What was your first computer?

[Aztlanpz]

My fist computer was a CoCo 2.

[DrG]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.

[technix]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.
(Attachment Link)

I think this is what eventually turned into PET.

[Mortymore]

Before I had a computer at home I played for some year with ZX Spectrum 48k and a Philips MSX VG-8020 from friends.

My first computer at home was a GoldStar 386SX with 2MB of RAM, 14"CRT, 80MB HDD, FDD 3.5" and I had also an EPSON LX-800 dot matrix printer.
(I may still have it stored somewhere)

Those were funny times.
My father when went way for a Sunday walk with my mother and didn't want his sons messing with the computer, used to lock it with the PC key, that we soon learned to bypass.
Found that drilling a hole in a 720kb FDD turned it into a 1.44Mb.
Muffle the sound of the dot matrix printer with a pillow when printing late school works finished at 2 am. 

The only portable computer that I had until today was a CASIO FX-880p
In it I made a BASIC program with the train schedules between the town I lived in, and the one were my girlfriend was studying at the time in the University. Input the way I wanted to travel and an intend hour to depart, and the program returned the nearest timetables. I didn't have internet at home by then, and cellphones on the streets were yet to be.

[DrG]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.
(Attachment Link)

I think this is what eventually turned into PET.

There is certainly a relationship between the two (KIM-1 and PET). The KIM-1 is, what I like to call, the first 6502 computer. Made by MOS technology, it was their "demo" board for their 6502. The PET used a 6502 and CBM, eventually, bought MOS technology.

My board has a date code, (44th week of 76).  I *think* that it was manufactured shortly before the buy, which took place later in the same year. EDIT: Looks like I am wrong, looks like the buy took place on 9 Sep 76 so the date code on the board is ~55 days later. BTW: I think that it is an early version of the KIM-1 (Rev. B), but not the first version.

The 6502 on the board is from the 37th week of 76:


The 6502 came out at a significantly lower price than anything else of its kind at the time.


I bought the board for $75 from a friend whose brother worked at MOS. It was being sold for $150, I am told. I can't even remember exactly when I got it - maybe 1980. It was a lot of money for me at the time but was too cool to resist.

[ebastler]

There is certainly a relationship between the two (KIM-1 and PET). The KIM-1 is, what I like to call, the first 6502 computer. Made by MOS technology, it was their "demo" board for their 6502. The PET used a 6502 and CBM, eventually, bought MOS technology.

The relationship is actually even closer: Chuck Peddle was in charge of all of these developments as the chief designer/R&D leader: the 6502 CPU, the KIM-1, and the Commordore PET 2001.  R.I.P., Chuck -- he passed away quite recently, in December 2019.

[DrG]

There is certainly a relationship between the two (KIM-1 and PET). The KIM-1 is, what I like to call, the first 6502 computer. Made by MOS technology, it was their "demo" board for their 6502. The PET used a 6502 and CBM, eventually, bought MOS technology.

The relationship is actually even closer: Chuck Peddle was in charge of all of these developments as the chief designer/R&D leader: the 6502 CPU, the KIM-1, and the Commordore PET 2001.  R.I.P., Chuck -- he passed away quite recently, in December 2019.

Yup, I remember reading the obit. Good story about him at the WESCOM convention here http://www.cpushack.com/2013/08/03/mos-technology-mcs6501-processor/ Worked at Motorola. I love reading about that history and how things evolved.

In many ways, I think that the 6502 was enormously impactful, not because it was such a great chip, but because the price put it in the hands of so many talented people.

As a result of these posts, I went looking for a 6501 for sale - did see one at a price that is just too high to post  Still, I think finding one in a box of chips somewhere might motivate me to try and build a board.....it is on my list of things that I want to do but will likely never end up to doing.

[dbctronic]

The... uhhh... first computer I owned was some offbrand miniframe a retired engineer sold me in '80 for $50. Only came ready to hook up to a paper tape reader. I ran out of money and never even got it to fire up.

The first one I owned and used was a Sanyo 1250. No, not the more famous 555, this was a CP/M system. I was a tech writer at the time and actually wrote two books using it.

The cool thing about it was that it had not only a Z80 main processor, but a Z80 video subsystem as well!! I talked about that to the guy who sold it to me, and on a lark we contacted Sanyo to see if they would (snicker) send us the Z80 assembler source code for the video processor.

***THEY DID!!!*** As a print dump!! I found out that it was ready to accept escape sequences to do graphics, which of course CP/M didn't know diddly about. So I wrote a C program that did some graphics on it. Much fun, for a floppy-only system.

[MarkF]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.
(Attachment Link)

Oh yes.  I forgot about the KIM-1.
I used one in school for my first programming class.
The first computer I owned was an Apple II+.  Still have it, still works.
Another pic:

[tocsa120ls]

Small wonder that all 6102s are still working on the KIM board

[DrG]

Small wonder that all 6102s are still working on the KIM board

Really? I'm asking, not doubting - can they be expected to go bad after some 44 years?  I booted it up about a year or so ago, typed in a program, from the First Book of Kim, and it ran without a problem. Of course, I had not used it in some 30-35 years since then. I think there is a memory test program in there....now I'm scared to run it 

[djos]

Small wonder that all 6102s are still working on the KIM board

Really? I'm asking, not doubting - can they be expected to go bad after some 44 years?  I booted it up about a year or so ago, typed in a program, from the First Book of Kim, and it ran without a problem. Of course, I had not used it in some 30-35 years since then. I think there is a memory test program in there....now I'm scared to run it 

If it's still running after 44 years, then chances are it's good for another 44 years. It's not a capacitor that leaks over time.

[rsjsouza]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.

Amazing you have one. I saw some prices at eBay and, if the values are actually real, you have quite a hefty amount of money buried into it - prices starting at $7.5k!

Obviously the actual sold ones are not that ridiculous, but still quite the price tag for working units: starting at $600.

[DrG]

This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.

Amazing you have one. I saw some prices at eBay and, if the values are actually real, you have quite a hefty amount of money buried into it - prices starting at $7.5k!

Obviously the actual sold ones are not that ridiculous, but still quite the price tag for working units: starting at $600.

Yeah, I have seen some of those prices and, in fact, considered it....But, it really was an amazing part of my "upbringing". I mean, I had such limited exposure before then and I went an got the Osborne 6502 book and here was a machine that would do exactly what you told it to do and only what you told it to do...and after a bit the ASM made perfect sense and I was pretty impressed.

Not saying that I am some kind of super programmer, far from it, but I think that pretty much all of my subsequent experience started with that board, it was mesmerizing. It sure didn't start with handing a guy a deck of punch cards and waiting until it pleased them to put them in a card reader only to look in the box 30-60 min later for a printout telling me that I screwed something up on the JCL (job control language) card(s).

I just know I would regret selling it off.

[rsjsouza]

I know the feeling. I am attached to many things that were part of my upbringing as well. Just be sure to properly tag it with its  estimated value (both sentimental and monetary) for your future generation fully appreciate it. I have been doing this myself...

[dfnr2]

My first computer was a Xerox Sigma 9 running CP-V at Memphis State University, accessed first via punch card batch processing terminal (in FORTRAN), later via KSR-33 teletype (the one without the tape punch/reader) for BASIC, and later using DEC VT120 for APL and Hazeltine terminals for FORTRAN and METASYMBOL.

I remember drooling over ads for the Ohio Scientific Superboard II, until I realized how limited the video was.  I ended up buying a used C2-4P, which was my toy and distraction for several years.

[dbctronic]

An update on first computers...

The first computer I ever used was an IBM 1620. It had real magnetic core memory and a 64K drum drive that sported a FORTRAN compiler and a COBOL compiler.
We were so bored waiting our turn to run our punch card decks (fingers crossed the card reader didn't eat them) that someone brought in a radio and set it on top of the console. We found out that we could tune it to a frequency that let us hear the CPU running. A successfully compiled FORTRAN program resulted in a very sprightly little ditty, while a compile error made a very appropriate lower pitched disappointment sound. DO loops containing various bits of code resulted in musical notes, and a friend and I wrote a program that played Mary Had A Little Lamb.
A computer that cost a million brand new and filled up a room, and the first personal micros rivaled or exceeded it in processing power!

[Joel_l]

My first computer was a Commodore 64, still have one along with a bunch of vintage computers. I fire one up every once and a while for grins. Last week I pulled out an Apple ][ Plus and my C64. Played a few games and put them away.

[Photoman]

My first computer was an Apple Mac IIVX.
My father had a Dell 386 that I also used.  I still have the Mac and someone gave me a dell 386 that was identical (minus the rat pee).

[dropkick]

This, of course!

OK what 8 year old boy didn't want one?

VIC-20 with cassette tape and 300 baud modem where you had to unplug the handset from the phone and plug the cable in to the modem.
C-64. I think we traded-in the VIC-20 to get it. 2nd SID chip and hardware reset button added.
C-128.
Everex STEP 386/20.
And various x86 systems ever since.

[mfro]

Hmmm?  The system that runs my Asterisk phone system has been up about 13 months.  It just sits there and runs.  It is an old Intel mini-ITX Atom motherboard running a Linux OS.

I have an Atari TT ('93, I think) running Atari System V as a mail server in the attic continuously for nearly 13 years with just log files truncated every few months the only service it received.

It rebooted just because of a power grid failure.

[ozcar]

First computer I used was an IBM S/360 Model 50, complete with 2361 LCS - an add-on core storage unit.

First computer I ever owned was a SWTPC 6800, later upgraded to a 6809. I also upgraded (butchered, more like) a Motorola D2 kit to use a 6809, added four "SS30" I/O slots and for a while was running two TSC Flex systems.

Slightly different factlet - my longest continuously running program ran for over 10 years. It was on a Motorola 6802 in a remote controlled amplifier that I made around 1981 (using only the whopping 128 byte on-board RAM). The backup nicad cells could not keep it running for all that long, but I managed to move house at one point without it stopping. I replaced the 6802 with a HC08 in 2001 and was still using it at least ten years later.

[nockieboy]

First computer I ever owned was a Sinclair ZX81 donated to me by a colleague of my mum's, with the caveat that if I could fix it, I could have it.  Being only 10 at the time and not a child prodigy when it came to electronics, I couldn't fix it. 

My first (working) computer was an Amstrad CPC464.  Had 64 KB of RAM, a Z80 processor tearing along at 4 MHz and the all-important built-in cassette deck for reliable software saving/loading.  My parents could only afford the green screen monitor initially - I got myself a colour monitor a year or two later after saving up for it.



I taught myself how to type on that keyboard, tapping in page after page of 'type-ins' from computer magazines, and taught myself the BASICs of programming by tweaking those programs to see what the changes did, then moving on to writing my own programs.  I owe a lot to that first computer.

Pictured below is my own DIY computer I've been building these last couple of years that outstrips my first computer in terms of speed, power and graphics, but still with a Z80 at its heart. 

[Sal Ammoniac]

My first was a KIM-1.

[Beamin]

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. 

I like the couch and toaster so you have hot toast while you do basic.