What was your first computer?

[davep238]

My first computer was an IMSAI 8080, which was a clone of the Altair 8800. Eventually I had 48K of static RAM, a Northstar floppy disk system with Basic and CP/M, a Teletype ASR33 printer, and a scavenged keyboard. The ASR33 sounded like a machine gun when it was printing. Just watching the print-head, gears and levers move was fascinating.

[Beamin]

This thread seems really popular with new members. Interesting this is the longest running thread I have had. Anyway to find the stats of your posting activity?

[woofy]

Nascom 1 from 1978.
I had it interfaced to a Creed 7B teleprinter and remember letting it run overnight on a printout I didn't really want anyway - but it was fun.
Coding was hand assembling Z80 code including calculating all the relative jumps. A real nightmare by modern standards.
One of my programs was a simple game, a bit like space invaders, but it was a ship sailing the ocean surface at the top of the screen
and dropping depth charges on the wrecks on the bottom, all done with ASCII characters.
The first animation of that was exhilarating.

[granzeier]

First used: HP 2000 (not sure, but probably an A model.) This was upgraded to an HP 2000F/Access during summer break (summer of '76, or '77.)
When I was born, I was my mother's first experience with caring for a boy. She asked herself what boys are supposed to play with. Both of her brothers were electrical engineers, and so her answer to herself was that boys are supposed to play with electronics. My mother told me that she had me wiring up circuits before my second birthday.
By the time that I graduated from eighth grade, I had been working in electronics, repairing televisions and radios for friends and family members. I had even designed and built my own crude computer to play tic-tac-toe. A few days prior to graduation, an older friend took me to (what became my) high school, and sat me down in front of a large "typewriter" (what I now know was a Teletype.) He then picked up a phone, dialed a number and placed the handset into a white box next to the "typewriter" (the modem.) Then he typed something, and the Teletype typed back - All... By... Itself...!!! I was hooked.
The first "computer" I owned (other than that tic-tac-toe computer) was a Bell Lab's CardIAC (Cardboard Illustrated Aid to Computation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illustrative_Aid_to_Computation. If you would like to build your own clone, check out: https://www.kylem.net/hardware/hardware.html) This was given to me by Miss McGuigan, one of our math teachers, and the sponsor of the computer club. I actually still own a CardIAC, and am working on building an electronic hardware emulator.
My first real computer was a Sinclair ZX-81. I ordered this in December of 1980, received it in early 1981, and took it to work (an Air Force shop where we maintained mainframe air defense computers - I was on active duty at the time) to assemble. All of the guys in my shop kept "finding things to do" near the work bench that I was using. One thing that I noticed was that there was a dual RAM option on the PCB, allowing either the two 2114 1KX4 RAM chips, or a single 6116 2K RAM chip. Unfortunately, I did not have the 6116 chip to double my RAM. This computer quickly received a 16K RAM and a real keyboard. I talked a co-worker into getting one, and helped him give it a real keyboard, just like mine. I have a couple of ZX-81s and Timex-Sinclair TS-1000s still.

[SiliconWizard]

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

There are a few on eBay. You can get one for a few hundred bucks depending on condition. You'll probably be a bit disappointed these days though.
But yeah back when it was released, I was lusting for one. It was very expensive.

[djos]

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

There are a few on eBay. You can get one for a few hundred bucks depending on condition. You'll probably be a bit disappointed these days though.
But yeah back when it was released, I was lusting for one. It was very expensive.

I've got a regular SE in my collection, but the SE/30 would be even better.

[Beamin]

First used: HP 2000 (not sure, but probably an A model.) This was upgraded to an HP 2000F/Access during summer break (summer of '76, or '77.)
When I was born, I was my mother's first experience with caring for a boy. She asked herself what boys are supposed to play with. Both of her brothers were electrical engineers, and so her answer to herself was that boys are supposed to play with electronics. My mother told me that she had me wiring up circuits before my second birthday.
By the time that I graduated from eighth grade, I had been working in electronics, repairing televisions and radios for friends and family members. I had even designed and built my own crude computer to play tic-tac-toe. A few days prior to graduation, an older friend took me to (what became my) high school, and sat me down in front of a large "typewriter" (what I now know was a Teletype.) He then picked up a phone, dialed a number and placed the handset into a white box next to the "typewriter" (the modem.) Then he typed something, and the Teletype typed back - All... By... Itself...!!! I was hooked.
The first "computer" I owned (other than that tic-tac-toe computer) was a Bell Lab's CardIAC (Cardboard Illustrated Aid to Computation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illustrative_Aid_to_Computation. If you would like to build your own clone, check out: https://www.kylem.net/hardware/hardware.html) This was given to me by Miss McGuigan, one of our math teachers, and the sponsor of the computer club. I actually still own a CardIAC, and am working on building an electronic hardware emulator.
My first real computer was a Sinclair ZX-81. I ordered this in December of 1980, received it in early 1981, and took it to work (an Air Force shop where we maintained mainframe air defense computers - I was on active duty at the time) to assemble. All of the guys in my shop kept "finding things to do" near the work bench that I was using. One thing that I noticed was that there was a dual RAM option on the PCB, allowing either the two 2114 1KX4 RAM chips, or a single 6116 2K RAM chip. Unfortunately, I did not have the 6116 chip to double my RAM. This computer quickly received a 16K RAM and a real keyboard. I talked a co-worker into getting one, and helped him give it a real keyboard, just like mine. I have a couple of ZX-81s and Timex-Sinclair TS-1000s still.

Was the CardIAC like a "system 80" which kind of looked like a computer if I remember correctly.

[granzeier]

...Was the CardIAC like a "system 80" which kind of looked like a computer if I remember correctly.

Sorry, the only "System 80" that I remember was the Australian Dick Smith TRS-80 clone. Google did not help me find anything else (at least not computers - there are many synthesizers and even a nuclear reactor(!), but not any paper computers.) Do you have any more information about that "System 80"?
Take a look at the link that I posted, it is a pretty cool computer. The CardIAC is why I understand machine code (and thus assembler) so well. You can learn the CardIAC language in only a few hours, and by building your own (from the Kylem.net page that I posted earlier) you can become proficient in a weekend. All of the skills transfer to real hardware - although you will need to add to those CardIAC skills, you will already have the foundation.

Here is another picture from a web site I like (https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html):

This Drexel University page shows how to make the CardIAC much more useful (as far as programming goes.) It adds things like multiple subroutines, indirect addressing and recursion, just by playing tricks with the language - not needing any additional "hardware." Drexel even has a simulator there, and some fairly advanced sample programs that run on either the real paper "hardware" or the simulator.

[Conrad Larsen]

Mine was a Casio PB-100 in 1983.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1000

[Beamin]

...Was the CardIAC like a "system 80" which kind of looked like a computer if I remember correctly.

Sorry, the only "System 80" that I remember was the Australian Dick Smith TRS-80 clone. Google did not help me find anything else (at least not computers - there are many synthesizers and even a nuclear reactor(!), but not any paper computers.) Do you have any more information about that "System 80"?
Take a look at the link that I posted, it is a pretty cool computer. The CardIAC is why I understand machine code (and thus assembler) so well. You can learn the CardIAC language in only a few hours, and by building your own (from the Kylem.net page that I posted earlier) you can become proficient in a weekend. All of the skills transfer to real hardware - although you will need to add to those CardIAC skills, you will already have the foundation.

Here is another picture from a web site I like (https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html):

This Drexel University page shows how to make the CardIAC much more useful (as far as programming goes.) It adds things like multiple subroutines, indirect addressing and recursion, just by playing tricks with the language - not needing any additional "hardware." Drexel even has a simulator there, and some fairly advanced sample programs that run on either the real paper "hardware" or the simulator.

Yeah I can't find anything on the system 80 either so I always ask people if knew about it. The system 80 was used in schools; for me elementary in the early 90's.So its probably an 80's device schools were always behind. I never got to play with it but the "special" kids would "learn" from it while their handlers took a break (Can you imagine a smoky indoor teachers lounge now a days?). It had five buttons on the front and some sort of screen that film or transparencies went into that had some sort of program on it to run the keys maybe? I am so curious about it because I never used it and can't find anything on the internet about what it was or how it worked. It didn't have a CRT wasn't a computer the screen was optical running off micro film like a veiwmaster 3d thing I suppose. The kid that was learning how to count change on it in the early 90's to this day can't count change.

[ebastler]

Yeah I can't find anything on the system 80 either so I always ask people if knew about it. The system 80 was used in schools; for me elementary in the early 90's.So its probably an 80's device schools were always behind. I never got to play with it but the "special" kids would "learn" from it while their handlers took a break (Can you imagine a smoky indoor teachers lounge now a days?). It had five buttons on the front and some sort of screen that film or transparencies went into that had some sort of program on it to run the keys maybe? I am so curious about it because I never used it and can't find anything on the internet about what it was or how it worked. It didn't have a CRT wasn't a computer the screen was optical running off micro film like a veiwmaster 3d thing I suppose. The kid that was learning how to count change on it in the early 90's to this day can't count change.

Ah, so this thing. Does it qualify as a computer?
(Edit: I don't think it does...)



Google finds quite a few hits, including various studies evaluating its usefulness in education. E.g.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/11d8/33eb84e53e7c14f915103b2c4621ef399237.pdf
https://ia801302.us.archive.org/9/items/ERIC_ED064706/ERIC_ED064706.pdf

[mfro]

Sinclair ZX80 mail-ordered and imported from the UK as a kit (quite an expensive challenge back then for a pupil).

To my own surprise, I eventually got it working and it trustily accompanied me (teaching basic and Z80 assembler) through my whole teenage life.

[granzeier]

Ah, so this thing. Does it qualify as a computer?
(Edit: I don't think it does...)

...

Thanks for this info. While interesting, it definitely does not qualify as a computer. There is no real way to program the thing, no way to make decisions (conditional branching - except to repeat if user selects wrong answer,) no way to branch (again except for loop on wrong answer) and no way to store data.

[Beamin]

Ah, so this thing. Does it qualify as a computer?
(Edit: I don't think it does...)

...

Thanks for this info. While interesting, it definitely does not qualify as a computer. There is no real way to program the thing, no way to make decisions (conditional branching - except to repeat if user selects wrong answer,) no way to branch (again except for loop on wrong answer) and no way to store data.

It a record player projector multimedia machine. Repetitive as hell... sure I know what 7X7 equals from learning off the machine but if you need to know 7x8 or 7x6 you are fucked, or you have to buy another record for probably big money. .

[xmetal]

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. I thought it was a horrible machine. I got it with the 16k expansion pack. A slight knock to the memory pack and all the data was lost. Very frustrating. I sold that one on. My second machine was a Commodore VIC20 with a third party docking station. That was much nicer than the ZX81. Next I got an Atari 800. That was a lovely computer and is one of my favourites. I then got an Atari 800XL. Not as well built as the 800 but it had 64k over 48k in the older machine. I then got an Atari 520STFM with 720k floppy. I upgraded the RAM in that to make it into a 1040. I then made the jump to PC's with a S/H Toshiba 3100e with a 40M drive. I still have all these computers except the ZX81. I even picked up a S/H Atari 1030 with software and cartridges all for £2 at a radio rally around 20 years ago.  It was all PC's from then onwards. Maybe I should start a museum!

[Beamin]

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. I thought it was a horrible machine. I got it with the 16k expansion pack. A slight knock to the memory pack and all the data was lost. Very frustrating. I sold that one on. My second machine was a Commodore VIC20 with a third party docking station. That was much nicer than the ZX81. Next I got an Atari 800. That was a lovely computer and is one of my favourites. I then got an Atari 800XL. Not as well built as the 800 but it had 64k over 48k in the older machine. I then got an Atari 520STFM with 720k floppy. I upgraded the RAM in that to make it into a 1040. I then made the jump to PC's with a S/H Toshiba 3100e with a 40M drive. I still have all these computers except the ZX81. I even picked up a S/H Atari 1030 with software and cartridges all for £2 at a radio rally around 20 years ago.  It was all PC's from then onwards. Maybe I should start a museum!

This thread makes me feel young. I was 4 when I loaded the frogger tape into the commodore in our living room. When I was 6 I learned dos.
-A:
A:  B:
-B:
B: basic

And with one finger typing I was up and programing. 

[queennikki1972]

Amstrad

[Nominal Animal]

Does making a "humanoid robot" out of 12"×2" pine floor joist cutoffs, and telling unreliable handymen building a house that its job is to record their actions when the bosses weren't there, when I was 6 years old, count?  Whenever I visited the site, my guardian robot was turned to face a corner, too.

A year or two later, my best friend next door got a C64.  Because its joystick port was broken (couldn't go down), and we didn't realize it, instead of playing games, we started writing our own.  I got a C128 a bit later.  Loved the power brick in the winter; always warmed my feet nicely.  Then, a Hyundai '286 PC clone, with a 14" EGA display.  It had a fan about as loud as a hair dryer, and only a beeper for sound.  I spent hours perfecting my loo-flushing sound on it.  Good times.

[rsjsouza]

Our first computer was a PC-XT clone running a Nec V-20 in two speeds: 4.77MHz and "turbo" at 10MHz with two 5-1/4 floppy drivers (later upgraded to a ST238R 30MB MFM HDD) and green phosphorous CGA monitor. 1MB of RAM was the norm, although the upper 384kB were unusable by the DOS we used at the time. 

However, my computer programming started way before that: BASIC using a Sinclair ZX80 clone named TK-82C from a Brazilian company called Microdigital. Later moved up a bit on the Sinclair line (TK-85, a ZX81 clone) quickly followed by a Prológica CP500 (TRS80-3 clone) and a bit later on a Microcraft Unitron (Apple IIe clone). All these were at friends' houses or at computer shops.

The first thing I programmed in my life, though was my dad's TI59. Not a computer, though.

[techman-001]

My first computer was an SWTPC 6800 that I built from a kit (and still have).  Thousands of solder connections...
Cassette tape interface at 300 Baud that I dicked around with a few years later up to 1200 Baud. 
Screamin' fast... Well it was back then in 1978.  Computers were rare in those days and EVERYBODY
thought we were crazy to have them.  It was dare devil equipment to many but those of us who
pioneered what we take for granted today, it was fun, wonderful and frustrating.
I could never have imagined what eventually would evolve to what we have today.

The SWTP 6800 wasn't my first computer but it sure was my favorite. Bought at a auction in 1985, mine came with a 8" floppy drive and a assembler. I had a old Centronics A3 'line printer' for hard copy.

Sure the Molex connectors in the SWTP 6800 were meh, but the 6800 Assembly was smooth as silk!

[Beamin]

Does making a "humanoid robot" out of 12"×2" pine floor joist cutoffs, and telling unreliable handymen building a house that its job is to record their actions when the bosses weren't there, when I was 6 years old, count?  Whenever I visited the site, my guardian robot was turned to face a corner, too.

A year or two later, my best friend next door got a C64.  Because its joystick port was broken (couldn't go down), and we didn't realize it, instead of playing games, we started writing our own.  I got a C128 a bit later.  Loved the power brick in the winter; always warmed my feet nicely.  Then, a Hyundai '286 PC clone, with a 14" EGA display.  It had a fan about as loud as a hair dryer, and only a beeper for sound.  I spent hours perfecting my loo-flushing sound on it.  Good times.

You have a season up there besides winter? Can you crush-ed a c64; because it is very dangerous and we must deal with it?

[techman-001]

Does making a "humanoid robot" out of 12"×2" pine floor joist cutoffs, and telling unreliable handymen building a house that its job is to record their actions when the bosses weren't there, when I was 6 years old, count?  Whenever I visited the site, my guardian robot was turned to face a corner, too.
<snip>

That just the BEST "computer/robot" story I've ever heard!

[Nominal Animal]

You have a season up there besides winter?

Sure, although summer only lasts one day, from mid-May to mid-July.  Some summers we don't get any snowfall at all!

Can you crush-ed a c64; because it is very dangerous and we must deal with it?

You know, HPC's Anni and Lauri have a very typical Finnish accent; usually called Rally English here.  While my own R's are very clear in Finnish, I learned a stupid way of pronouncing English with almost silent R's, and am now going back to Rally English, just to make it easier for others to understand my spoken English!  I'm not kidding much when I say me fail English often.

A lot of Finns understand English -- including the elderly! --, but are very shy to speak, because they have that same accent, and some cocky snobs here laugh at us for speaking that way.  And there is nothing more Finnish than worrying about what other people think of us!

That just the BEST "computer/robot" story I've ever heard!

Thanks! 

Around the same time, I built a "house" on top of an euro-sized pallet (1m × 1.2m, or 47"×39", about 1.5m/5ft high).  It looked all wonky and so on, and one of my brothers called it "the hobo hut" (pultsarinkämppä).  I got the last laugh, as it had to be dismantled later on, but I wasn't there to do it myself.  That same brother had to do it, and he admitted that even though it looked wonky, when he tried to knock it down, it just wouldn't break or collapse: it had a solid structure and load-bearing members, and had to be properly dismantled from the roof down!

I'd love to do more woodworking, but living in an apartment, there just isn't any place to do that sort of stuff; I only get to do that when I visit up north.
Doing something with ones hands is a good balance for sitting in front of a computer all day.

[Doom-the-Squirrel]

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99%2F4A


Learned a lot of BASIC on it.
Played a lot of games too. I had a lot of the cartridges.

I miss using it sometimes.

[mrz80]

First computer I used was prob. an Ohio Scientific Challenger II. The county school system bought a slew of 'em when they first came out; we had three or four of 'em kicking around my high school. Didn't have a keyboard or video display for the one in the radio/tv shop so we hooked up an ASR-33 to it.  First computer I owned looked something like this:


I've still got it, though its CPU board died in a lightning strike soon after I moved to Florida in the late 80s; I jury-rigged an Ampro LittleBoard+ in its place. Kept it at work for years 'cause the wife didn't want it sitting about the place:


Now that it's home again I'm thinking it might be time to find some space for it in the home office and hook it up to Dad's old Collins HF gear for some retro RTTY fun.