i was born in 1970 and by the early 80's i was into pc's. out of all my friends only 2 of them had IBM machines, the graphics were horrid with pong like gaming. 1 had an apple and the gaming was much more robust. my first machine was the commodore 64 and it was a very good gaming machine compared to the other 2. i used the 64 untill around the mid 80's and then went to the atari ST and used it untill the very early 90's. i can still remember "surfing the web" ala the public domain to download games.
recollection of my early days of PC'ing
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i also remember in that era there was the coleco-vision, dont really remember if it was a pc or a gaming console but it did have a keyboard. i still have the 2 systems up in the attic along with all the software, true software that is with the 5.25" floppies.
What memories...I started with a Timex Sinclair with I think 2k of ram. Then I moved up to the Commodore 64 with the matching monitor, cassette and disk drives and whopping 300baud modem! Remember cutting a notch on the disks to flip them over and use both sides? I then went to the IBM clone route with a "turbo" 8mhz system with an NEC V-20 chip. Funny to think back that long ago when I sit here now with my latest 3.0 duo core system! Thanks for the memory trip!
yep i do remember the notch in the floppy, i forgot all about that trick.
I had one of the 1st Commode 64s. Serial number was just over 2000. It has an early M'board malfunction and got replace with a newer on I had for several years. I should have kept it.
Next computer was an XT clone that I built. The Commode was the last pre-built desk top computer that I bought. My son who was born in 1975 used to use both computers at once when he was about 4th grade.
Next computer was an XT clone that I built. The Commode was the last pre-built desk top computer that I bought. My son who was born in 1975 used to use both computers at once when he was about 4th grade.
I wonder if my Franklin ACE 1200 (Apple II Clone) is a collectable. It certainly collects dust.
Still have my Atari Mega 2 ST, though I haven't fired it up in several years. Before that I had a couple of Atari 800s and still have one of those too (upgraded to 288K (Byrd enhancement)), with two 1050 floppy drives and the Happy 1050 enhancements which were great in their day.
IIRC the Timex Sinclair originally had 1K of memory... Nowadays if you have less than one GB you're small potatoes!
Ah, the good ol' days- it does seem that computer crashes were considerably more frequent back then though, so maybe we've gotten somewhere...
IIRC the Timex Sinclair originally had 1K of memory... Nowadays if you have less than one GB you're small potatoes!
Ah, the good ol' days- it does seem that computer crashes were considerably more frequent back then though, so maybe we've gotten somewhere...
Atari 800XL was my first PC, bought in 1985. 1.8 MHz CPU, 64KB RAM, 320x192 video resolution, and a tape recorder as mass storage. Oh the time I wasted back then playing all those games... or actually just trying to load them.
Wow, and I thought I was old-school
My first was an Epson Equity I+ (8088, 640k ram, 20meg HD, CGA, 360k floppy) back in the late 80s.
Wish I still had one or two of my old ones though; I still enjoy playing some older games that just don't run right on new PC's.
My first was an Epson Equity I+ (8088, 640k ram, 20meg HD, CGA, 360k floppy) back in the late 80s.
Wish I still had one or two of my old ones though; I still enjoy playing some older games that just don't run right on new PC's.
First computer I ever played with was an Apple II round about 1979-1980, and the first I owned was a Laser 128. There was no internet back then (world was a better place without it, IMO) but we logged onto bulletin boards with our slow modems and passed text messages back & forth like the forums of today.
I remember playing original versions of games on the Apple like Castle Wolfenstein, Star Trek, and Wizardry. Lots of green screen text & ASCII characters, and we even wrote our own programs with Applesoft, ProDos, binary, etc.
Compooters were a novelty back then- now (unfortunately) they're a necessity...
I remember playing original versions of games on the Apple like Castle Wolfenstein, Star Trek, and Wizardry. Lots of green screen text & ASCII characters, and we even wrote our own programs with Applesoft, ProDos, binary, etc.
Compooters were a novelty back then- now (unfortunately) they're a necessity...
yep i was a wolfenstein fanatic
First "computer" that I used was an IBM 1005 Card Processor. It could only print from punch cards.
Cards were punched on an IBM 26 keypunch machine and verified on a IBM 29 verifier.
After being verified, the cards were sorted with a card sorter. All the "computer" did was read the holes in the cards and print a listing on 80/80 paper. Next came a Digital equipment system in the mid 1970s.
First home computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 that had no hard or floppy drive. You hooked it up to a TV and either bought or made your own software using GW (Gee Whiz) Basic.
You could store the programs on an cassette player and play the digital sounds into the TRS-80 which then would load the software.
Cards were punched on an IBM 26 keypunch machine and verified on a IBM 29 verifier.
After being verified, the cards were sorted with a card sorter. All the "computer" did was read the holes in the cards and print a listing on 80/80 paper. Next came a Digital equipment system in the mid 1970s.
First home computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 that had no hard or floppy drive. You hooked it up to a TV and either bought or made your own software using GW (Gee Whiz) Basic.
You could store the programs on an cassette player and play the digital sounds into the TRS-80 which then would load the software.
I recall the early Tandys as well.
It took seemingly forever to load up those cassettes.
Looking back, RS/Tandy had the early jump with their home computer distribution model, but somehow managed to fumble it away.
The old keypunch cards made good bookmarks.
It took seemingly forever to load up those cassettes.
Looking back, RS/Tandy had the early jump with their home computer distribution model, but somehow managed to fumble it away.
The old keypunch cards made good bookmarks.
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