Reminisce

My first was a TRS-80. 8K memory and loaded programs off of audio cassettes. I played my first computer games and built my first programs.

I realized the limitations when my third or so program overran the memory.

My Dad knew the home PC was going to be big, but he bought in way too early. I learned that valuable lesson and have never forgotten it.

Its kind of funny how now you can buy several million times the PC now for less money!

The first computer I ever used (and initially learned on) was an IBM 8088, 4 MHz, 64K RAM, 5-1/4” floppy disk drive, monochrome monitor, running PC-DOS. I was as timid as one could be, afraid to push any key for fear of doing something wrong. That was in 1985.

The first computer I bought was a Tandy (Radio Shack) 80286, 8 MHz, 64K RAM, 5-1/4” floppy disk drive, 10 MB hard drive, with VGA graphics and a COLOR monitor (WOW!), running MS-DOS. (I didn’t understand, at the time,the difference between PC-DOS and MS-DOS. Too bad I didn’t buy a few hundred shares of MS.) That was in 1987. With my wide-format dot matrix printer and a Kurta 12x12 digitizer, the whole thing cost me a whopping $5,200.00.

I must say, however, that it was one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

The PC literally diverted my career plans. I was in school studying architecture, and I used those early PCs to learn and use AutoCAD. I was among the first to use AutoCAD, learning on version 1.4. Learning to customize and program the software, and learning about the hardware necessary to run it changed my career path. Instead of becoming an architect, I ultimately became the IT director for an architectural engineering firm. It’s the best change I’ve ever made. I’ve got the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Other than a school related flirtation with an IBM Key-punch machine and a Tandy-Dandy TRS-80 with Cassette tape storage, I earned $4.80 an hour as a night-shift operator on an IBM 375/20.
We had to single thread our punch-card object deck Jobs and slap up manually threaded mag tapes.
I have fond memories of the big ol' 1403 printer-the one where the top opened up it's big mouth to be fed more continuous line feed paper. I hated the paper tape channel punch.
Then one day we got one of themnew fangled 7 1/2" disk readers to replace the punched cards. Then it all went down hill!

I recall the first computer I used - a RML 380z. Mainly good for Star Trek, the game which is unusual in that it was coded up originally by Linda Lovelace many years before the actual TV series was aired.

But the best ever game was on the Sinclair ZX80, this was 3D Monster Maze and you had to have a memory upgrade to use it. Interesting that a game with block graphics and nowt else could make your heart beat faster while sommat like Warcraft III on a 22" with surround sound is just "more of the same".

Radio Shack kit for Christmas with breadboard style programming and lights with paper inserts in front of them... many hours solving things I could figure faster in my head... but it was so fun and amazing! I spent many hours on our homestead withsome batteries staying up with that thing, throwing the switches usually more than once b4 I got it right! These units were made by Logix and later they used springs like the "500 in One" electronics kits.

I then developed a great love that still remains for the atari line (I still have the 400, 800xl and 1200 as well as ST with factory color monitor, drives, etc.) and found TI's, Vic20's and c64's along the way. It was the XT really though that made me think of them more as useable tools. I bought my first XT from a very frustrated person for 10$ and had it going the same day..... after that the PC, more because I couldn't afford Apples or find cheap broken ones than anything, became the platform that continues to be primary for me today.

One of my neighbors I converse with a lot on the other hand likes to tell about the "brand new" magnetic drum 10-bit systems that he used to take care of. He still does his finances on his XT and says no one needs any more power than that for personal use! :)

Thanks for bringing up all the memories here and sharing yours!

And thought it was the schizwa.

Apple IIe with 512k of memory.
2- 5 1/2" diskette drives
a 1200 baud modem (not the expansion card type either, the one you put the phone on, it was sexy)

never got the hard drive for it.

But I did have:The "Original" Escape from Castle Wolfenstein.

Forget Word. AppleWriter was the shit.

Ohhh yeah baby.

I had that puppy up until 7 years ago when I decided to take it apart to see what was inside.
(had no idea what I was doing back then, Iwas still learning what everything was)

You laid your hands on an atari system?

I still remember the day my dad bought our atari. I was 9 and the first game I mastered was space invaders (took me about 4/5 hours to break a million)

From that point on, my well established obsession with video games, blossomed into a fierce eye glueing to the TV.

I loved my parents when they bought the huge tv screen/projector.

Not the real, backlight one. But the one with a Big 6 foot screen mounted on a housing that contained an small upside down t.v. inside. Which then reflected off of a mirror onto the giant screen.

Defender never looked so good.