What was your first computer?
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Commodore 64
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by Rick505
Northgate (hardly anyone remembers them) XT clone with "turbo" boost 4.77 and 8 mHz speed. Even had a Hard Drive instead of dual floppies. Included "hercules" mono graphics card and Amber monitor. They later sold their keyboards for folks who loved the mechanical switches. I thought I was a super stud when I bought a "286" clone. Man, I'm a geezer now!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Computers
I remember the Hercules well, as I noted in my post earlier in the thread. Was yours switchable to CGA too?
No, but I worked with a guy who had a CGA card/monitor. How I envied those 16 colors!
Originally Posted by Rick505
Northgate (hardly anyone remembers them) XT clone with "turbo" boost 4.77 and 8 mHz speed. Even had a Hard Drive instead of dual floppies. Included "hercules" mono graphics card and Amber monitor. They later sold their keyboards for folks who loved the mechanical switches. I thought I was a super stud when I bought a "286" clone. Man, I'm a geezer now!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Computers
I remember the Hercules well, as I noted in my post earlier in the thread. Was yours switchable to CGA too?
No, but I worked with a guy who had a CGA card/monitor. How I envied those 16 colors!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Originally Posted by Rick505
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by Rick505
Northgate (hardly anyone remembers them) XT clone with "turbo" boost 4.77 and 8 mHz speed. Even had a Hard Drive instead of dual floppies. Included "hercules" mono graphics card and Amber monitor. They later sold their keyboards for folks who loved the mechanical switches. I thought I was a super stud when I bought a "286" clone. Man, I'm a geezer now!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Computers
I remember the Hercules well, as I noted in my post earlier in the thread. Was yours switchable to CGA too?
No, but I worked with a guy who had a CGA card/monitor. How I envied those 16 colors!
LOL! We had a monochrome screen, but I did hook it up to a CGA/EGA capable monitor at one point, oh the experience!
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by Rick505
Northgate (hardly anyone remembers them) XT clone with "turbo" boost 4.77 and 8 mHz speed. Even had a Hard Drive instead of dual floppies. Included "hercules" mono graphics card and Amber monitor. They later sold their keyboards for folks who loved the mechanical switches. I thought I was a super stud when I bought a "286" clone. Man, I'm a geezer now!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Computers
I remember the Hercules well, as I noted in my post earlier in the thread. Was yours switchable to CGA too?
No, but I worked with a guy who had a CGA card/monitor. How I envied those 16 colors!
LOL! We had a monochrome screen, but I did hook it up to a CGA/EGA capable monitor at one point, oh the experience!
First computer I actually used was ancient Apple computer in 6th grade that used floppy disk
Now I feel really old
Now I feel really old
Originally Posted by dishdude
And you played Oregon Trail on it.
And got dysentery.
And you played Oregon Trail on it.
And got dysentery.
Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by dishdude
And you played Oregon Trail on it.
And got dysentery.
Guys: funny hing is my family friend/science teacher had one of those til' like 2002
Finally got new DELL desktop thank god
Originally Posted by dishdude
And you played Oregon Trail on it.
And got dysentery.
Guys: funny hing is my family friend/science teacher had one of those til' like 2002
Finally got new DELL desktop thank god
Originally Posted by Trav
Originally Posted by E150GT
I don't remember. We got a computer as kids that was already old and we pooled our Christmas money to upgrade it. Only thing I remember that it cost $300 for 8mb of ram from the CompUSA.
I remember thinking how cheap ram was when it was $1 a mb.
I remember when RAM was $100 per meg, back in the very early 90's
Originally Posted by E150GT
I don't remember. We got a computer as kids that was already old and we pooled our Christmas money to upgrade it. Only thing I remember that it cost $300 for 8mb of ram from the CompUSA.
I remember thinking how cheap ram was when it was $1 a mb.
I remember when RAM was $100 per meg, back in the very early 90's
The first computer I bought myself in 1995 was a 486DX2-80 with the Cyrix CPU. I think it had 2 or 4 megs of memory, 560meg hard drive, 2x CD ROM drive and a 14400 non-error correcting modem which turned out to be a real pain when playing games logged in through the phone line. I got dial-up internet service later that year, I think I paid $25.99 for 20 hours of log-in time or something like that lol I was a co-sysop on my friend's BBS and I played Doom and Doom 2, Duke Nukem and MechWarrior 4. Fun times!
First serious compouter that I bought with my own money was a used Pentium, 60MHz, 5 volt chip. Came with windows 95! I used the MSN dial-up as well, even though I had high speed access at school. Circa 1996. Got it on ebay! At the time eBay was a consulting company that had a side project called "Auctionweb" and you'd get there via aw.ebay.com.
I eventually overheated the touchy chip so I switched out the motherboard for another, that could run a Pentium 166 MHz, non-MMX, in 1998.
I eventually overheated the touchy chip so I switched out the motherboard for another, that could run a Pentium 166 MHz, non-MMX, in 1998.
Had PC's at work since the mid to late 80's but I didn't take the leap to get my own until 1995 when I got a Dell Pentium.
My very first was a Texas Instruments TI99 4A. It must have been around 1983. Had the deluxe setup with a little B&W TV as a monitor and a patch cable that connected to a tape recorder for a data storage device.
Next was a Packard Bell 8086. 40 meg HD, 640K 5.25" floppy drive and CGA graphics. That was my college computer. I bought it in 1990. The desktop, monitor and 9-pin dot matrix printer cost me $1100+ back then.
Next was a Packard Bell 8086. 40 meg HD, 640K 5.25" floppy drive and CGA graphics. That was my college computer. I bought it in 1990. The desktop, monitor and 9-pin dot matrix printer cost me $1100+ back then.
My first purchased computer with processor was a slightly used Thinkpad W520 ~2009 when a contract I was working ceased. Before that I always had a work supplied laptop or nothing as I was too cheap to drop $1000+ on a computer that was worthless and outdated in a few years.
In college my roommate with a dad who had killer set of tools and TV repair man (for real) fixed a Digital VT220 terminal I saved from garbage dumpster that screen was crazy. I was able to have my own "computer" really unix shell with green monochrome screen hooked into university ethernet from 1992-1995 in their housing. It was not exciting but I could go on internet with Lynx (text only) and send email via something called pine. My main purpose was for some computer science courses I minored in.
In college my roommate with a dad who had killer set of tools and TV repair man (for real) fixed a Digital VT220 terminal I saved from garbage dumpster that screen was crazy. I was able to have my own "computer" really unix shell with green monochrome screen hooked into university ethernet from 1992-1995 in their housing. It was not exciting but I could go on internet with Lynx (text only) and send email via something called pine. My main purpose was for some computer science courses I minored in.
An IBM clone as they called them back then in 1985, two 5 1/4 floppy disks. The IBMs were $$$$$$ and the so called clones were maybe 1/3 of the price. running DOS and pirated versions of Word Perfect and Quattro.
Originally Posted by JTK
My very first was a Texas Instruments TI99 4A. It must have been around 1983. Had the deluxe setup with a little B&W TV as a monitor and a patch cable that connected to a tape recorder for a data storage device.
Next was a Packard Bell 8086. 40 meg HD, 640K 5.25" floppy drive and CGA graphics. That was my college computer. I bought it in 1990. The desktop, monitor and 9-pin dot matrix printer cost me $1100+ back then.
First one was Timex/Sinclair palmtop that you had to connect to the tv using the VHF cable. I was able to do some basic programs. That was in 1982. Then we moved up to the Texas Instruments TI-99 4A with expansion chassis, color monitor, 5-1/4 floppy, a whopping 256k memory, dot matrix printer and audio coupling modem. It cost $2500 in 1984. Had fun with this one, created several computer games. Kept it until 1990 and sold it to another newbie. My dad was an engineer for AT&T. After that it was an IBM 8086
My very first was a Texas Instruments TI99 4A. It must have been around 1983. Had the deluxe setup with a little B&W TV as a monitor and a patch cable that connected to a tape recorder for a data storage device.
Next was a Packard Bell 8086. 40 meg HD, 640K 5.25" floppy drive and CGA graphics. That was my college computer. I bought it in 1990. The desktop, monitor and 9-pin dot matrix printer cost me $1100+ back then.
First one was Timex/Sinclair palmtop that you had to connect to the tv using the VHF cable. I was able to do some basic programs. That was in 1982. Then we moved up to the Texas Instruments TI-99 4A with expansion chassis, color monitor, 5-1/4 floppy, a whopping 256k memory, dot matrix printer and audio coupling modem. It cost $2500 in 1984. Had fun with this one, created several computer games. Kept it until 1990 and sold it to another newbie. My dad was an engineer for AT&T. After that it was an IBM 8086
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Y_K
A Wang
Wang Cares.
A Wang
Wang Cares.
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