What was your first PC? - Page 3

rxj · 20-01-2006, 09:58 PM

My first PC was an Apple IIc back in 1984. Here are the specs.

NAME APPLE IIc
MANUFACTURER Apple
TYPE Transportable
ORIGIN U.S.A.
YEAR April 1984
END OF PRODUCTION 1990
BUILT IN LANGUAGE AppleSoft BASIC
KEYBOARD Full-stroke 62 keys with arrows keys
CPU MOS 65c02
SPEED 1 MHz
RAM 128 KB
ROM 16 KB
TEXT MODES 40 or 80? chars. x 24 lines
GRAPHIC MODES (only the full screen modes are listed here) : 40 x 48 (16 col) / 80 x 48 (16 col) / 280 x 192 (6 col) / 140 x 192 (16 col) / 560 x 192 (mono)
COLORS 16 maximum
SOUND one channel. Built-in speaker
SIZE / WEIGHT 29(W) x 31(D) x 6(H) cm.
I/O PORTS Monitor, Joystick/Mouse, RGB, Floppy Disk, RS232c (2)
BUILT IN MEDIA one 5.25
OS DOS 3.3 or ProDOS
POWER SUPPLY External 12 volt power supply unit

Now I work in IT full time ... and lovin it...

MrSparkle · 20-01-2006, 10:28 PM

C64 for a few weeks, shortly to be replaced by the almighty and then-new Apple IIE. Ours was by far the most Pimpin' PC in the area because we had TWO floppy drives and a COLOUR monitor!!!!! Oh the amount of old games I played on that thing back in the day (grade 5 onwards).

Let's ring a few memory bells here...
Aztec, Frogger, Lode Runner, Swashbuckler, Moon Patrol, Carmen Sandiego, Castle Wolfenstein / Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong (of course!), Conan The Barbarian, Bards Tale II, Summer / Winter / California Games, Choplifter / Rescue Raiders, Karateka, Bruce Lee, Tiapan, Test Drive 2, the list goes on and on...

Choplifter

Conan

Karateka

Yeah baby!

Loved this one

20-01-2006, 10:28 PM

MSX, can't recall all the specs although i think i still have it packed away with all my other old electronic antiques.
Circa 1984
Many pc's since then.

An oldie but a goldie

rxj · 20-01-2006, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSparkle

C64 for a few weeks, shortly to be replaced by the almighty and then-new Apple IIE. Ours was by far the most Pimpin' PC in the area because we had TWO floppy drives and a COLOUR monitor!!!!! Oh the amount of old games I played on that thing back in the day (grade 5 onwards).

Let's ring a few memory bells here...
Aztec, Frogger, Lode Runner, Swashbuckler, Moon Patrol, Carmen Sandiego, Castle Wolfenstein / Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong (of course!), Conan The Barbarian, Bards Tale II, Summer / Winter / California Games, Choplifter / Rescue Raiders, Karateka, Bruce Lee, Tiapan, Test Drive 2, the list goes on and on...

They were the days... I remember playing these games on my green monochrome screen my mate was lucky enough to have a colour screen.

Bucknaked · 20-01-2006, 11:07 PM

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. The processor was in the keyboard. The tape drive attached via the keyboard. Took 8 minutes to load golf. Power failures on the 18th hole were not very funny I can tell you

AC/DC · 20-01-2006, 11:13 PM

B-1B, , , you say you had a microbee.......................................... ..

I had one of those in 1986, , , and still have it tucked away in the roof of the shed.. My old man said "it will be a collectors item one day", , , as they were an Australian made computer...

Had a look on ebay one day, , , and there was the old mircobee for - - - - -$20....

worth keeping dad for 20 years eh !

AC/DC

BA_BOSS · 20-01-2006, 11:20 PM

The mighty Microbee 16 (1982). 2MHz Z80 Processor, CPM OS, 16K of RAM, monochrome & yes, the ever reliable cassette machine. Word processor was in EPROM (thank heavens) as would have taken forever to load reliably.

Learnt to code in Z80 Pneumonics, Basic, Fortran & Db2.

This machine was a hackers dream. Upgraded to 32K RAM, then 64K with RGB colour (56k really as 8K was for colour). Then onto twin 5.25" floppy drives, man they were fast (& reliable) at the time.

The rest is history, usual migration path from 8086 thru to Pentium 4 (3GHz) with all the bells and whistles.

EvilChief · 20-01-2006, 11:48 PM

386 Laptop (yes u read right), one o fthose bricks you could use as a weapon, worked up until a few months ago (yes u read right again), not that it could do much. Had a whopping 60MB HDD (I have no idea what i could fit on there) and even bigger 16MB RAM. One of those tiny 10" screens and was one of teh evry few ones with a floppy drive - yippi - Windows 3.1 the OS

upgraded to a 486 desktop (one of those where you need a crane to lift them) with colour monitor!!!!, a staggering 400MB HDD!!! and whopping 32MB RAM, upgraded to 64 later on. I bought the very first CD ROM generation as well. Win 3.11 was compulsary.

Next came a Pentium 233MHz 64 MB Ram standard, later upgraded to 128, a CD ROM stock and a 1.5gig HDD (wow). Win98 FE, upgraded to SE shorty after. This computer was in use up until a few weeks ago, using 2x20gig HDD and XP with 128MB Ram. I have no idea how it worked but it did.

Shortly after a Pentium 666, 128 MB (upgraded to 32something odd), 40gig HDD, Win98 SE upgraded to XP later on. This computer is still working andis used for games onle and some net surfing. It was also put on ISDN for starters and now i hanging of ADSL wireless.

Then i bought a Pentium 1.2GHz, 60 gig HDD, 512 MB Ram Clone, which was more often modified than my car, oh and the computer store didnt get it managed to boot and tried telling me it wasnt possible and sold it to me not booting (i told em to adjust HDD JS to suit new system). I set the JS and bingo she was goer (idiots)

after that i bought some type of celeron with 2 13" screen - yay --- cant really remember the specs

now I bought myself an IBM laptop R50e, 1.4 celeron, 512MB Ram, CDRW/DVD, 14.1" TFT, 40gig HDD, etc etc

mick.wheelz · 21-01-2006, 02:28 AM

I had an 286 laptop, 40mb (i think) hdd, greyscale screen (with a whopping 16shades of grey), 9600baud modem, and 2mb ram (i think). that was arround 93-94 (i cant remember)

compared to my beast now

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ @ 2.2Ghz, 1024mb DDR400, 120Gb ATA, 200Gb ATA, 16x DVD-RW, Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Turbo

Gammaboy · 21-01-2006, 02:40 AM

Commodore 64, although 1st real computer was a....

Microbee!

(Of course I'm working off the Old Skool definition of PC = Personal Computer)

Bucket · 21-01-2006, 02:45 AM

My First PC

IBM 386...
3.5 Floppy
External 3 1/4 Floppy
4MB RAM
14' Monitor

2nd PC

IBM Compatible (Cirrus 120Mhz)
16MB RAM
6X CDROM
15' Monitor
Windows 95 (Alpha Edition)

3rd PC

P3 933 Pentium
128 Mb RAM (Originally) now 512
32x CD ROM (Now a Burner too!)
TNT 16MB Video Card
ASUS Motherboard
17' Diamond Monitor

4th PC and Current

P4 3.0ghz
1GB DDR 533 RAM
Geforce 6800GT Graphics
56x CDROM
56x DVD-ROM with Burner
Abit IC7 Motherboard
17" Flat Screen Sony CRT

Paxton · 21-01-2006, 09:39 AM

My First Computer.
Apple Macintosh LC575
680LC30 CPU, 33Mhz
200Mb HDD
20Mb Ram

Price of just over $10,000

My Families
Apple IIe
Motorola 6502 - 1Mhz
64Kb Ram
NO HDD
About a million Floppies.

I got the LC in Uni, and the IIe was the families computer until 1990

BAFORDFAIRMONT · 21-01-2006, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoopED

1) XT (pre 286)

Still using the same Bubble Jet Printer as I was 9 years ago (CANNON BJC210SP) he he he

Mike

SO AM I (I think it cost about $300 at the time).

My first home PC was in 1996, it was a P75 with 1.6G HD, it cost $3300 with the printer. I think the modem was a few hundred then as well.

I do remember in the early 1980s a TV game console I had called Intellivision (Sega?) had an adapter that acted as a computer, very large block letters, you could only write about three words accross the top of the TV screen.

red_hotxr6 · 21-01-2006, 01:58 PM

First computer was an Amstrad 286,then a386,486 dx2 66 8mgs of ram which cost $140.00, 30 pin. 50 mgs of hard drive space, huge. I could actually put DOOM on it and link up. I remember when the first p1 chip came out the computer shop had it in a glass case and wanted close to $950.00 for it. Those were the days I was 15 back then so i have mum and dad to thank for the computer. :eclipsee_

jaytyn · 21-01-2006, 03:35 PM

My first computer was an Atari XE:

Followed by an Atari 1040 STE.

Followed by Samsung 286/1mb RAM/40mb HDD

Then a Dick Smith 486 DX4/100 w 8 MB RAM, 500mb hdd. And CD-ROM COOL!

Then P75/16mb/800mb cd-rom

I lost track after that..

snapnscooter · 21-01-2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_Man

My first computer was the Tandy Colour Computer 3. I remember hooking it up to the TV, chucking the game in the tape drive, and then going to have lunch while i waited for Donut Dilemma or Quix to load. Ahh, those were the days, i miss my old CoCo3.

Our family had a Tandy TRS80 in 1982. I don't remember alot about it, only that it used a cassette player for games. We were the coolest family in the street. Haha..

HOON69 · 21-01-2006, 10:53 PM

atari
but real computer it was a P2 200 on dialup :(

: :P
which i had on the old forums then updated to this computer got cable

and yeah
really only had a handful ones my kids ones mine a few spares and thats it.

I bleed ford · 22-01-2006, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snapnscooter

Our family had a Tandy TRS80 in 1982. I don't remember alot about it, only that it used a cassette player for games. We were the coolest family in the street. Haha..

lmao..i had trs-80 too....flash on with 64k of ram,colour basic and tape drive...still works to

10 Print "holdens suck"
20 GOTO 10

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

wsidfan · 22-01-2006, 11:18 PM

The first computer I owned was an XT clone dating back to 1986 or so. I was impressed by the huge ( at the time ) 20MB Hard Drive.

The first computer I used was at Sydney Uni in 1979 where they had a Cyber something-or-other. In the days before keyboards you had to type individual punch-cards where 1 card equalled 1 line of code in a programme. The language we learned was Fortran and those days were a real hoot.

I have some funny memories of poor sods who;

1. Made an error in their code and sent the computer into an infinite loop. This meant that the computer endlessly processed your programme and got absolutely nowhere. The effect of this would be to burn an entire box of the old A3 continuous feed paper and used up all of your monthly allowance.

OR

2. Dropped all of their cards on their way to the card feeder machine. This meant that you had to spend about an hour resorting them into the exact code order for the programme to work.

Ah the good old days.......

Cheers

flappist · 22-01-2006, 11:39 PM

My first computer that I owned was a Microbee 16 kit. It came is pieces, not like todays stuff with mother boards and cards but with a blank printed circuit board that you had to solder each IC, resistor & capacitor etc. Its monitor was a 10 inch second hand black & white television that I modified to accept composite video directly at the video rectifier diode and the mass storage was a portable cassette player that I modded to run at 4 times normal speed e.g. C120 lasted 15 minutes and tuned the audio filters to get 4800 baud (oh the POWER).

This was in 1982. Shortly after buying it I did my first MOD. I found a cheap source of 2k 2112 static RAM chips (2716 eprom compatible), purchased 4 of them for about $20 each and for a mere $80 I upgraded from 16k to 32k.
I have no idea where it is now.... shame really.

The first ones I used were the Digital PDP 8/E and PDP 11/20 at CIAE in 1977. Paper tape and card readers......

EDManual · 22-01-2006, 11:47 PM

we had an Amiga 1000, and still have it!

It cost $3000 in 1986, which would be equivelent to what, 8000 now?!! and a colour 9 pin printer which cost at least 1000! We upgraded from 512k ram to 1.5mb, and the side port ram uprade cost 500! Also have a 2nd disk drive. No hard drive.

XW_GS · 23-01-2006, 09:14 PM

VZ200 here with a cassette drive lol