d

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #138 on: January 10, 2019, 09:29:17 pm »
First was an Osborne One. Found one used back in the early 80s, new retail approx. ~$1800.00. Came with a software package -  database, spreadsheet, word processor and utilities. I use to belong to the First Osborne Group in my area, we used to have meetings to hash over computer designs, hardware, software, bios, problems, ideas, upgrades, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1

This one.  :-+
I know him too. but I never owned one myself.
 

Offline mdijkens

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #139 on: January 10, 2019, 09:54:13 pm »
C64C, my dad still tells me the story of smuggling it into the country... (Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain at that time) Had a Datasette with it, quickly progressed to a 1541-II, then another, then I modded the first one with the usual parallel cable mod that was prone to kill the VIA... but it was hellish fast. Got an Action Replay mkVII, did the SID filter mod, then sold it to pay for my fist PC compatible, a 386DX. Regretted that decision for years. But today I still have 2-3 sixtyfours kicking around, all working, just the bulky disk drives are replaced by a single SD2IEC adapter. When the desktop decides to throw a fit I just look into the corner shelf where the 64s are, and think about that I haven't found a 64 to this date that I wasn't able to repair.  Keep :box:

Ha ha, my parents smuggled a C64 from NL to Hungary together with a hundred bibles  :)
 
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Offline djos

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #140 on: January 10, 2019, 10:27:30 pm »
I am much younger than most of you here, so... AMD K6 166MHz, 64MB DRAM, 8GB HDD, 1.44MB IBM Floppy, 52x CD-ROM, nVidia GeForce 2 AGP graphics, SoundBlaster 16, runs Windows 95 and then Windows 98 and for a brief while Windows 2000. I got rid of that machine long ago.

I still have my first laptop though, a 2004 Dell Latitude D620 upgraded to the max, and it runs 64-bit Windows 10.

Lol. I think a K6 super 7 system is about the newest IBM compatible system that could be classified as retro. I have a K6-3 in one of my retro systems - it was a great chip and perfect for running dos and windows 95 / 98 games.

Offline kkritsilas

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #141 on: January 18, 2019, 04:07:15 am »
November 1989.

Philips P3204.
10MHZ 286.
added 287 later
640K RAM
44MB Rodime 3055 voice coil HDD
360K and 1.44MB floppy drives
DOS 3.3
14 inch 640 x 480 VGA screen.

Protel Easytrax
Flatbed A3 plotter

If your computer was made/assembled in Canada, it was built at the factory in Montreal. If so, I wrote the ICT test program for that motherboard. It was tested either on a Genrad 2276 or Genrad 2287.

My first computer was an Ohio Scientific Inc. Challenger 2P. It was pre-PC, a 1Mhz 6502, a spectacular 2K of RAM (later expanded to 4K by adding 2 1K SRAM chips inyo open sockets), circa 1977. Character graphics, in black and white. Later had a TI 99/4A, a clone 286, a Mac II, a 486 clone, a Pentium 3, and many others.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 04:08:56 am by kkritsilas »
 
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Offline JagV12

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #142 on: February 23, 2019, 10:49:16 am »
A TI-57 ! Yep, keyboard, screen, programmable, it IS a computer, isn't it ?

The second and third ones were Commodore PET 2001 and 4016 at the model airplanes club.

The fourth, fifth and sixth were borrowed from friends : ZX81, Oric 1 and Dragon 32. (all 3 processors of the era)

Then I had my own Apple //e.

In 1988, the company I worked for had an Apple 2gs with GPIB card to control a Stabilock 4040. But, as the 2gs and the card didn't match well (at least with the BASIC program I wrote), I swapped with my personal //e and I still have the 2gs in the cellar today.

As I went back to school, I bought my beloved HP 48Sx... Still in use everyday today

Next one was an Amiga 4000 followed by x86 winboxes (NT4, W2k, W7 which is the last OS µS released  :'()
« Last Edit: February 23, 2019, 11:48:17 am by JagV12 »
 

Offline techman-001

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #143 on: February 24, 2019, 12:16:47 am »
National SC/MP with all of about 256 bytes of ram.

Same, I had the National Semi SC/MP kit that used a small handheld calculator body with small seven seg leds. It was pretty horrible, but very exciting at the time.

I purchased it after getting some experience on a National Semi 16 bit PACE development system at work.
 

Offline barbeque

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #144 on: March 05, 2019, 03:41:53 am »
My first working one was a Mac LC, but I grew up with a junked Adam in the corner of the basement for years.
 

Offline lpaseen

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #145 on: March 05, 2019, 04:25:47 am »
My first computer was acorn atom from cambridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Atom)
It came as a kit that I had to solder together.
Way later my powersupply broke, the 2n3055 that regulated 13V down to 5V decided to go short and suddenly magic smoke left lots of components. Then I was happy that I had put every IC in socket and with help of a friends computer as reference/test bench I managed to replace all components that broke and got it back up and running.
 

Offline MarvinTheMartian

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #146 on: March 05, 2019, 06:35:16 am »
Speaking of costing a fortune, the first computer I owned was a Microbee in kit form.  It cost $399 in 1982, which is the equivalent of $1,380 today. And you had to provide the monitor and assemble it yourself from bare board and bag of bits.  2MHz Z80, 16Kb RAM, and unlimited cassette storage.



I didn't buy a kit, but I still have my Microbee in storage!

I also had the fabulous tape drive where you wait for the load to complete for 20 mins and it inevitably fails at the last moment - argh!. I later upgraded to a dual CIAB ('Computer In A Book') single sided 3 1/2 inch floppy drives before I killed myself in frustration with the tapes (or threw it out of the window!)  :horse:

Can't recall, but I think the RAM was also upgraded as well.

I also have the amber monitor, a dot matrix printer (and later a daisy wheel printer), manuals, workbooks, etc.

I think I paid around A$500 when I bought the first unit (before all the upgrades).

It was great fun at the time (not counting the tapes of course).  :)
Reviving my old hobby after retiring! Know so little...only one thing to do...watch Dave's videos and keep reading the forum! ;-)
 

Offline radiorich

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #147 on: March 06, 2019, 01:40:10 am »
Hello guys,
my first computer was a Apple 2C  and yes I still have it and along the way I picked up two early Mac's and I have a old tandy color computer .

Sincerely Rich 
 

Offline r3bers

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #148 on: March 06, 2019, 01:53:14 am »
First computer was some local modified Z80 in 1992. Plugged to Regular TV by CV cable.
When started it was Basic command line and load games from audio tapes.
 

Offline nad007007

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Re: What was you first computer?
« Reply #149 on: March 08, 2019, 09:14:25 am »
 


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