My first computer was...

[choraleboy]

It's a shame I can't even remember the name of my first computer. It was basically what my Dad had bought for some BASIC programming. It was a keyboard/computer in one and used to hook into our CRT TV for a computer screen. I remember having a few books and spending entire summer afternoons typing about 2000 line programs just to play games like hangman . Then we used to record those programs on Audio Tapes using a tape recorder, which could be loaded back to the computer at a later time. Wow. good old days. I'd appreciate if anybody could tell me the name of that computer. It's not one of the ATARI 8 bit series or neither a Commodore. It was shiny, all black, possibly different brand. Actually, my dad still has it, well preserved, in working condition.

Androidmatty - that was my first one too - it is a Texas Instruments computer and was like the hot Christmas present in 1984? I think. We used to type those lines and lines and lines of code too just to have a blinking icon on the screen. OMG! And using the audio cassette tapes! Ha. Thanks for the memory!

[choraleboy]

I don't remember the specs, but it was a "Laser Pal 286". We had Prodigy internet... if you can even call it "internet".

this was the next one we had after the TI - the box was so big it didn't fit in our 1979 Toyota Tercel and we had to go pick it up at the store in a friend's pickup truck! LMAO We had Prodigy too.

[MrGibbage]

Wow, this thread makes me feel nostalgic. Thinking about the games (Lemmings!) and hardware (2400 baud modems). Wow, how did we ever put up with that?

Anyone remember "stacker" to double your hard drive space? To do it right, you had to add in a card that did the compression/decompression, but you could do it with just software if you were too cheap to buy the card.

[richard]

First was a TRS-80. After that I got an Apple IIe, which I still have and it still boots (!!) but most of the giant floppy disks are toast.

[yiska]

My first computer was a Commodore 64 (I received it in 1987 when I was 7 years old though... Heh). I didn't REALLY get into things until I got an IBM PS/2 386 with an astounding 6MB of ram (really!) in 1992. I always had older hardware until I got into college but I beat the crap out of it.

[euphline]

Another PCjr user here! Still have a working one! -jbn

[joshtheitguy]

The first PC I was ever given was an IBM 286. It kicked ass.

[MrGibbage]

I first used a computer in 1982 in high school (don't go trying to calculate how old I am now). Apple IIe, iirc. I also had a VIC20 and a Commodore.

[Brains]

I had an IBM PC in 1981 ... Model 5150, 8088 @ 4.77MHz, 64k ram, expandable to 256k on board. CGA card, DOS 2.0, single 5-1/4" 360k floppy, no hard drive, etc. I used that thing for easily 6 years before everything else around took off and it became more or less obsolete.

There has never been another home PC with quite a substantial power switch, as the ol' original PC ... That sucker THUNKed on with authority, you KNEW you were firing up a (squeak) monster.

I can still remember coding up some cheezy whizbang stuff when I was a wee lad, like using the cassette port relay to switch a small battery powered table lamp on and off. Not to mention all the "games" I'd hammer out in BASIC from those books you used to be able to get showing you how.

I was even accused of cheating on a 5th grade report (among other things), because I coded the entire thing in BASIC -- graphics and everything. You see I didn't have a word processing package (too expensive, considering the PC alone cost 4 grand) and the teachers thought there was no way a 10 year old had the intelligence to accomplish such a feat. My mom got my back and said "ask him to do it again, this time in class with you watching over his shoulder. How much you want to bet you'll be eating your words?" That wasn't the end of my troubles with that school, I was eventually expelled later that year anyway, for correcting the teacher too many times (oops)

[MrGibbage]

What a great story! And what are you doing now?