What was your first computer?

[localoid]

My first computer was a circa late-1970s RCA Cosmac VIP, that I programmed in machine language. With a CDP1802 microprocessor and sixteen 16-bit registers it would do about 100,000 instructions per second.

I filled one of the Cosmac's expansion I/O slots with a circuit board that I interfaced to a Paia Electronics "drum board kit" that I assembled. After writing a program on the Cosmac, I had a programmable "drum machine". I could key the sequence I needed the drum machine to play back from the Cosmac keyboard and then record the resulting drum track on a 4-track Teac reel to reel tape machine either as drum tracks or simple click tracks.

This was back in the Dark Ages before MIDI came out (in 1983). In those days, if you wanted to do much of anything in electronic music without spending several thousand for a Moog, you ended rolled your own devices.

 

[danny_w]

Started out using these at school... (my first computer belonged to the university)

1 wrong card and life was not good...

SparkyCanada

How true. I remember those days...

 

[dukebound85]

my first computer of my own was a 2003 emac 1ghz 512mb or ram when I was 18 going for college. I thought it was sooooo cool

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Started out using these at school... (my first computer belonged to the university)

1 wrong card and life was not good...

SparkyCanada

I missed that experience by very few years. I envy with you. Must have been fun (well, if the cards remain in sequence and bug free)

 

[Tech guy]

Mine was a hp

 

[SpyderBite]

TSR-80 and then a TI 99-4a. Made due with those until DOS based XT computers were available. Got one with a 5.25" drive as primary storage. Couple years later got an Apple II

 

[Tech guy]

The model was dv8000, nice computer but was always overheating and killing the mother board, 6 times in 1.5 years

 

[SandPebble]

Vic 20

 

[The Doctor11]

My first computer is the iPhone 4 I'm using to type this right now.

 

[iBlazed]

My uncle made us a homemade computer from off the shelf parts in 1996. It ran Windows 3.1. We also had America Online. Why he didn't choose to put Windows 95 on it I have no idea. I guess Windows 95 was a radical redesign at the time and they weren't sure if it would stick. Same way that I wouldn't put Windows 8 on a computer I'm building for someone today.

 

[Mr. McMac]

A mid 1980's Atari 800XL with a floppy drive.

 

[Huntn]

I've answered this before in this forum.

Apple IIe

The whole shebang, duo-disks and Apple monitor, purchased 1983 ($2600 or 2900?), used for 9 count'm 9 years before upgrading to a Mac Performa what-ever-it-was. I could kick myself, gave it away and someday it will be worth millions...

 

[davidinva]

Started out using these at school... (my first computer belonged to the university)

1 wrong card and life was not good...

SparkyCanada

My college had an IBM 1620, I think. That was in the early 1960s. Mainframes until the early 1980s. First computer I owned was an Apple IIe. (As pictured in the post above.)

 

[thatoneguy82]

I still remember when I got my first computer; it was on 3/17/1993. I was waffling back and forth between this IBM machine and a Mac, but I ultimately picked the IBM. I've since switched to Mac about 10 years ago.

Anyway, the IBM had a 486SX 33Mhz processor, 8MB of RAM, 250MB HD and I believe a 9600baud modem; it ran Windows 3.1. It also had a CD-ROM and a 3.5" floppy. I also got a 15" CRT monitor.

 

[MorphingDragon]

I don't really remember, I was using a computer before I could walk according to my parents.

All I know it was a DOS machine and the games on it were my early childhood.

 

[ohbrilliance]

A Commodore Plus 4. I taught myself BASIC on it, and don't recall it being good for anything else.

 

[iwan073]

Mine was a Commodore VIC 20.

 

[admwright]

Mine was a Sinclair ZX-80 with 1kB RAM. Got it for Christmas 1980, was I excited . The next year I got the 'upgrade' kit - a ZX-81 processor and a plastic overlay for the keyboard (this was because the keys had multiple functions and this changed between the 80 and 81 computers. Still have it all up in the attic.

 

[Mal67]

Commadore Vic 20. It was quite frustrating. My parents new nothing about computers, but bought it so we could learn about them. I never really had much of an interest except playing games. The ones we had on cartridge were okay, but a lot of the tape ones would never load.

Vic 20 for me too. I liked it. Matter of fact I liked it so much I just got another one via ebay.(Arrived yesterday). At the time I was a bit jealous of my best friends c64 - graphics/sound/games etc - but thinking back we got a lot out of it and it started a lifelong interest in computers and computing.

 

[Huntn]

I still remember when I got my first computer; it was on 3/17/1993. I was waffling back and forth between this IBM machine and a Mac, but I ultimately picked the IBM. I've since switched to Mac about 10 years ago.

Anyway, the IBM had a 486SX 33Mhz processor, 8MB of RAM, 250MB HD and I believe a 9600baud modem; it ran Windows 3.1. It also had a CD-ROM and a 3.5" floppy. I also got a 15" CRT monitor.

When I bought my first Mac in 1993, a Performa desktop, as someone being exposed to GUI for the first time, there was no contest between and Windows 3.0 and Mac System 7.

 

[T.Doyobi]

Mine was an Amstrad CPC 6128 which I believe was build by Sir Alan Sugars company, it was a British computer and I don't know whether it sold in many other countries but it had 128k RAM and a disc drive and was comparable to the C64 in terms of graphics, sound and game library. Not sure why my parents went with this one instead of the more popular C64 but I didn't regret it. The screen often had quite a large border around the game so you would not be using the whole screen but the colours and graphics were similar to the C64. Most of my games were on tape and some loaded and some didn't (or rarely) but it was my introduction to computers at about age six. Unfortunately I never had the patience or intellect to learn to program it. I was just interested in games, and still am.

It lasted reliably for many years until one Christmas I got an Amiga 500 which was like having and arcade machine in my bedroom with the amazing graphics and sound, it was such an improvement over the 8 bit Amstrad, which I dearly loved. But the Amiga was my dream machine, I still have one now and now and then play on it.

For it's time, the Amiga, and I believe it was released about 3 years after the original Macintosh it had such amazing graphics and sound, arguably, it was one of the best computers on the market at the time. Maybe you guys in the states have not heard of Amstrad but it was quite popular over here. My friend had the cpc 464 with 64Kb's Ram which would have been fine because most games were written for it as it was the more popular consumer computer, for some reason we ended up with the 6128, probably because of the build in disc drive. I didn't have many games on disc most popular was the tape. But I have fond memories of it.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Vic 20 for me too. I liked it. Matter of fact I liked it so much I just got another one via ebay.(Arrived yesterday). At the time I was a bit jealous of my best friends c64 - graphics/sound/games etc - but thinking back we got a lot out of it and it started a lifelong interest in computers and computing.

What came with it? Does it have any games etc? What did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Mal67]

What came with it? Does it have any games etc? What did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

About $70 + postage. In pretty good condition and up and running on our crt tv. Normally they seem to go for a little bit more than this so I am more than happy to get it at this price. Came with intro to basic Pt1 and Pt2. Already have datasette, joystick etc and about 12 months ago got a really good deal on a lot of cartridges - games, programs, memory expansion etc. In fact a lot of things I would have loved to have had first time round

 

[Macky-Mac]

Commadore Vic 20. It was quite frustrating. My parents new nothing about computers, but bought it so we could learn about them. I never really had much of an interest except playing games. The ones we had on cartridge were okay, but a lot of the tape ones would never load.

the Vic 20 was my first computer too

 

[Brittany246]

The first computer I owned was some cheap dell laptop I got when I was 16 and a freshman in college. Before that I had always used family computers. The first computer I used was an HP back in the late 90s when I was 5 or 6. I pretty much just used it to draw on windows paint. I was an expert.