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?

Comments

A homemade 6809

[Pig Hogger]

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.

paleo

[PopeRatzo]

My first home computer was a slide rule.

Commodore 64

[jgotts]

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.

My first home computer was my third computer

[mykepredko]

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.

Sinclair, then Atari

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

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.