What was your first computer?

[Mad Axeman]

Hi All

My first computer was a Commodore Vic20 - 5k RAM, 3.5k usable. Fantastic bit of kit. Ah, the things I learnt to do in 3.5k. That was followed a few years later by a Commodore 64 and my first modem. The Commodore modem allowed me to connect to Compunet, the Commodore only network. It worked at 1200/75 baud on dial up. That progressed into a 128D. The 128D had dual processors, 6512(?) and a Z80, built in floppy drive, separate keyboard and could run CP/M. After that came the Commodore PC1 with green screen monitor. DOS was loaded off floppy disks. Hard drives and windows (I think my 1st version was win 3.1) came much later.

I think my Vic20 is in the shed. Oh how I wish I still had the 128D  :'(

[TheEPROM9]

If I went with my first vintage computer, that would be my CASIO PB-700. My 90s machines I don't include as they were not vintage at the time, however out of them my first machine in my collection would of been the Toshiba T2200SX from 1992. This was a Intel 386SX machine, still have it & a second one in better condition. Don't know if it still works.

[Schlammkuh]

The 1st computer I got in touch with was my dad's Bull Micral 30 in 1987. It was an IBM PC XT clone made by Bull, a french company back then.
It sported an Intel 8088 clocked at 4.77MHz with a 640KB of RAM and a hefty 20MB hard drive. It uses an EGA video card with a 14" monitor.
It also came with MS-DOS 3.10, and I played Tetris and MS Flight Simulator on it.

[Analog Kid]

The first computer I owned was an Amiga 500, mid-1980s.
Up to then I had had my hands on

• A Univac (BASIC & COBOL)
• A Honeywell DPS-8 (FORTRAN & LISP)
• The first IBM PC (cassette BASIC & assembly language
• A DEC Rainbow PC

[Sorama]

 An Olivetti M24 in ‘86 I think.

[SpacedCowboy]

When I was 11, my parents got me a ZX81 kit - so it came as a motherboard and components. I eventually^* soldered it all together, worked through the (excellent) manual, and marched into the family living room to link it up with the TV there.

I typed the example in the manual: PRINT 2+2=4

To which the computer responded: 1

And my dad, not exactly au-fait with boolean logic, looked at me, and said with disgust "I knew it, you've buggered it". It took weeks for him to finally believe that the machine was working perfectly.

Anyway, that set me off down a path that literally changed my life. I next got a TI99/4A on the strength of watching Parsec, then realised the built-in basic was, well it was terrible is what it was. Up came Xmas and I managed to sell the TI99/4A to some poor unsuspecting sod (on the basis of showing him Parsec), and fund the purchase of an Atari 800XL - Dixons were bundling it with a .... disk drive for £99. A disk-drive was *fast* (well, fast*er*) and could store 127kB of data on each disk... How could anything be better than that ?

Much fun was had, and I upgraded to an ST when I left for college - that machine with its mono monitor, awesome printer drivers, and a few creative programs made my lab reports stand out so much I'm pretty sure they're responsible for my degree result being a grade higher than I'd expected.

Did a PhD in physics, eventually left to join an internet startup (when you had to email CERN to let them know there was a new website in the world), launched my own company; went bust. Launched another; got bought by Apple. Spent a couple of decades living the dream, and retired.

So yeah, I sometimes wonder what might have happened if my parents hadn't bought me that computer...

*: I'd put off actually building the computer. They also got me a black-and-white 12" portable (with a dial-tuner) and I had my own TV in my bedroom. I even used to watch snooker on that thing Eventually my dad called me on not putting together what he thought of as "the real present" and ... well you read it above...

[Seekonk]

(actually owned) Ithaca Audio S100 board, think it was a Z80.  Still have it stored away with a Wonderbuss.  2K of memory on an 8K board, who needed more.

(first programming) At work a Prologic something board to do some automated testing.

[Andy Chee]

First experience was with my aunt's Acer/Multitech 500+ clone.  Then my parents bought an Amstrad PC1512.  Boy the proprietary ports on the Amstrad were annoying!

I still have the Acer in my shed, though the CGA monitor might have a faulty blue gun or blue circuit (the screen flickers randomly between correct colour and yellow tint).

[SteveThackery]

My first computer was a Tangerine.

It comprised a 19" rack with various slide-in cards, which included the 6502 CPU card, a graphics card, a floppy disk interface card, and some EPROM and RAM cards.

Many owners converted them to the 6809 processor. I can't remember the details, but the differences in the bus timings were minor, and the 6809 conversion was not difficult. It did involve replacing the CPU card in its entirety, though.

I can't remember much about the software. Some guy in Norfolk, UK, wrote an operating system for the 6809, if I recall correctly. I think I programmed the Tangerine in C.

A few decades ago I donated it to a collector.

[Gyro]

I think I once interviewed the guy who started Tangerine for a menial S/W job (post Tangerine). It was hard for the folks that started those early companies to fit into bigger companies.

[WattsThat]

Xerox 850 built from a bare surplus board sold by B&G Micro out of Dallas(?) TX. 4Mhz Z80, 16k 2716 eeprom, 64kb 4116 ram. 2x8 inch ss/sd (241kb) floppies running CP/M. IIRC it had two serial ports and a parallel ttl  port. Wyse 50 terminal. Added a 10mb single platter segate HD via a scsi adapter via the parallel port a year or two after building, once HD prices became affordable.

Why I binned it I’ll never understand.