Computer Memories :)

[Presto123]

What are some of your first memories using a computer?

Here's mine:
The first computer I ever really used was a 1986 model I believe. It had a sweet monochrome monitor... 12" I believe. I was happy to get away from the amber color and move to a wonderful green. Oh and the games were awesome! I swear if I still had that thing up and running, I would be playing Jeopardy now!

I honestly believe that we have it here at the house somewhere! I'm sure it probably doesn't work anymore, but I so want to get it back up for old times sake. Gotta find that Jeopardy game too. :P

Any people who complain about the complexity of Linux should have tried these things.

Ha! 5 1/2 inch floppy drive that was truly floppy. You had to pop it in the drive and the floppy might get stuck...then flip down the lever to lock the floppy in.

[bufsabre666]

i had a similar computer for my first experience, i was 3 maybe 4 when we got our first computer so 92-93ish, it was an older model, very similar to what youre talking about, and i also think i played that jeopardy game

ahh the memories

well i do have an ibm pc 350 that i restored all i need is a 5.25 drive and id be playing it again

[inversekinetix]

getting a zx spectrum for christmas in 1982 i believe, i played horace goes skiing all day.

before that i had only used a BBC micro with an app called LOGIC i think, programming a triangle to move around.


what platform was that jeapordy on, i might have it.



edit: was it Jeopardy (1987)(Sharedata Inc).zip

[89vision]

Leisure Suit Larry on my dads old 286 is my first computer memory, I think I was 4 or 5.

[ellis rowell]

I started in 1985 when I moved to a new computerised duty in British Telecom which forecast the changeover to the digital system, I was seconded to the job of secretary of a branch of the National Communications Union (UK) in mid 1986, I needed a computer for word processing and local database. As I was purchasing it myself I eventually settled on the Sinclair QL. In 1987 I joined the Quanta Group (QL Users ANd Tinkerers Association). 1988 I started a local sub-group called QMAS (Quanta Mid Anglia Sub-group), the group is still in existence but renamed to Mid Anglia Computer User Meetings. I moved on through Amiga's to PC's running Windows (as did the other members). I have now led the way forward to a PC running Ubuntu. Two thirds of our members are now retired (I shall be 79 in March). Amonst our members we have a Chef, a retired Industrial Chemist, a Computer Retailer and a retired Finger Print Expert.

[rosegarden78]

Other than Nintendo 8-bit and some old Atari word processor, I'd say it was an early Apple like 1988 in grade school they were showing us how to move a mouse thing up down left and right with simple commands like an Etch-a-Sketch.

[jan quark]

my first "computer" I ever saw an atari gaming "console".

The games were saved on this small audio tapes, do you recall them?

You put this "audio tape " in and a game loading screen appeared on a black and white screen.

Thats my first encounter with computers. This was somewhat in the year 1988. Ehhhh..... am I old?

[erginemr]

Mine was an old rig from early 1990's with no hard disks. We used to have 5-1/4" diskettes to both load the operating system (MS-DOS 5.0) and any other programs on to it.

It was also the time when I first met a computer virus:
"Your computer has been stoned!!"

[eilu]

This was back in the late 80's...
playing an old fireman on a PC that ran DOS (complete with the 51/2" floppies)... not sure what the game was called, but you rescued people jumping off a burning building by bouncing them to your firetruck.
discovering & getting addicted to Logo (turtle graphics)
changing the prompt to read "PC will self destruct... press any key" to freak out everyone in my mom's office :lol:

[sumguy231]

I'm young, our first computer was a Pentium I running the brand new Windows 95...

But I went to a ghetto school which still used old IBM PS/2 systems running MS-DOS.

[DrMega]

It was about 1979 or 1980. I remember our school teacher had told the class that if we behave, we will get to see the brand new "school computer" in the afternoon. We all were on best behavious all day until the grand moment when another teacher wheeled in a trolley with what I believe was an early BBC on it and a square box of a monochrome monitor.

We all lined up in turn to have a go. We were told to give it any arithmetic question we liked. I remember being impressed because it gave my my answer in less than 1 second.

[billgoldberg]

Win95 pc, playing solitair and some strip poker game (I was around 10 at the time).

[Joeb454]

Mine was some rubbish WIn 3.1 machine at school...then about 11 years ago we finally got our first PC at home, I can even remember the specs!!

I believe it was a Pentium 133Mhz, 16Mb RAM, 2Gb HDD, 12-14" Monitor (Can't remember) and Win 95.

That PC was amazing (at the time)

[Dennis]

My first memory of computing was at school, I suppose about 1974/5. Yes that long ago!
We were deciding which subject options to take and were shown a big teletype machine in the mathematics room cupboard which was connected up to the local college for computer studies.
I can remember to this day saying - ¨I´m not doing that, it will never catch on or be any use¨ :oops:

[Patrick-Ruff]

mine was an old gateway, back in the windows 98 days . . . also young.

[Keith Hedger]

Back in 1977 a Science Of Cambridge Mk14 built from a kit with a hex keypad and 7 segment display running on an SC/MP 2 at 4MHz and a staggering 512 bytes of ram (yes BYTES NOT Mb orGb)....I feel soooo old :cry:

[Linuxratty]

Using a Commodore in college..it had a cassette tape for a hard drive.

[koleoptero]

Using a Commodore in college..it had a cassette tape for a hard drive.

Ah those good days. I had a commodore 64 when I was about 8yo. I even learned that awful basic language it had and made some games and stuff. I can't drink sprite because of it.:lolflag:

[Incense]

My early computer memories were in the early 80's on a Commodore 64. My uncle was showing me how to load a game from the cassette tape. For those who are wondering..


LOAD"*"

You would then see


PRESS PLAY ON TAPE

An hour later the program loaded. .... aw the good ole days.

[Bannor]

286 almost no ram (for some reason ram was really expensive back in the day) running dos and playing civilization 1 awsome!! I managed to upgrade that computer all the way to windows 95.

At school we had apples with the two floppy drives ( one for the os and one for the program) where in the world is carman sandiego was always fun. But my first computer was that dos.

[%hMa@?b<C]

my first pc was a win95 with a celeron and a 2gb hard drive :p

[EnergySamus]

Hi!
Ahhh, the old days. My first PC was the 1996 Acer Aspire. Here were its specs:
Intel Pentium 1 / 92MHz
8 MB of RAM
1 GB HDD
6 MB graphics card
The First Retail Windows 95

And back then a computer like this was around $2000! My first PC game was one of the preloaded ones on the Acer, Jazz Jackrabbit. It was kind of like Sonic the Hedgehog with shooting.

Remember DOOM? That game rocked! The Old Shooters... Sigh.

Thanks!
EnergySamus

[popch]

It must have been 1969 or thereabouts, as the high point of a brief programming course at school. I think it must have been an IBM minicomputer as it was blue and only occupied the major part of an office room. There were some blinkenlights and so on. I clearly remember a guy bringing some platters in a transparent cylindrical casing, between 10 and 15 inches in diameter, screwing the whole thing onto the computer and calling it 'the compiler'. My program did not run at all, and that was the end of the course.

The next computer I used was an IBM 370/145 running at about 0.8 MIPS on 386kB of RAM. That was at my first job when I learned to become a programmer. Input was done by punched cards which were punched for me by the data entry staff, mostly young women who knew the syntax of Cobol better than I did and who corrected most of my coding mistakes. Output was on folded paper. Since I was not particularly interested in the computer itself, I saw it for the first time after having worked there for several months. The word 'small behemoth' comes to mind.

[herbster]

I remember getting a Compaq in 95. Me and my sister turned it on and a video started playing with some suit congratulating us on our wonderful purchase, I can remember like yesterday we looked at each other in awe-- a video on our computer! And it was so pixelated but that was HD for us then, hehe.

[Frumious Boojum]

Overall, my first was a console. 1982-83 or there about. Atari 2600 VCS. My parents knew some people that ran an auction house and, occasionally, they would offer my parents some of the leftovers. So, that's how my parents wound up with buying about 10 Atari 2600s for $5 each (extremely cheap for 1982-3!). I had one and my sister had another. Shaped my gaming future, that's for sure.

Oh, and then there was late 1982 -- EPCOT Center. I ran off from my family and got lost among the computers on display (hmm... now I'm gonna have to dig out my EPCOT record and play that computer song). They lost me for an hour or so before they finally found me at the computers. Still happens.

Next was probably in school -- we had Apple IIe computers. Mostly for playing Oregon Trail. Actually, we continued to use those computers until 1997 when CPS finally got a contract to get new computers for EVERY school. I learned Basic on the Apple IIe during the 1996-97 school year. I would've learned Pascal the next year, but they dropped computer science when the new computers came in.

The first Desktop we had wasn't until about 1994. It was a computer with 8MB of RAM and Windows 3.11. Didn't get internet until 1997. Wish my parents had been early adopters... oh well.

[Bungo Pony]

I clearly remember a guy bringing some platters in a transparent cylindrical casing, between 10 and 15 inches in diameter, screwing the whole thing onto the computer and calling it 'the compiler'.

Those were hard drive disks.

http://www.tpub.com/neets/book23/0066.GIF

I've seen these in real life. They look like food dehydrators. I'm actually quite surprised at how difficult it was to find a pic of these, considering that I've seen them numerous times.

My first computer was a TRS-80 model I. No storage whatsoever, until I was able to scrounge up a cassette cable and a manual. I bought myself an old shoebox tape recorder from a thrift store and hooked it all up.

I had to manually type in the basic programs I wanted to try. The first one I ever typed in was "Shoot The M's" which was so crappy, it was hardly a game.

The best one I typed in was Concentration. I had loads of fun with that one! Loading programs off the cassettes was a pain. You had to have the volume set perfect, the tone set perfect, and the azimuth set perfect or else your program would be buggy when it loaded, or it wouldn't load at all. With how slowly the cassette recorder loaded, it was irritating when you waited all that time for the program to load, and it's full of syntax errors. Then you have to rewind the damned thing, adjust the volume, and try again.

THOSE were the good ol' days.

[popch]

Those were hard drive disks..

Thanks for bothering to find an image of a hard disk.

[dgray_from_dc]

Early to Mid-80's, 7 or 8 years old, Commodore 64 complete with two external 5 1/2" floppy drives AND a wiz-bang cassette drive!!

Connected directly to the TV via an RF modulator with an 400 BAUD (I think) modem. Had some kind of ROM BASIC (too young to program) and a cartridge slot on the back. Played "Moon Patrol" and "Ms. PAC-MAN" directly from the cartridge and had a drawing tablet and a very primitive drawing program.

Executed programs on floppies by typing


LOAD (Program Name) ,8,1

Mind you, I'm only 29, but I've got a good memory.

[Incense]

Early to Mid-80's, 7 or 8 years old, Commodore 64 complete with two external 5 1/2" floppy drives AND a wiz-bang cassette drive!!

Connected directly to the TV via an RF modulator with an 400 BAUD (I think) modem. Had some kind of ROM BASIC (too young to program) and a cartridge slot on the back. Played "Moon Patrol" and "Ms. PAC-MAN" directly from the cartridge and had a drawing tablet and a very primitive drawing program.


I beleive you are talking about the KoalaPad. I used that all the time along with KoalaPainter. I used to spend hours as a kid drawing with that program!

http://www.vidgame.net/COMMODOR/Commodore/Commodore_64/koala.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad

[Presto123]

Hahah...sweet. You know, I'm kind of wondering exactly how old those computers I had were. Ha, and now the mention of MS-DOS reminds me of those crazy menus.

The local "geek" who was a guy in his 60's was the guy we would always goto to play on his monochrome computers and get tips on. LOL...But he did have some cool games on 5 1/2" floppy.

I can still remember the sound of those levers very vividly. CLANK! Then you'd see the led light come on and hear the thing running.

My brother had several different computers in the late 80's. He never would let me touch them, but I was so awed that he was programming stuff and come back in an hour and there'd be a program running. :P

I know he had an Atari, probably an old Commodore and IBM that connected directly to the TV.

And I remember that first time we got video on our screen, too. Wow! I was so excited to see the technology!

[mips]

before that i had only used a BBC micro with an app called LOGIC i think, programming a triangle to move around.



I think you mean Logo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language))

[swoll1980]

C=64 I don't remember a whole lot about it only that I played games on it. Using the cartridges was easy but if you wanted to run a game off a disk you had to type
LOAD "*" name of the game or some crap like that

[stoodleysnow]

Amstrad CPC 464, second hand in 1995 and already over 10 years old. Those tapes, the noises through the system speaker, the psychodelic loading screens, the read errors! Aah, the read errors. It's all coming back to me, noooooowwwww!
:-#
Sorry, was I starting to sing?
Must refrain.:-\"

[Sporkman]

(I shall be 79 in March).

Wow! You're definitely one of the more mature linux enthusiasts out there... :)

[articpenguin]

my first computer was in 1997 my grandpa gave it to me.

I think it was a pentium 1 133Mhz with 32mb ram. dont remember the harddisk size.

[dgoodma]

I remember using a Silent 700 paper output portable terminal that connected to a 3B20 AT&T Sys 5 UNIX. 300 baud, ed editor, games like adventure; now that is computing.

Later moving up to a Green Screen terminal, and then an Amber Screen.

Then I taught a class using a Plexus system, that with 2MB of memory supported 16 terminals.

[Bungo Pony]

Then I taught a class using a Plexus system, that with 2MB of memory supported 16 terminals.

I think you get to appreciate the advancements with RAM when you've had much less to work with on older computers (and be blown away by how much Windows Vista uses)

The Commodore Vic-20 gave the user just 3.5K to work with. It was just enough to create a half-way decent game. But I remember when I'd be programming away, and I'd suddenly run out of ram. (?OUT OF MEMORY ERROR). I'd have to delete a line of code, save everything to tape, shut of the Vic, plug in that hefty 16K RAM pack (about the size of a SuperNintendo Cartridge), turn it back on, load up my program, and continue working.

Or if I was almost done, I could try shrinking the program down to fit into 3.5K.

I almost seem to be re-experiencing those days of small RAM with my Palm M130. Games only take up K's of RAM.

[mips]

I kinda pity people that did not experience anything but 8088/8086 or later architectures as I believe you sorely missed out. 8088 was not the best but it was viral kinda like MS.

[Sami_Sdata]

My first computer was a TS-1000 with 2k of RAM. I had the 16K RAM pack for it as well. It's still in a box in my garage. My first "real" computer was a genuine IBM XT. 4.77Mhz CPU and a 10M harddrive. The floppy drive had to be adjusted with a timing light from time to time as I recall. I remember saving up money to upgrade it to a full meg of RAM. DOS wouldn't see beyond 640k but I could use the extra 384k as a RAMdrive and copy programs over there to run a bit faster.

[Presto123]

I love it. Keep 'em coming. :popcorn:

[Atomic Dog]

My first computer was a TS-1000 with 2k of RAM. I had the 16K RAM pack for it as well. It's still in a box in my garage. My first "real" computer was a genuine IBM XT. 4.77Mhz CPU and a 10M harddrive. The floppy drive had to be adjusted with a timing light from time to time as I recall. I remember saving up money to upgrade it to a full meg of RAM. DOS wouldn't see beyond 640k but I could use the extra 384k as a RAMdrive and copy programs over there to run a bit faster.

Dude! We're both old! I had a timex/Sinclaire too! A Tandy color computer, then took a hiatus till I bought a 386sx system in like 1993. I bought a 486/66 pre built, but after that I have built my own.

My memory of the Timex/Sinclaire was the keyboard sucked and I was always getting double characters when I pressed the keypad. Man that thing was a beotch to program.

[tuebinger]

It was the early 80's... I got a Commodore 64 on sale from KMart for $20. It came with a tape recorder to record programs on. I spent the whole weekend in my bedroom writing these simple menu programs and recording them onto cassette tapes. My Mom was starting to get worried about me, but it was a short-lived affair. The 's' key stopped working after just a few days, and I quickly realized you can't do much without the 's' key. So I took it back and that was the end of that.

[Sporkman]

...and I quickly realized you can't do much without the 's' key.

:lol:

[Sami_Sdata]

Dude! We're both old! I had a timex/Sinclaire too! A Tandy color computer, then took a hiatus till I bought a 386sx system in like 1993. I bought a 486/66 pre built, but after that I have built my own.

My memory of the Timex/Sinclaire was the keyboard sucked and I was always getting double characters when I pressed the keypad. Man that thing was a beotch to program.

The trick was to write your code in Z80 assembly. Then you converted to hex by hand and poked the whole mess into a big REM statement.
I'll have to go hunt it up in the garage and take a picture or two to post.

[corney91]

Well, my first computer was bought in '97 or '98 (can't remember which.) It was a Gateway2000 with 233MHz Pentium II and 64 MB RAM. And I've had it sitting in my room for a few weeks debating what to do with it (I saved it from being chucked out:))

[aonegodman]

Ok let's see, I think it was early '80esh maybe, I got a job installing data network cabling in Tampa, Florida. That exposed me to the world of computers for the first time. I could see where the future was headed and said I better get me one and learn more about them.

I went to Sears and bought a Commodore 128 and a color monitor, joined a local computer club and the first I learned was how to "copy" software. :lolflag:

About a year later i had accumulated enough spare parts from business upgrades to build my own IBM-XT, 4Mgz, 64k, 5 1/4 floppy and a whopping 10MB HD and a VGA Monitor.

I think the DOS was up to about 2.1 at the time and Windows was maybe 3.0, which I had acquired copies from my work relations in the business world.

Now get this - I still have all this and every piece of software and hardware in boxes that I have collected over the past 28 years in my shed somewhere. :)

[sajro]

The first two computers I was exposed to were older than I was. For my 7th birthday my dad gave me his old Amiga something or other. I played Zerg, Clue, Paranoid (a game about a psych ward), Carmen Sandiego, a text adventure called Labyrinth, and something similar to Doctor Mario, but space-themed. There was also a virtual music composition, playback, and piano program which was awesome.

My dad had a computer in his room I assume was running MS-DOS or IBM-DOS, I never really used it.

[Pethegreat]

My parents bought a 286 back in the mid 90's(they got ripped off at the time) I think they let me play a Berstein Bears game on it once. It went to my aunt when we got an IBM aptevia. My brother(who was 3) killed the hard drive when it got into DOS and pressed random keys. We got it fixed by a friend of my dad. Then we got an HP computer with a PII and a DVD drive(!!!) In 2003 we got another computer where I began to mess with things.

My parents got the internet back in 2000. We had AT&T cable internet. We did not use it much until 2003 when we got a computer that could run games,

My grandparents still have and use one of the first IBM personal computers. When they die, I am going to take it.

[gizmoarena]

First experience was at dad's office, in 92. Monocrome monitor, Word perfect, 5.25" floppy disks, huge dot matrix printer. I was 8 then.

[Gigamo]

Windows 95 Pentium II 266MHz here, playing Full Throttle! (god that game was awesome)

[DMK62]

First real exposure to computers was back in 1981 with a college course programming in Fortran. Accessed a university mainframe via a terminal ( blazing 1200 baud connection I think ) and dealt with punchards lol. Learnt to always number my cards the hard way.

As far as pc's I did assembly language programming for the 8088 and x86 and motorola 6800 and 68000. I was in an electronics engineering program and was focused on hardware. Although assembly language can really test your sanity it does give you a very good understanding of the inner workings of processors. My knowledge of operating systems came after all that and the troubleshooting skills I learned from electronics and programming really helped.

Dale

[popch]

...assembly language can really test your sanity...

I don't see why so many people find assembly language so much of a challenge. I found playing the Lemmings or SimCity on about the same level of difficulty (and as much entertaining).

[p_quarles]

I don't see why so many people find assembly language so much of a challenge. I found playing the Lemmings or SimCity on about the same level of difficulty (and as much entertaining).
I was just never able to find the cheat codes for assembly. ;)

[popch]

I was just never able to find the cheat codes for assembly. ;)

Ha - I never found those for the Lemmings and SimCity, either. I don't play those any more, so you don't have to tell me.

[DMK62]

I found it difficult at first esp when you would run into errors which were for me more often than not syntax or dealing with the 64k segment and procedures. My electronics program covered primarily analog electronics ( which i preferred ) and included digital electronics electives. It got a bit more interesting when we used it along with LSA's to trace and debug.

Dale

[regomodo]

i remeber when i was about 7 (15years ago) playing a game possibly called "lander". You flew a squashed pyramid with boosters in the bottom and had to fly from one landing pad to the next. Also got shoot at the ground.

Was possibly an Acorn or bbc micro. Can't really remember

[mr32123]

ahhh Duke Nuken 3d on my old Compaq Presario from 1999.

I also remember furiously kicking the crap out of that computer when it pissed me off one time haha

[Tristicus]

Oh man.....playing Chips Adventure and Pipe Dream.....my favorite games on the PC...when I was small, going into my parents room all the time to play them.

[Incense]

I just found my old Macintosh Classic II the other day at my parents house. My grandfather sent it to me brand new in '91 I think. I brought it home yesterday, fired it up, and it still works! All of my data was still there on the 20mb hard drive, running System 7.0.2. Killed about an hour of my day playing the Oregon Trail. Ah good times!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Macintosh_Classic_2.jpg/250px-Macintosh_Classic_2.jpg