ML
    • Recent
    • Categories
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Register
    • Login

    My first computer

    Water Closet
    13
    71
    2.6k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller @1337
      last edited by

      @pete-s said in My first computer:

      @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

      @pete-s exact one in the picture that I posted, lol.

      Except the keyboard.

      OH yeah, I had the keyboard shown in yours. The one that went on to be the VIC=20 keyboard.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stacksofplatesS
        stacksofplates
        last edited by stacksofplates

        My first was a Tandy 2000.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • hobbit666H
          hobbit666
          last edited by

          Does an Amiga 500 count?
          If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny Computer

          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • jt1001001J
            jt1001001
            last edited by

            TI 99 4/A

            JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • JaredBuschJ
              JaredBusch @jt1001001
              last edited by

              @jt1001001 said in My first computer:

              TI 99 4/A

              My friend had a TI-99. I had a TRS-80

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • travisdh1T
                travisdh1
                last edited by

                I have fond memories of Dig-Dug on a TRS-80. Wasn't my computer, sadly.

                My first computer was a whitebox 486DX2 built by a local shop. Full height 512MB HDD, it could save all the things in a DOS/Win3.11 era.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • scottalanmillerS
                  scottalanmiller @hobbit666
                  last edited by

                  @hobbit666 said in My first computer:

                  Does an Amiga 500 count?
                  If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny Computer

                  He didn't say PC, all of us posting had computers before PCs even existed. The 500 was well into the PC era, so you are unique there, but it was common at the time not to use PCs at home.

                  My first Amiga was the Amiga 1000, I still have it.

                  1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • 1
                    1337 @scottalanmiller
                    last edited by 1337

                    @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

                    @hobbit666 said in My first computer:

                    Does an Amiga 500 count?
                    If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny Computer

                    He didn't say PC, all of us posting had computers before PCs even existed. The 500 was well into the PC era, so you are unique there, but it was common at the time not to use PCs at home.

                    My first Amiga was the Amiga 1000, I still have it.

                    The Amiga 500 was an awesome computer for arcade style gaming. It had sprites and good sound. I had one too. Motorola 68000 16/32 bit CPU in those machines. Same as Apple had in their Macintosh before the started with PowerPC.
                    0_1539359543102_5b708780-88d8-49f4-a52b-f8797a7a8667-image.png

                    scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DashrenderD
                      Dashrender
                      last edited by

                      I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.

                      I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.

                      1 PhlipElderP 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • 1
                        1337 @Dashrender
                        last edited by

                        @dashrender said in My first computer:

                        I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.

                        I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.

                        Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                        DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • DashrenderD
                          Dashrender @1337
                          last edited by

                          @pete-s said in My first computer:

                          @dashrender said in My first computer:

                          I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.

                          I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.

                          Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                          lol - I'm pretty sure the 8088 was considered a PC, not sure about the 'seriousness' of it.. but I wouldn't expect most home users to have SCSI.

                          1 scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • 1
                            1337 @Dashrender
                            last edited by 1337

                            @dashrender said in My first computer:

                            Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                            lol - I'm pretty sure the 8088 was considered a PC, not sure about the 'seriousness' of it.. but I wouldn't expect most home users to have SCSI.

                            With "serious" I meant workstation/servers contrary to desktops. When IBM brought the PC to the market, every machine was serious money, I think around $3K to $4K.

                            1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1
                              1337 @1337
                              last edited by 1337

                              @pete-s said in My first computer:

                              @dashrender said in My first computer:

                              Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                              lol - I'm pretty sure the 8088 was considered a PC, not sure about the 'seriousness' of it.. but I wouldn't expect most home users to have SCSI.

                              With "serious" I meant workstation/servers contrary to desktops. When IBM brought the PC to the market, every machine was serious money, I think around $3K to $4K.

                              Around that time was also the time when servers actually took off in the PC market. First it was networks cards with twisted pair and drivers on top of MS-DOS. More peer-to-peer type file transfer. But when Novell made their Netware 286 it started to take off. You would then run IPX/SPX drivers on top of MS-DOS and a server running Novell Netware would do file sharing, login and what not. Network was then coax cables.

                              The file server was born.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • scottalanmillerS
                                scottalanmiller @1337
                                last edited by

                                @pete-s said in My first computer:

                                @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

                                @hobbit666 said in My first computer:

                                Does an Amiga 500 count?
                                If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny Computer

                                He didn't say PC, all of us posting had computers before PCs even existed. The 500 was well into the PC era, so you are unique there, but it was common at the time not to use PCs at home.

                                My first Amiga was the Amiga 1000, I still have it.

                                The Amiga 500 was an awesome computer for arcade style gaming. It had sprites and good sound. I had one too. Motorola 68000 16/32 bit CPU in those machines. Same as Apple had in their Macintosh before the started with PowerPC.
                                0_1539359543102_5b708780-88d8-49f4-a52b-f8797a7a8667-image.png

                                But the Amiga crushed the Mac. It basically had GPUs before they were cool.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • scottalanmillerS
                                  scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                                  last edited by

                                  @dashrender said in My first computer:

                                  @pete-s said in My first computer:

                                  @dashrender said in My first computer:

                                  I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.

                                  I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.

                                  Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                                  lol - I'm pretty sure the 8088 was considered a PC, not sure about the 'seriousness' of it.. but I wouldn't expect most home users to have SCSI.

                                  Some 8088 were PC, some were not. Only the PC ones got famous in years later. But at the time, there were loads of non-PC 8088 based computers.

                                  1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • dbeatoD
                                    dbeato
                                    last edited by

                                    My First Computer was with an Intel Pentium 2 and the Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

                                    scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • scottalanmillerS
                                      scottalanmiller @dbeato
                                      last edited by

                                      @dbeato said in My first computer:

                                      My First Computer was with an Intel Pentium 2 and the Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

                                      Get off my lawn!

                                      dbeatoD 1 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                      • dbeatoD
                                        dbeato @scottalanmiller
                                        last edited by

                                        @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

                                        @dbeato said in My first computer:

                                        My First Computer was with an Intel Pentium 2 and the Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

                                        Get off my lawn!

                                        Lol 🙂

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • 1
                                          1337 @scottalanmiller
                                          last edited by

                                          @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

                                          @dashrender said in My first computer:

                                          @pete-s said in My first computer:

                                          @dashrender said in My first computer:

                                          I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.

                                          I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.

                                          Before ATA I think it was ST-506 interface. "Serious" computers used SCSI disks though.

                                          lol - I'm pretty sure the 8088 was considered a PC, not sure about the 'seriousness' of it.. but I wouldn't expect most home users to have SCSI.

                                          Some 8088 were PC, some were not. Only the PC ones got famous in years later. But at the time, there were loads of non-PC 8088 based computers.

                                          Actually 8086 was the real CPU (hence the name x86 architecture).
                                          The 8088 was just a cheaper variation with 8-bit external bus (8088) instead of the standard 16-bit bus.

                                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • 1
                                            1337 @scottalanmiller
                                            last edited by 1337

                                            @scottalanmiller said in My first computer:

                                            @dbeato said in My first computer:

                                            My First Computer was with an Intel Pentium 2 and the Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

                                            Get off my lawn!

                                            :thumbs_up:

                                            This is what the first generation PC motherboards looked like. If you like me were building PCs back then, you had to have an eprom-programmer and UV eraser if you wanted to update the bios (ICs in the top middle with labels). And you had to put all the memory chips in sockets yourself (the lower right area on the pic). 640 KByte was a lot of memory.

                                            0_1539362794452_s-l1000.jpg

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • 1
                                            • 2
                                            • 3
                                            • 4
                                            • 2 / 4
                                            • First post
                                              Last post