Unusual First Computers

Tasel

Did a search and was just curious.

Many of us started playing with computers (and I mean in terms of normal Home Desktop machines) that aren't exactly what you would think of as "Computer" these days. Most people now start their computer life with either a Mac or a standard PC (Dell, Gateway, IBM etc). So for this discussion - For those of you that had slightly unusual or rare computers as your learning toys, what did you use?

I'll start off. I started on a Texas Instrument TI-99/4A. No, not the calculator an actually computer. Took cassettes to enter in programs, connected to a standard TV and recorded information onto audio tapes. Had a bunch of text based (and a few graphic) games, but used it mostly for typing and spreadsheets (hey I was 4ish what do you want from me!)
(side note, later on we managed to find a TI that actually had a floppy drive attachment. Granted we had long stopped using it by that point )

After that my family moved over to an Amiga Commodore 2000 around 1986 or so. Ran WorkBench 1.3 (I think in Europe where they still exist they're up to 6) Many an hours of time wasted on Zork and Marble Madness...

After that we moved over to normal computers (in my case Macs) in late 80's and been so ever since.

So what was your first experiences? I'm looking forward to the obscure (or others that get to reminisce with me over TI and Amiga)

Apreche

Well, I guess an Atari 2600 technically counts. Heck, a Speak and Spell technically counts as a computer. The first general purpose computer I used was the Apple //, or maybe //e, in Kindergarten. The first I owned was an IBM Aptiva, basically a 486 100mhz. It was the fastest machine around for quite some time.

Page

I think my first one would have been a Commodore 64... even before a Speak and Spell. Though I also remember a different computer at the same time as the Commodore, but I don't remember it as well as the Commodore.

supachim

My first computer was a Tandy 1000. It ran DOS 6.somethin... I loved Airborne Ranger. =)

Jameskun

My family also had the Ti-99/4A, with several cartridge "games" and the tape deck. I used to play with writing basic programs on that as a kid. At nearby relatives homes, I could play with a TRS-80 and a Commodore 64, as well as a some 286 PC's. My grandfather was very supportive of my computer curiosity. He gave me his TRS-80 after buying his 286 PC, and even loaned me his 286 PC one winter when he was in Florida.

There was also several Apple ][ computers (various different models) in my school. In elementary school I even had a class with some Basic and Logo programming. Unfortunately, they didn't really keep up with the computer classes though, and in middle school the typing class was done on typewriters (with the lab full of Apple ]['s sitting next door). Middle and high school had nothing advanced with computers, so it wasn't until college that I was able to get more formal training.

Now that I look at that, I really had access to a wide variety of computing equipment from a fairly young age. Despite this, the first "modern" computer my family bought was a Pentium 133 (Gateway). That computer is still in my dad's basement, and was used quite a bit up until about a year ago.

Drex

At every primary school i went to there were acorn and BBC microcomputers. My first PC, was a 33MHZ Pentium running windows 3.1, all it could do was play chips challenge and wing commander.

Neito

The first computer I ever remember having was a C64. I used to goof around in basic all the time.
10 Print "Hi"
20 goto 10
30 hang yourself

WallyBman

I also started out on a TI-99/4A, then went to an Apple ][e.

Omnutia

First computer was an apple 1 or 2. Cant remember which, though I seem to remember a word processor before then (as in an actual machine.)

navelfluff

I started playing around with Commodore Vic20 that a friend owned, but the first computer I owned was a C64.

It wasn't my first, but I got a weird computer. My dad joined a week long course to learn some basic computer skills when the first IBM PCs were becoming common in his office in the last half on the 1980's. The course was basic in the wrong way, and he came home with a simple computer kit with a keyboard with just hexadecimal keys and a few command keys. As output it had six seven-segment displays. He learned nothing, and I got a new toy. I coded a very, very simple space invader on it by punching command numbers directly into memory. There was no way to save the program (apart from the paper it was first written on). Those were indeed my nerdiest days!

At college we learned programming Logo and Turbo Pascal on IBM PCs (new and expensive at the time), but we also had some older UNIX computers that were used for techie things like programming EPROMs and designing print boards. I don't remember the brand. At about the same time I got a used Amiga 1000 that was used until I got a 486 in -94(?). In the meantime I had been using Sun terminals at the university programming Simula, today a fairly obscure programming language. I haven't done any serious programming since I got fed up with it in -92.

Jason

The first computer my family owned was a 286 with 4mb RAM, 32mb HD, and an 8-color CGA graphics card. The mofo had the primitive DOS shell GUI. I used to have all kinds of 5.25" floppy disc games like The Cool Croc Twins, Sopwith, Ultimate Tetris Collection, 3Demon, Commander Keen, Duke Nukem I, Paganitzu, Antarctic Adventure, and Carmen Sandiego (*cough* need a nostalgic Thursday episode about this).

I had all kinds of fun with QBasic, though I never really understood some of its finer points. Trying to parse Gorillas and Snake to find out what made them tick took up a great deal of my time when I was 9.

raquor

I was recently thinking about this myself...My family's first computer was a Mac 512Ke.

God I miss Lode Runner and Star Trek...

HungryJoe

Napier's Bones.

Lusankya

My first ever computer was an ancient Commodore PET 8250 (maybe even an 8250LP, whatever the specifically Canadian variant was) that my dad used for pulling up prices on spare aircraft parts. The Boeing library spanned over 200 floppies, and the case they were stored in in came up to my waist.

The first computer I actually learned to use was a Ti-99/4A, which lasted until the tape drive started chewing up anything you fed it. We also had a floppy drive for it too, but it never worked properly.

cosmicenema

Napier's Bones

Does that mean I can count my abacus and slide rule?

Thaed

What? No love for the TS1000? That was my first computer. I had used Trash 80s and IIes, but this was my first that I owned. A couple of years later, I bought an IBM XT which I still have (and could probably boot if I had to).

JukeBoxJosh

I think (if I remember correctly) my first "in room" compy was a Macintosh Plus (or something that looked quite like it). I would waste time on Sim City all the time...

taraxgoat

Sinclair ZX80 back in the days where you had to solder your computer together.

Also had a Commodore VIC-20. I don't really remember which one came first.

Alex

I was a Commodore 64 kid. We didn't have an actual monitor for it, just a crappy black-and-white TV with an adapter.

I'll remember Telengard (run from a cassette, no less), the Adventure Construction Set, and GEOS until the day I die.

Kiey

My first computer was an Apple IIe. Oh so much Oregon Trail, Logo Writer, and Carmen Sandiago.

JukeBoxJosh

My first computer was an Apple IIe. Oh so much Oregon Trail, Logo Writer, and Carmen Sandiago.

My woodshop teacher had an Apple IIe! It was so much fun.

thaneofcawdor

My first computer was the very obscure Atari XE Game System. It had a few decent games on it, like Lode Runner, Flight Simulator II and Battlezone. Also had a BASIC interpreter built into it, which was my first flirtation with programming. Not at all a bad machine in its time.

After that one, I had an Amiga 600, which was a fairly popular machine by all accounts. I learned the joys of software piracy on that one.

Then I journeyed back into ill-fated console territory, I was given an Amiga CD32. It too had some great games, and it was the first CD player my family ever had, but by the FSM was that the flimsiest-looking piece of hardware ever sold. The flip-top CD drive broke within weeks, and the controllers started to fall to pieces not long after. But the games... damn, there are some that would still hold up against the average Xbox Live Arcade title.

After that it was all Playstations and PCs for me.

cosmicenema

I was a Commodore 64 kid. We didn't have an actual monitor for it, just a crappy black-and-white TV with an adapter.

That's badass ghetto geek.