When do you first remember using a computer?

[MC6800]

Very wierd. Someone had to have broken into and taken the processor and put it all back so it looked like it hadn't been tampered with. Either that or the assembly line missed the "insert processor" step when they made that computer.

And missed the "power-on test" step...

I'd guess some other customer bought that machine, removed the CPU (to upgrade their own machine), and then returned the machine for a refund.

 

[eyoungren]

And missed the "power-on test" step...

I'd guess some other customer bought that machine, removed the CPU (to upgrade their own machine), and then returned the machine for a refund.

Probably. Been so long I don't recall all the details, but everything that might have tipped a person off to it being a return was not present. The safety seals and all that were there.

So, if that was what happened they were pretty good at it. The store eventually replaced it so it all worked out.

 

[AustinIllini]

This was my dad's first computer and the first I used regularly

 

[shinji]

The first one I ever used was a TI-99/4a, but the first computer that was my own was a Mac Classic:

I remember playing a lot of Continuum, Scarab of Ra, Glider, Cannon Fodder, etc. 🙂

 

[0388631]

My first ever retail PC purchase was a Packard Bell 486 in '94. Got it home, set it up, turned it on. Nothing!

Futzed with it for 20 minutes or so then called the help line. Working with them for about 30 minutes it eventually got to the point where the case had to be removed.

So, trying to follow the support guy's instructions I'm looking and what do I find? A giant empty hole where the processor is supposed to be!

At that point the only thing he could suggest was to return the computer. Now that's back in the days where business wanted a logical, believable reason for a return. Not like it is now where they ask no questions.

So, getting them to understand that they sold me a computer with a missing processor was another trial.

Very wierd. Someone had to have broken into and taken the processor and put it all back so it looked like it hadn't been tampered with. Either that or the assembly line missed the "insert processor" step when they made that computer.

Hah. Reminds me of something I watched on television years ago. In the 60s, rental companies offered a premium car like a Shelby. Savvy Mustang owners would rent the more expensive and obviously more power powerful Shelby and do an engine swap. So the Shelby ended up with a boring Mustang engine, while the renter's Mustang became a "sleeper."

 

[ActionableMango]

Late 70's, just for one day. I couldn't tell you what it was, but it was at Boeing where my dad worked. Its dimensions resembled a typical modern 18" rack about 6 feet high. My dad ran some kind of text-based submarine game on it so that the computer would babysit me while he worked. I think it was bring-your-kid-to-work day, which he did for a few years. I have fond memories of that.

First personal computer at home was a Commodore VIC-20 around 1980. I would go to the grocery store, buy BYTE magazine (I think), which had programs printed inside the magazine. Then I'd type in the program letter by letter and save it to cassette tape to run again in the future. This was one of the ways software was distributed prior to the Internet, LOL.

 

[Hastings101]

My whole family (grandparents, aunts, Parents) all got some gateway desktops in the late 90s that were exactly the same and they're the first ones I remember using. They all had some letter matching game and archery game too haha.

Those are the first ones I actually remember using, I'm sure there might have been one before but I can't think of it.

 

[roadkill97006]

There has to be someone here than can beat 1968 ....... but I did attend several Admiral Grace Hopper lectures/ classes when she was a mere Commander. 😀

USAF Univac 1050-II in mid 1965 ;-) I envy you though, she was special.
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First personal computer at home was a Commodore VIC-20 around 1980. I would go to the grocery store, buy BYTE magazine (I think), which had programs printed inside the magazine. Then I'd type in the program letter by letter and save it to cassette tape to run again in the future. This was one of the ways software was distributed prior to the Internet, LOL.

Having been built my Altair 8080a in 1976 (with 4K of ram!) I was reading Dr Dobbs Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia.🙂

 

[Nermal]

I would go to the grocery store, buy BYTE magazine (I think), which had programs printed inside the magazine. Then I'd type in the program letter by letter and save it to cassette tape to run again in the future.

I still have a couple of those books somewhere 🙂

 

[Strider64]

First saw a personal computer being used for educational purposes when I was in the 8th or 9th grade class which would make it 1979-1980. Personally using a computer 1981 or 1982 on an Apple IIc for one of the very first computer courses they offered in high school. I remember the course was so new that they had two instructors in the classroom, there was no structured studies for the instructors were learning the computers themselves and the most vivid thing was Apple Dos. I remember one time walking into class on day seeing one of the instructors using a hair dryer on an open Apple IIc finding out the previous night the roof had a leak and rain went onto the the computers. 😱😀

First computer personally owned was a Commodore 64, but I would go over to my friends house where he had an Atari 400 computer. Don't get me wrong today's computers are powerful, but those early computers there was something magical about them. I also laugh when I hear children today complaining how "slow" their broadband connection is. I remember a friend and I waiting all night for one 100K file to download from a BBS (Bulletin Board Service). That at the time was a huge file. 😀 I remember one time when I was on a BBS by myself complaining about a 300 baud modem and an old timer at the time just laughed at me and said you should had seen 124 baud modem that he had to use. He said to top it off it was only half-duplex not full-duplex. Meaning communication between computers only went one way at a time versus communication going both ways at the same time.😱😎 At the time I thought the guy was pulling my leg, but I did some research and found that it was indeed true that there was such a thing as a 124 baud modem. I just like to add to a search before search engines like Google and the Internet was interesting to say the least. I believe I searched a lot of BBSes for it. I also say back then I found ways of making telephone calls for free via a computer with a modem. 😀

Anyways that was my history of using a computer for the first time(s).

 

[decafjava]

First personal computer at home was a Commodore VIC-20 around 1980. I would go to the grocery store, buy BYTE magazine (I think), which had programs printed inside the magazine. Then I'd type in the program letter by letter and save it to cassette tape to run again in the future. This was one of the ways software was distributed prior to the Internet, LOL.

Hus, I had a copy of Softside from 1981 that had programs for TRS-80, Commodore and Apple II, and I recall typing two games by hand for my TRS-80. Arena of the Octos - text based arena combat against aliens - and a primitive "what if" scenario of the Battle of Leyte Gulf (the largest naval battle of WWII which took place between the IJN and USN near the Philippines). The latter had pages of typing I had to check and recheck. 😱

 

[zelmo]

I used FORTRAN in high school back in 1978-79 but it wasn't until I was 32 in 1993 that I had a computer on my desk at work. Some beige piece of crap running Lotus 1-2-3. Maybe a Gateway? We acquired a prepress service bureau a year later and I was introduced to Mac and have never looked back.

 

[eyoungren]

I also laugh when I hear children today complaining how "slow" their broadband connection is. I remember a friend and I waiting all night for one 100K file to download from a BBS (Bulletin Board Service). That at the time was a huge file. 😀 I remember one time when I was on a BBS by myself complaining about a 300 baud modem and an old timer at the time just laughed at me and said you should had seen 124 baud modem that he had to use. He said to top it off it was only half-duplex not full-duplex. Meaning communication between computers only went one way at a time versus communication going both ways at the same time.😱😎 At the time I thought the guy was pulling my leg, but I did some research and found that it was indeed true that there was such a thing as a 124 baud modem.

My first modem was a 300baud device that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64.

Later on I managed to hook up a used Hayes 1200 baud modem to the 64 and later a 128 I acquired.

By the time I got a PC the manufacturers had started to shift modems to ISA cards so I missed out on the giant boats that some US Robotics 9600 baud modems were. I did have a 9600 Hayes for a brief period.

Those were some fun days, modems and BBSes.

 

[bunnspecial]

When I was growing up, my dad ran an income tax return business from home. What that meant was that he stayed at least reasonably current on computer technology from the time programs like TurboTax came out, although in his last few years he had to get increasingly esoteric equipment to satisfy the requirements of the program he was using(he used a program called Orrtax, which is a great program meant for a tax office and operated by people who knew what they were doing, but the last year he bought it, it was still a DOS program).

In any case, in the 1980s he treated himself to a Tandy 1000a. A modem was a practical necessity for him to do electronic filing, but he also used BBSs. He really tricked that computer out with dual floppies, 640K of RAM, and even a 30mb HDD.

His computers trickled down to me, and I can remember playing games on that Tandy probably when I was 2 or 3. Later on, I remember getting on AOL(dial-up) from a 486 in the mid-90s.

Occasionally, I get tempted to get nostalgic and seeing if I can a free AOL account with dial-up to play with. I don't know if older versions will still connect-I'd need to hunt down the newest version for my Leopard on my G5.

 

[SkyBell]

2, maybe 3 years old in '95 or '96 - an HP Pavilion running Windows 95.

 

[Huntn]

I appreciate this.

Too many people I know that are this age or older don't want anything to do with computers, phones or technology of any kind. I work with one of those people and it's been 13 years of explaining the same thing over and over and over again because she doesn't want to 'get' it or there are no $$$$ signs attached to it to benefit her.

So when I run across people who embrace technology it makes me happy. It indicates a willingness to plug in to what's out there and to stay connected.

I frequent an area of the forum for PowerPC Macs (Macs made before 2007) and we have a gentleman there in his 80s. Always nice interacting with him because he's been current with technology for his entire life. It was something he was always interested in. That makes talking to him a lot of fun.

But it's always a shame dealing with those who get older and want nothing to do with this stuff. They shut down and shut out anything new that they don't want to expend energy on. I'm not saying that they are not active with other things, but the lot I usually experience have issues relating with society in any form and wanting nothing to do with technology is just one aspect of that.

...except today it better applies to some of those closer to 90, like my Dad who frequently tells me of his dislike for computers and technology although he has a Windows box. That's his first mistake. 😉 I am 64 and got my first computer in 1984 when I was 31 years old. 🙂 At that point portable phones (communicators) were still in the realm of Star Trek.
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Examples: Compuserve, Genie, AOL, Prodigy, etc.......

I remember when CompuServe ruled (mid 80-early 90s). Besides the BBS (forums), my union used it to keep the members informed. A CompuServe forum was where I was given the nickname Huntn. 🙂 Eventually I drifted away from Compuserve, but it looks like it still exists: http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/menu/

They were quite popular in the US during the mid-80s to mid-90s before the internet got going.

That said, as far as the telephone company was concerned you were making a phone call. If that call was long distance you paid the charges.

My mom took my phone line away at one point because I ran up a $300 phone bill. 🙂

This is why a local or 800 number was vital. 😀

 

[eyoungren]

...except today it better applies to some of those closer to 90, like my Dad who frequently tells me of his dislike for computers and technology although he has a Windows box. That's his first mistake. 😉 I am 64 and got my first computer in 1984 when I was 31 years old. 🙂 At that point portable phones (communicators) were still in the realm of Star Trek.

It does, but I tend to deal much less with those in that age group and much more with those in the 60-80 age group. On the other hand, I had a friend who is my age and a professed Luddite. It's irritating when I run across this at ANY age.

This is why a local or 800 number was vital. 😀

Yes, true. But back in those times, most of the small home grown BBSes did not have 800 numbers. The larger services such as AOL, Compuserv, Genie, etc I never engaged in.

 

[kuhnje]

Ran a few BBS’s back in the day, including one in the late 80’s on my TRS-80 CoCo that was connected 24/7 to a local university DECserver and could be telneted to over BITNet/internet. It received quite a bit of student “callers”. (Family member was a professor, so had access to university BITNet/internet VAX/VMS and Unix machines going back to the 80’s.) The CoCo, obviously, didn’t have a TCP/IP stack in those days, but dialed into the dialup modem pool and did some trickery on the serial port to make the BBS work. Went to Amiga after the CoCo fizzled away, then to PC’s in the 90’s, but continued the board which by then also had FidoNet and Usenet feeds. General public access to the internet, along with all the %#& spammers/trolls, would bring the BBS era to an end, unfortunately...

 

[BenTrovato]

Early 80's. Was barely old enough to talk.. the family had a Commodore 64 with moon buggy on cassette.

Load "$",S

 

[Tech198]

I love computers. 🙂 Cheers to us techies!

Yay ! Runstop/Restore

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

This was the first computer I used was one like this in primary school.

It would have been 1988/89.

 

[0098386]

My first computer was an Amiga in 1993, but before that everyone older than me had one so I used to use theirs for writing/drawing on.

First game I remember playing was Ghostbusters on the Spectrum - I must have been 3 or 4!

 

[Lotta Lumina]

This makes me feel extremely young... I started out with an IBM ThinkPad R50e running Windows XP back in 2005 or so, I've completely forgotten the specs but it worked for many years! I also remember my dad having Vista in 2009 on a Packard Bell (after the Acer buyout) with no OS problems!

Nowadays I use Windows 10, Xubuntu 17.04 and MacOS 10.12.

 

[betabeta]

1982 TI-99/4a, my dad just brought it home one night, it wasn’t mine but I used it, played Parsec. I wanted a Commodore 64, and a year later got my wish at Christmas with the a Commodore 64 plus 1541 disk drive and 13” color monitor/tv, I think it was one of the first with multiple inputs for a computer.

I begged and pleaded for this, and thinking back it’s shocking what my parents paid for that setup, and we didn’t have a that much money, if I remember they said this counts toward birthday, I think I said I never want anything else, count it toward next Christmas. It was the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!

Back then to have a TV in your room as a kid was rare, my parents didn’t even have one in their room, and I had a cable box too. I have no idea how I pulled this off.