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Your First COMPUTER!

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Mystery Squid, Apr 25, 2007.

  1. Mystery Squid

    Mystery Squid Junior Member

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    ...and "computers" in the desktop traditional sense, NOT an L.E.D. watch from 1967, or vacuum tube device from 1952 (and yes, I know earlier computers had the tubes)... You're all smart enough to know the spirit of the question!

    Here's mine:

    Tandy MC10

    [​IMG]

    "NAME MC 10
    MANUFACTURER Tandy Radio Shack
    TYPE Home Computer
    ORIGIN U.S.A.
    YEAR 1983
    END OF PRODUCTION 1984
    BUILT IN LANGUAGE Microcolor Basic 1.0 (Microsoft)
    KEYBOARD QWERTY / AZERTY, Calculator style keyboard, 48 keys, Basic statements written above keys
    SHIFT, CONTROL, ENTER, BREAK
    CPU Motorola 6803 (6800 compatible)
    SPEED 0.89 MHz
    CO-PROCESSOR MC-6847 Video Generator
    RAM 4 kb (up to 20 kb), 3142 bytes left for user
    ROM 8 kb (Microcolor Basic)
    TEXT MODES 32 x 16
    GRAPHIC MODES With Basic : 64 x 32, 8 colors
    With machine-code : up to 128 x 192, 2 colors
    With machine-code and 16k expansion RAM : 256 x 192, 2 colors
    COLORS 9
    SOUND Beeper with variable pitch and duration
    SIZE / WEIGHT 216 mm x 180 mm x 50mm / 836gr
    I/O PORTS RGB DIN8 or RF jack (USA) video out, Expansion port, Tape (DIN6), Serial (DIN5), power IN
    POWER SUPPLY 8.0v AC 1.5A (MATRA Alice PSU can be used)
    PERIPHERALS 16k RAM expansion, Printer
    PRICE £99.95 (UK, 1983), $119.95 (USA), 16K RAM upgrade $49.95"

    http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=163
     
  2. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    Man, goo idea Squid... i wish i could remember what my first computer was... It's hard to remember, as i was programming them at school long before i actually got my own...
     
  3. Proco

    Proco Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 25 2007, 11:58 AM) [snapback]429810[/snapback]</div>
    The first one I owned was an IBM compatible I got for HS graduation.

    The first one I ever used was a TRS-80 Model III
    [​IMG]

    And dad would sometimes bring us to his office and let us play around with the punch card machine. But that doesn't really count, does it?
     
  4. hycamguy07

    hycamguy07 New Member

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    Mine was a IBM 5150:
    [​IMG]

    & a 2400 baud external modem. Ahh the BBS days... :rolleyes: B)
     
  5. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    [​IMG]

    Timex-Sinclar 1000, got it in 1984. Really didn't work at all, it hooked up to a regular TV. I'd taught myself "Basic" and tried to write a couple of games, but success was limited.
    *edit (specs)
    NAME 1000
    MANUFACTURER TIMEX / SINCLAIR
    TYPE Home Computer
    ORIGIN U.S.A.
    YEAR 1982
    BUILT IN LANGUAGE Sinclair Basic
    KEYBOARD Membrane keyboard
    CPU Zilog Z80A
    SPEED 3.25 Mhz
    RAM 2 KB
    ROM 8 kb
    TEXT MODES 32 x 22
    GRAPHIC MODES 64 x 44
    COLORS None, black & white
    SOUND None
    SIZE / WEIGHT 16.5(W) x 17.5(D) x 3.8(H) cm
    I/O PORTS Expansion bus, tape-recorder, video
    POWER SUPPLY 9V external power supply unit
    PERIPHERALS Memory modules, thermal printer
    PRICE $99.95



    BTW, look at http://www.old-computers.com/museum/ to search for your old PC.
     
  6. Mystery Squid

    Mystery Squid Junior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Proco @ Apr 25 2007, 12:08 PM) [snapback]429828[/snapback]</div>
    Holy crap! I remember a bunch of those things in the admin. office of my old middle school! Just seeing that picture fired a bunch of neurons, and brought me back to those days of old...

    btw, punchcard machine counts, pretty much anything you first dicked around with!
     
  7. zapranoth

    zapranoth New Member

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    TI99-4A was my first. Given to me as a gift.

    [​IMG]

    Stats:

    Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
    Released: June 1981
    Price: US$525 (without monitor)
    How many: 2.8 Million
    CPU: TI TMS9900, 3MHz
    Memory: 16K RAM, 26K ROM
    Display: Video via an RF modulator
    32 characters by 24 lines text
    192 X 256, 16 color graphics
    Ports: ROM cartridge (on front)
    Data storage cassette
    Audio/Video output
    Joystick input
    CPU bus expansion
    Peripherals: Speech Synthesizer
    Peripheral Expansion Box
    Data storage cassette
    300 baud modem
    OS: ROM BASIC
     
  8. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    I don't remember brand but it was one of those horizontal units with two floppy disk drives A:/ and B:/ lol. I also remembered it had one of those "new" keyboard layouts with the arrows and the separate Ins, Home, Del etc etc. I remember going "whoa, I don't have to use the NUMPAD to play games!" haha
     
  9. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    [attachmentid=7656]Nearly new Toshiba Lap Top made in 1987. Couldn't afford it new, but by next year, used, I could shell out the $1,700 used. WOW, the first on my block with a notebook that actually had a hard drive . . . a whopping 20 meg'er at that. Word Perfect was the word processor of choice. On the mono color screen, if you pushed the macro keys for bold, or underline, you got different shades of mono color text, to let you know after the fact, what effect would print. Then you'd print on tractor paper. Sheesh!

    Thanks for the link, so I could see that bit of nostalgia. $8,000 brand new? WOW, I don't remember it being that much ... guess I got a real deal! Those were funkie days . . . working off of DOS command prompts ... writing your own autoexec bat files ... the days of fortran and cobal? Some of the folks in law school did homework on notebook P.C. 's that had MONGO floppies ... I'd guess they were about 12" across ... giving real meaning to the expression, 'floppie' ... as they really were.

    .
     

    Attached Files:

  10. scargi01

    scargi01 Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zapranoth @ Apr 25 2007, 11:20 AM) [snapback]429843[/snapback]</div>

    That was my first too. I got it from a guy at work for 25 dollars. You think it was stolen?
     
  11. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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  12. larkinmj

    larkinmj New Member

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    My first was a TRS-80 also, or as we liked to call it, a "Trash-80".
    I was cleaning out the attic recently and found a box of 5 1/4" floppy disks. My daughters asked what they were, and they thought it was really funny that we measured storage in kilobytes, not gigabytes, back then.
     
  13. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Oh yea, forgot about those old cassette tap drives! Imagine the noise.
     
  14. darelldd

    darelldd Prius is our Gas Guzzler

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    Timex Sinclair - same as Evan. Weren't those membrane buttons just the BEST!?

    Used my cassette player as the tape drive and a 9" B&W TV as the monitor. I did the program in the owner's manual to create an on-screen analog clock. Took me about three days of work.

    Next was a Kaypro CPM machine.
     
  15. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zapranoth @ Apr 25 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]429843[/snapback]</div>
    That was my first computer that I owned too. Did you have the game Avalanch? I had one other game I can't remember. It definitely wasn't a great computer but it was my first. Kind of like my first girlfriend.

    The first computer I ever used was back in the mid '70s. It looked a little like a cash register with a thin paper tape. Our junior high science teacher had gotten it somehow and I programmed it to play tic tac toe (and pretty well too).

    Next was learning how to program mainframes from 1979 to 1982 (COBOL, Fortran IV, RPG, BASIC). I think the mainframe was an IBM System 3 model D.

    The first PC like computer was an Atari 400 with 4k of RAM and like some others here it used audio cassette recorder and tapes to load and save things.

    My newest computer is a 24" iMac.
     
  16. Sufferin' Prius Envy

    Sufferin' Prius Envy Platinum Member

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    Sixth grade math class in the early '70's.
    [​IMG]
    A rocket scientist neighbor gave me one when he found out we were learning how to use them in school.
    I upgraded to a sliderule in junior high. :lol:
     
  17. kettledrum

    kettledrum Member

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    The first one in my household was the good old Commodore 64 sometime between 1983 and 1985. I was only 8 - 10 years old at the time!
     
  18. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    My first computer was a DEC PDP-8. I don't think photography had been invented at that time, so I don't have a photo.

    Tom
     
  19. Proco

    Proco Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ Apr 25 2007, 12:37 PM) [snapback]429859[/snapback]</div>
    That's what we called 'em, too. :)


    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Apr 25 2007, 12:59 PM) [snapback]429879[/snapback]</div>
    Hey, Tom ... is this you?
    [​IMG]
     
  20. Marlin

    Marlin New Member

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    Mine was a TRS-80 Color Computer

    [​IMG]

    It came with 4K of RAM, but I immediately took a knife and soldering iron to it and upgraded it to 32K. This was back in 1980 and I was in the 9th grade at the time.

    Stats:
    NAME Color Computer
    MANUFACTURER Tandy Radio Shack
    TYPE Home Computer
    ORIGIN U.S.A.
    YEAR 1980
    BUILT IN LANGUAGE Tandy (Microsoft) BASIC interpreter
    KEYBOARD QWERTY, calculator type keyboard
    CPU Motorola 6809 E
    SPEED 0.895 MHz (or 1.79 MHz)
    RAM 4 KB (up to 64 KB)
    ROM 8 KB
    TEXT MODES max : 16 x 32, min : 16 x 8
    GRAPHIC MODES Several graphic modes, max : 256 x 192 (with 2 colors)
    COLORS 9
    SOUND 1 voice
    SIZE / WEIGHT 36.9 (W) x 34.4 (D) x 9.4 (H) cm
    I/O PORTS Tape, RGB, Joystick (2), Monitor, Cardridge, Serial RS232
    OS OS-9 Level 1
    POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit
    PRICE $400