When did you buy your first computer?

[White Israelite]

Just curious when everyone here bought their first computer?

The first one I recall that I had was a IBM PC AT 5170, that was around 1986 or 1987, I was only about 3 when I used my first computer, my dad worked a computer job so we always had top of the line computer equipment.



This was before CD-Rom drives to my knowledge were commonly available as I don't remember getting one until 1990 or 1991, it was a huge step up from floppys.

I used to run DOS, windows 3.1 was available at the time but I didn't really like it and barely used it.

The first time I used internet, I was 10 years old, I used AOL 2.5 at the time, it wasn't cheap as they charged a minutely rate, then it changed to hourly which I could use it more. Got lan modem around 1997 and cable modem in 1999.

I built my first computer when I was 12 in 1997 when the Pentium II came out.

I remember the laptops from that generation as well, I don't remember the brand but I used to play flight simulator on it, had the mouse built into the laptop, they were bulky and the screen was only in two colors (Black & Orange), I remember when Texas Instruments released one of the first color screen laptops, it was a huge advantage.

[Ulli]

My first computer was a C64. It must have been in 1989 or 1990.

[Ulli]

I bought a 3,5 drive for this computer. None of my friends have one. I used it as a hard disk. 

[White Israelite]

I bought a 3,5 drive for this computer. None of my friends have one. I used it as a hard disk. 

Ah, if I remember, harddrives were pretty expensive back in the day too and they were only about 100 megabytes, but they lasted forever! Tha t was before all the outsourcing, and quantam made all their stuff in Japan which was good quality, you just don't get the reliability in consumer HD's anymore
 
Also the keyboards were so much better made, they used to be made in the UK and US and there was a lot of metal construction. When you pressed a key, you could feel it was made of quality, today it feels like crappy mold of plastic that sticks and I can't type as fast on the newer ones. I seen older ones sold for up to 100 dollars but they don't work with my laptop

I have a picture of me with my dad typing on the computer as a baby, I will have to post it sometime.

My brother used to hog the computer in my room all the time to play the game Dune II (not Doom), then my dad finally bought him his first computer around 1996 or so.

[Ulli]

100 mb ? I could only dream about it. 

My father had in his working room a PC from IBM. My mother wrote his reports for his boss and he dictated. It has a harddisk too, but I don't remember the size.

All my friends admired this machine.

My second computer was a Amiga 500 with a harddisk I could connect it on the left side. It looked like an extension. I played Loom and Indiana Jones with it and without disk change. This was quite an archievement.

[Ulli]

Dune I liked too. You have to fight there the evil Harkonnes and defend the house of the duke Aristides. 

[Ze'ev]

hmm
we had a c-64 when I was in 4th or 5th grade in my classroom.

My family's first was (if I remember right) an apple II gs

[White Israelite]

100 mb ? I could only dream about it. 

My father had in his working room a PC from IBM. My mother wrote his reports for his boss and he dictated. It has a harddisk too, but I don't remember the size.

All my friends admired this machine.

My second computer was a Amiga 500 with a harddisk I could connect it on the left side. It looked like an extension. I played Loom and Indiana Jones with it and without disk change. This was quite an archievement.

Ah I loved Loom! I had the cd talkie version, that is a pretty rare game now but it was very good. It's a shame they never released another version. I was a big fan of adventure style games.

I liked Monkey Island series, Ecoquest, Kings Quest (V being my favorite), Space Quest, Police Quest, Blue Force and few others. Out of this world was a tight game too.

[Ulli]

100 mb ? I could only dream about it. 

My father had in his working room a PC from IBM. My mother wrote his reports for his boss and he dictated. It has a harddisk too, but I don't remember the size.

All my friends admired this machine.

My second computer was a Amiga 500 with a harddisk I could connect it on the left side. It looked like an extension. I played Loom and Indiana Jones with it and without disk change. This was quite an archievement.

Ah I loved Loom! I had the cd talkie version, that is a pretty rare game now but it was very good. It's a shame they never released another version. I was a big fan of adventure style games.

I liked Monkey Island series, Ecoquest, Kings Quest (V being my favorite), Space Quest, Police Quest, Blue Force and few others. Out of this world was a tight game too.

Yes I remember some games of it. Monkey Island was one of my favourite. You have to remember the curses of your enemy and use it in the next fight against him. But I forgot the name of the evil pirate boss.

[דוד בן זאב אריה]

1987 was my first this was before Windows

[muman613]

Shalom,

Boy those where the days...

I bought my 1st Apple II in 1982. I now have 4 Apples in my computer museum...

muman613

PS: I also have an old Amiga 2000 machine which I developed commercial software for Oxxi Inc, I write Commodore Amiga Netware in 1992.


PPS: My 1st harddrive was 5 MB and my 1st modem was 300 Baud..

[t_h_j]

i got a 286 in 1993, then a 486 in 96.  Finally, i just built my own and have been upgrading it regulary since 2000

[White Israelite]

I found one of the old school keyboards from IBM on ebay, I just bought it

I love these things, I got a steal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190246785333

Too bad it's not the one with the metal IBM plate, but still, it's old school made in USA.

I hate the new keyboards, I only type 140 WPM on the new ones, the old ones I could type so much faster.

[briann]

Heres mine.

[muman613]

Heres mine.

Hey thats a TI-99-4.... We used to use those at the Computer Camp I instructed at back in 1982. I didnt like the TI because of its crappy keyboard and the expansion chassis expanded horizontally...

muman613

[briann]

Heres mine.

Hey thats a TI-99-4.... We used to use those at the Computer Camp I instructed at back in 1982. I didnt like the TI because of its crappy keyboard and the expansion chassis expanded horizontally...

muman613

Well, yes, If you got the voice modulator, and then the RS-232 Expansion ... it looked like this:


It was a monster.  I learned how to program on it.  Made my first game on it.  And I still use a lot of VBasic.  I guess its hard to break old habbits.

[Shamgar]

Radio Shack. Tandy CoCo II with 16K RAM. Data storage was to a cassette tape. I took the free Basic class that came with the purchase. I then typed for 3 days to make a small clock that told the time. It was at that point I decided I did not want to be a programmer.




My first PC was an IBM XT with 2 360K floppy drives. I saved up for weeks to buy a 10MB hard drive which was $400 (more than 2 weeks pay) and I thougt, "that will be the last computer I will buy, this will hold all the data in the known world!!"   

[White Israelite]

Radio Shack. Tandy CoCo II with 16K RAM. Data storage was to a cassette tape. I took the free Basic class that came with the purchase. I then typed for 3 days to make a small clock that told the time. It was at that point I decided I did not want to be a programmer.




My first PC was an IBM XT with 2 360K floppy drives. I saved up for weeks to buy a 10MB hard drive which was $400 (more than 2 weeks pay) and I thougt, "that will be the last computer I will buy, this will hold all the data in the known world!!"   

Know what's sad? Nearly all this stuff used to be made in America and very high quality, it was expensive (I think my computer was around the 9,000 dollar mark at the time) but it was well made. Now we have these bundled computers for 150 dollars with free keyboard, speakers, and a mouse made in China and it's all made to last a year before you need to buy another. I can't think of a modern motherboard, cpu, or video card not made in China today. Some of the transisters are made in Japan but even thats changing.

[White Israelite]

Ordered my new vintage clicky keyboard, can't wait , the hell with made in China.

[Zelhar]

I got my first PC in 1992. It was a 386 Packard Bell with 40MB hard drive, and it run  on MSDOS, with Norton Commander. Later on I also installed windows 3.11 but I didn't like it that much and I had little RAM anyway.

[Zelhar]

Radio Shack. Tandy CoCo II with 16K RAM. Data storage was to a cassette tape. I took the free Basic class that came with the purchase. I then typed for 3 days to make a small clock that told the time. It was at that point I decided I did not want to be a programmer.




My first PC was an IBM XT with 2 360K floppy drives. I saved up for weeks to buy a 10MB hard drive which was $400 (more than 2 weeks pay) and I thougt, "that will be the last computer I will buy, this will hold all the data in the known world!!"   

Know what's sad? Nearly all this stuff used to be made in America and very high quality, it was expensive (I think my computer was around the 9,000 dollar mark at the time) but it was well made. Now we have these bundled computers for 150 dollars with free keyboard, speakers, and a mouse made in China and it's all made to last a year before you need to buy another. I can't think of a modern motherboard, cpu, or video card not made in China today. Some of the transisters are made in Japan but even thats changing.

I actually think you're wrong. Intel has factories all over the world so most CPUs are made in America, Europe, Israel and other countries. And other components such are motherboards and RAM are made in Taiwan (for example Asus) and Japan. And even China has some very high quality products they don't necessarily produce only cheap crap.

[angryChineseKahanist]

I first used TSR-80 Color Computers in school. They were networked to a computer that had the only tape player.
Later, they got a grant and installed an 8 inch floppy drive.

I owned a commodore c64, IBM clone 8088 4.77 MHz, commodore 64c.  I'm not sure which order.
Then a commdore 128D.

Also in school was a PET computer.
They also had a portable vacuum tube oscilloscope with a 4 inch display. It required two strong people to carry it.

All sometime around the 1980s.

[cjd]

The first computer I bought was an IBM PS1 back in the early 90's. The thing was great and was easy to use. It was quite expensive compared to prices today. It was a good system but it was a 386 which was not powerful enough to get me onto the internet which came along about a year or two after I bought the system. Back then you bought into a service and such as Prodigy or CompuServe  and that was your network. The systems back then were built to last forever and I am still using the PS1 dot printer on one of my systems to print up run of the mill items since the print ribbons last forever. The rest of the system resides in an attic or basement here somewhere and  would be curious to see if reassembled and powered up would it still work. The materials used in the machines back then were unbelievable the machine itself would last forever. The systems today are built more in line with their lifespan.

[DownwithIslam]

My first computer was a 64mhz packard bell. I dont remember what os it had. I think it was windows 95, I am not sure. I think it was when I was 7 or 8 years old.

[Rubystars]

The first computer I ever used was a commodore 64 at school.

The first computer I owned was a Netchannel set top box which sucked really badly. You couldn't even copy and paste on it.