OT: Complete the following statement, "My first computer was a..."

rand029 · #1 March 27th, 2002, 11:49 PM

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1
4k in the keyboard, 16K expansion module to use the 360k single side 5.25" floppy drive. Black and white screen.

The thing only had capital letters, no sound, graphics consistiong of a 2x3 block, and reset every time someone walked by with a little static on them.

Programmed in basic and assembly into L-DOS ($399) from 80 Micro Magazine.

Ah, the good old days. And everyone thinks silver computers are new.

http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/trs80-m1.html

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: rand029 ]

geoschmo · #2 March 28th, 2002, 12:07 AM

quote:
Originally posted by rand029:
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1
4k in the keyboard, 16K expansion module to use the 360k single side 5.25" floppy drive. Black and white screen. [ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: rand029 ]

Oh my! My best friend in grade school had one of those. Well, his dad did anyway. We'd play really cheesy video games on it. His dad used it for his real estate buisness or something.

Single sided floppy disks! Remember how cool it was when you found out you could cut a notch on the other side and format it too? Oh man we were rebels...

Anybody remember the goofy comic books at Radio Shack with the kids using a TRS-80 helping Superman to save the planet. What a hoot!

Geoschmo

[ 27 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Alpha Kodiak · #3 March 28th, 2002, 12:53 AM

Apple II+ w/48K of RAM. Initially used a tape player for storage, then graduated to 120K floppy drive. Finally upgraded it to 64K of RAM.

My favorite games on it were Wizardry 1 and 2, and Might and Magic 1. (Yes, I was big into RPGs then. Of course, I still am

)

MM9 coming soon!

dmm · #4 March 28th, 2002, 12:57 AM

First "computer" I ever programmed was myself, writing up D&D-like adventures for my brother and me to play in, complete with triggers, i/o, subroutines, calls to random number generators, etc.

First electronic "computer" I ever programmed was a programmable calculator (Texas Instruments). You could save something like 40 keystrokes, then replay them. Good for crunching lab data.

First real computer I ever programmed: some mainframe, used punch cards, in Fortran.

First "portable" computer I ever programmed: a PDP-11, you programmed it in assembly using switches, and the answers were delivered in octal using LEDs. That was old even then, but it sure did teach me how computers actually worked.

First computer I actually owned: 66 MHz 486 clone. I'm too cheap to be a trend-setter.

And yes, I too had Pong. Actually, Super Pong!

TerranC · #5 March 28th, 2002, 12:58 AM

The foul stench of youth...

The horrifying odor of Old People...

Bah! To heck with you all!

Tenryu · #6 March 28th, 2002, 01:52 AM

1980, Atari 800, 32KB Ram, Tape Deck for "mass storage", LOL!!!

I had to save for 3 YEARS to buy that baby! And, more difficult, convince the dear wife what a wonderful effect it would have on our child's education, as well as she being able to keep her reciepies and our check book balanced on there. Oh yeah, we could use it as a CALCULATOR too.
Sadly, she never really took the time to put it to such use. So, not wanting it to go to waste, I used it for entertainment.

Wanted an Apple IIC but couldn't get the joint that sold them to come down in price. Atari was the new kid on the block and after pestering the guy that owned the shop that sold these for about a year, he finally sold me the 800 for $800. Mainly to get rid of me, I think. He even threw in two games!!! Awesome!! Star Raiders and some space ship fleet battle game!!! I've been screwed ever since, a sucker for just about any space strategy game.

I had a friend who had a Commador Pet computer. When i told him I had 32 KB of RAM he exclaimed: "32 Kilobytes!!! What the hell for?! You can do anything ya want with 8K!"

Those were da days!

Richard · #7 March 28th, 2002, 02:21 AM

81 or 82, a Vic-20. That fried in a few years (lightning) and I didn't have another computer of my own until 1995 when I got my first PC.

In the mean time I used the schools Apple's, my friend and my grandfathers, TI99/4A, the schools IBM compat's, some college macs, and then graduated to Unix workstations...

quote:
Originally posted by Tenryu:
1980, Atari 800, 32KB Ram, Tape Deck for "mass storage", LOL!!!

I had to save for 3 YEARS to buy that baby! And, more difficult, convince the dear wife what a wonderful effect it would have on our child's education, as well as she being able to keep her reciepies and our check book balanced on there. Oh yeah, we could use it as a CALCULATOR too.
Sadly, she never really took the time to put it to such use. So, not wanting it to go to waste, I used it for entertainment.

Wanted an Apple IIC but couldn't get the joint that sold them to come down in price. Atari was the new kid on the block and after pestering the guy that owned the shop that sold these for about a year, he finally sold me the 800 for $800. Mainly to get rid of me, I think. He even threw in two games!!! Awesome!! Star Raiders and some space ship fleet battle game!!! I've been screwed ever since, a sucker for just about any space strategy game.

I had a friend who had a Commador Pet computer. When i told him I had 32 KB of RAM he exclaimed: "32 Kilobytes!!! What the hell for?! You can do anything ya want with 8K!"

Those were da days!