What was your first computer? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 10:34:43 pm
content: Or your dads computer...Mine was thisHad a 9600 baud modem and speeds of 4 or 7 MHz. Cost around $3,000 or $4,000 without the monitor. Ran DOS. My favorite part was when I discovered the modem and BBS by looking one up in the phone book. I remember there was no "internet" listing in the phone book and thinking even at that young age how it should be considering it will be just as good as the phone book one day. MY father had the internet at his work so I knew what it was. I thought you could still buy phone books. Seems like they still make phone books as a bunch were dropped of at an apartment I visited several times in 2015 and the phone books just sat there. I don't know how I found the phone number of the first bbs but once I did I found others while my parents found an $80.00 phone bill which was a lot back then. Other things we had was a shitty dot matrix printer my dad bought because he was cheap. It had four fonts you selected on the printer why it could only do that even though it was dot matrix was due to it's shittyness I guess.Moderator Edit: Corrected minor typo in the title (It was bugging me)

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 11:24:00 pm
content: Synertek SYM-1

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 11:35:27 pm
content: TI99 4/A

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 11:36:34 pm
content: My fist computer was a Commodore 64.

author: DrGeoff
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 11:39:18 pm
content: National SC/MP with all of about 256 bytes of ram.

author: marcus_cdn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 20, 2018, 11:58:52 pm
content: Atari 800XL; next best thing after the arcade! In the early 80's, of course.

author: trophosphere
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 12:09:44 am
content: Apple IIGS

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 12:24:38 am
content: TRS-80 Model I Level II with 16K ram, and NO disk drive or Expansion Interface.,... The concept of 32 baud cassette tape program storage still gives me the jitters...Anyone else remember the one line programming challenge? reason being cr-lf burned a hell of a lot of RAM,47x127 B&W graphics... yum.. Sound (if you could call it that) by modulating the tape drive on/off bit.Still taught me one heck about low level computing and TTl interface."WHAT?"Steve

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 02:01:23 am
content: Sharp MZ-80A. It's up there in my loft. I really should do the 80 column mod and fit a serial port and turn it into a dumb terminal.All I had back in 1982 was BASIC SA-5510 on tape, and the owners manual. I programmed in BASIC back then as an 11 year old kid but was intrigued by the listing of the "Monitor ROM" in the back of the owners manual and also the Z80 instruction set with registers and clock cycles etc in a pure datasheet format and nothing else.I soon figured out how to PEEK and POKE and do decimal to hex and make little Z80 machine code routines, but it was laborious and all done on paper to work out the branches and jumps.One of the best things of my next computer, the BBC Micro, was it's amazing BBC Basic which had structured programming and an inline 6502 assembler, no need to piss about doing pure hex machine code any more!

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 02:18:26 am
content: There is, of course, already a thread on this. It is hiding in the Vintage Computing forum. There are some really cool old non-PC machines in that thread.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/what-was-the-very-first-computer-you-owned/Here is mine.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/what-was-the-very-first-computer-you-owned/msg1272450/#msg1272450

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 02:53:16 am
content: Gateway select 1000, win ME(no problems)933 Mhz Athalon, 128mb gpu , 512mb ddr sdram, 12gb hdd14??? Inch lcd ( we were the first family with an lcd monitor)Over the years got rid of it in 2016.Win XP (so many driver problems)64gb hdd , 1g ram , 512mb gpu, upgraded sound card.Stock: keyboard, lcd is still being used, went through 3 mice.

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 06:24:21 am
content: You guys are making me feel old!All I see is post-IBM PC vintage stuff. That is apart from the crazy COSMAC which must have been a treat to write (assembler) software for.As I said in a previous thread in November, last year:"The first computer I ever OWNED was a home-built "pineapple" in 1981. It was an unauthorized copy of the Apple ][ main board and then I built it with parts bought/scrounged. Afterwards it was expanded with a genuine floppy drive and a cheap crt monitor. It had a MTBF of about 4 hours so backups had to be religiously done often.I learned the value of backups the hard way. Once when I was working on a sizeable BASIC program the CPU decided to crash and wipe my only floppy copy of my program. This was after about 3 weeks of work on it. I couldn't look at it again for a couple of days so went out on my bike a saw a few movies.The first computer I ever USED was a PDP-8 in 1967. That one was completely assembled into an ad hoc rack frame by one of the electronics teachers at my high school in Ottawa. Ours was the first school in Ottawa to ever have a real computer. That teacher, Carl Weick worked on the Avro Arrow, the only Canadian fighter jet to intimidate the US military and president into demanding its program be cancelled and all materials destroyed. To PM Diefenbakers' discredit, he did just that.Too bad I have no pictures of either of those computers."

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 06:59:17 am
content: I had to stop doing it about 10 years ago, but before that, whenever I interviewed a SW guy, the correct answer to the question "what was your first computer?" was any 8-bit machine. It was a _great_ way to separate people with a genuine interest in computers from the others.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 07:10:47 am
content: Atari 800 with an old color RCA 1970's vacuum tube tv. Got tons of radiation exposure learning how to program in Basic.Also blew some regulators and other ICs as I attempted home made custom hardware plugged into the joystick ports which gave me 8 channel ADC, + 2x 8 bit IO ports + 1 8 bit input port when combining all 4 joystick ports.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 07:32:39 am
content: Let's add some variety here:16-bit input / 16-bit output port is a beauty for interfacing with custom peripherals. Missed that a lot moving to LPT.I have one restored some time ago. Don't have any storage, but it boots from an MP3 player via cassette tape input.

author: kultakala
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 07:38:51 am
content: Commodore VIC-20... without any mass storage, so all was gone with powering it off

author: gildasd
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 07:52:32 am
content: Olivetti 486 Dx33, 8megas of ram, 40mega hard disk.

author: djacobow
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 08:08:07 am
content: The original Atari 800. None of this XL nonsense. Most of the peripherals I got were from the XL period, though.http://oldcomputers.net/atari800.html

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:17:16 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on February 21, 2018, 07:32:39 amIndeed! Thank you for that one; I had never come across it before.Just Googled it:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronika_BKPDP-11 compatible, really? That's pretty neat. Did people actually run PDP software on it, e.g. in academic or industrial control settings?

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:30:31 am
content: Quote from: Vgkid on February 21, 2018, 02:53:16 amThat's anLCD?! What is in that big backpack? A 100 W incandescent lamp for the backlight?

author: ZomBiE80
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:36:53 am
content: Commodore 64 back in 1989.

author: kayvee
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:43:41 am
content: BBC Micro Model B, with cassette storage

author: rbm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:44:32 am
content: Home built Z80 using wirewrap sockets and perfboard. Also reused parts from a discarded IBM 3270 Model 5, including the 8" floppy drive, enclosure and keyboard.

author: dexters_lab
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:56:58 am
content: the first was a 'family' computer, it was a Sharp MZ-80K

author: bsalai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 12:45:16 pm
content: ZX-81 with a tape drive.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 01:03:29 pm
content: Quote from: bsalai on February 21, 2018, 12:45:16 pmSurely you mean "a cassette recorder" ?

author: plazma
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 01:08:35 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on February 20, 2018, 11:36:34 pmMine too. C-model with Scandinavian keyboard.I bet C64 would win if this was a poll.

author: gardner
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 05:10:55 pm
content: In the late 70s, a friend's dad's HP-97 followed by a TI-48C of my own.After that, a series of trash-80s until the 80386SX era rolled around and a box with virtual memory capability became affordable.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 05:13:26 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 21, 2018, 11:17:16 amIt is compatible with PDP-11 instruction set, but I don't think it is a replication of any specific PDP-11 machine, so peripherals are all different. But people that programmed in assembly used PDP-11 books.I only knew BASIC, and this computer came with Vilnius BASIC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_BASIC) in the ROM.That black box in the background is a ROM expansion with standard tests, but it also includes FOCAL programming language, which does take its roots in PDP family, but I don't know how it was obtained. Possibly fully rewritten.I'm pretty sure most of the software and games were written from scratch or ported from other home computers, since it was a personal computer, and people who uses it, would not have access to native PDP-11 software.

author: Canis Dirus Leidy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 07:48:53 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 21, 2018, 11:17:16 amPartially. It used LSI11-compatible CPU and (crippled) Q-BUS, but the peripherals were completely different.P.S. My first computer was not so original.Just another one of the horde of ZX Spectrum clones. Lived (coexisting withPC clone) until the middle of Nineties.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 09:20:56 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on February 21, 2018, 02:18:26 amI did see that but wondered if someone's first computer might be a raspberry pi or an android tablet and I wouldn't call that vintage I'm sure there are people who don't know what a floppy is or even a cdrom drive. I still haven't found a good way to preserve data for the long term. CDROMs were always good because they never went bad assuming you bought good CD's and they could always be plugged into newer machines. I just don't think an SSD card will last forever or not get corrupt plugging it into some futuristic machine that may not recognize something so small or slow. Plus a stray cosmic ray / electric shock could ruin it. I once read that computers left on long enough will have a memory problem/crash because of stray cosmic rays or back ground radiation corrupting the right bit at the right time in the RAM or cashe.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 09:39:00 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on February 21, 2018, 09:20:56 pmSo how didyourthread end up in the Vintage Computing forum then?

author: Melt-O-Tronic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 10:15:39 pm
content: My first was an 8080 machine I wire-wrapped, loosely based on a series of Popular Electronics articles. It had 1K SRAM, a hex keyboard salvaged from calculator parts and a 4-digit, 7-segment display. I've since re-discovered the article series and have some of my original design notes. I may try to recreate it.I still have 7 of the RAM chips (2114's) and only recently lost the EPROM -- I think it fell into the trash.Then my dad got a ZX-81 and shortly thereafter, I got my TI-99/4A. Man, I loved that TI! Had the expansion chassis, RAM card, floppy drive, cassette drive, speech synthesizer, color monitor, etc. I eventually traded it for a 1975 Chevy Impala. I shouldn't have done that.But I still have my dad's ZX-81.

author: cowasaki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2018, 11:38:16 pm
content: VIC20

author: Johncanfield
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 12:03:34 am
content: I built a "PC" from a Popular Electronics article based on an RCA CDP1802 microprocessor, this was my first. Then the usual progression.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 12:55:29 am
content: Apple II clone

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 04:44:48 am
content: Quote from: ez24 on February 22, 2018, 12:55:29 amIt's kind amazing to me that the II was cloned by so many companies given they would have needed the copyrighted ROM images to do so. I dont ever recall seeing Apple II clones in Aus but I was only 5 1980.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 05:09:29 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on February 21, 2018, 09:20:56 pmThe best backup method is one where the contents change mediums over time.Hard drives tend to retain data for a long long time, when stored right. Tapes too. Of course, the magnetization on those drives can degrade.

author: jsi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 05:39:15 am
content: My first computer was the University's main frame. You fed it punch cards and hours later you would get a print out of your program run. There were no terminals for any student use just this great hulking box.

author: jsi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 05:43:26 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on February 20, 2018, 11:35:27 pmMy first computer job was working on the Texas Instruments help desk, fielding calls on the 99 4/A. By the standards of the day they weren't too bad of a computer, but the RF connector to the TV was garbage.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 03:56:31 pm
content: I mean, shoving raster graphics over an RF connection is always garbage. I have a Commodore 128 with a digital TTL RGB out (CGA compatible) and it does BEAUTIFUL 80-column graphics on a 1084 monitor. In colour too.

author: Joel_l
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 04:32:30 pm
content: Commodore 64 with floppy drive, still have one.

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 05:02:12 pm
content: Atari STF 1040, with switchbox between monochrome and color screen.I still miss GFA Basic.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 05:43:15 pm
content: Quote from: jsi on February 22, 2018, 05:39:15 amWhat I learned about punch cards was at least for Fortran there must be an "end" card. I did not include one and at the same time the lab person stepped outside. When he came back my program had used up the entire supply of paper and he had to shut down the lab. I just remember him yelling at me and that was my last experience with punch cards.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2018, 06:43:45 pm
content: If I remember correctly, on the ICL1902S there werethreecards needed: STOP, END and FINISH. Card stacks were processed in batch, so if you forgot them it would just plough on into the next program, executing data or code indiscriminately.As well as Fortran and Plan (1902 assembler), I used COBOL - now those was a card stacks that you didn't want to drop in the corridor!

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2018, 07:02:45 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 21, 2018, 09:39:00 pmIt must have been moved because I swear I put it in the general forum because I wanted to see what young people views on the subject is. Maybe we can put it back? Not all of us are vintage models

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2018, 07:04:38 pm
content: Quote from: Macbeth on February 21, 2018, 02:01:23 amIs that why you see people take the brown roll of package paper and draw things all over it and put it on their walls? I always wondered how you kept track of if else things that were really long too long to remember.

author: imidis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2018, 07:14:23 pm
content: Mine was a Tandy, no pics though. Can't even remember the model number. Traded something for it. I honestly don't even recall what I did with it.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2018, 07:17:49 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on February 23, 2018, 07:02:45 pmI'm 16 and my first computer was a Commodore 64. Try again.After that I think it probably was something like some sort of P5 pentium, maybe running Windows 2000

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2018, 11:00:00 pm
content: My first computer was a stick that I used to make the calculations in sand. I feel that oldBefore that I just grunted inside my cave.

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2018, 01:14:15 am
content: Quote from: ez24 on February 23, 2018, 11:00:00 pmThinking back, other than using my fingers and thumbs, we all learnt to compute using Cuisenaire rods as infants. It was a couple of years later before we were introduced to the Abacus. This was the 1970's it has to be said. I liked those coloured rods.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2018, 01:35:33 am
content: Couldn't afford a Curta?

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2018, 02:11:19 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on February 24, 2018, 01:35:33 amMy Local Education Authority certainly couldn't afford a Curta back then it has to be said, besides being slightly too complex for infants I imagine.I still couldn't afford (justify) one now!!!I know you are a young lad, what method was used to teach maths in your first 2 years of infant school? (Don't tell me Curta's!)

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2018, 04:01:02 am
content: Two years of infant school? Not entirely sure what you mean by that, but I'll just take that as, when you started learning maths.I used a penciland a piece of paper.and computed like that.I actually did that for a long time. It wasn't until around 4-5 years ago did I begin using calculators. My first real calculator (that I used) was an HP-48G, followed by a 50G, and I am now using my HP Prime.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2018, 07:20:41 am
content: Quote from: Macbeth on February 24, 2018, 01:14:15 amOh yes -- here's the official state-approved German version which we used, also in the early seventies:I found them great to visualize addition and subtraction, and also basic multliplication and factorization (lay out rectangles). And when you were done with your math, you were allowed to build towers!They sadly missed the chance to teach us the resistor color code at the same time, though...

author: Chris-IP5
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 12:18:20 am
content: My first was VIC-20 it was great. It had a tape deck (with counter, which made it better than my radio-cassette! ) and a joystick and I used it on an old TV in my bedroom. I was pretty young. Couldn't stop programming it once I got that reference manual.Bad thing? Power supply kept failing and I hay had to be "offline" until a replacement came.Next came Psion Organiser II which never left my hand.Can I include Casio fx-7000? It said calculator but you could program it and in a way it had better graphics screen than my VIC...And more Psions and Amigas, BBCs, Archimedeses.Still have them all.

author: Johnboy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 04:49:31 am
content: If we're including analog... It would have beenthis.

author: gardner
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 06:22:01 pm
content: I would interpret the scope of the thread to require turing-complete user-programmable stored program computers. That would let out slide-rules, captain amazing secret decoder rings and non-programmable calculators -- as well as appliances with MCUs in them. Just my opinion though.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 06:49:19 pm
content: This thread developed into spanning a surprising scope, considering that it started with 1990s run-of-the-mill Windows machines.So how about way back in the 1930s and 40s, when "computer" was still a job title? ;-)(No, I did not own or use one of those. And am not sure whether they were Turing-complete...)

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 07:38:25 pm
content: My first technically was a TRS-80 Model 1 Level 1. But We couldn't afford to buy one, I used the one in the local Radio Shack. My first computer that I actually owned was one that used the RCA CDP1802 CPU. They were a LOT of fun to program - simple 91 opcode instruction set and VERY logically organized. And amazingly flexible - 16x16 bit registers, and any one of them could be the program counter, switchable on the fly, any could be the index register, switchable on the fly, etc.

author: djacobow
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2018, 08:35:53 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 26, 2018, 06:49:19 pmOne of my calculus teachers in engineering school had been a computer. She was actually a pretty brilliant mathematician and had an interesting career that showed her capability and also the limits put on a woman in her time.http://www.hillandwood.com/obituary/110264

author: Johnboy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2018, 01:18:44 am
content: Nobel Laureate and Caltech professor Richard Feynman described the "computer" position in one of his autobiographies, and I remember being kind of bowled over by the concept of a room full of women serially crunching equations digit by digit and being used as a check on each other's work. Babbage's invention and its direct descendants must have followed an extremely slow growth curve in terms of capacity and accuracy if the human computers proved more efficient.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2018, 08:52:06 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 24, 2018, 07:20:41 amThat's funny that exists because I do mental math by picturing colored bars like that that join together to make 5 or 10. even numbers have smooth round ends while odd numbers have angular fat ends. Below and above five have either convex or concave ends to make them fit: A three should be a short block with a concave V shaped angular cut out on the end while a 7 would be longer with convex V on the end. Or you make them odd even odd patterns if you are making blocks that equal five. Sounds complicated but you can literally see the answer to almost any number you can remember the length of in your head so it doesn't require thinking just seeing a round peg fit in a round hole.

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2018, 10:58:05 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on March 01, 2018, 08:52:06 pmSynesthesia?. Interesting phenomenon I've only encountered on LSD.

author: geekGee
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 02, 2018, 02:15:09 am
content: Compaq Deskpro 386/2020 MHz 803861MB RAM5-1/4" 1.2MB Floppy Drive60MB 5-1/4" Hard DriveVGA Video Card (640x480)14" VGA MonitorIt was the fastest Intel x86 computer back in 1988.My first real job was for a Compaq reseller so got a good deal but it wasn't cheap. I can't recall how much but do remember later adding 4MB RAM to it for about $1,800.

author: VintageTekFan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2018, 02:48:24 am
content: An Apple IIGS. No HDD. Only two floppy drives. From there I got a generic 386sx25 with 4MB of RAM.

author: Wimberleytech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 03:28:26 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on February 20, 2018, 11:35:27 pmSame here...my first "personal" computer. The first computer I ever used was IBM 360.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 05:48:09 am
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 24, 2018, 07:20:41 amProbably because it was hard to include a zero length piece.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 05:54:02 am
content: November 1989.Philips P3204.10MHZ 286.added 287 later640K RAM44MB Rodime 3055 voice coil HDD360K and 1.44MB floppy drivesDOS 3.314 inch 640 x 480 VGA screen.Protel EasytraxFlatbed A3 plotter

author: tek2232
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 06:01:04 am
content: My First computers:Sinclair ZX80 (used video memory as working memory)Commodore VIC20Commodore C64Commodore Amiga 1000Then came all the Intel x86 base computers

author: ggchab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2018, 12:16:20 pm
content: My first computer was a TRS-80 model 1 level 1. I upgraded it to level 2 (more powerful BASIC and a numeric keypad). Then I bought the "Expansion Interface" with 32KB of RAM, the floppy disk drive controller and a parallel printer port. I finally bought a floppy disk drive to replace the cassette recorder.Some years later, I bought an Amstrad PC1512.

author: mdijkens
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2018, 08:05:31 pm
content: A Philips P2500 CP/M computerJust before the IBM PC started dominating the marketBefore that, as a kid, I stuffed punch cards inside a bigger mainframe job of my dad; got the printout 2 days laterUntil I had an undiscovered loop which made the Mainframe department at Philips bill my dads department a $1000 extra

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2018, 08:15:57 pm
content: ow

author: JohnPen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 02:27:16 pm
content: Very first computer was at college, an Eliot 803 computer, punched tape input. Calculating the area of a triangle which kept failing and eventually traced to one hole in the punched tape occasionally failing to punch through. Later on actually built an Fairchild F8 based cpu system for an application at work. This used punched tape to input the original code and saved copies to a tape recorder. Finally built a Z80 based home computer in 1979 using hand drawn PCBs. This consisted of a character generator chip, a 1K UVROM and 2K static ram. The latter provided the display/screen memory plus a small amount of space for programming in machine code. Hangman worked fine until the 'word' exceeded 22 characters then it crept in the screen display at the top of the screen. Added a printer to the Z80 system using an IBM Golfball, it was solenoid driven, via a diode matrix to match it to the character generator. Other developments added Tiny Basic, 2K UVROM and 16K dynamic Ram. Also added 'FORTH' in a 4K UVROM. Then children arrived and everything changed. It became Atari games then moved on to a TI-99, followed by sundry Enterprise's followed by AMIGAs. Finally defeat, gave in to Microsoft and ever since it has been PCs. Other electronic activities continue however.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 02:47:07 pm
content: Quote from: JohnPen on March 21, 2018, 02:27:16 pmNice.

author: matpro76
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2018, 05:58:31 am
content: Mine was a clone XT PC which I've recently been restoring / pimping. Originally had an 8088, 640K RAM, 2 x 360K FDD, CGA and a monochrome monitor. No color and no HDD!Anyway now has a NEC V20 running @ 12Mhz, a whopping 1024KB RAM, EGA card and color EGA monitor, 8GB HDD and the original 2 x 360K FDD.

author: RobBarter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2018, 03:53:02 pm
content: Commodore VIC-20, a couple of years later moving onto an Apple IIe.

author: Ghislain
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2018, 09:49:37 pm
content: Tandy (Radio shack) TRS80Later replaced by Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 when that came out...

author: Naguissa
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 01:05:43 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on February 20, 2018, 10:34:43 pmAbout printer:Dot matrix (quality is defined by dots in print head, needles in spanish)...4 fonts is a good one! I had a 24 'needles' 8 fonts EPSON LQ-100. In fact, it's still at my parents' house.Enviado desde mi Jolla mediante Tapatalk

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 01:47:17 pm
content: ICL 1904S. Not this actual one (that was in the Nederlands) but it's the same processor:

author: pie314isi
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 01:57:30 pm
content: Vic 20MicroBee 16kMicroBee 56k - which I still have somewhere.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 07:54:42 pm
content: My first computer was a games console: Sega Master System, my dad bought for us from a friend who'd just purchased a Mega Drive: we didn't have the money for a new machine back then.My first proper computer was a 386SX 25MHz machine, with 4MB RAM, a 43MB hard drive and an old VGA card with 256kB VRAM. It came with MS-DOS 6 and Windows 3.1. We got it in 1993, when most people already had better machines, but it's what my parents could afford, at the time. I often just used DOS because I couldn't be bothered to boot into Windows and I spent a lot of time programming in QBasic and playing games, so Windows just got used for school work.Now I still use an old PC, an old 2006 era Intel Duo, with 1GB RAM and came with no hard drive, I got from a colleague, in exchange for a bottle of whisky. I soon added a sold state hard drive and upgraded to 3GB RAM, to make it usable. It runs PC Linux OS, because Windows nowadays is grim. The original plan was to buy a better machine soon, but point in getting anything better, because it suits my needs. My next upgrade will probably be another cast of from work or someone else. The days of having to upgrade, a basic machine used for general web browsing and office work, every two years are long gone.

author: Roeland_R
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 08:10:29 pm
content: Quote from: dexters_lab on February 21, 2018, 11:56:58 amThat was a great machine. I owned one too. I worked for a company that sold these computers as business computer. Don't have it anymore, but still have an MZ700. Compatible with the MZ80K, but a little faster and build in plotter. I think the ink is dry now.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 08:23:14 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on April 06, 2018, 01:47:17 pmI used to travel by train to Bristol Parkway to feed punch cards to the 1904 at Bristol Poly. Nice memories.

author: HecticZA
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2018, 09:08:01 pm
content: 8080.1 x 360KB drive. No hard drive and used DR Dos and later MS Dos booting and also running of that single drive. Can't recall the specs ito of screen or memory.Steep learning curve.Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2018, 07:38:28 am
content: SIGNETICS 2650https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signetics_2650KT9500 development board

author: Messtechniker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2018, 08:21:25 am
content: Mine was a IBM XT clone with Intel 8080 processor running at 8 MHzwith 640 Kb of RAM and with a Turbo button for snappier 16 MHz operation.Initially with two 360 kB floppy drives and no HDD. Later upgraded to two 1,2 MB floppies and a60 MB HDD *) for 600 DM = 300 EUR.Compare that with today were you can get 6 TB i.e.100 000 times the capacity for around 150 EUR. Simply crazy.*) They don't make 'em like this any more

author: TechieTX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2018, 01:59:03 pm
content: First actual computer was the Atari Pong in '75, but it wasn't programmable. For a true programmable computer, it was the Intel SDK-85 or the Motorola 6800 D2 Kit. I got 'em both around the same time back inThe Dark Ages(late '76 or early '77).These aren't mine; both of the boards I had hit the landfill long ago, so they're just representative examples:Not long after I got an Apple ][, then a Sinclair ZX80 (hacked to 4K RAM with 2114 RAM chips), then an early IBM clone, a ][e and the long run of IBM clones since. Buried somewhere in there around '80 or '81 was a Ferguson Big Board (Z80), which eventually got upgraded to twin Shugart 8" drives and CP/M. I still have the 8" CP/M boot disk (somewhere), kept as a novelty, and the twin Shugart drives in the steel case are probably supporting a 4-lane bridge, somewhere.I timeshared on a couple of mainframes before that with Teletypes, but didn't own 'em. The first timeshare was a Sperry Univac in junior high school, then (something else) in college with a card punch. I've used (but didn't own) SWTP 6800, IMSAI 8080 and a Northstar Horizon in early college.When everyone else had jumped on the '386 bandwagon, I was still running an AMD '286+'287 with a meg of fast static RAM that ran circles around their '386 systems and DRAM.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2018, 07:01:19 pm
content: Quote from: TechieTX on April 08, 2018, 01:59:03 pmNah, that doesn't count.PONG was not a computer (= CPU plus program) based game at all, but rather a smart "video signal generator": Hardwired counters and logic gates to create the video image and sync signals, and two 555 timers to determine the paddle position. It was built from discrete TTL logic in the original arcade game, later integrated into a single-chip solution for home consoles.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2018, 10:00:34 pm
content: Quote from: Naguissa on April 06, 2018, 01:05:43 pm"Pins" would be the typical English term. I remember we had a 9 pin dot matrix printer, I was envious of those who had 24 pin printers, even better were the ones that could print in color by moving a ribbon that had multiple strips. Fancy!

author: geekGee
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 09, 2018, 02:38:42 am
content: Quote from: Messtechniker on April 08, 2018, 08:21:25 amI had forgotten about those. I used to work for a re-seller who briefly assembled 80286 clones. Those "Turbo" buttons were often "Lockup" buttons on some mobos.

author: OE2WHP
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2018, 03:01:37 pm
content: Back in 1982 my first computer was a 8088 with 512k RAM. It had a 5,25" floppy drive, 20MB harddrive a 12" monochrome monitor and a Star LC10 needle printer. The housing was built like a tank.

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 19, 2018, 10:12:42 pm
content: Quote from: OE2WHP on April 19, 2018, 03:01:37 pmDid you have that spec from day one? That would have cost a fortune!

author: mdijkens
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2018, 10:41:32 pm
content: Quote from: OE2WHP on April 19, 2018, 03:01:37 pmThat sounds more like a configuration from 1985/1986Back in 1982 the full hight 5.25" 20MB harddisk alone would have costed over $10kI know since we had a 5MB harddisk that costed $3k5 by then

author: DeanCording
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2018, 10:50:22 pm
content: Speaking of costing a fortune, the first computer I owned was a Microbee in kit form. It cost $399 in 1982, which is the equivalent of $1,380 today. And you had to provide the monitor and assemble it yourself from bare board and bag of bits. 2MHz Z80, 16Kb RAM, and unlimited cassette storage.

author: OE2WHP
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2018, 12:55:54 pm
content: Yes, you are right about the date. The 1982 was a guess out of my memory. It must have been somewhere around 85/86.

author: JohnnyMalaria
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2018, 10:30:28 pm
content: Mine was a Sinclair ZX-80 with 1K RAM (which included the display memory!)Prior to that at school, we had a Commodore PET-II and a TTY link with a real modem in a nice wooden box connected to the local polytechnic. We also had this most strange contraption that looked like it came from an arcade. It had toggle switches and dozens of little lights (probably bulbs, not LEDs). You programmed registers in binary and watched bits move around like Pac-Man. Weird. But I taught me a lot.

author: RomDump
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2018, 01:07:18 am
content: My first Computer was a C64. The one in the 10 year old picture is not the first one I had.

author: musicamex
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 01:24:19 am
content: Mine was a souped up Fat Mac. I increased the ram to 1 meg from 512k. I had a Rabbit Drive external hd with 512 megs. Floppies were 128 and 256 k in those days. People drove from Albuquerque, 100 miles away to see it. It would be a fart in a wind storm compared to even a small tablet these days, but, back then I was blown away by what i could do with my fattie.

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 01:56:58 am
content: Quote from: musicamex on May 02, 2018, 01:24:19 amDid you mean 5 MB storage? Even 50Mb was't a thing until the late 80's iirc.

author: GerryBags
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 02:49:49 am
content: First computer I owned was a C64, Then an Acorn Electron (very similar to the BBC Micros we used at school I seem to remember) that I swapped a BMX for. Then Atari 520ST, followed by Commodore Amiga (finally cracked the meg with that one!), and then to the PCs. First was a hand-me-down 286 with MSDOS that worked long enough for me to get thoroughly frustrated with playing Zork and Leather Goddesses of Phobos. First Windblows machine ran 3.1 I think. First Mac was a G3 desktop model a few years later. I was still on Macs when the first processor to crack a GHz came out.I kept thinking: "Any time now they (someone, anyone) will come up with a computer that doesn't keep crashing all the time.".Any day now, I reckon.

author: musicamex
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 03:08:14 am
content: You're probably right. It probably was WAS only 5 megs. Actually now that I think about it the floppies were 64k and 128k. WOW! To think that now you can buy Terrabyte size hard drives at Costco and it's hard to even find a memory flash drive under 8gb. I bought a bunch of 4gb usb sticks to share music on. Like 3 bucks each on Amazon. But I still love the old tube technology that I grew up with. Its what i build and repair every day.

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 03:46:11 am
content: Quote from: musicamex on May 02, 2018, 03:08:14 amEven Apple II's had 170kb SSDD Floppy Drives, the early Mac's had single 400 KB, single-sided 3.5-inch floppy disk drive - it wasnt till the Macintosh Plus that they gained DSDD 800kb Disk Drives.10MB is also possible as 5 & 10 were the two main sizes I recall seeing in those days.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 07:06:43 pm
content: Quote from: djos on May 02, 2018, 01:56:58 amThe IBM PC my dad bought around 1983-84 had a 20MB hard drive that was mounted to a bracket that fit in an expansion slot, that was a really big deal back then and cost a fortune. As recently as the late 90s when I was in highschool there was still a computer lab at the school with Mac Plus machines that had 20MB external HDDs that sat under them.I remember how excited I was when my dad bought me a 340MB hard drive for the 386 I built in the mid-late 90s, it was so much space! I could install all the games I owned! I remember drooling over 1.2GB hard drives I saw in catalogs, they were 5.25" full height monsters back then. I couldn't imagine ever needing more space than that, now I sit here looking at a stack of 160GB drives I rescued from the scrap bin at work a couple years ago wondering what I'll ever do with a drive that small. Funny how perspectives change.A funny story surrounding that original PC comes to mind. Sometime in the late 80s my dad brought it home from work and had set it on the floor in the livingroom after unloading it from the car. Our house had a balcony that overlooked that end of the room from the den upstairs and my little brother and I were playing some kind of game involving a hook on the end of a string and for some reason had a about a 3 pound lead fishing weight attached to the hook. Well I hoisted the string up and then had a thought like "that would suck if the string broke, the computer is sitting right below" and just at that moment the weight bumped the edge of the 1st floor ceiling and cam loose. I watched it fall in slow motion, landing right in the middle of the keyboard. This resulted in a spectacular explosion of keys flying into the air and raining down around the room, I stood there in horror peering over the ledge from the den thinking "Oh no, dad is gonna KILL me!" 30 years later I can still play that back in my head in slow motion like it happened days ago. Needless to say my parents were NOT pleased, a replacement keyboard cost $100 which was a sizable chunk of money back then.

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 10:27:24 pm
content: Ah good point, 20MB external hard drives are quite popular on early Mac's.I think our first HDD was an internal 40MB half height voice coil MFM drive in ~90 - one of my dad's uncles had a computer store and I think he gave it to us for free. It must have been worth a bit because I recall being amazed that we didn't need to park the heads before turning it off.Didn't take long to fill it either

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2018, 11:05:52 pm
content: Some of the later stepper motor drives were self parking too. Pretty clever really, they used the inertia of the platters to generate enough electricity to park the head. When power was shut off they would make a Bzzztztztzt noise.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 03:27:44 pm
content: They got up to 15MB with the TRS-80's, I have the manuals for the hard disk for the Model 4. but IIRC those were somewhere around $4K USD which was so far out of what I could afford as a HS student/just starting college.My first hard drive, I think I got that int he summer of 87. Fall of 86 I purchased my first MS-DOS machine, a Zenith Z-158 through school. Too much stuff going MS-DOS, it was time to retire my TRS-80 4P. I initially got the model with dual floppies. The following summer I decided it was time for a hard drive. 20MB was the common standard, but when I looked at my boxes of floppies, I figured it would be too small. a 40MB model was too expensive - but right in the middle were the 32MB RLL drives, so that's what I ended up getting, a Seagate ST-238R. Forget how much it cost me.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 09:23:43 pm
content: Quote from: GerryBags on May 02, 2018, 02:49:49 amHmmm? 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.My main desktop at home is used for electronic design, and general web browsing, email, etc. It has been up over 300 days. Usually I end up shutting it down to swap some bit of hardware, so that is better than usual. Not a crash, just I rarely leave it alone that long. Also a Linux system.My web server has been up 61 days, and that is with all sorts of attackers constantly trying to break in. I had some reason to reboot it then, I don't recall what for. Also a Linux system.I also run Windows XP and Win 7 under Virtual Box, to run certain apps that are not available on Linux. These OS's seem to actually run MORE reliably in the virtual environment than on physical hardware.Jon

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2018, 09:29:34 pm
content: I haven't had much trouble with stability in a long time really, beyond some hardware/driver problems. This Win7 laptop has not been rebooted in probably 3 months, I just let it go into suspend mode. I have a couple of Raspberry Pis that are up over 100 days uptime, and my Plex server which is running Ubuntu Mate.

author: intabits
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2018, 04:32:11 am
content: An EDUC-8 ( by Jamieson Rowe of Electronics Australia magazine)I made my own case for it, but used the original design PCBs.It sported a whopping 256 bytes of RAM!This thing came out just before the first micros, and had a serial architecture, inspired by the DEC PDP 8/S, and ran quite slowly (some few hundred KHz IIRC).But JR specified some Fairchild bipolar RAM chip, that cost about $50 in 1974 - Very, very expensive. Especially as a cheap (about $3) and slow MOS 2102 was more than sufficient. (it had a different pinout, but was easily hacked into place)It was very flaky, as the PCBs had no gold flashing, so a bump could upset it.http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/educ-8/https://archive.org/details/Educ-8I got it to play a little music, but not much else. No idea what happened to it...

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2018, 02:20:06 am
content: My first was an Atari 600 XL with a cassette drive for loading and saving basic programs. There was also a cartridge slot for playing store bought carts. I still have it collecting dust in my parents garage with all the manuals and original box! May be fun to bring it back to life on day but the cassette drive started having problems long ago. I saw some people just digitize the tapes to sound files which basically play back to the system (like modem tones) and feed in the data that way. I did convert all the tapes over a few years ago when I transferred all my mix tapes to computer and may be able to convert the audio to programming code for use with an emulator even. Will be a fun project for the future!The other thing I remember from school is we had a whole lab of Commodore PETs and we used to play a game called Paladin:[EDIT:]By the way, I found the original creator of Paladin on the web and he even has a website with a new HTML5 Canvas version of this game for anyone to download! Awesome! Here is his webpage:http://www.scale18.com/cgi-bin/page/kpickell.htmlAnd here is the game in HTML5 Canvas:http://www.scale18.com/canvas.htmlBy the way, if you download the page and edit the source code you can modify the scale of the canvas and the resolution by changing the #area parameter at the top of the page, and the <canvas id="area"> height/width a few lines from the bottom of the page to create a higher resolution and larger area version of the game with sharper graphics.

author: GeoffreyF
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 09:19:34 pm
content: My first computer for which I had hands on use and wrote software for was an IBM 360/30. My very first computer which I owned was an Altair 8800. Built it from the parts. It was one of their very early kits. I got it about 4-6 months after the original popular electronics magazine cover. Later I was building the kits for people and going up to "The Computer Store" - one of the first two retail stores in the Boston MA area. A spontaneous job interview was: "So you like those 4k memory boards"? Me: Yeah, a little tricky to get running right but they are OK". Them: "You are our only satisfied customer, would you like to work for us?"Epilog: I just chucked the soldering iron I used for all that and bought a Hakko.

author: DonRon
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2018, 05:31:33 pm
content: This was my very first computer:Eltec Eurocom 1 - single board computer with motorola 6809 processor and LED-display. Learned Assembler with that.and after that I had a Sharp MZ80KCheers,Ronald

author: taydin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2018, 06:20:47 pm
content: My first computer was an AmigaAbout two years later, I bought my first 80286 PC. And then I saved money for 1 year to get the 80287 math coprocessor for it.

author: Gixy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2018, 07:15:35 am
content: Rockwell AIM65. Learned assembly with it. 4KB (yes K, not M) of memory (including the OS called Monitor…). Think of it when using GBytes today...

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2018, 07:58:39 am
content: First computer I used...First computer I owned (Google image. Couldn't be bothered to unpack mine.)

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2018, 03:12:25 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on April 06, 2018, 01:47:17 pmWhat how?!? Where did you keep it? What year was that? I'm guessing that was at work or you worked in a university?I thought I was old because "computers" was an actual separate class you took, where if you finished early you got to play with the paint brush program!Do schools now require you to have a laptop? Do the poor kids get to borrow laptops while at school or does each desk have a computer on it?If I ran a school each desk would have a raspberry pi on it and each student would plug in their SD card or bring around their own pi. That way the poor kids could get a free computer to bring home and if they lost it they could replace it or the school could. Would also stop from being labeled as poor as everyone would have the same machine and teach them Linux skills from a young age. In fact isn't the point of the R-pi?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2018, 05:52:56 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on September 21, 2018, 03:12:25 pmThis was at secondary school (high school to you), the computer was at the local Polytechnic.Quote from: Beamin on September 21, 2018, 03:12:25 pmI parttaughtthe first computer class at my school. A maths teacher started a supplementary class in computing for the form two years below me. I'd spent a week the previous summer at ICL with a bunch of other kids from all around the country being run through the "computer education in schools" course that they had designed for secondary schools as a dry run for the course material. As a consequence the teacher, who all this was new to, talked me into being his assistant. I was the original kid who knew more about computers than his teachers.We used to have to write stuff up on coding forms, send it off to be punched on 80 column cards and run as batch jobs on the 1904 at the Poly. Later in the year we got the loan of an ASR33 and a 110 baud dialup modem with acoustic coupler that we could use online.I got to know the people in the computer centre at the Poly and they'd let me use the programmer's terminals in the computer centre and have access to the (huge pile) of official ICL documentation that they had. If I had questions I had all the computer centre's programmers to ask and they were happy to help as I was politer than the students and academics they normally had to deal with and actually listened to the answers rather than tried to get them to 'do my homework for me'. Happy as a pig in shit was I.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2018, 09:36:29 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on September 21, 2018, 05:52:56 pmSo early 70's? When did they stop using punch cards when the first floppies came out and were cheap enough then the real to real tapes?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2018, 10:11:45 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on September 22, 2018, 09:36:29 pmMid 70s.Punch cards hung on a lot longer than many people realise. I was using them actively in 1982 and I knew businesses and colleges that were still using them in 1985. In 1987 or 1988 I got involved in a systems migration job that required the transfer of cards to mag tape (on an IBM mainframe), and then from mag tape to floppies (on an NGEN cluster). No doubt there were a handful of systems still using punched cards into the 90s.

author: jpb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2018, 10:21:02 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on September 22, 2018, 10:11:45 pmPre-university I got a job with a software house in London and learned to program in FORTRAN on punched cards - this was in 1979. I don't know what the computer was all I knew was you delivered your program as a box of punched cards and the computer operator fed them into a hopper and then the next day you got back a stack of printout pages generally containing just one character per page because there was a mistake in the program!:)The punch cards were produced on a machine like a typewriter but with two hoppers, one for blank cards going in and one for the punched cards coming out.It was designed for a different system though so several of the characters were different requiring sticky labels to be put on the keys.This was a lot better though than the computer club at school, which I never joined, I used to watch them producing punched cards on a device with the same number of keys as there were punch holes (about 8? I forget) so each character was labouriously produced by combining the correct keys and then shifting the card along to the next column. I reckon that the "typing" rate was something like a character every 5 seconds or so! The programs they produced were run on some business computer that one of the parents got some access to at his work.I often wonder what happened to all the computer operators when their jobs disappeared in the pc revolution.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2018, 05:47:09 pm
content: When I was in high school (graduated 1984), we had 3 computer classes (plus they did some word processing type stuff in a 'business' class). Beginner BASIC, Advanced BASIC, and one they called Computer Science which was FORTRAN. Wasn't too difficult for me to skip the beginner BASIC class for the 82/83 school year because by that time I had already been programming BASIC for 4 years, had built my own computer, and had a few others. That was also the first year the FORTRAN class didn't use punch cards - they had expanded Apple II's with dual disk drives to compile and run FORTRAN on. It was so new that I actually taught the teacher how to do file I/O in the morning and then she taught it to the class. That was my moment of "if only I could have that to do over again" - during my class I wasn't paying attention to her or taking notes (why should I - she was just going over what I myself had taught her earlier that morning) and she dared chastise me for not paying attention. I was instead working on my next program. I aid nothing at the time, I was the meek, mild, very geeky kid. If I had it to do over I would have horribly embarrassed her by bringing up the fact that I had had to teach her so she could teach the rest of the class. So in my school, punch cards lasted until 81/82.I never had to use punch card in college, although the the operating system on the CDC Cyber series mainframe we had for the engineering department originally still had error messages relating to punch cards - instead of a more common "syntax error" it would print "Error on input card" on the CRT. It was I think my junior year in college when they sent out a memo saying the very last card reader in the computing center was going to be retired, so if you had any old decks, to get them submitted so they could be read and saved to your personal storage.

author: Tarloth
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2018, 07:29:50 pm
content: The first computer that I use was a ZX81 outside the school and Ti994a into the school. My first own computer was a Commodore 64. I still have the C64 and one Sinclair 2068... and one module of magnetic bubble memory from a mainframe :-)

author: BadPenny
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2018, 05:53:17 am
content: TI 994a. Cassette storage, RF adapter to small TV, 300 baud modem, 5” Floppy and extender cabinet, lived close to the distributor when they announced they were going out of business. Stood in line for hours to buy tons of software I would never use. $3,000. Invested. Bad decision.Learned on Data General Mini at work especially after hours stumbling with some assistance but no classes, running clunky RDOS. We had office IBM PC’s for the secretaries so by 84-85’ I was able to use after hours.Then IBM PC Jr. w 1024 expansion side cards 1200 baud modem and used Compuserve a bit, logging into BBS’s all over. Next IBM Clone AT 286 1987’ w 2400 baud modem, DOS 3.1 stuck with it many years. IBM ThinkPad running Windows 95, then about 30+ computers in my business and at home since then. Started on internet in 1995 and did first HTML websites in 1996. Top of Yahoo search position all my product keywords for business and ready for 2000 surge. Switched to Apple mostly in 2006. Things were great until about 2008.Unfortunately, I dislike where we are now where Google controls way too much information and 5 companies seem to control everything and owning a website feels like owning a house you need to protect like in an online ghetto. Ranking websites is super difficult. The amount of bots stealing data and brute force attempts from all over is disgusting. The internet has changed so much since the early days and to be so much spying, tracking, phishing, bot scrapers, etc.On the bright side though and By choice, I Don’t do any social media, I believe in forums like this nice one and websites and wish more people would create websites instead of using Facebook. The vast amount of reference information and Youtube tutorials by so many creative people are great.Thanks to all good people out there on this forum and Youtube!

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2018, 01:14:40 pm
content: Quote from: BadPenny on October 11, 2018, 05:53:17 amI don't know whats scarier all the personal info facebook gets when you use it or that people don't care they are giving up all their privacy and don't care... yet until some fuck up confuses them. Even if your relatives use it your info comes up. I hate that you can type my name into google and find all my info that I didn't submit.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2018, 01:59:32 pm
content: My first computer was purchased to help me gain my Information Technology qualification (called computer science back then) in the early 1980's. I remember buying it with my parents from Boots the chemist in the UK !The computer was a Dragon Data "Dragon 32" running an 8 bit MC6809E CPU and 32K of DRAMThe Dragon 32 was basically a clone of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Colour Computer (CoCo). It was so similar in design that Radio Shack sued Dragon Data claiming it was a clone of their product. The trouble was that in those days the Data sheets and application notes basically provided the manufacturer with the comp,eye computer architecture and there are only so many ways to wire up the chipset ! Radio Shack failed in their court case against Dragon Data as there were enough differences between the two computers to claim the Dragon was not a clone of a CoCo.It is interesting though that I purchased the service manual for a CoCo from RS and it was almost identical to the Dragon 32 except for the Dragon using a Parallel printer port whereas the CoCo used Serial ! The CoCo EPROM based program cartridges even worked in the Dragon 32 including the correct dimensions of the ports surround tonallow such ! Dragon Data and Radio Shack CoCo computers could normall use eachothers program cartridges and the cassette based software. There were a few exceptions but they were few.Dragon Data developed the Dragon 32 into the Dragon 64 during the products life. It was not much of a development though. Just another bank of DRAM which is what 3rd party companies had beem offering via daughter boards for some time. In fact, IIRC, the Dragon 32 actually contained enough memory chips for 64K but the chips were production rejects and only half their capacity was accessed ! These were the days when DRAM was very expensive and so some users chose to use production binning rejects that were tested "half good" in order to acquire DRAM at good prices. That was all a long time ago though and my memory may be in error.I actually repaired Dragon 32's and CoCo computers as a hobby. I still have a late model CoCo and six Dragon 32's in my attic ! I also have some unusual accessories like the 5 1/4" Floppy Drive, Winchester Drive, Maplin RS232 port, Maplin I/O port and an EPROM programmer. All are connected to the Dragon as Cartridges in the Data Cartridge Port. ThecEPROM programmer saw a lot of use as such devices were normally very expensive in the 1980's.I have also owned and repaired the venerable Commodore VIC20, Commodore 64, Sinclair Zx81 and ZX Spectrum. Never a BBC Micro though. I still have a few ZX81's in their boxes in my attic. Likely expired over the years... their ASIC was never very reliable !I know technology moves on, but I still have a huge soft spot for my Dragon 32. I have kept it and will likely never rehome it. In those days I learnt to program an 8 bit computer in Basic, Assembly language and even machine code ! I also knew how to diagnose and repair those simple 8 bit architectures with just basic test equipment, namely a 20MHz CRO, Logic probe, home made 16 channel Logic state display (add on for the CRO) and a multimeter. These days I am not able to program a PC, I am teaching myself to program PIC chips and Arduino. Repairing a modern PC motherboard is anything but enjoyable for me ! I preferred the simpler life of the Z80, 6809 and 6502 based 8 bit architecturesI do carry out repairs on modern PC's but I now need better test equipment to do it. I have expensive POST hardware, diagnostic software, high speed 32 channel Logic Analyzer and DSO's as well a the basic test equipment. It is so much more complicated and, for me anyway, so much less enjoyable.Oh, did I get my IT qualification at school ? ...... yes I did. A CSE grade 1 and my example program submission was Lunar Lander for the Dragon 32I wrote other course programming on a mixture of the Commodore PET and Z80 Research Machines that my school owned. Happy daysFraser

author: TheEPROM9
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2018, 12:55:08 am
content: Generic PC from the mid 90s. Think it was called a Colosous. Sadly the parents chucked it. I wanted to keep it as my PC.

author: SLJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2018, 01:05:47 am
content: 1980/81 built a a Ferguson Big-Board computer that was offered by Digital Research Computers as a bare board, a kit, or a ready-to-go populated board. Just add power supplies, 8 inch disk drives, a keyboard, case, and monitor. It was powered by a Z-80 processor with 64K of RAM and ran the CP/M operating system.Since home computers had not arrived yet, or at least any that I could afford at the time, I decided to build the "Big Board" so I could do work at home. Started with just the unpopulated board and parts list. Tracked down all the parts, machined the panels and keyboard case, built the chassis, found a bare keyboard and 8" drives, and power supplies. Took me a year. By the time I got it done they were switching to IBM/DOS computers.I still have it and it still works.

author: Housedad
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2018, 12:54:34 pm
content: Wish I had taken pictures of it. Junior in high school a wire wrapped 8008 system in 1975. Made it in the basement and never did write a fully working OS for it, but the OS was about 75% done. Not too shabby for a 16 year old. I would go to the local electronics scrap yard in Philly to find chips, sockets, and parts.Wild times. The three friends I had thought I was kind of kooky messing around with "that stuff" They did not see the use in it until they played packman in later years. Then they thought I was a genius. Go figure.It was a natural thing for me. My father was a Numerical Control programmer with a Masters in industrial and mechanical Engineering, My sister was a Fortran and Cobol programmer for Sperry Univac, and my two brothers were Navy Missile control technicians (nuclear). Yeah, it ran in the family.

author: tocsa120ls
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2018, 03:29:14 pm
content: C64C, my dad still tells me the story of smuggling it into the country... (Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain at that time) Had a Datasette with it, quickly progressed to a 1541-II, then another, then I modded the first one with the usual parallel cable mod that was prone to kill the VIA... but it was hellish fast. Got an Action Replay mkVII, did the SID filter mod, then sold it to pay for my fist PC compatible, a 386DX. Regretted that decision for years. But today I still have 2-3 sixtyfours kicking around, all working, just the bulky disk drives are replaced by a single SD2IEC adapter. When the desktop decides to throw a fit I just look into the corner shelf where the 64s are, and think about that I haven't found a 64 to this date that I wasn't able to repair. Keep

author: cruff
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2018, 06:04:31 pm
content: The first computer I owned was an HP 41C. Despite it being a calculator form factor, it had alphanumeric display, I/O expansion and storage via an HP-IL interface loop. If the attached image displays, that is not the actual 41C I first owned, but is a later acquisition that has been modded with the Systemyde 41CL FPGA based CPU board that is capable of running at 50x the speed of the original.The first desktop computer I owned was a Macintosh 128MiB model.

author: calin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2018, 07:46:55 pm
content: HC-85 Ice Felix -- communist Romanian ZX Spectrum clone - see herehttp://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=629The keyboard was well .. extremely shitty, I remember the key were getting stuck down (pushed) and having to poke them out with a screwdriver. Oh the good ol' days of PUT and POKE .. with a screwdriver

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2018, 09:13:37 pm
content: I am much younger than most of you here, so... AMD K6 166MHz, 64MB DRAM, 8GB HDD, 1.44MB IBM Floppy, 52x CD-ROM, nVidia GeForce 2 AGP graphics, SoundBlaster 16, runs Windows 95 and then Windows 98 and for a brief while Windows 2000. I got rid of that machine long ago.I still have my first laptop though, a 2004 Dell Latitude D620 upgraded to the max, and it runs 64-bit Windows 10.

author: Wan Huang Luo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2018, 03:57:33 pm
content: Macintosh Plus 1mb, later upgraded to 4mb. Then I got a Macintosh SE. Big difference, let me tell you!..... I never did get the Macintosh SE/30 however. My heart still pines for one.

author: precaud
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2018, 12:50:35 am
content: Quote from: cruff on November 22, 2018, 06:04:31 pmI still have my 41C and use it almost daily. It just feels "right".

author: albert001
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2018, 09:17:34 pm
content: First was an Osborne One. Found one used back in the early 80s, new retail approx. ~$1800.00. Came with a software package - database, spreadsheet, word processor and utilities. I use to belong to the First Osborne Group in my area, we used to have meetings to hash over computer designs, hardware, software, bios, problems, ideas, upgrades, etc.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1

author: hwj-d
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2019, 09:24:50 pm
content: Computer? Which computer?That's a NASCOM-1 (Z80) ;-)https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/21/unsung_heroes_dr_chris_shelton/?page=1Later a Kim-1 (6502)https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1Than an original Apple][with an expensive 16kB UCSD-Pascal extension card,what I upgraded with other motherboard with additional Z80 that allowed to install CP/M.So, my first hardware and languages was manuall Z80, -Assembler and Pascal, and on the CP/M System DBase and later Clipper, which begun to have a commercial background.After that there comes the Atari-ST (68000)Those were the days.

author: hwj-d
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2019, 09:29:17 pm
content: Quote from: albert001 on December 25, 2018, 09:17:34 pmThis one.I know him too. but I never owned one myself.

author: mdijkens
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2019, 09:54:13 pm
content: Quote from: tocsa120ls on November 22, 2018, 03:29:14 pmHa ha, my parents smuggled a C64 from NL to Hungary together with a hundred bibles

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2019, 10:27:30 pm
content: Quote from: technix on November 29, 2018, 09:13:37 pmLol. I think a K6 super 7 system is about the newest IBM compatible system that could be classified as retro. I have a K6-3 in one of my retro systems - it was a great chip and perfect for running dos and windows 95 / 98 games.

author: kkritsilas
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2019, 04:07:15 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on March 09, 2018, 05:54:02 amIf your computer was made/assembled in Canada, it was built at the factory in Montreal. If so, I wrote the ICT test program for that motherboard. It was tested either on a Genrad 2276 or Genrad 2287.My first computer was an Ohio Scientific Inc. Challenger 2P. It was pre-PC, a 1Mhz 6502, a spectacular 2K of RAM (later expanded to 4K by adding 2 1K SRAM chips inyo open sockets), circa 1977. Character graphics, in black and white. Later had a TI 99/4A, a clone 286, a Mac II, a 486 clone, a Pentium 3, and many others.

author: JagV12
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2019, 10:49:16 am
content: A TI-57 ! Yep, keyboard, screen, programmable, it IS a computer, isn't it ?The second and third ones were Commodore PET 2001 and 4016 at the model airplanes club.The fourth, fifth and sixth were borrowed from friends : ZX81, Oric 1 and Dragon 32. (all 3 processors of the era)Then I had my own Apple //e.In 1988, the company I worked for had an Apple 2gs with GPIB card to control a Stabilock 4040. But, as the 2gs and the card didn't match well (at least with the BASIC program I wrote), I swapped with my personal //e and I still have the 2gs in the cellar today.As I went back to school, I bought my beloved HP 48Sx... Still in use everyday todayNext one was an Amiga 4000 followed by x86 winboxes (NT4, W2k, W7 which is the last OS µS released)

author: techman-001
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2019, 12:16:47 am
content: Quote from: DrGeoff on February 20, 2018, 11:39:18 pmSame, I had the National Semi SC/MP kit that used a small handheld calculator body with small seven seg leds. It was pretty horrible, but very exciting at the time.I purchased it after getting some experience on a National Semi 16 bit PACE development system at work.

author: barbeque
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 03:41:53 am
content: My first working one was a Mac LC, but I grew up with a junked Adam in the corner of the basement for years.

author: lpaseen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 04:25:47 am
content: My first computer was acorn atom from cambridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Atom)It came as a kit that I had to solder together.Way later my powersupply broke, the 2n3055 that regulated 13V down to 5V decided to go short and suddenly magic smoke left lots of components. Then I was happy that I had put every IC in socket and with help of a friends computer as reference/test bench I managed to replace all components that broke and got it back up and running.

author: MarvinTheMartian
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 06:35:16 am
content: Quote from: DeanCording on April 19, 2018, 10:50:22 pmI didn't buy a kit, but I still have my Microbee in storage!I also had the fabulous tape drive where you wait for the load to complete for 20 mins and it inevitably fails at the last moment - argh!. I later upgraded to a dual CIAB ('Computer In A Book') single sided 3 1/2 inch floppy drives before I killed myself in frustration with the tapes (or threw it out of the window!)Can't recall, but I think the RAM was also upgraded as well.I also have the amber monitor, a dot matrix printer (and later a daisy wheel printer), manuals, workbooks, etc.I think I paid around A$500 when I bought the first unit (before all the upgrades).It was great fun at the time (not counting the tapes of course).

author: radiorich
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 06, 2019, 01:40:10 am
content: Hello guys,my first computer was a Apple 2C and yes I still have it and along the way I picked up two early Mac's and I have a old tandy color computer .Sincerely Rich

author: r3bers
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2019, 01:53:14 am
content: First computer was some local modified Z80 in 1992. Plugged to Regular TV by CV cable.When started it was Basic command line and load games from audio tapes.

author: nad007007
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 09:14:25 am
content: My first computer was a Casio PB100http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1000

author: Wendy_Preston
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 01:47:30 pm
content: Quote from: kayvee on February 21, 2018, 11:43:41 amSame here - we used to use Mum's decent cassette deck to make sure it both recorded and played back all the sounds nice and cleanly. Later on, as I progressed on my Computer Studies O-Level (UK old exams before GCSE you used to sit age 16), we upgraded to a 5 1/4" disc drive with additional RAM storage - advanced stuff! I was the only one in my class with the same make of computer that we used in the classroom, so I could work on my project at home, and help all my friends who were Commodore and Sinclair users in the classroom.Fun times... I still have a few adventure games I never made significant progress on that I'd love to get back to - my parents have not thrown it out yet!

author: HoracioDos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 01:57:15 pm
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on February 20, 2018, 11:35:27 pmSame here @school. Later a Talent MSX DPC200 @homehttps://www.msx.org/wiki/Talent_DPC-200When I began to work. I bought my first IBM clone PCPS: it was funny that I used early versions of IBM AS 400 and latest S38 at work before buying my own PC.

author: HoracioDos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 02:15:48 pm
content: Quote from: Wimberleytech on March 09, 2018, 03:28:26 amCool!. IBM Z grandpa

author: GadgetUK164
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 04:52:45 pm
content: The first computer I owned was a ZX81 - but what made me want a computer was the BBC Model B at school! Later followed up with Spectrum, then Spectrum+, Spectrum+2, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, before eventually moving onto PCs and consoles. The thing I like about these old systems is they have real character. Most modern PCs just blur into each other. A friend of mine once described the Amiga 500 as having soul and character - she was so right!

author: mc6800
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2019, 05:45:11 pm
content: The first computer I used was a Xerox Sigma 9 via dial-up to an ASR33 teletype. The computer was owned by the local engineering firm (Atkins), and they allowed local schools to have dial-up access. We could use BASIC or later APL (although this involved using mnemonics for all the special characters).My parents moved house, so I ended up at a new a school, and this also had dial-up, but this time to an ICL1900 (or perhaps 2900) series at the local council. Languages used included BASIC, Fortran and Filetab, a strange report-generating system.A few terms later, the school decided to purchase a SWTPC6800 in kit form, and so I was able to start programming in 6800 machine code. Over the course of a year or so, additional memory and peripherals were added (as kits to reduce costs), including a "glass teletype" and a cassette interface (prior to this, programs were stored on paper tapes).Finally, the first computer I owned (if you discount my first programmable calculator) was a sharp PC1211 handheld, followed soon after by an HX-20 - this had the great advantage that the HD6301 was an upgraded version of the 6800 in the SWTP6800 machine.

author: rambobrite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 12:06:11 am
content: I started on a TRS-80 Model I, Level 1, 4K. Eventually, it became a Level 2, 48K system, with expansion interface, a couple of disk drives, and a "five meg disk subsystem".My first hardware project was the lowercase character set mod - piggybacking a chip, cutting some traces, and adding a switch.A serial card got me online to the 2-3 BBSes in town. And then the fun began.At one point, I tried the Exatron Stringy Floppy, but those things were *fragile*.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 03:08:53 am
content: Did I post already??Signetics (2650) KT-9500 development board...Possibly one of the earliest in this thread...!https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signetics_2650https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/what-was-you-first-computer/75/

author: dietert1
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 09:28:13 am
content: My first computer was a TI SR-56 "Assembled in Italy" that i bought during the last holidays before university and that still works today. My first programming experience was with that programmable calculator.Later i hand-made a modular 8085 machine on raster boards with a hex console, TV compatible graphics, cassette storage and 32K of DRAM. I remember coding a debugger, an assembler and a full-screen editor. Must have been 1978 and the years after. The machine got lost, except the console that i may still have.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 09:50:50 am
content: First computer i used was an Ohio Scientific. I cant actually remember what it looked like. I just remember the name.After that i had some random 286 XT made from parts with a CGA screen. It then got upgraded with junk parts to a 486 DX2-66 and at some point and i managed to overclock it to DX2-80.The first computer i actually had in my room as my computer was an Amstrad with 2400 baud modem and monochrome CGA screen.The first computer i actually purchased myself was a MB/CPU/RAM upgrade, it was either a Cyrix PR166 or PR200 which i mainly used for making doom levels and playing Quake 1.After that i think it went something likeCyrix PR266Athlon 1200+Duron 900 (i blew up my 1200+ and had the Duron in a junk box)Athlon XP1800+Athlon XP64 3500+Intel Core 2 Due Q6600 which overclocked nicely from 2.5ghz to 3.2ghz from the first day i got it. heheIntel i5-7600K (my current PC) overclocked to 5.0ghz

author: RobBarter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 10:15:59 am
content: First computer was a VIC-20 with a 'massive' 5k of RAM.First computer I used was an RML-380Z at school. The memories...

author: DDunfield
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2019, 10:23:25 am
content: My first computer was a homebuilt 8080 based system, which was all hand-built wire-wrap boards on odd connectors, including a 16x63 video card (It was supposed to be 16x64 but being my first attempt at doing a video controller I screwed up the timing and rather than fix the rats nest of wire-wrap I modified the software to only use 63 columns). Initially it had 2-3K of 2114 static RAMS, but eventually grew to have a few S-100 slots with a couple 8K RAM cards and a floppy disk controller. Before the floppy, storage was via a home-hacked solenoid controlled audio tape drive. It even got a printer at one point - a Model 28 teletype machine. This was built (started anyway - it kept growing) probably around 1976.Regrettably I don't have much in the way of a record of it, other than it being visible in a couple of photos documenting my next computer (see below). It is seen in two photos under "Complete System". It is a short silver 19" rack cabinet, only about 4" high. All the homebuilt cards are bunch over on one side, leaving room for 4 S-100 cards laying horizontally on the other side.My first commercially made computer was an Altair 8800, the first S-100 system produced (originally called the "Roberts bus" after Ed Roberts the guy who designed it).I still have it, and I have documented it in a fair bit of detail. It can be seen at:http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/altair/index.htmRegards,Dave

author: bsudbrink
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2019, 10:11:56 pm
content: Quote from: Psi on March 23, 2019, 09:50:50 amAt the top of this page:http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/VCF-East2008/page3.htmlAre pictures of about half of my Ohio Scientific collection. See if any of those ring a bell.

author: GadgetUK164
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 06:55:27 pm
content: Quote from: emece67 on March 23, 2019, 04:02:00 pmNice CPC!!! Love the blue keys on that model!

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 26, 2019, 01:07:56 am
content: I worked for Radio Shack in the early 90's. We were cleaning out the back storage room and there was a CoCo 3 and tons of software. Also the ram expansion board and CoCo 2 and 3 floppy drives that appealing to the national help desk, got the info to make a cable to use both drives together. Got it all for free which kept it out of the skip. Then got for free a Tandy 1000 286 running DOS 6 and Windows 3.0 then 3.1. After that came a 386 motherboard in a case with a CD ROM drive and a floppy and that was the first computer I built up running Win 95. My first completely built computer salvaged the case, optical and hard drives and I added a 486 motherboard with 1 Mb of ram. I remember being excited for getting 4 Mb of ram for $170. Now I have a couple of $5 Window XP era gov't surplus computers with 4 Gb of ram, an HP Elitebook laptop and a Dell Precision T5500 picked up cheap from the local surplus store when they were open to the public. Just needed hard drives and they are all running Win 10. They all serve specific functions and meet my needs. No need for latest and greatest here. Just keeping stuff out of the landfill.

author: WackyGerman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2019, 06:11:56 pm
content: My first computer was an Atari 800 XL with cassette deck for loading games . Later I got the 1541 floppy drive which was a lot faster

author: drescherjm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2019, 06:41:07 pm
content: Commodore Vic 20 (I expect it still exists in my parent's attic / not sure if it would still work). I believe in winter / spring of 1982.This is where I started learning to program at 9 years old. There have been very few weeks since then that I have had less than 40 hours on a computer (or a combination of several).

author: jimmsta
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 23, 2019, 09:54:56 pm
content: Panasonic Sr. Partner, a KayPro/IBM Luggable clone.When I was a kid, I learned a bit of reading and spelling on that thing, with its green phosphor burned into my earliest memories. Around 7-8, I read the manual and BASICA book it came with, and ultimately learned BASIC because I wanted to make it do stuff.It ran an Intel 8088 CPU, I believe it had 128k ram (could be 64k), dual single density 5.25" floppies, a thermal printer on top, and shipped with DOS 3.3. I plan to do a complete restoration on it - the printer portion is kaput at this point in time, but should be repairable. The machine pre-dates me by 3 years. It was in use for writing business letters for about 5 years before I started taking an interest in it's multimedia (pc speaker!) functionality. Worked as a means of entertainment for my pre-school self. I held on to all my diskettes from that era, and have run them through the Kryoflux to keep the memories alive for eternity.As a kid, I had a tendency of taking apart anything electronic. Unfortunately, this machine was one that I did take apart - to some degree, and if my memory serves me right, I only opened it up to un-jam paper that had gotten stuck behind one of the gears of the printing mechanism. Luckily, all the parts appear to be left with the machine, so it should just be a matter of opening her up and cleaning it up inside. I doubt any of the machine needs repairing, as I recall booting it up 10 years ago or so to make sure it still worked. It wasn't used for more than a year or so, and despite the fact that it was a "luggable", it was sat on a desk for its entire use.And here I am, not only reminiscing about this old machine, but preparing to do an appropriate restoration on it.

author: L_Euler
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2019, 01:01:18 am
content: This one. Bought in 1979 and still works. I recently updated with a SD card hard drive emulator.

author: innkeeper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2019, 03:32:35 am
content: Sinclar Z80

author: Calambres
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2019, 05:32:42 pm
content: Sinclair ZX81

author: Dude111
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2019, 05:08:59 pm
content: My first computer in the 80s was a TI99 . I didnt know much about basic then but when I got my Commodore64 I loved it!!!!I would say BASIC is my favourite.... I have written several programs!!

author: russnash37
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 07, 2019, 07:22:08 pm
content: My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k at the tender age of 11. I later upgraded it to a Spectrum+ with the upgrade kit. Eventually, I moved on to an Amstrad PC1512 and have stuck with PC's ever since. On the work side of things, I cut my mainframe teeth on an IBM 3081 running DOS/VSE.

author: Enigma-man
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2019, 12:43:00 am
content: 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 EVERYBODYthought we were crazy to have them. It was dare devil equipment to many but those of us whopioneered 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.

author: Enigma-man
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2019, 12:51:12 am
content: @L_EulerA TRS-80 Model 1.Brings back memories.I still have mine along with the 48K Expansion Interface. Back in the late 70's early 80's I worked for Radio Shack and ran the service depot where I live.I have a couple of Model III's and a 4P.Edit for typo.

author: member_xyz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2019, 06:19:27 am
content: Mini Scamp kit from Electronics Australia magazine based on NS SC/MP microprocessor, with huge 256 bytes (yes 8 bit bytes) or static RAM, NO ROM. Programmed directly in binary through toggle switches.Eventually expanded RAM to 1K and then moved onto various 6502 and Z80 more commercial boards and systems.http://www.eddiem.com/micros/micros.htm.Had a senior tech role with Australian importer of early Atari 400/800 in late 70's. Many trips to Sunnyvale in silicon valley back in the "Golden age".

author: davep238
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2019, 04:58:54 pm
content: 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.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2019, 03:16:21 pm
content: 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?

author: woofy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2019, 10:21:32 am
content: 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 screenand dropping depth charges on the wrecks on the bottom, all done with ASCII characters.The first animation of that was exhilarating.

author: granzeier
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2019, 07:13:18 pm
content: 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.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2019, 11:19:12 pm
content: Quote from: Wan Huang Luo on December 05, 2018, 03:57:33 pmThere 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.

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 14, 2019, 11:50:33 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on August 14, 2019, 11:19:12 pmI've got a regular SE in my collection, but the SE/30 would be even better.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2019, 09:43:21 pm
content: Quote from: granzeier on August 14, 2019, 07:13:18 pmWas the CardIAC like a "system 80" which kind of looked like a computer if I remember correctly.

author: granzeier
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2019, 11:19:17 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on August 16, 2019, 09:43:21 pmSorry, 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.

author: Conrad Larsen
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 18, 2019, 10:30:22 am
content: Mine was a Casio PB-100 in 1983.http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1000

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2019, 11:49:16 pm
content: Quote from: granzeier on August 17, 2019, 11:19:17 amYeah 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.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2019, 04:52:05 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on August 18, 2019, 11:49:16 pmAh, 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.pdfhttps://ia801302.us.archive.org/9/items/ERIC_ED064706/ERIC_ED064706.pdf

author: mfro
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2019, 05:08:43 am
content: 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.

author: granzeier
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2019, 11:11:13 am
content: Quote from: ebastler on August 19, 2019, 04:52:05 amThanks 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.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2019, 05:45:25 pm
content: Quote from: granzeier on August 19, 2019, 11:11:13 amIt 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. .

author: xmetal
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2019, 11:44:19 pm
content: 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!

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2019, 07:08:28 pm
content: Quote from: xmetal on August 23, 2019, 11:44:19 pmThis 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: basicAnd with one finger typing I was up and programing.

author: queennikki1972
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2019, 11:40:29 am
content: Amstrad

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2019, 02:51:58 pm
content: 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.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2019, 04:20:11 pm
content: 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.

author: techman-001
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2019, 08:37:02 pm
content: Quote from: Enigma-man on May 27, 2019, 12:43:00 amThe 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!

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2019, 10:13:53 pm
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on September 24, 2019, 02:51:58 pmYou have a season up there besides winter? Can you crush-ed a c64; because it is very dangerous and we must deal with it?

author: techman-001
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 28, 2019, 12:07:26 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on September 24, 2019, 02:51:58 pmThat just the BEST "computer/robot" story I've ever heard!

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 28, 2019, 03:22:06 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on September 27, 2019, 10:13:53 pmSure, although summer only lasts one day, from mid-May to mid-July. Some summers we don't get any snowfall at all!Quote from: Beamin on September 27, 2019, 10:13:53 pmYou 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 goingbackto 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!Quote from: techman-001 on September 28, 2019, 12:07:26 amThanks!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.

author: Doom-the-Squirrel
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 23, 2019, 03:02:00 am
content: My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4Ahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99%2F4ALearned a lot of BASIC on it.Played a lot of games too. I had a lot of the cartridges.I miss using it sometimes.

author: mrz80
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2019, 06:06:42 pm
content: 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.

author: Aztlanpz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2019, 09:01:53 pm
content: My fist computer was a CoCo 2.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2020, 12:54:22 am
content: This KIM-1 - still have it and it still works.

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2020, 11:54:53 am
content: Quote from: DrG on January 30, 2020, 12:54:22 amI think this is what eventually turned into PET.

author: Mortymore
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2020, 01:28:38 pm
content: Before I had a computer at home I played for some year withZX Spectrum 48kand aPhilips MSX VG-8020from 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 aCASIO FX-880pIn 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.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2020, 03:13:51 pm
content: Quote from: technix on February 01, 2020, 11:54:53 amThere 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.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2020, 03:28:45 pm
content: Quote from: DrG on February 01, 2020, 03:13:51 pmThe 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.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2020, 03:53:47 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on February 01, 2020, 03:28:45 pmYup, I remember reading the obit. Good story about him at the WESCOM convention herehttp://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 a6501for sale - did see one at a price that is just too high to postStill, 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.

author: dbctronic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2020, 03:08:05 am
content: The... uhhh... first computer Iownedwas 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 andusedwas 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.

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2020, 07:33:07 am
content: Quote from: DrG on January 30, 2020, 12:54:22 amOh 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:

author: tocsa120ls
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2020, 08:59:28 am
content: Small wonder that all 6102s are still working on the KIM board

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2020, 04:26:29 pm
content: Quote from: tocsa120ls on February 03, 2020, 08:59:28 amReally? 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

author: djos
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 03, 2020, 08:36:14 pm
content: Quote from: DrG on February 03, 2020, 04:26:29 pmIf 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.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2020, 10:36:54 pm
content: Quote from: DrG on January 30, 2020, 12:54:22 amAmazing 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.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2020, 12:44:15 am
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on February 03, 2020, 10:36:54 pmYeah, 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.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2020, 01:03:55 am
content: 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...

author: dfnr2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2020, 10:01:31 pm
content: 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.

author: dbctronic
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2020, 01:00:15 am
content: 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!

author: Joel_l
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2020, 01:19:21 am
content: 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.

author: Photoman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2020, 01:08:44 am
content: 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).

author: dropkick
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2020, 04:49:13 am
content: This, of course!OK what 8 year old boydidn'twant 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.

author: mfro
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2020, 04:16:05 pm
content: Quote from: jmelson on May 04, 2018, 09:23:43 pmI 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.

author: ozcar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2020, 08:35:50 pm
content: First computer Iusedwas an IBM S/360 Model 50, complete with 2361 LCS - an add-on core storage unit.First computer I everownedwas 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.

author: nockieboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2020, 01:52:52 pm
content: First computer I everownedwas 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.

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2020, 12:57:21 am
content: My first was a KIM-1.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2020, 10:34:23 am
content: Quote from: mrz80 on December 18, 2019, 06:06:42 pmI like the couch and toaster so you have hot toast while you do basic.

author: Keith956
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2020, 01:10:55 pm
content: So the first digital computer I owned was an Exidy Sorcerer bought in 1979, Complete with S100 bus extender, two 8 inch floppy drives and it ran CP/M. Somewhere I've still got 'Original Adventure' on floppy for it.

author: THDplusN_bad
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2020, 05:58:54 pm
content: Good Day,Ah, yes, it seems that everybody holds some fond memories of the 1st computer in his/her heart...I suppose I had a "typical computer career" of a teenager that grew up in West-Germany in the 80s.1st impressions of what a PC is were the Spectrum ZXs, Sinclair ZX-80s and Commodore VC-20s of my peers at the boarding school. A TI99/4A with TI invaders game on it was the ultimate attraction, until we have found out how restrictive TI's policy was - no schematics, no real programming support, no real 3rd party networkI had then saved enough to get my own Commodore C-64 two years after that. I was over the moon with it - we built several user port interfaces for a hardware reset-button (lo-and-behold), a series of LEDs and even an AD-converter! I was not much into assembler programming back in the days, but very much into "swapping" cracked games!Anyone here that still remembers the Dynamic Duo "intros" or those by the Swedish Cracking Association SCA? Oh my, there are even websites for that!https://intros.c64.org/intro/swca-01and YT-videos!Never really interested in the Schneider CPC128/Amstrad-CPC or other alternatives. I still have that C64 with its bulky power supply and a datasetteI had then "upgraded" to an Commodore AMIGA A500, topped the memory to 1 MByte - oh, yes, just to see that famous video animation of a walking cat "El Gato" turning a full 360° angleHoly Moly - the cat video can still be found at 1:47 here, that is AMAZING!https://www.techeblog.com/a-look-back-amiga-500I remember that the Atari ST wasthedream machine for the more serious programmers and for the egg-heads...Just because it was cheap I had also bought a Commodore C-16 a few years after the Amiga.And then up for a 486DX-40 (?) IBM-compatible PC and on with Cyrix-CPUs-powered PCs, and Pentiums...Cheers,THDplusN_bad

author: woofy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2020, 09:03:18 am
content: Quote from: Keith956 on November 11, 2020, 01:10:55 pmThat's a computer I've not heard of in a while. Never owned one myself but a colleague I used to work with did. We used to get together for a "computer evening" at home with my Nascom 1.Fun days.

author: larrybl
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2020, 05:21:33 pm
content: My Son got this working.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2020, 08:05:31 pm
content: Quote from: larrybl on November 16, 2020, 05:21:33 pmNice, thanks for posting. I never had one but for some reason Radio Shack, at some point, sold their power supply boards for this TI computer....and, again, for some reason, I bought one of those

author: salvathor
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 17, 2020, 09:54:20 am
content: Mine was an Olivetti Prodest PC128, a rebranded Thomson MO6. With 128 Kb of RAM !https://worddisk.com/wiki/Thomson_MO6/

author: larrybl
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2020, 12:30:26 am
content: My Son loading a game on to his vintage TI 99 Computer from his Smart Phone.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6vf8--Gn0&feature=youtu.be

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2020, 10:55:55 pm
content: "Iskra-1256"

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2020, 11:34:31 pm
content: eurocard system in 19 inch rack built around a motorola 6802 processor. i had to solder everything myself. then i got my hands on a used apple II and then a single board around a 8052-ah-basic. and then i got my first pc. a 386DX , non of that sx crap ) with 1 meg of ram and a 100Mb harddisk. VGA card on a NEC Mulitsync 3 monitor.

author: brcondor
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 21, 2020, 04:34:16 am
content: Mac 128K with one 3.5 internal floppy. I added an external floppy some time later and thought it was awesome to not have to swap floppies from the OS to another program. My first mod was swapping the motherboard with one from a Mac Plus that had the CRT cracked. I thought it was such an advance to be able to add memory simms.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2020, 05:25:08 am
content: Quote from: S. Petrukhin on November 19, 2020, 10:55:55 pmI have to ask: Did you ever accidentally press Reset when intending to press Write?

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2020, 08:57:59 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on December 21, 2020, 05:25:08 amNo, I was young and had very good coordination, stimulated by re-entering the program text line by line.The photo, by the way, is inaccurate, this is another model "Iskra-226" in which Basic. I didn't find the photo "Iskra-1256".But outwardly they are very similar.Or... no, no, that's right: there is a switch "Fortran-bird language". The "write(" operator is for Fortran, and on the same button, the "ввод (" operator is for bird language.

author: Kuber
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 02:27:44 pm
content: SWTPC 6800 kit system, purchased in 1977. It had a whopping 2K of RAM, which I later upgraded to 4K. To this day I could still (probably) write a 6800 machine code program without referring to any documentation.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 04:22:32 pm
content: I always thought those boxes were quite cool. Do you still have it? If not, do you remember where it ended it up?

author: Wawavoun
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 06:02:42 pm
content: Hello there !Elektor Junior Computer.... 1982... The one on the picture is a rebuild !Soldering iron was useful when programming !Philippe

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 06:24:09 pm
content: I remembered a joke...-Dad, did you have the Internet as a child?-No.- DVD?- No...- And there was no computer?- It was not...- Paaap, and you have seen the dinosaurs?

author: Larryc001
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2021, 10:37:02 pm
content: My first computer was not really mine, but it was the first computer I had seen. It was in 1966 that the radio observatory where I worked purchased a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-9. It lived in a large screen room inside the radio telescope control room. I learned to program it in assembly language. It was the start of a career in computer software. I eventually worked for DEC and I was able to work on a variety of their computers. I even spent some time in the plant in Maynard, Mass. Those were the days all right, the Wild West of computers.

author: rfclown
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2021, 02:21:36 am
content: Quote from: LaserSteve on February 21, 2018, 12:24:38 amMine was exactly the same. I learned a lot from it. I hand assembled and poked into memory. I did a mod to double the clock speed. I did a mod to add lower case. I got the technical reference manual, and as a high schooler got a start understanding digitial electronics. The whole design was simple enough for me to understand every part of it (those were good times). Everything was memory mapped (keyboard, display). Just Z80, TTL chips, character ROM, BASIC ROM, RAM, not much else. When the warranty ran out and the display went wonkers, I made a logic probe and traced the problem down to a bad inverter in the video circuit. I was very nervous taking the bad DIP part off the board (I'd never done anything like that before). I used an IC socket for the replacement, and solved the problem. I had planned on making an expansion interface, but never finished it. Still have the wire wrapped fragments of the start of the project (and 16k of memory).Before that, the first computer I used was an IBM 360. At my dad's job they let me run a FORTRAN program on punch cards which computed a quadratic equation. Then at the same company, they let me play with an Olivetti programmable calculator like this one:

author: MIS42N
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2021, 09:04:13 am
content: My first computer program was written in Algol for an Elliot 803 c. 1967. Years later I had shares in a KIM-1, we couldn't individually afford it. We had the use of an old paper tape teletype for I/O. I wrote a 6502 assembler for it, I'm hoping to unearth the code one day, it was tiny, I think 300 bytes. It read the source, put the code direct into memory. It had no error checking so there was also a disassembler and if it was loaded first the assembled instruction, instead of loading into memory, was disassembled and compared with the source line. If it didn't match byte for byte it was flagged as an error. The first computer I owned was an Ohio Superboard with ROM BASIC and keys soldered direct to the motherboard. Then followed Atari 400, Atari 800, Osborne 1, Visual 1050 then various PCs starting with a 80486SX with DOS. I still have most plus a few others given to me. C64, Amiga, Apple IIc, Kaypro, Toshiba 3100. Awaiting the time when I restore them (probably never). I also have an acoustic modem terminal. And an Intel 4040 evaluation kit with ceramic ICs. Still using a Compaq Armada laptop c.1998 as a serial terminal. The junk we keep!

author: intabits
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 06:31:20 am
content: Quote from: Larryc001 on January 24, 2021, 10:37:02 pmHave you seen the movie "The Dish"?About the Parkes radio telescope involvement with the Apollo program. They also had a PDP-9.

author: srb1954
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 08:03:54 am
content: Quote from: DrG on January 14, 2021, 04:22:32 pmI still have my SWTPC 6800 stashed away somewhere. I built it from a kit in 1978.I equipped it with what was a huge amount of RAM at the time: a whole 8K bytes. With that amount of memory I could run the Motorola co-resident editor and assembler and still have enough memory left over to assemble and run small programs. All the application S/W had to be loaded off a painfully slow cassette interface which took about half an hour to load each time.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 06:11:31 pm
content: Quote from: srb1954 on January 27, 2021, 08:03:54 amIf you ever dig it up, please post the experience (getting it to work) and, by all means, with some pics!

author: faraday
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 11:47:43 pm
content: My first computer TIMEX2048

author: Larryc001
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 04:36:42 am
content: Quote from: intabits on January 27, 2021, 06:31:20 amYes thanks I have. I actually wrote some software for them. Funny I had forgotten about that.

author: ozcar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 06:17:41 am
content: Quote from: srb1954 on January 27, 2021, 08:03:54 amI built my SWTPC 6800 in 1977. Building it in stages, I spent quite some time working with it before I put together any of the RAM boards, so fitting hand-assembled programs into the huge 128byteRAM chip on the CPU board. I know it ended its days upgraded to a 6809 with 48K RAM, but now I can't even remember now how that 48K was made up, maybe 2 x 8K boards and a 32K non-SWTPC board.I got rid of most of it over 10 years ago, but I had a lot of the plug-in boards up until 2017, when I finally turfed them out. However, on my desk next to me now there is a small power supply I built in the last year. The top cover of that is made out of a piece of the perforated aluminium sheet from the SWTPC machine.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 05:45:35 pm
content: Quote from: faraday on January 27, 2021, 11:47:43 pmInterestingly, although not as "sexy" design-wise (but tastes vary) as the original Sinclair Spectrum it was based on, the TIMEX2048 was actually a better product.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 05:46:20 pm
content: I had an Heathkit LSI-11, not sure what Heath called it. The CPU board and back plane were from DEC, the rest of the machine was Heath. A friend had a paper tape reader/punch, but the power supply in that was anemic and it would not punch the DEL character well. lolI bought 8" floppy drives for it. The machine ran RT-11. The biggest limitation was the OS would allocate half the remaining disk space for any file opened until it was closed. So when compiling opening multiple output files would greatly restrict the size of the final one. I guess this was their way of assuring contiguous files.10 years later when I had a 286 or maybe a 486? Not sure which, I finally cleaned out the garage and trashed the Heath. I didn't think about historical perspectives.Wait! I did have one before that. It was an 8008 based MOD-8 by MiniMicroMart. Originally used 1702A EPROMs and a TTY current loop. A bug in the PROM was fixed with a logic patch on the memory board. I adapted it for RS-232 and possibly 2716 EPROMS. After that I had a Technico TMS9900 SBC. That was adapted for 2716 EPROMs for sure. You could even program them in the socket... I think. Not sure how the programming program ran while programming the EPROM. Too long ago. I guess it ran from RAM, but how would the EPROM get erased... wait! I think I had an adapter that plugged into the two EPROM sockets to allow FOUR EPROMs to be used, program two while running from the other two (16 bit machine).I still have both of these, but no idea what shape they are in. Haven't fired up either one in decades. Yes, plural.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 06:08:15 pm
content: Quote from: gnuarm on January 29, 2021, 05:46:20 pmThis onehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H11- that's hard core!Don't feel too bad about trashing it, I have kept a few things that better-adjusted people would have thrown out long agoand it did not have much to do with historical perspective.

author: jfiresto
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 06:13:12 pm
content: Quote from: gnuarm on January 29, 2021, 05:46:20 pmHeathkit called it the H11. Heathkit's H27 floppy disk system emulated the SSSD RXO1 which stored somewhat less than 1/4 megabyte per disk. That is not much. The DECUS C compiler for RT-11 actually ran pretty well off 1 megabyte per disk, DSDD 8" floppies.

author: temperance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 08:03:39 pm
content: Our first computer: a 486 running at 40MHz. What a (costly) beast. But very disappointing too.A few days after it was delivered I rushed to a store to get a book about C in the big city only to find out it was impossible to compile C programs with the software installed on that machine. Being 13 years old and living in a suburban area didn't help because no one in my area could help with that. Pretty boring. That machine was only good for writing school assignments and playing simple games in which I wasn't really interested. I wanted to flash lights, run motors and what not. An other thing which I found interesting was finding out how a computer calculated sines, cosines,... and program my own calculator. An other disappointment because in the local library they didn't serve any books on the subject. (and if they did, I would not understand to much of what would be in those books because curve fitting and series is something you learn about much later)Then came EDWIN, a PCB CAD package which hobbyists could buy for about €35. A few years later I spend all my hard earned money on a kit with a 80C752. Microcontrollers of that type back then costed around €50. The kit was nothing more then some kind of 80C75x series programmer. Still no C compiler but all assembly language. All you got for that money was 2K EPROM memory and 128 bytes RAM. I still have those. The scariest part was powering up a circuit for the first time and that €50 controller would go up in smoke. The first LCD display I obtained with an HD44780 controller was salvaged from a fax machine. Memories...

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2021, 01:09:14 am
content: Quote from: DrG on January 29, 2021, 06:08:15 pmSeeing that almost brings tears to my eyes. It would have been the crown jewel of my junk collection and it is under a mountain of debris now.I feel I dishonored it.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2021, 01:51:20 am
content: Quote from: gnuarm on January 30, 2021, 01:09:14 amNahhh you did not dishonor anything - you were fortunate enough to be part of a very exciting time!

author: djbrooks
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 01, 2022, 12:57:24 pm
content: Quote from: Beamin on February 20, 2018, 10:34:43 pmGreat.! I love those days

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2022, 11:22:54 pm
content: My first was an 8080 or Z80 (I forget which) CPM box that the crooks never shipped. My second computer was an LSI-11 made by Heathkit. I didn't miss the CPM box anymore.

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2022, 12:11:02 am
content: The first one I programmed was in 1963. Some unknown minicomputer, when I was about nine years old. I was in a summer class where we hand-punched Hollerith computer cards and got the results back in a week. I didn't know what I was doing, really, but I enjoyed it.The first one I programmed in person was a PDP-11 (?) when I about 20, in school. We used the KSR-33 teletype / paper tape and that's how I learned BASIC.The first one I worked on was a friends Altair -- I designed and built a paper-tape reader for loading bootcode, and a tape modem (Kansas City Standard) for program storage.The first one I owned was a 6502 (?) evaluation board that had a built-in keypad. I soldered together a pair of R2R DACs and had it displaying simple X/Y wireframe graphics on my oscilloscope.Then I could actually afford to buy a Sinclair ZX81. I wore that sucker out.Next was an IBM PC clone, with a 10 MHz clock (or was it 8?). It had a toggle switch on the back to switch the clock to the standard 4.77 MHz. I added an external 5MByte hard drive -- Wow!Then an Apple-2, when moonlighting as a consultant.Then at work, Sun workstations and PCs.Since then, a long progression of PC clones.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 04:45:09 am
content: Quote from: THDplusN_bad on November 11, 2020, 05:58:54 pmWhat did your comrades in east germany have for computers? Did they even have transistors? I bet their pocket radios didn't brag about "6 transistor" But maybe "One transistor" crystal radios. Computers? in East Germany, isn't a guy that sits at a desk all day solving math problems by pen and paper?

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 05:35:41 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on October 18, 2022, 04:45:09 amYou are misinformed; East Germany was not that far behind in technical capabilities. But the products were often very hard to come by for their citizens -- expensive, available only sporadically, or with waiting lists that could be many years long (e.g. for a new car).One reason for the supply shortfall was that products were actually exported to the West, in return for foreign currency that was needed for imports. East Germany certainly exported plenty of transistor radios to Western Europe!Computer technology was lagging behind by a few years, but followed the same path as elsewhere. Microprocessors were made locally, but the designs were mostly following Western processors closely. An Intel i8008 clone made from 1978 onwards started this product line, followed by 8-bit and 16-bit processors, up to '286 compatibles in 1989, just before the political "Wende" in the East and re-unification.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 10:04:10 am
content: Hah! The first pc my family ever had is an Amstrad CPC 464. Older than me, as old as my sister. I haven't booted it in a couple of years, but last time it was still functioning (minus some keys that need cleaning and probably restoration)I dabbled with it for a bit but in reality i never got the hitch for retrocomputing, programming in basic on those old machines... not for me.

author: Black Phoenix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 11:07:46 am
content: ZX Spectrum +3 mostly used for games. Never done a program on him.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 03:22:26 pm
content: recollection of computers I used and built1965 CCNY NYC program punch cards, Fortran II on IBM 360, filled entire basement of Teman Engineering building1975 Popular Electronics SOL basic, Leslie Solomon was a friend1983..1986 CPM office computer1986, built IBM AT type using Faraday mobo, my first PC, MD DOS 3.1!Just a walk down memory laneJon

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2022, 03:46:29 pm
content: I was given away a Columbia VP1600 with orange phospor screen circa 1996, had some kind of memory issue where suddenly all the characters became happy faces after a while.I remember fixing the mega-floppies with Norton utilities every then and now!

author: Sherlock Holmes
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2022, 04:55:24 pm
content: This baby, I was studying electronics and telecommunications in Liverpool UK in the late 1970s and I got myself one of these, a TI-57I was amazed at this calculator, I'd never programmed a machine before and found it very absorbing. I later got myself this one, a PR-100The TI was well constructed but the PR-100 was a good machine, these were truly my and many peoples' first real experience of programming.As for microprocessors, this was the very first and I did a lot with it, even made a crude robot where each of two wheels had a motor and I used a bank of relays to stop/start/revere the motors, it was crude but a lot of fun, had two 6V lead acid batteries, this was right about the time Star Wars got released, very timely.It was a kit, very exciting at the time, had a 1MHz 6502 with an extra INS8154 IO chip. It also supported the CUTS tape standard so I could save/load code, that worked quite reliably too, remarkable.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2022, 07:40:56 pm
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on October 18, 2022, 03:46:29 pmAh, monochrome text buffer filled with 0x01, or the video generator not accessing the memory correctly and thinking it was filled with 0x01.The good ol'cp437and its happy faces at codes 1 and 2. I was rather enamored of the box-drawing characters, but then found out from RBIL (Ralf Brown's Interrupt List) how to reprogram the character set, and started making all sorts of my own funky char-mode graphics, in glorious 640x350 with 16-out-of-64 EGA colors, too.

author: globoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2022, 08:23:48 pm
content: A Quest Electronics Elf kit that my Dad bought me for $99USD. I think I may still have it but can't remember where and haven't looked at it in a long time. It had 256 bytes of RAM and a 32 byte ROM (with 3 commands entered using the switches). Based around the quirky RCA CDP1802 microprocessor that sports an instruction called Set X (opcode SEX) which made my pre-adolescent self giggle every time. I was insanely jealous of another kid who had an Apple II with the works.The pic is courtesy of "astrorat.com" but I had a copy of the schematic for some reason.

author: Phil_G
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2022, 12:16:58 pm
content: The Cosmac Elf is alive and well, with a strong following:https://groups.io/g/cosmacelf/topicsandhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/cosmacelf?sorting_setting=CHRONOLOGICALNew members always welcome!CheersPhil

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2022, 09:26:42 pm
content: Quote from: globoy on December 03, 2022, 08:23:48 pmI had a kit similar to this a long time ago, with an accompanying book that I still have in my library. It was my introduction to low-level microprocessor design. The book was pretty detailed in how the CDP1802 worked internally and its design was easy to understand. As can be seen, the book shows signs of use and abuse. I don't have the board anymore sadly.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2023, 07:35:32 pm
content: For as far as I can remember my first computer was a Casio PB100. Not very exiting but it gave me my first programming experience in basic. Got a Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 soon after and made all sorts of extensions for it. Eventually ended up with two of them. Ditched them 5 or 6 years ago after trying them since not being used for ages. One failed altogether and the other one started but had some problems. The extension box with floppy drives also did not work anymore.Also had a bunch of Apple II's but they also had problems with magic smoke and I could not be bothered to fix them or sell them via evil bay. So together with a bunch of old PC's it all went to the recycle station.Have had many computers throughout my live. When we moved to France I offloaded a station wagon full of Apple Macintosh computers and peripherals onto some enthusiast, so those went to a good home.

author: elecdonia
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2023, 02:57:59 pm
content: The first computer I interacted with one-on-one for a considerable length of time and wrote code for was aDEC PDP-5.Word length: 12 bitsMemory: 4k words of magnetic coreLanguage: BASICI/O: TeletypeThe PDP-5 completely filled up a 6-foot rack because it was constructed with discrete transistor logic circuits. It did not contain any integrated circuits. Its successor (the PDP-8) was much smaller do to the invention of TTL logic chips.I succeeded at writing a BASIC program to solve a 4th-order differential equation with the results “plotted” by the position of a “*” on each line printed by the TTY. It used nearly all of the available memory. My program used the “Thiele/Small equations” to model the frequency response of a simulated loudspeaker.

author: elecdonia
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2023, 03:09:15 pm
content: Quote from: rbm on February 21, 2018, 11:44:32 amWe should have a separate topic for“What was your first DIY single-board computer?”Mine had an Intel 8080, EPROM chips with the window for UV erasing, 4k of static RAM, and a serial port. Like yours, the construction method was IC sockets and wire-wrap.

author: dobsonr741
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2023, 11:21:45 pm
content: Commodore CBM around 1987 when I was an intern.

author: Mad Axeman
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2023, 12:07:40 am
content: Hi AllMy 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 :'(