First computer?

ZRH

ZRH

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Mar 5, 2005
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I've had a computer my whole life. The thing was it was my "dad's" and "very expensive" and children werent allowed to "touch it."

It was one of these:

IBM_original_PC.jpg


Then when I was 13 and it had been in garage, packed away since I was 8, I got all the parts together and got it running. Unfortunately the floppy drive was broke, so you couldnt boot it. Thing about the original PC though was that even if you /couldnt/ boot it, it had a BASIC rom mode. So I couldnt play at programming tons.

Eventually I found a Commodore PC clone with an ST-506? 5 inch drive to replace it. Could finally boot to DOS 3.1, which was awesome, for awhile.

It was an original 5150 with a monochrome screen and MDA video card which meant, no graphics mode. So I would make prime number programs and crap...

Finally after "proving" I was interested in computers (by being able to write machine code and make that thing do just about ANYTHING, I got a MASM assembler at some point which I thought was GREAT because I didnt have to constantly do hex math). I got this super crappy compaq with Windows 98 on it and dialup internets.

I think it the power supply on it finally died but I dont have it anymore. I still love the keyboard feel of the IBMs though, double click keys are great for touch typing cause you dont have to mash them.

Edit: More details.

First text editor on that was Brief by Underware (real thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_(text_editor) )

My dad is an EE, he bought the computer when he worked at Xerox in the early '80s. I think at the time he was part of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star development. Not the computer but the full office system. There were tons of computer engineering books in my house, which is about as applicable to actually using a computer as physics is to swimming. I remember trying to figure out how to apply all this stuff to windows, which was futile, and protected memory pretty much ended my programming interest. Then I started playing sports more and lost interest in much else aside from games until I was 17.
 
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I had my first family computer when I was about 6, however since then I still haven't learned anything about PCs. I just remember there was no internet for us back then and I played on MSPaint a lot. By the age of 8 I already knew more about how to use the thing than my teachers at school did and I used to practically run the IT lessons we had (although it wasn't all that advanced of course).
 
Enemy said:
I had my first family computer when I was about 6, however since then I still haven't learned anything about PCs. I just remember there was no internet for us back then and I played on MSPaint a lot. By the age of 8 I already knew more about how to use the thing than my teachers at school did and I used to practically run the IT lessons we had (although it wasn't all that advanced of course).
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When I was very little (1st grade) I remember playing on computers at school with graphics, oregon trail? But then I moved and none of the schools had computers or I wasnt scheduled for computer classes or something.

Mice were something I had seen in the store but never used at home until after 2000.
 
I've also had a computer my whole life. We used a black and white screen back in the day. I learned my love for computer games on it. Then I remember getting a new computer with a modem. It was all down hill from there.
 
First we had the Commodore Vic 20
_42684695_commodore_vic20.jpg



Then we had the Commodore 64
commodore64.jpg



Then we had the Commodore Amiga 500
amiga.jpg


Then we got a PC. (486 DX2-66)
 
I started playing on a TRS-80. Went a few years with nothing. Then got a C64. Then went many years without anything, until I got a P200 MMX.

I'm glad I had a long stretch of no computers from the C64 to the P200, otherwise I fear that I would end up like April's brother. A virgin until I had a well paying job and could afford to travel to Vegas and buy a hooker.
 
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My first computer was a Vic-20. Then I got a C64. I was really l33t when I got a Tandy 1000.
I used TRS-80s in school. I still have the floppy disks for it.
Yay TRS-DOS.
 
I started on a Commodore 64 in '84 or '85. I remember playing this helicopter game quite obsessively, along with another sort of adventure game. Can't remember the names.
 
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