Our First Home Computers

[Pimander]

I got my first computer before 1989 (I think it was in 1986).

Was it a ZX Spectrum?  My first was the +2.  128K memory with tape recorder built in.

It took 15 minutes to read 128K of information from  the disk.  At that speed it would take over 8 hours to read one typical 4mb mp3!!!

[ArMaP]

Was it a ZX Spectrum?  My first was the +2.  128K memory with tape recorder built in.

Yes, a ZX Spectrum 48K.

It was with it that I started programming in BASIC and then in Assembly. I think I still remember some of codes used, like 201 for RET and 205 for CALL.

[Pimander]

Yes, a ZX Spectrum 48K.

It was with it that I started programming in BASIC and then in Assembly. I think I still remember some of codes used, like 201 for RET and 205 for CALL.

I learnt to program using speccy basic too, then in later years Pascal and Delphi.  You couldn't type normally when in normal mode (48K), the commands used to appear when you hit a key which I found incredibly irritating....  Come to think of it, I may have had a 48K plus for a while...

Think about how far we have come.  Amazing.

We are the only generation that really gets computers.  Most people today younger or older than us know very little about how they really work or came to be that way.  We are the blessed Geeks. 

[Amaterasu]

Mine was an Atari 800 - with a 300 baud modem.  MAN, it zipped along!  NOT!  LOL!

I miss playing M.U.L.E.

[petrus4]

Commodore 64 here; I think 1985 or so.  Mind you, the first PC I got was a 486 in 1994, and that was the first computer I ever did anything other than playing games with, and I had an Amiga in the early 1990s.

My father was a programmer by trade, and I have very vague memories of trying to write something with him in BASIC, but it bored me silly at the time.  I only ever really used my Commodore machines as the equivalent of today's gaming consoles.

[ArMaP]

I learnt to program using speccy basic too, then in later years Pascal and Delphi.

I learned Pascal and a little C on the ZX Spectrum.

Now we can download a ZX Spectrum emulator and play on our over-powered computers all of those great games that fit in just 48K.

[ArMaP]

Mind you, the first PC I got was a 486 in 1994, and that was the first computer I ever did anything other than playing games with, and I had an Amiga in the early 1990s.

I got my first PC in 1993, it was a 486 at 133MHz (if I'm not mistaken) and a 170MB disk.

[The Matrix Traveller]

I made my first Computer, using a 1802 Processor and associated Tech.

I thought it to be "State of the Art" back then   

Sadly it got stolen.

[IRCyborg]

I got my start on 'puters in 1977, and have had my grubby little mitts on many, many different types.

The first one that I could call 'mine' was a Texas Instruments 'Sinclair'.  A big fat 2000 bytes of RAM  LOL!  External storage was a an audio cassette recorder...

Since then, I have made thousands of PCs for others, sold $millions worth of them country wide, and in many ways shaped the very face of computing and the internet we know today.  I <3 them and h8 them in = sums...

IRCyb.org

[kdog]

I got my start with the 8088 chip and basic in the early 80's.
Thats as far as I got in programing,I just fixed the hardware after that.

Had a Tandy something for awhile.Moved up to a laptop in 1993 logged on the internet for the first time then.
First thing I did was look up porn.
Man did it take along time to download one pic!

ETA: It was a Tandy 1400...

[petrus4]

I got my first PC in 1993, it was a 486 at 133MHz (if I'm not mistaken) and a 170MB disk.

My parents were lucky they never bought me a modem during the 80s; I would not have wanted to go to school.  Ironically, it probably also would have meant that I'd ended up with a better education, as well.

[fredus]

Our first was the TRS-80 level 1 with the tape recorder with the volume requiring adjustments to load 10+ minute programs that wouldn't always load. Later we got the 16k expansion kit and then after that a 3 floppy drive kit. What a blast of a time we had in those days.

Later, it was nicknamed the trash80, I use the term jokingly but I loved my trash80

[Littleenki]

Finally a thread that makes me feel young!!!

Mine was a Compaq Presario..with who knows what for of storage!



Ya'll were working with some real high tech stuff there..cassette recorders for external drives? good grief!

I played with the Navys stuff in AFTA school, but never really took interest in them until my business cryed out for some semblance of order with the accounts.

Then I found the internet...and OH BOY!

Cheers!

[fredus]

[andolin]

I had an Atari-400, Laser-128 (Apple IIE clone), and a comodore-128...had a tape drive LOL.....Not sure if it qualifies as a PC but also a ColecoVision with a keyboard.