First Computer

[GroundStrength]

Bought a used one just like this back in junior high. THose were the days.

 

[Brown]

My first computer was a 1984 Apple Macintosh, signed by Steve Jobs.

 

[Mendor]

The joys of rubber keys.

 

[Bottle or the Gun]

Sealed rubber keyboards are a requirement for many industries (Police, etc) nowadays. Big $$ in those upgrades. I sent a few of those roll-up keyboards to friends in Operation Desert Shield because the sand was detroying them. Couldn't find any mice that were Iraq-proof, so ended up using roller-ball type in baggies.

Here's my first computer...

 

[Peter Jenkins]

The Commodore C64. I used it to play with 'basic', (and play with the games bundle, that it came with, of course )

The first 'PC' I actually used for business was something like this Prestel terminal, which we used for ordering parts from suppliers:

Peter

 

[El Greco]

This was my first computer:

 

[iain]

The joys of rubber keys.

Yep - me too. ZX Spectrum with 48K of raw power and software loaded from audio casette tape (load up 40k in 5 minutes, jog the volume knob and have to start all over again).

 

[joyrex]

Nice thread.

I had Spectravideo SVI728..

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=229

 

[Graham]

Bought a used one just like this back in junior high. THose were the days.

We had one of those too. My first computer game was a text adventure played on the Texas called "Sorcerer's Castle"

I found the princess under the bed and finished the game and so began a long saga of wasted youth

I think it's still up in my parent's attic somewhere. The printer was a daisy wheel jobbie about the size of a VW beetle and made an unholy noise.

Graham

 

[GroundStrength]

Graham,

Yes, I too remember. I was hunting the Wumpus most nights.

Scott

 

[Segnosaur]

I started with a Commodore Vic 20 (a whole 5k of memory, but only 3.5k was usable), then moved up to a Commodore 64. Also bought a Commodore +4 (Commodore's aborted attempt to come up with a 'business' computer).

Eventually moved up to an Atari 520ST... very nice machine (had a 'windowing' system back when PC users were still mostly on DOS, and was much cheaper and faster than the Macs of the time.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Couldn't find any mice that were Iraq-proof, so ended up using roller-ball type in baggies.

Here's my first computer...

How do ' optical ' mice become impaired in Iraq ?

 

[Soapy Sam]

They cut off their tails with a carving knife...

 

[Beanbag]

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-80 that I built from a kit.

I went to the TI-994A after that, and piddled with it for a while. Ended up with a dual floppy drive system.

My first "real" computer was a Morrow MD-2 CP/M-based machine, where you had to have an RS232 terminal plugged into the box. No hard drive, everything was floppy-based. I used it for cutting code for Z80-based custom microcontrollers I was building at the time.

The good old days...

Regards;
Beanbag

 

[epepke]

My first computer was a Cosmac ELF based on the RCA 1802 chip that I built from parts, using a design in Popular Electronics (though I used my own design for the front end, using PROMs for a 2-digit hex display.) However, with just machine language and 256 bytes of memory, it was only of modest entertainment value.

My second was a TRS-80 model I, which I spent a summer working with the Youth Conservation Corps so that I could afford it. I eventually got the expansion box with more memory, a disk drive, and a hideous little screen printer using metalic paper, which it burned holes into with a high voltage source. I also put in an extra screen memory chip and rewired it to do lower case, overclocked it, and added an analog joystick made of two 555 timer oscillators that I had to poll in software.

 

[Cleon]

My first computer, an Apple II+ that my Dad got when I was just a little tyke. A single double-density 5.25" floppy drive, two paddles (for you young'ns--a paddle is like a joystick, with a knob on the top and a button on the side), and a whopping 48 K of RAM. It still works; I crank it up and play Space Invaders every now and then.

 

[Bottle or the Gun]

How do ' optical ' mice become impaired in Iraq ?

They don't, but they do emit a pretty bright red light, that when viewed through night vision devices will illuminate an area the size of a room. Not tactical at all!

 

[richardm]

They don't, but they do emit a pretty bright red light, that when viewed through night vision devices will illuminate an area the size of a room. Not tactical at all!

How does the light compare to that emitted by the display?

 

[Skeptical Greg]

How does the light compare to that emitted by the display?

I think they turn the brightness wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down, and use night vision glasses to use the computer...

 

[Bottle or the Gun]

It's just a military thing. If you've ever been in the service you know they come up with wacky rules. There are desired and un-desired levels of light.