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What is the slowest computer you've ever owned?
- Thread starter SkyBell
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gauchogolfer
macrumors 603
Mitthrawnuruodo
Moderator emeritus
That must be my old Laser 200.
It had a Zilog Z80 A clocking in at an amazing 3.58 MHz... which isn't too bad as it had a dedicated Motorola 6847 video processor... 😀
I actually had to upgrade it from 4 to 16 KB RAM because I wrote too large programs, and when the RAM was full, the RAM was full and the machine just reset itself... no warning, no chance for saving (you didn't write to tape "all the time")... just a fresh, blank screen... 😱
This is also technically the machine which makes me a switcher. The built-in language was Microsoft Basic... 😉
It had a Zilog Z80 A clocking in at an amazing 3.58 MHz... which isn't too bad as it had a dedicated Motorola 6847 video processor... 😀
I actually had to upgrade it from 4 to 16 KB RAM because I wrote too large programs, and when the RAM was full, the RAM was full and the machine just reset itself... no warning, no chance for saving (you didn't write to tape "all the time")... just a fresh, blank screen... 😱
This is also technically the machine which makes me a switcher. The built-in language was Microsoft Basic... 😉
Voidness
macrumors 6502a
Slowest Mac: Macintosh LCIII, we had 2 of those around!
Slowest PC: HP Vectra. I think it had a 10MHz 286 Intel Processor, with a full 1 MEGAbyte of RAM 😎 I can't remember the exact specs because I was 3 years old when it was around at home. But I recently came across this:
More here
Slowest PC: HP Vectra. I think it had a 10MHz 286 Intel Processor, with a full 1 MEGAbyte of RAM 😎 I can't remember the exact specs because I was 3 years old when it was around at home. But I recently came across this:
More here
UK Commodore 64
My Commodore 64, being the UK model, had PAL video output, and since video was synched from the CPU clock, it ran EVEN SLOWER than the usual NTSC US model - ~900kHz instead of 1.02 MHz!!
Still managed to do some cool stuff on it though - and back then you could learn assembler, code with it, and actually understand what you were doing!
My Commodore 64, being the UK model, had PAL video output, and since video was synched from the CPU clock, it ran EVEN SLOWER than the usual NTSC US model - ~900kHz instead of 1.02 MHz!!
Still managed to do some cool stuff on it though - and back then you could learn assembler, code with it, and actually understand what you were doing!
Same here. 7.14MHz of raw power, and a whopping 2MB of Chip RAM 🙂edesignuk said:
I later payed £200 for a 16MHz 68020 accelerator board with a maths co-pro and 2MB Fast RAM, about two weeks before the A1200 came out 🙄 . Man, was I pissed off. I could have put the 500+ in Loot, put the proceeds with my cash and got a brand new AGA machine that could take an internal HD if only I hadn't bought that card.
All academic now, but it's funny I remember being so gutted 😀
Oh, and I once got a letter published in Amiga Format magazine. How cool was I? Not cool at all
bartelby said:
Those who are talking about Elite should look out for a book called "Backroom Boys" by Francis Spufford. It includes a chapter about the development of Elite, including many technical details and insights, as well as interviews with its creators. It's a really interesting read. The rest of the book is good too, with a number of examples of how British innovation went from the "white heat" of 60s rocket technology through Concorde to completely different technology like computer games and sequencing the human genome.
I just picked up a highly discounted copy in hardback in a remaindered bookshop, and it deserves to be wider read!
An edited extract of the Elite chapter is available online here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1064107,00.html
I had an Acorn Electron as well. I still have it, as a matter of fact. Ah, the hours I spent, waiting for games to load, fiddling with the volume button on the tape recorder.
I still think some of the best games I've ever played were on the Electron and on the BBC Micro - Repton, Crazy Painter, Mr Ee! et al. I still play them today, on a BBC emulator that runs under Windows. I'm not sure whether I'll be playing games from 2006 in 2026.
I still think some of the best games I've ever played were on the Electron and on the BBC Micro - Repton, Crazy Painter, Mr Ee! et al. I still play them today, on a BBC emulator that runs under Windows. I'm not sure whether I'll be playing games from 2006 in 2026.
Kernow
macrumors 65816
Glen Quagmire said:
Repton was another awesome game. I bought Repton and Repton 2 for Windows from Superior Software (the original makers of the game), but I've been looking for Mac versions for ages. The emulators I've tried have been rubbish & I want to see if Repton 3 and Repton Around the World were as good as I remember them.
BornAgainMac
macrumors 604
frankblundt said:
I didn't know that the ZX81 was that fast. I thought it was older than the C-64 at I think 2 Mhz and that machine screams compared to the 2X81. I looked up the Mhz rating and you are right. All the power and I didn't know. Almost as fast as the mighty Amiga 1000.
People shouldn't complain about things like integrated graphics until they tried one of these 1980's machines.
bartelby said:
I do, I had one 🙂.
I remember you could use assembly language inside BASIC programs. It had a pretty powerful BASIC interpreter, even though it was only a subset of BBC BASIC, iirc.
But.... has anyone had an Acorn Atom? (I had one, got it from someone because it was defect, never been able to fix it)
I think these machines were pretty popular in the UK, weren't they?
xsedrinam said:
2 Questions
1) Did you get the dual core version
2) Is the Graphics PCI Express?
John Jacob
macrumors 6502a
An Amstrad PCW 8256 personal computer and word processor running the CP/M 3 operating system, with 256KB RAM and a 3" (not 3.5") floppy drive, and a Zilog Z80 processor. Sorry, don't know the MHz (was it even in MHz or was it stuck in Hertz?? 😱 )
Edit: See WikiPedia and the old computer museum.
Edit: See WikiPedia and the old computer museum.
