Your first computer

[warpus]

ATARI 800XL

With a tape drive, NO disk drive, and NO cartridge bay

I can't find a picture of one just like that, for some reason all the ones I'm looking up have cartridge bays.

 

[GenMarshall]

I don't know what you consider "your first computer". If going by paying out of pocket, It be a Gateway FX series computer (gaming desktop).

Since technicaly, the first computer in my family would be a Packard Bell which ran on Windows 95. And that was purcased by my mother.

 

[LucyDuke]

I don't know what you consider "your first computer". If going by paying out of pocket, It be a Gateway FX series computer (gaming desktop).

Since technicaly, the first computer in my family would be a Packard Bell which ran on Windows 95. And that was purcased by my mother.

Psh, the one in the FedEx facility in New Jersey right now gripe is the first one I've paid for outright. But I've had many "family computers" and until now all of my "*personal*" personal computers have been gifts.

 

[Padma]

ATARI 800XL

With a tape drive, NO disk drive, and NO cartridge bay

I can't find a picture of one just like that, for some reason all the ones I'm looking up have cartridge bays.

NO cartridge bay?!? I didn't think they ever made one like that. Even my final Atari, a 65XE with a 128M RAM add-on card still had a cartridge slot. How else would I plug in my SpartaDOS cart, or my BasicXE cart to do programming?

 

[ainwood]

NO cartridge bay?!? I didn't think they ever made one like that. Even my final Atari, a 65XE with a 128M RAM add-on card still had a cartridge slot. How else would I plug in my SpartaDOS cart, or my BasicXE cart to do programming?

I thought you started programming with punch cards?

 

[Padma]

I *started* programming with punch cards. That was years before I bought my own PC.

 

[Heffalump]

Commodore 64 with a whopping 64k RAM

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What was your first computer?

Mine (I would consider the Windows 95, but it was my moms) was an IBM Aptiva with Windows 98 on it. It looked almost exactly like this, except someone swapped the CD drive around (mine was plain white):

I just found out my Aptiva's dead. The jerks we sold it to threw it on the floor.

 

[Cutlass]

My 3rd computer was an IBM Aptiva. A pentium 100 machine with the first version of Win 95. It was a good machine. I think I used it for about 6 years before it broke down.

 

[carmen510]

The good 'ol Zuse Z1.

In all seriousness, an old Windows 95 computer. I'm not even sure of the details anymore.

 

[J-man]

A compaq pressario. 133 MHz and 16 MB ram. I played warcraft 2 (a lot) Duke Nukem 3d (where is that sequel?) and many other games.

 

[Kyriakos]

My first computer was an Amstrad cpc6128 with only shades of green colors.

A few years later i got an Amiga 500

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I think the shades of green were because you went for the green-screen monitor (cheaper option). It was colour capable that machine I believe (certainly the CPC464 earlier model had colour).

 

[classical_hero]

Commodore 64 with a whopping 64k RAM

Yeah, that was our first computer also. I still remember when megabytes was what the hard drive would hold. Not as ancient as other's but still very bad by modern standards.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My mom says the first computer she used (not owned) was a Commodore 64 with MS-DOS. I don't even think C64s had DOS, so I think she may be mixing DOS and command-line up, like I used to do.

She says because the workplace she was at didn't have a monitor, they would use the TV.

I have an old Canon adding machine, too. Because a small local college was closing down and they were selling everything off so I bought an adding machine just for novelty. It's like a big calculator that you plug into the wall.

 

[lndm]

Our first computer, well, it was actually a word processor but it was more computer than anyone I knew had at the time, and it could be used as a terminal. It was worth almost $10,000 FWIW and was obviously used for business.

First family PC the Tandy 1000.

The first computer I worked with a Burroughs mainframe similar to this one (hard to find a pic these days).

My first own computer.

 

[Kyriakos]

I think the shades of green were because you went for the green-screen monitor (cheaper option). It was colour capable that machine I believe (certainly the CPC464 earlier model had colour).

Yeah the cpc6128 had color if you had the right monitor, but i had the other one. At the time it was thought that it would be better for my eyes.

 

[Moggy]

The first computer I owned was a Commodore 64 I got as a Christmas present when I was a kid.

The first PC was an ancient (even at the time ) 486 I got free at work when they were getting rid of their old machines.

The first PC I bought was a Pentium 3, 400mhz, 64mb RAM and an 11gb HDD. I actually remember the salesman telling me that an 11gb hard drive was huge and it would be unlikely I would ever fill it up.

 

[Reno]

A 286 with Windows 3.1 (only a floppy drive, no cd), I forget the rest of the details for it. It was great for playing adventure games in, though there were no sounds save for what PC Speaker (We aptly called it PC Piipper) could provide.

 

[Fuzzz]

This should be a poll. The C64 would be the absolute winner. I gave mine away about five years to a friend who collects old computers. He has an Amiga, a Tandy, a C64 (my first PC ), and a bunch of other old skool computers.