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Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer?
We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions of long-since-abandoned operating systems. Now I'd like to pose the same question to Slashdot's readers.
Use the comments to share details about your own first home computer. Was it a back-to-school present from your parents? Did it come with a modem? Did you lovingly upgrade its hardware for years to come? Was it a Commodore 64 or a BeBox?
It seems like there should be some good stories, so leave your best answers in the comments. What was your first home computer?
Use the comments to share details about your own first home computer. Was it a back-to-school present from your parents? Did it come with a modem? Did you lovingly upgrade its hardware for years to come? Was it a Commodore 64 or a BeBox?
It seems like there should be some good stories, so leave your best answers in the comments. What was your first home computer?
A wire-wrapped homemade 6809 system, bought from a friend when he got his first IBM PC The thing had 168K of RAM, two floppies and managed to run Unix with 3 users The computer was built aound 1980.
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 back in '82. I still have it in the basement... Unfortunately it didn't work any more after an attempt to solder the infamously wobbly 16k RAM pack in place with a ribbon cable.
48KB RAM + 16KB extended, two floppy disk drives, green monochrome CRT display, and a joystick. It was amazing at the time, at least to me.
My parents bought it for their business, but they never really used it, and it eventually became mine. I learned how to program on that computer using AppleBASIC. I also learned that line numbers suck for programming, and only went to 32767 (one of my bigger projects). I eventually learned why there was such a "strange" limit like that after I learned about binary numbers.
Favorite games: Choplifter, Wizardry, Karateka, Aztek, and a few adventure games I can't remember the names of.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Actually, the first part I bought was an expansion interface. I had access to a model 1 at the store and access to floppy drives, but the expansion interfaces would fly out the door and having a floppy drive was of no use without one.
So I first bought an expansion interface so that I could keep it at the store, then when I could afford it, I bought the model one, a floppy drive and took it home.
My first home computer: A hand-me-down Apple ][ Plus in 1985 (on a loan).
The first computer in which I did serious work: A Sanyo MBC-555 (WordStar, CalcStar) 1984
The first Computer I programmed: Commodore 64 (Basic and Logo) 1984-1985.
The first computer which was my own: A comodore PC-10 1988 (yes, with MS-DOS 3.2 and an 4.77 Mhz 8088 CPU).
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Bought in March 1976 in Berkely. 2Mhz 8080, and 4K RAM with only the front panel for about 2 months. Then added the Processor technology VDM-1 16X 64 Video card, 3P+S I/O card and a CUTS casette tape interface. When I added the GPM memory board with a 2K byte ROM Monitor, it was actually easy to read a game in from casette and actually use the computer for something. (Target and TREK-80 for the win!) I eventually added some more RAM - 16 K Dynabyte cards and a North Star micro-disk floppy system. The system eventually evolved to a Z-80, CP/M 80, 60K RAM and a Morrow 16 Megabyte Hard disk.
enough is too much
...VIC-20. Purchased at a garage sale for $20. Later I upgraded to the C-64... and even later an Amiga 500. These days, computers can do anything and the primary difference between my current Windows 7 Pro machine and the next PC i buy will be the horrible Windows 10 UI. But back in the 80's and 90's every new computer was different and NEW and EXCITING. I miss that feeling. Much like my first run through Ashron's Call.
My first home computer was a slide rule.
You are welcome on my lawn.
My first computer was a Commodore 64, which my parents gave me for Christmas in 1985 when I was in fifth grade. My grandfather bought me a matching disk drive. I was a lucky kid to get these gifts because my parents were and still are working poor. I now suspect that my grandfather also paid for the computer. In 2017 dollars, it was something like a $1,000 Christmas for me.
I didn't set aside my gifts after a few months like many kids do. A year and a half later I was published in RUN Magazine and received a royalty check for my efforts at the ripe old age of 12. I spent virtually every dollar I had on programming books and magazines. I managed to get on the Internet with my first post to Usenet in 1992 but otherwise I was isolated from any other programmer. I was and continue to be a self-taught, natural programmer. I took all of the requisite computer science classes at the university, but more often than not they managed to suck out all of the enjoyment I had been experiencing programming since I was a pre-teen.
More than three decades later, I'm still doing programming. I switched to 100% Linux in 1994, so I've been doing Linux development for almost exactly 23 years. I still remember those early days.
Looking at people's responses, I'm guessing a "home computer" is one that:
- Plugs into a TV and could display graphics for games
- Play Games
- Could do programming on it
My first "computer" was a Sharp PC1211 (still have it). 2k BASIC programmable, large format QWERTY keyboard and a printer base unit that allowed programs to be stored on cassette.
My second was a wire-wrapped Z80 S100 CPM system: https://slashdot.org/comments....
Which came down to what did I get when I wanted something that I could play games and program: an Atari 400 - the ANTIC chip graphic capabilities were superior to the other competing small systems. I still have the ANTIC manual for it.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Dad even splurged on a $600.00 floppy disk drive. I've told him it was the best money he ever spent. Thirty years in IT -- I have no idea what I would be doing today if I had not convinced him to spend the money on that PC. Thanks, Dad.
In 1975 my father brought home a KIM-1 that had been built by the guy who designed the IMSAI 8080. I eagerly typed in the 6502 instructions included in the HOWTO manual that came with it, and I got an idea of what Turing Complete was all about. Great fun. But at the time there was no way to save the instructions, so you lost everything when the power went down. I got over it: I was 10 years old, and it was a great way to learn about volatility and, as I mentioned, Turing Complete.
Then in 2005 I was working for a GPS company (which later became Garmin). One day my manager came to me with an SOC data sheet, and he said something like, "This is a really cheap part, but we need to program it to coordinate the 32-bit GPS part with the SSD part, and the USB part." I read the datasheet and about screamed with joy when I saw that it was a 6502 (now owned by ST Micro). Once again, the 6502 taught me in an amazing way: the 6502 was bit-banging (I2C) the NMEA sentences out of the 32-bit part, and control of the SSD part, and was able to control the interface to the USB device. My job: write firmware (YES! FIRMWARE on a 6502! NO MORE POWER OUTAGES) so the high-speed USB part could power things and exchange NMEA sentences; make the SSD hold the ephemeris and almanac for the 32-bit part. That little 6502 certainly did it's job, and I had great fun re-learning the 6502 instruction set.
Actually, my first home computer was a slide rule, both at home and at work. But when they became available I bought a Commodore 64 with a floppy disk drive and a printer. Used it for everything, especially word processing (what a relief being able to easily correct my typing mistakes before sending a letter) and even had a little database program for all of my genealogy research. What a big aid to organization that was! On weekends my son used it for games, and for re-writing those games. He already knew BASIC (by absorption I guess) so I learned it too. And I got a cartridge for the C-64 that enabled me to send and receive AMTOR digital signals with my ham radio transceiver.
Meanwhile, at work, I was doing assembler language (PAL) on a DEC PDP-8 for data acquisition and processing in a small lab. Those were the days!!
A little later I bought an 80286 for home. Today you can buy three or four computers for what I paid my my '286.
Technically my first computer was some kind of clunky Sinclair programmable calculator, which met all the requirements of being an actual computer. But just barely. It was, for all intents and purposes, unusable for anything meaningful.
Next came an Atari 800 with an actual keyboard (not the chicklet keys). Two cartridge slots, two floppy drives (one of which was a "Happy Drive"), and a full 48-fuckin'-K of memory. Whoo hoo!
It had a 300 baud modem which could be set to *any* baud rate, all the way down to 1 or 2 baud so you could actually see the letters...coming...out...on...the...screen...one...by...one.
God times.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
... on a visit to Radio Shack, the sales guys were setting up this TV typewriter showing some crude blocks of white on black graphics and some all-cap text.
They "broke" it and I saw:
10 ... do something ... do another thing ... do some more stuff
20
30
Then they fired it up again.
After 9 years in this man's Navy as an avionics tech working on a 64-8-bit computer with ferrite core and programming a TI calculator, I realized IT WAS A COMPUTER!!!
I told them to box it up. They said they couldn't because it was a store demo and the only one within 200 hundred miles.
The manager walked in and told them to sell it to me because, "That's what we do here."
I took it home, breezed through the manual, had it calculate orbital speeds based on distance from the Sun (some being beneath the surface and exhibiting relativistic speeds).
It was the TRS-80.
You can look up the specs.
I wrote articles for 80 Microcomputing and ordered an A-D converter from Analog Devices and made battery checkers and digital thermometers.
Saw one at the Smithsonian Institute, many years later, when I visited D.C.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I see no one has mentioned the 8008 yet so I guess I'm the oldest geezer.
Popular Electronics had plans for an Intel 8008 based computer so I hand wired it on a homebuilt chassis. 256 bytes of memory. Programmed in bare machine code (no stinking assembler crutch). Added an octal keyboard and display which made it much easier to program. Also added a cassette tape interface which could store and read programs... Programmed and ran a few games on it.
I think I still have it buried under the house somewhere.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
The ST was the last Atari I had. I was hoping they'd have an Amiga comparable system, and doing computer graphics and some video editing in the early 90s, Amiga was what some local TV stations were using for their graphics. The ST was a vast departure from my previous Ataris, but it was awesome. My first was a 400 with 8k, upgraded to 16k; the membrane keyboard upgraded to a third party keyboard. I learned assembly language on it (the 400). Upgraded to 800XL and ultimately 130XE with paper route money. I feel bad for kids today - I don't think you get the same experience and understanding given a modern computer and incredibly complicated (by comparison) operating systems. I just feel like you don't really get the same kind of "aha! so that's how it works!" experiences you could with the simpler computers.
Stupid sexy Flanders.