What Was Your First Computer?

[goofyernmost]

Our first home computer was in the early 90's. If I remember correctly it was a Hyundai Desktop. I have no recollection of the rest of it other than it ran on the DAS system and internet connected through AOL. It had one color type face monitor which what orange and a Dot matrix printer. It held up quite a few years. I even kept track of my business (Quicken) and did payroll, printed checks. And was the equivalent of a Model A Ford but at the time it was wonderful.

 

[georgina]

I don’t remember what our first home computer was. DH was the computer guy.

It was a big deal that a few people in my college dorm had PCs in the early 80’s. I remember someone in my apartment bldg senior year proudly showing off his new Apple something or other.(Google tells me it was a Macintosh that came out in 1984.)

 

[Dan Murphy]

First was a TI-99/4A with a cassette tape player.

First 'real' computer was an IBM PC. 1984. 256k, dual 5 1/4 inch floppies, green screen monitor. $2,600 in 1984. ($7,846 in 2024 dollars)

 

[BrianL]

First was a TI-99/4A with a cassette tape player.

First 'real' computer was an IBM PC. 1984. 256k, dual 5 1/4 inch floppies, green screen monitor. $2,600 in 1984. ($7,846 in 2024 dollars)

Dan, that TI-99 is a real computer. It even had a 16-bit processor, though the use of many othr 8-bit components kind of limited that. Those types of units were very important in the history of home computing.

 

[tony67]

Probably was the ViC-20, followed by the Commodore 64 and then the 128.
Had a timex as well.

In school we had one of those DEC mini computers and some Acorn computers.

My first IBM was a Amstrad with duel 5.25 inch drives and I bought a 20 Meg hard card for a ridiculous amount of money.
Yeah 20 meg for $699 - what is that in todays dollars - about 2K!!!.

After that many different Tandy's - they had better graphics- 16 colors for Leisure Suit Larry!!!

I recall getting a Tandy 386 with a 100 meg drive and Windows NT 3.0 and thinking I would never need another computer.

I could probably retire on all the money I have spent on computers in my life.

 

[kimmar067]

...the Caveman 2000:

.....the keyboard was extra.

 

[kimmar067]

...actually, our first computer was the Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack circa 1985 - it was programmed with Lotus: [ or mebbe Nutshell?]

 

[Dan Murphy]

Dan, that TI-99 is a real computer. It even had a 16-bit processor, though the use of many othr 8-bit components kind of limited that. Those types of units were very important in the history of home computing.

Yes, a real computer for sure. I suppose my thoughts come from the tape recorder program access as opposed to floppies on the PC. I recall my next computer, a 386 with EGA, was a PC Limited, the precursor to Dell. They has just made a 20 meg hard drive an option, over a 10 meg. It was $400 more than the 10. I could fathom what I would do with a 10, but did go for the 20. It was $2,500 then, 1986. A comparable IBM then was over $5,000. PC Limited's no-questions-asked 30 day return policy is what mage me take a chance on a then unknown. Now, a very well known.

 

[becoming_diznified]

Oh gosh, I recall mine was a Packard Bell 486 DX 25 Mhz back in 1992. Did a lot of QBasic programming on that boy

 

[kymom99]

At my school as a teacher in the 90s we had those apple II computers. My first home computer was a gateway we bought in 1999 after my son was born.

 

[MGMmjl]

The mentions of the TI-99 computer got me to thinking. I'm pretty sure either my parents or grandparents had that machine. I can't remember where I used it at, but I distinctly remember playing a game called "Munch Man," and it looks like it was developed for the TI-99/4A computer.

 

[bdrex28]

Probably was the ViC-20, followed by the Commodore 64 and then the 128.
Had a timex as well.

In school we had one of those DEC mini computers and some Acorn computers.

My first IBM was a Amstrad with duel 5.25 inch drives and I bought a 20 Meg hard card for a ridiculous amount of money.
Yeah 20 meg for $699 - what is that in todays dollars - about 2K!!!.

After that many different Tandy's - they had better graphics- 16 colors for Leisure Suit Larry!!!

I recall getting a Tandy 386 with a 100 meg drive and Windows NT 3.0 and thinking I would never need another computer.

I could probably retire on all the money I have spent on computers in my life.

My uncle (One of the first US Navy Seals and previously UDT) went to work for DEC (Digital) after the Navy. He worked on the VAX computer systems. Anyway, when I went to College in 1990 he built me a 386 and even gave me a color monitor he had. Paired it all with a Star SG-10 printer. LOL he was going to try and get me a 486 processor but it was too new and too expensive to "acquire".

I would charge other students to use my computer and the word processing program it had and then print on the dot matrix. I would even type the paper for them for an extra fee. Amazing how much my fellow fraternity brothers would pay for that. haha.

 

[BrianL]

The mentions of the TI-99 computer got me to thinking. I'm pretty sure either my parents or grandparents had that machine. I can't remember where I used it at, but I distinctly remember playing a game called "Munch Man," and it looks like it was developed for the TI-99/4A computer.

View attachment 890412

Juuuust different enough to not get sued!

I remember playing this on the TI-99's at school. It was one of the few non-educational games. We also had this Defender rip-off called Parsec. Most of our other carts were games like Space Invaders but where every alien had a math problem and you had to have the proper answer loaded in order for your shots to be effective.

 

[EACarlson]

My mother worked in schools so we had an Apple IIe at home during the school year. The first actual computer I owned was a no name with a Pentium 3 that ran Win2k, but not very well. I think that was in 2002 or 2003.

 

[NannyBeBe]

We still have our first computer -- a Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200SX. We have to keep it because it's what connects us to our WIFI.

 

[bookgirl]

Since I’m old af I will admit to a Commodore 64.

Also funny I took the very first computer science class at my high school where they tried to unlearn my typewriter keyboarding skills and I wrote GOTO programs that were saved on a cassette reader.

I did not have to use punch cards but my friends husband did his thesis project on punch cards and I’m glad I didn’t have to.

 

[Kickstart]

I'm probably the oddball here... The first family computer we had was a Franklin Ace 1200 - an Apple II+ clone. Apple sued Franklin and they stopped making Apple II clones after they lost the lawsuit (IIRC).

Couple of my friends had the Commodore 64. This was the early/mid 80's - I think I was in junior high at the time - speaking of which, my junior high school started a computer programming class using the "Trash-80's" - so I spent little time typing on those as well.

The first computer I ever used (like playing a spelling game) was an old Commodore PET (I think in 1982) at the library in the grade school I attended.

I had a Mac SE in college... and the first computer I bought on my own was a Pentium Pro. I think I ordered it over the phone (maybe a Micron)

Ah, good memories

 

[Disney Bears]

My first was a Sinclair ZX-81, aka Timex 1000.

Then I got an IBM PC-XT clone running at 4.77 MHz. EGA monitor, single floppy drive, and a 20 meg hard drive that I never got close to filling. 300 baud modem. Pick up the phone, dial a number and then stuff the receiver into the rubber cups. My garage door opener probably has more processing power now.

 

[Chili327]

We still have our first computer -- a Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200SX. We have to keep it because it's what connects us to our WIFI.

Not sure how old that is, but you could probably get a pretty cheap new one that would allow you much higher speed. (I would think, but maybe it’s not as old as it sounds)


I used to use one at school in a class in 1984, but my first pc was an original Alienware. 1999-ish

 

[DodgerGirl]

My family's first computer was one called a Headstart Explorer and my mother had ordered it for us back in the 90's and Headstart Explorers were great computers and we had a bunch of games for it including some game show games. Then my family tried out a Compaq Presario and I don't know why people bought them but ours didn't work from the start because when we first got our Compaq Presario it was great then the games started having no sound and freezing and we called Compaq many times and they told us to return it and then my parents exchanged it for another Compaq Presario and the same darn thing happened again so we returned it again. Then the worst computer we got was a Packard Bell computer and I didn't even know about our new computer because I was at school when my parents bought it and my parents had set it up before I got home from school to show me. And to our surprise that Packard Bell computer was a fine mess and our games would run slow and you couldn't adjust the settings on it because it would hiss each time and we even called Packard Bell and they were no help so we took it back and got an NEC computer which we still have today. My family also has an EMachines EMonster computer as well