Your first computer?

Ignition75

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May 25, 2014
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P
Atari 800 with cassette drive and 300-baud modem, but was technically a hand-me-down.

First one bought with my own money was Amiga 500 like OP. NES boys couldnt believe their eyes/ears when they came over to play Psygnosis games.
Psygnosis... Ahh dude you've just brought some nice memories back for me...
 
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acidburn

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May 26, 2014
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Man. There must be some old folks on here. ;-).

Most of what you say goes over my head.

My parents had a BBC micro for their first pc. And they've still got it.
 

tungfa

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my first computer was a MacPro (1st generation laptop)
I am a super latecomer to this world !
;)
 

qwizzie

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Aug 6, 2014
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Commodore C64

I remember writing in BASIC some text adventure games .. fun times. Time certainly has gone by fast ...
 
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innergy

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Jun 27, 2014
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Here is the real deal - the first PC I met in 1982 was the fully compatible copy of Apple ][ - the bulgarian Pravetz 82 ;)



And then in 1985 I bought my first home PC - Pravetz 8D, compatible with the french Oric Atmos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric#Clones

It has the 6502 CPU too but wasn't compatible with Apple and Pravetz 82 (what a disappointment), so I started to write my own programs and record them to a.. cassette tape.. :D:D
 

yidakee

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Amstrad CPC ... 64KB of memory baby!! Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 ... But the first keyboard I hammered on I think was an Acorn Archimedes which I remember had a mind-blowing AI-chat thingy (for the time), and I got in school detention because the first things I typed was something like this...

12-year old yidakee -> hello
Acorn Archimedes -> Hello 12-year-old-yidakee! How are you?
12-year old yidakee -> I'm fine and you?
Acorn Archimedes -> I'm doing great. Computing all day long.
12-year old yidakee -> What are you computing?
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I don't understand the word "computing"
12-year old yidakee -> you're stupid.
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I dont understand the word "stupid"
12-year old yidakee -> F**k you

(right then teacher walks by and I lost computer privileges ever since... c'mon, I was about 12 and super excited!!)
 
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Sub-Ether

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Mar 31, 2014
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Amstrad CPC ... 64KB of memory baby!! Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 ... But the first keyboard I hammered on I think was an Acorn Archimedes which I remember had a mind-blowing AI-chat thingy (for the time), and I got in school detention because the first things I typed was something like this...

12-year old yidakee -> hello
Acorn Archimedes -> Hello 12-year-old-yidakee! How are you?
12-year old yidakee -> I'm fine and you?
Acorn Archimedes -> I'm doing great. Computing all day long.
12-year old yidakee -> What are you computing?
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I don't understand the word "computing"
12-year old yidakee -> you're stupid.
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I dont understand the word "stupid"
12-year old yidakee -> F**k you

(right then teacher walks by and I lost computer privileges ever since... c'mon, I was about 12!!)
You almost passed the turing test with only 64k lol. My ZX81 had a meager 1 kiloByte but it still had a chess program that could actually play a game of chess reasonably, talk about efficient programming or what, nowadays you need megabytes just to say 'hello' !
 
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Sub-Ether

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My mate had a Dragon 32, unusually it had poke command that could double the processor speed,sometimes crashing the computer but good for doing array calculations before the tape loaded game begun. Remember this was 1982 and as far as I know, no other computer at the time could do that.

'It was possible to increase the speed of the computer by using POKE 65495,0 which accelerates the ROM-resident BASIC interpreter, but temporarily disables correct functioning of the cassette/printer ports. Manufacturing variances means that not all Dragons are able to function at this higher speed, and use of this POKE can cause some units to crash or be unstable, though with no permanent damage. POKE 65494,0 returns the speed to normal. POKE 65497,0 pushes the speed yet higher but the display is lost until a slower speed is restored.'

How prescient eh.
 
M

MangledBlue

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Commodore Vic-20
with cassette tape
Had a few expansion slot games - Pirates Cove was one of them
 

georgem

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Jul 10, 2014
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I did not have a C64, unfortunately, but I have been listening to the SIDs for quite a while now. I like the raw sound from the 6581.

No one else is listening to HVSC?
I love listening to DRAX of the HVSC... in my opinion the best SID musician, next to Tim Follin.
 
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raze

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Compaq Portable. Of course, it was already an antique by the time I got a hold of it in the early '90s. All I had for it was 5.25" floppy disks of Police Quest and Carmen Sandiego.

 

vertoe

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Mar 28, 2014
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Unimatrix Zero One
Amstrad CPC ... 64KB of memory baby!! Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 ... But the first keyboard I hammered on I think was an Acorn Archimedes which I remember had a mind-blowing AI-chat thingy (for the time), and I got in school detention because the first things I typed was something like this...

12-year old yidakee -> hello
Acorn Archimedes -> Hello 12-year-old-yidakee! How are you?
12-year old yidakee -> I'm fine and you?
Acorn Archimedes -> I'm doing great. Computing all day long.
12-year old yidakee -> What are you computing?
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I don't understand the word "computing"
12-year old yidakee -> you're stupid.
Acorn Archimedes -> Sorry, I dont understand the word "stupid"
12-year old yidakee -> F**k you

(right then teacher walks by and I lost computer privileges ever since... c'mon, I was about 12 and super excited!!)
This must be Eliza, developed 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum (what a genius!)...
In this context I really recommend the documentary Plug and Pray about robotics, artificial intelligence and Weizenbaum's critical view on technology.