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Post a picture of your first computers.
- Thread starter Paul Graham
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We had a bunch of computers growing up..Luckily for me they were always a bit out of date so I got to learn A LOT. Started with s comadore 64 knock off..eventually got a 486 with an out dated (and modified) version of dos with windows 3.1 (which we later upgraded to 95)..
But my first computer that I personally owned)was IBM Aptiva, I bought it when I was about 12 or 13 years old and had to work for it (I worked in my parents store after school AND sold chocolate bars door to door on the weekends)... It wasn't the computer I wanted but it had a 'good' warranty from a local department store and that sold my parents...
It wasn't super powerful, but I loved it as it was mine and I worked extremely hard for it.
I learned EVERY thing because of this computer.... because it couldn't run Quake 3
I still remember the specs..
AMD K6-2 CPU at 400mhz
128mb of ram
CD Rom
10gb hard drive
SIS530 chipset, which I later learned was terrible and couldn't run quake 3 with out some tinkering (OpenGL wasn't officially supported on this)..
I had to install Quake so many times I still remember the cd key
But my first computer that I personally owned)was IBM Aptiva, I bought it when I was about 12 or 13 years old and had to work for it (I worked in my parents store after school AND sold chocolate bars door to door on the weekends)... It wasn't the computer I wanted but it had a 'good' warranty from a local department store and that sold my parents...
It wasn't super powerful, but I loved it as it was mine and I worked extremely hard for it.
I learned EVERY thing because of this computer.... because it couldn't run Quake 3
I still remember the specs..
AMD K6-2 CPU at 400mhz
128mb of ram
CD Rom
10gb hard drive
SIS530 chipset, which I later learned was terrible and couldn't run quake 3 with out some tinkering (OpenGL wasn't officially supported on this)..
I had to install Quake so many times I still remember the cd key
This isn't my picture, but this is what my setup looked like:
It was an AST Bravo. My Mom bought it for me at a second hand computer shop, since she saw how expensive computers were at the local Gateway store.
It was an AST Bravo. My Mom bought it for me at a second hand computer shop, since she saw how expensive computers were at the local Gateway store.
Commodore 64. I remember my mom took me to BEST* to get it, sometime around early 1983. I don't remember the price, but I know it wasn't $600.
I remember I got the Com 64 with a cassette tape drive, which had to be the single most useless tech item ever invented. If I wanted to play a game or something, I had to start loading the game a good half hour before I would play it- so I'd start and go do something else.
I couldn't stand the thing, it ruined the already rudimentary computing experience so much I saved my allowances and whatever I could to scrape about $200 together to buy the infinitely better: floppy disk drive.
I remember the commodore branded floppy cost about $350, but I got a 'clone' drive that was $150 less. Back in those days, everything that wasn't the exact same brand of what you had was considered a 'clone' with the strong inference that it was inferior. I remember my $200 'clone' floppy worked as good as my friend's 'authentic' commodore-branded floppy, which made a big impression on me that lasts to this day; buy quality, not brand hype.
*Anyone remember BEST? I'm guessing it was like a fore-runner to Best Buy- a really weird store where everything was in a 'showroom' in glass display cases. You couldn't actually pick up and mess with whatever you wanted, you had to order it by number and then wait for someone to bring it out to you.
It was such a strange store in my memory that when I recall buying the Commodore 64 there, I catch myself thinking: did I just dream it, or did that oddball place really exist?
First computer I owned....
I used several computers at school, and then regularly used an Apple ][ from a neighbor - but my first computer I really owned myself was an Acorn Atom. I built mine from a kit, and it included the "optional" case and was fully expanded to 12k RAM. I customized mine with the "euro pack" and had a ZIF socket placed on the rom so I could burn and boot up any program to those ROM chips. Very expensive back then, but who could wait for the 300baud tape to load?
The atom spawned the BBC micros as well as the electron, but the atom was very cool, and very very hackable !
Second computer was a Sinclair zx81, followed by a spectrum. Finally moved to a commodore Amiga, which was the best system for so many years. I'm a computer professional, and worked with IBM pc's from 1984 - but always had something "different" at home !
I used several computers at school, and then regularly used an Apple ][ from a neighbor - but my first computer I really owned myself was an Acorn Atom. I built mine from a kit, and it included the "optional" case and was fully expanded to 12k RAM. I customized mine with the "euro pack" and had a ZIF socket placed on the rom so I could burn and boot up any program to those ROM chips. Very expensive back then, but who could wait for the 300baud tape to load?
The atom spawned the BBC micros as well as the electron, but the atom was very cool, and very very hackable !
Second computer was a Sinclair zx81, followed by a spectrum. Finally moved to a commodore Amiga, which was the best system for so many years. I'm a computer professional, and worked with IBM pc's from 1984 - but always had something "different" at home !