What Computer Did You Start With?

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 10:19 am

Richard S. wrote:My favorites were Summer/Winter Games, Test Drive, Flight Simulator and I had a disc full of arcade clones that I played a lot. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong etc.

You can play a lot of these games on a PC, you only need a emulator and copy of the ROM image. If you own the game its completely legal to have possession of the rom image AFAIK. MAME is popular one for arcade gamers, if anyone is interested PM me. ;)
Oh yes...Flight Simulator!
(I had a whole series of them, as they progressed.........They were very accurate but actualy more difficult to fly than a real light plane!......I used to fly the Cessna 150 & 172 IRL)


 
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Post by WNY » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 10:41 am

Here's more blasts from past....I used to sell a ton of this stuff back then!

How about these Cell Phones? They have come a long way!,

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 11:49 am

WNY wrote:Here's more blasts from past....I used to sell a ton of this stuff back then!

How about these Cell Phones? They have come a long way!,
Man.....Look at the price of that bag phone!!! ( and that's back when $1199.00 bought you more than a tank of gasoline!)

 
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e.alleg
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Post by e.alleg » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 12:19 pm

I had a commodore 64 with 2 disc drives as well. I couldn't afford the 16mb hard drive but I wanted one soooo bad. I had filing cabinets full of games, when Nintendo came out I already had all the games on floppy. Those were the days of 12 hour downloads from California without the benefit of unlimited long distance, my parents loved me. We had VIC20 computers at school. I programmed many a ski game. My favorite for the 64 was Silent Service and Gunship, it took like 2 months to actually fly a mission in the game it was hyper realistic. I could probably fly a real one if the simulation was accurate. I loved Bard's Tale and Might & Magic, I have a certificate that new world computing sent me when I beat the game. I found over 99% of everything programmed into the game, I think I had over 1,000 hours invested.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 12:55 pm

e.alleg wrote: I found over 99% of everything programmed into the game, I think I had over 1,000 hours invested.
:lol: I often wonder what I could have accomplished in life if it weren't for these damn computer games. I know I could probably buy a new car from the quarters I have invested alone.

 
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Post by Ed.A » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 1:20 pm

286 DX33, favorite past time was playing Aces of the Pacific.....hour after hour of pure pixelated air battles. :)

 
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Post by europachris » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 1:35 pm

I started out around 1980 or 81 with a TRS-80 Color Computer. I had a whopping 16K memory and the tape drive. Hooked it up to a black and white TV I had. A year later I got the DMP-100 printer that was pretty much a joke, but it worked.

At the middle school, we had TRS-80 Model III computers and I worked on the school newspaper using the word processing software (I can't recall what it was called now...).

A friend had an Apple II+ and the green screen monitor. He was rich and had the disk drives, joysticks, games, etc.

Up until just a few years ago I had an IBM PS2 Model 70. 1 meg RAM, 40Meg HD, 80286 with 80287 coprocessor and MS DOS 9 I think. BIG honking cast aluminum case, built like a tank (heavy as one, too). I used it for amatuer radio contest logging as it was very RF quiet (didn't interfere with reception like a modern PC). Got rid of it when we moved.

Those were the days.....


 
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 1:51 pm

My first "real" computer was a dual 5.25 floppy (no hard drive) Compaq model that cost about $2,000.00 back in the mid 1980's (you had to boot it with the MS-DOS floppy!)

 
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Post by Yanche » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 4:28 pm

My first home PC was a Columbia Data Systems DOS clone. Columbia Data Systems was a local company that was the first to clone the original IBM PC. As others, like Compaq, did the same they failed and sold off there remaining stock. I bought my computer at the factory for less than 1/4 the then current price of an IBM PC. I was about 1982-3.

At work my first PC type computer was an Intel development system. Used the Intel 4040 chip and many Intel support chips. It was about 1975. At that time Gordon Moore and Andy Grove still called on customers, at least customers with big government contracts. I don't remember the details but we designed the 4040 into a Loran navigation system for the Coast Guard.

 
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Post by NEAHS » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 6:01 pm

I started with a Commodore Vic 20 in the mid 70's. As a matter of fact I have one sitting in it's box with a data tape recorder & a few tapes & I do believe a modem that will work with it.... I then moved to the 64 in the mid 80's & then a 128 late 80's early 90's. I have a picture of the 128 with the 4 disk drives stacked, I'll have to find it, scan it & post it here....
Last edited by NEAHS on Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Post by billw » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 6:19 pm

My manager had one of those bag phones. I called him on it once. The next time I saw him he was on my ass for calling. I guess each call was expensive. Telling me not to do something was pretty stupid on his part though. As soon as he heard my voice he'd hang up. The guy just had no sense of humor.

Some of my favorite games from back in the day. missile command, zaxxon, and space invaders

 
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Post by rberq » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 7:38 pm

See that C64 monitor in DEVIL...'s post? We still use one as our TV to watch movies from DVD or VHS. Still works fine. My first computer was the IBM 360 mainframe that filled a room. About 1970 the bank I programmed for bought a 128K memory upgrade for $250,000. (That's right, 128K, not 128M.) The memory box was the size of a big refrigerator. Now for $29.95 you can buy a memory stick the size of your little finger that's equivalent to 16,000 of those refrigerators.

As for those Commodores and Radio Shacks and little bitty IBM PC's, those are not REAL computers and they will never catch on....

Dinosaur Bob

 
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Post by CoalHeat » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 8:26 pm

My first computer was an IBM AT clone, given to me for free by a friend in 1995. I had resisted the entry into the computer age!

http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibmpcat.shtml

I was running DOS, of course. I used it for word processing and it had an early version of Quicken, so my finances also entered the computer age.
When the mother board quit I installed a used 286 board and larger hard drive, and managed to stuff Windows 3.1 in it.
I continued to use it until January 2000 when I discovered that either the Quicken program or the PC would not recognize 2000 as the year.
I bought a used Gateway 2000, 64 mhz processor, with all the needed peripherals from someone for $50, back in business.

My first new PC was in 1998, I entered the Internet generation.

I still have the Gateway 2000 in the attic, the monitor I'm using is from it.
I gave the AT turned 286 back to the guy that gave it to me, he still has it sitting around somewhere.

Both my current PCs are outdated, this Compac is abt. 5 years old as well as the Gateway on the other desk, but they work well for my needs.

I remember in high school going with my class to use "the computer" which was a keyboard/typewriter with the device that punched and read the paper "computer tape" that was used at the time. I was more interested in the computer terminal than the math problems.

http://www.vintage-computer.com/asr33.shtml

One of my friends had "Pong", connected to the television set. That's about as far as I went with video games, they never interested me that much. By that time I was in the bar playing "Slide Bowling".
Shuffleboard Bowling.jpg
.JPG | 19.9KB | Shuffleboard Bowling.jpg

 
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Post by av8r » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 8:28 pm

"640K is more memory than anyone will ever need"

Bill Gates

Although he denies it....he is *such* a liar!!!! :)

 
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Post by billw » Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 8:41 pm

I still play video games. Not as often as I used to but I still play Call of Duty or Brothers in Arms. My boys tease me about always wanting to kill the Nazis.


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