Old Commodore computers came up in the discussion about the “Gaming Blunders” feature, and it made me think back to my first computer…
Ah, the VIC 20… I had one expanded to 40K with this giant cartridge that let me plug in three cards simultaneously. And a friend’s dad modified my 8K cartrdiges into 16K cartridges by soldering additional 2K RAM chips on top of the existing chips. He also added toggle switches so I could switch slots on and off without removing the carts (since the SuperExpander and the top 8K of memory used the same spots in the memory map). There was also a switch to write-protect one slot, so I could dump cartridges to a 1541 floppy and then run them directly from memory. (Ah, sweet Omega Race…) VIC 20 cartridge copy protection generally consisted of writing on top of cartridge memory. If you were running ROM, no problems. Running the program from RAM, it would write over its own code.
I remember using one word processor that you load to load from tape, and then type SYS (somenumber) to start. It had like five different versions, depending on how much memory you had installed, because it had to sit at the top of RAM.
My printer was this serial HUGE teletype thing I got from the same aforementioned friend’s dad. It had been surplused from his job, so I was able to get a “letter-quality” printer for just $50. This thing had a giant belt with typewriter-like letters on it. It spun around at high speed, and there was a hammer for every position on the paper. When the proper letter spun by the hammer, the printer would hit it. Amazing technology and loud enough to hear outside the apartment. It weighed about 60 pounds.
Used to get these games from Nufekop software…
I also wrote one of the two pieces of commercial software I ever did for the VIC 20. (The other was an Amiga address book app that Compute!'s Amiga Resource bought and ran on one of its floppies.) It was Worm!, a game where you had to avoid hitting your worm’s head on a rock as the screen scrolled from bottom to top. Combo BASIC and 6502 assembly. (Mostly BASIC :-). Sold a few copies in the computer store I worked at in high school (1982) and then a software company bought it, designed a package, and then proceeded to fold before publishing it. I can’t even remember their name now…
Sorry, Mattel Aquarius and Timex-Sinclair ZX-81 owners… This software has a limit on poll items. If your first computer isn’t listed, post it in this topic.
Got a IIe sometime in the early - mid 90s. Used. My friend and I used to spend hours copying BASIC code from books checked out at the library to play games on that lovable, hulking monstrosity. Ah, the good 'ole days.
My first PC was a Radio Shack 8088 with 384K RAM, 2 5 1/4 floppies and VGA graphics. After a few months, I spent about $650 having it upgraded to 640K RAM and a 20 MB (yes MB) hard drive. This PC lasted through college - 1988-92.
TI-99-4a here. However, at the same time my dad did bring one of the original Macs home. I had fun with Dark Castle for a while until the little image of the sad Mac came up. :(
I KNOW I had a VIC 20, but for some reason have absolutely no memory of it. In my addled mind, I can’t remember if I had the VIC 20 or the TI99/4a first…but I am sure someone can let me know the order in which these came on the market. Ah, Dracula on the TI99/4a, running from a cassette drive. Those were the days! Oh wait, that sucked :? My computing golden years were really in full swing when I got the Commodore 64. Whoa, I was THE MAN then~
Amstrad PCW 5812. First and only game (Not counting Basic and Logo stuff): The Guild of Thieves by Magnetic Scrolls. Looking back, it was a cunning move by my parents, picking up a machine that was completely brain dead as far as games went, but was a great word processor. Oh those heady days.
The TI-99/4 preceded the VIC-20 by a few years. How many of your Ti-99ers had the original, with the surplus calculator keys, instead of the typewriter keys?
My parents finally sprung for an Apple IIe clone called a Multitech in 1984. Hey, it was Singapore and you seriously couldn’t buy the real thing there. Or real games. Or spit. Or urinate on lifts. It was really cool when we came home (after being there two years) and I learned my computer wouldn’t work over here without seriously scary transformers.
My first was a Commodore PET 2001 but I have no idea where this fits in the timeline. I think this came before the TI ? I never paid much attention to the TI computers and I can’t remember back that far. I do wish I had kept the PET as they seem to have become a bit of a collectors item.
2nd was an Apple IIe with extra ram. I loved this computer and really cut my teeth on assembly language programming with the Apple. I still have memories of playing “Sneakers” on it.
3rd was the VIC-20 I mentioned in the other thread. Still have this and a large assortment of cartridges.
4th was the Commodore 64. This was during the “golden years” of computer games - MicroProse, Origin, EA, etc.
5th was the Commodore 128.
6th for a very short time was a Commodore SX64 (looked a bit like an Osbourne “portable” with built-in screen, disk drive, etc).
7th and on was an IBM PS-2 30, 50, 55SX, and from then on I simply upgraded components ad-hoc to my current Wintel/Athlon system. The PS/2’s were great machines but far too proprietary and ridiculously expensive. I shudder to think how much money I spent on them.
Of course I have a vast assortment of calculators including a HP-48SX programmable, a Sharp “palm” computer with Basic programmability, countless Tandy/Radio Shack minitature calculators with clock and alarm, and a Palm Pilot Pro.
The first PC I owned was a C64. The first PC I had regular access to was a TRS-80 Model I in the ALP classroom. 4k, and it was a glorious day when the school bought us the 16k Expansion Interface.
My first computer was an Ohio Scientific Instruments C2-4P. It had an integrated keyboard and video out through an RF modulator to a TV like an old video game. It used a 6502, and had BASIC and a machine code monitor in ROM, with 4K of RAM. Data could be saved through a slow interface to a tape recorder. It also had 24x80x8 video memory (ie almost 2K), which you could address by POKEing a character value to an address. If you turned the contrast way up, and turned off the room lights, characters like @ would sort of fill up their gigantic pixels, and you could do primitive graphics, e.g. shooting a missile made of | or / characters at a target to make an explosion of twiddling @s and Os…
Of course I already knew BASIC when I got the computer, as I had figured it out by reading program listings in the back of a Creative Computing magazine for games like Hunt The Wumpus…
This was sort of towards the end of the Altair and IMSAI period, before Apple, and before the IBM PC. CP/M was just being written, and it’s STILL better than DOS, or any variety of Windows for that matter…
I looked at ads for the Spectrum at the time but it was getting a bad rap for reliability so I passed on it.
Another that I passed on but should have bought was the Acorn BBC Micro. A very good computer for its day.
In Australia we also had an early 1980’s computer called the Microbee. It became very popular with schools at the time but it had an annoying habit of blowing up its power supply so I passed on that as well.
A friend had the follow up BBC Archimedes (ARM Risc processor and all). It was actually a very good computer for the time, but sold about 3 units worldwide.
A friend of mine had an Apple 2 that we plugged into a TV.
To get color we had to put it between channels 34 and 35 on the UHF band. So we got a bunch of tape and taped the knob inbetween detents, all so we could play Oregon Trail in color.
