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  3. What was your first computer?

What was your first computer?

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  • N Nish Nishant

    I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


    Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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    Erik Westermann
    wrote on last edited by
    #38

    Atari, Apple...geez - you guys should have started with the only *real* computer.......

    :) Commodore 64 :)

    * 1 MHz processor * 64K RAM * 5 1/4 inch floppy drive that has a capacity of an amazing 170Kb, which you could double when using both sides of the disk! Ducks - expecting somehting to be thrown in this direction Essam - Author, JScript .NET Programming
    ...and a bunch of articles around the Web

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    • N Nish Nishant

      Norm Almond wrote: Tandy/Radio Shack TR80 :omg: That must have been aeons ago, eh Norm? Nish


      Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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      David Cunningham
      wrote on last edited by
      #39

      Hey Nish, That was my first computer too (the first one I owned anyway) and I'm 35. David http://www.dundas.com

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      • N Nish Nishant

        I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


        Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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        Ravi Bhavnani
        wrote on last edited by
        #40

        My first PC was an IBM-AT (80286, 512K RAM, Seagate 20M HD, CGA, 360K and 1.2M floppies - both 5.25"). I used it with a Princeton Graphics color monitor and an Okidata Microline 192 dot matrix printer which I <gasp!> still own (bit don't use). Oh yes, and DOS 3.1. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com

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        • N Nish Nishant

          I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


          Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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          John M Drescher
          wrote on last edited by
          #41

          Commodore vic 20, which I got as a gift ~19 years ago. The things I remember is that you loaded every thing off a cassette tape, and I bought a 8KB ram upgrade card for $300US. First PC. Packard Bell XT pc with 640Kb mem, CGA graphics and I think a 10Mb harddrive. When I got my 80MB which I paid allmost $1000US for I thought I'd never fill it.. John

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          • N Nish Nishant

            I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


            Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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            Ben Bryant
            wrote on last edited by
            #42

            Vic-20! 4k memory (not 16k!), tape recorder, family TV set (1981). The first computer I programmed was a TRS-80 in 1978-79. (I'm 33 now)

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            • M Michael A Barnhart

              Two answers depending on what you call a computer and how far own goes. First one in my family that I used was a Wang 720 (they are in musuems) First one I actually purchased was a vic 20. You can do things with 4k of memory and none of those fancy hard drives. To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step towards Knowledge. Benjamin Disraeli

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              Ben Bryant
              wrote on last edited by
              #43

              Oh it was only 4k! Mine was a vic-20 too and I wasn't sure so I said 16k because 4k seemed impossible. Ben

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              • N Nish Nishant

                I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                Jon Gohr
                wrote on last edited by
                #44

                Ah those were the days. I bought a Commodore Vic-20 when I was 13. An amazing 5k of ram came standard. Also had the 24k ram upgrade cartridge! Data storage was handled with a cassette recorder and a little interface box, horribly unreliable. The thing plugged into a TV for the monitor so I used a little 13" portable. Spent lot's of hours typing basic code into that thing. Eventually moved up to the Commodore 64 with a big clunky external 5 1/4" external floppy drive. Programmed alot on the Apple II's at school as well. Used my first PC in 1985 while in the army, not sure what it was though. I remember it had dual 5 1/4" floppies, no hard drive and a Bausch & Lomb plotter that had a mechanical arm which you inserted a marker into to print charts from Lotus 123. I still have a DOS 2.11 disk laying around somewhere. Memories ... hehe.

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                • N Nish Nishant

                  I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                  Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                  Daniel Turini
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #45

                  Mine was a CP-200. This was a brazilian version of ZX-81, with 16K (KBytes, not Megabytes!) RAM, 8K ROM, a National PV-220 tape recorder. With C-90 tapes, you had an impressive capacity of 64K each side of the tape (wich, obviously, would take 45 minutes to load). And you think your 56K modem is slow... The main proc was an Z-80 8 bits processor @ 3.54 Mhz. It handled the video, too. So, the computer had two modes of operation: FAST and SLOW (it's true, it was these names!). In SLOW mode, you had video refresh. In FAST mode, the screen went blank and the computer was 8 times faster. Some games flashed the screen a lot, because they drawed the screen in FAST mode, then showed the screen for a few moments in SLOW. Some moments playing those games makes you want to puke! :) There are still some emulators of ZX-81 on the web, very good emulators, only a bit faster :) Crivo Automated Credit Assessment

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                  • N Nish Nishant

                    I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                    Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                    Tom Archer
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #46

                    Mine was an Adam what used audio-like casettes. I worked on that thing night and day realizing that after 18 years I had finally discovered the one thing I enjoyed and do very well. I completely taught myself to program (casette Basic) and wrote, as my first application, a football game. Man, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and see that code now :) Cheers, Tom Archer Author, Inside C# Author, Visual C++.NET Bible A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the af

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                    • N Nish Nishant

                      I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                      Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                      Todd Smith
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #47

                      IBM 8088. No harddrive. Single floppy. I started typing in BASIC programs from magazines at the tender age of 8. w00t! Todd Smith

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                      • N Nish Nishant

                        I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                        Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                        Chris Losinger
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #48

                        C64. but i first used a Commodore PET. -c


                        I don't care, and you can't make me.

                        Smaller Animals Software

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                        • N Nish Nishant

                          I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                          Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                          Josh Knox
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #49

                          Got a TI99/4A when I was 11, back in 1986. Taught myself BASIC on it so I could make Space Invaders aliens dance around the screen. It had no permanent backup so I had to reenter the program each time. The got an Apple IIE. Then a 486 which I started using Borland Turbo C++. Good ole days. Josh Knox that-guy.net


                          "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." Dennis Ritchie.

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                          • N Nish Nishant

                            I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                            Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                            LittleYellowBird
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #50

                            :-D No one has the same first computer as me! Acorn Electron, 6502 processor, output on tv! Wrote my college project in assembler on it. Cost me a £10! First PC - Amstrad 1640, 40Mb Hard disk and I was really proud because it had a CGA display, cool.... :cool: ali p

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                            • D David Cunningham

                              Hey Nish, That was my first computer too (the first one I owned anyway) and I'm 35. David http://www.dundas.com

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                              Nish Nishant
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #51

                              David Cunningham wrote: That was my first computer too (the first one I owned anyway) and I'm 35. Oh, I see :-) If you hadn't mentioned the 35, I'd have put you in the 45+ group that I put Norm into :-) Nish


                              The posting stats are now in PDF:- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments. Updated - May 04th, Saturday

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                              • N Nish Nishant

                                I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                                Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                                Jack Handy
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #52

                                I had an Atari 800 -Jack To an optimist the glass is half full. To a pessimist the glass is half empty. To a programmer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

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                                • T Tom Archer

                                  Mine was an Adam what used audio-like casettes. I worked on that thing night and day realizing that after 18 years I had finally discovered the one thing I enjoyed and do very well. I completely taught myself to program (casette Basic) and wrote, as my first application, a football game. Man, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and see that code now :) Cheers, Tom Archer Author, Inside C# Author, Visual C++.NET Bible A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the af

                                  N Offline
                                  N Offline
                                  Nish Nishant
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #53

                                  Tom Archer wrote: Man, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and see that code now I understand. I still wish I could have saved my floppies from 12 years back :-( which contained my first programs some of them in GWBASIC :-) Nish


                                  The posting stats are now in PDF:- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments. Updated - May 04th, Saturday

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                                  • T Todd Smith

                                    IBM 8088. No harddrive. Single floppy. I started typing in BASIC programs from magazines at the tender age of 8. w00t! Todd Smith

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                                    Nish Nishant
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #54

                                    Todd Smith wrote: IBM 8088. No harddrive. Single floppy. Thats the same one we had in school. With green monochrome monitors :-) I still remember booting up from the floppy and it used to take so long then ;-) we thought. Now it takes 10 ten times that much time to logon to XP :-) Nish


                                    The posting stats are now in PDF:- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments. Updated - May 04th, Saturday

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                                    • J Josh Knox

                                      Got a TI99/4A when I was 11, back in 1986. Taught myself BASIC on it so I could make Space Invaders aliens dance around the screen. It had no permanent backup so I had to reenter the program each time. The got an Apple IIE. Then a 486 which I started using Borland Turbo C++. Good ole days. Josh Knox that-guy.net


                                      "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." Dennis Ritchie.

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                                      Nish Nishant
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #55

                                      Josh Knox wrote: It had no permanent backup so I had to reenter the program each time :omg: :omg: :omg:


                                      The posting stats are now in PDF:- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments. Updated - May 04th, Saturday

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                                      • N Nish Nishant

                                        I mean the first one of your own. Not the first one you used in college or school or work. Mine was a 80286/2MB Ram/40 MB HD :-) 1.44 MB FD and 1.2 MB FD DOS 5.0 Nish


                                        Check out last week's Code Project posting stats presentation from :- http://www.busterboy.org/codeproject/ Feel free to make your comments.

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                                        Michael Dunn
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #56

                                        One of my uncles was really into computers, so back in the early 80s I'd get hardware from him as he upgraded. I started with some TI model (don't think it was the famous 99/4A, some earlier model) and the included BASIC manual, but I couldn't really make sense of BASIC back then (hey, I was only like 10 years old!). It wasn't until an after-school class on BASIC using Apple //e's that I actually started doing programming. --Mike-- Buy me stuff! (Link fixed now) Like the Google toolbar? Then check out UltraBar, with more features & customizable search engines! My really out-of-date homepage Big fan of Alyson Hannigan and Jamie Salé.

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                                        • L l a u r e n

                                          zx81 with a wobbly 16k ram pack :)


                                          situations to avoid #37:
                                          "good morning ... how many sugars do you take in your coffee ... and what was your name again?"

                                          coming soon: situations to avoid #38: "...and the dog was there too?"

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                                          Tomaz Stih 0
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #57

                                          Thank you Laureen. With my 29 I feel old among these youngsters. I started with ZX81 with 1k, :-) followed by ZX Spectrum 48K, Amstrad CPC 464, Atari 520 ST, IBM PC XT 640Kb RAM/4Mhz/10MB HDD/Hercules...Oh, well. Regards, Tomaz

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