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Ahhh, ArcFire.  Excellent topic!  Until a couple of years ago I had: an Apple ][+ clone made by binocular makers Bell & Howell in 1983.  I still remember rotary dialing, listening for the tone and putting the handset into the suction cups.  It was terrible and slow.  If you coughed the modem would pick it up and display garbage on your screen.  :D  I can't think of the number of times I was buffering (text capture for you yungn's) a text file only to have a heavy or loud truck/bus drive by and garbage up my file.  >:(  This was back about 6 months before "Wargames" came out and *everyone* got a modem for christmas and searched, or created their own, hacker underground.  We used to dial into a bank computer were a friend (his dad worked there) had set up a primitive BBS.  I still have a box of floppys with my anarchy and phreaking files on it somewhere.

Yeah.... those were the good ole daze!   8)

Holy crap! I just realized that I have been playing online for 20 yearz...  :P
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LOL Yep SS your the first computer generation of kids as am I. I had totally forgot about the cradle modems back then, I had a 300 buad one for the Atari 400. the nearest phone was mounted on the wall so I got an extended phone cord and had it stretched at least 10 feet to the cradle modem, the problem was that everytime someone opened up my bedroom door it knocked the handset off the modem, I used to get disconnected all the time by my bro and sis  >:(

I had some fun with the BBS that I was on and the one that I hosted called "Thunderdome" down here in Tampa area, only had a 4 modem bank but it was fun for the day! ;D

I also had an Altair 8800 given to me but I never could get it to work right I think the power supply wasnt putting out the right voltage and it would start up but didnt do much after that, when it was very cold it would work for about 5 min so it could have been a solder joint as well...

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Whoops, almost forgot.  Check out: http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/ for a stroll down memory lane.
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Thanks for the link SS! great website for info!!

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I also had an Altair 8800 given to me but I never could get it to work right I think the power supply wasnt putting out the right voltage and it would start up but didnt do much after that, when it was very cold it would work for about 5 min so it could have been a solder joint as well...
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My grandfather has one sitting around somewhere.  Poor solder connections were their major problem  I should see if he still has it.  Are you going to do anything with yours?  I hear they make great boat anchors!  :D

I was briefly on the first chat bbs in our city in '86.  It was run off an Apple 3.  The 5 meg HD was HUGE in the day when 32 and 48K RAM were normal.  January '88 saw our first real chat bbs.  An IBM XT with a Galacticom board in it.  4 lines in and you got 15 mins then it hung you up.  It was called F.A.N. (Free Access Network).  Man, I could spend hours telling you about some of the fun we had with that place!  :)

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Anyone remember thier first computer? for me it was an Atari 400 with the old membrane keyboard (no actual keys they were short dimple contact points made it REAL hard to type)

Here is a picture of one:
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/atari400/

I also had a Commodore 64/128, TI-99 TRS-80 and a Timex Sinclare! ::)

I was running an XT with wildcat software for an old BBS (Bulletin Board System) using a 2400 baud modem for almost 5 years from 87-92!

Ahh to good ole days! of computers!
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;) :) :) :)

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Man, I was still using a 386 up until about 1998 when I finally bought a P 2 to replace it.
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Last year, they updated our server from a 486 to a Pentium-90.  I joked to them and congradulated them on making the jump from the late 80's to the early 90's.  :)

BTW, the Hubble Space Telescope runs on a 386 CPU.  Surprisingly, that's the fastest one made that's hardened against radiation.  Manufacturers are trying to update the available chipsets to something a bit more modern.  I read that it takes years to develop.

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Man, I was still using a 386 up until about 1998 when I finally bought a P 2 to replace it.
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Last year they updated our server at work from a 486 to a Pentium-90.  I joked and congradulated them on making the jump from the late 80's to the early 90's.  ;D

By the way, the Hubble Space Telescope uses a 386 CPU.  Surprisingly its the latest generation of CPU's that's available for use in the space environment.  It takes years of development to design a CPU that is hardened against radiation.  CPU manufacturers are trying to update it to something more modern.  Izn't it amazin' what you can learn off of the Discovery Channel?  :D

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Heheh! I remember doing Applesoft BASIC in 82/83 when I was in grade 9.  Had to learn it during lunch breaks and after school because back then our school only had 3 Apple ][e's and access was restricted to only the grade 11 and 12 math classes (elitists!  >:() The following school year my little brother went to kindergarten and they started teaching him Applesoft BASIC!  Sheesh, sure deflates the ego when you can speak computer jargon and your 6 yr old brother can talk the talk!  :)

I took an electronics technician course in 2001 and during our microprocessor portion of our studies we had to devise a program in BASIC in order to show programming structure.  We then converted it over to machine language hexadecimal.  Sure felt weird using BASIC again.  I was amazed at how much I could still remember!
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LOL yep there were many forms of basic, qwik basic, GW basic etc.

SS when are you going to register? LOL you are on the board regularly so sign up! ;D

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It's a wonder he didn't do his back in!

Back in 1989, I used on of those on a factory site for a week and had to lug it up and down 3 flights of stairs...  >:(
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Yep my brother in law went to work for Comaq in '87 and he used one of those at home for unfinished work. He is now one of the heads of the server division at Compaq. However he may get laid off here shortly. HP has not been doing well. I have never seen him or my sister so scared.  :(

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Here's a picture of my baby.  That box above the screen is a 5 meg ProFile HD which added to the internal 10 meg HD.  :D

http://www.gaby.de/lisa.gif
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Dang SS what year did that come out? I am not much of a Mac Fanatic but I did have a Apple II C for a while (barrowed it from a friend to play around with in the late 80s)

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Dang SS what year did that come out? I am not much of a Mac Fanatic but I did have a Apple II C for a while (barrowed it from a friend to play around with in the late 80s)
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It came out in January 1984 until April 1985.  I can remember seeing it in a computer store for $12,000 Canadian.   :P

Speaking of the ][c, ever see one with the LCD screen?  Very rare.  I can remember driving around with a buddy who had one and using the payphones to make <ahem> free long distance calls to those anarchy bbs's on the eastern seaboard.  TAP and Phrack was what we were after at the time.  ;D

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That depends on which computer.  I've heard that an original Apple 1 went for tens of thousands of dollar$ in 1992.  Very few of them are known to exist out of the hundreds that were made.  Check E-bay to get an idea.  I see old 8-bit computers in the local buy-n-sell paper often for peanuts.  I gave away my Apple ][e dual-drive system for $500.  And right below it was another person selling the same system for $75!  :D  I've seen them as low as $25 for the computer and a single disk drive, a bunch of software, and some expansion cards.

I bought my Apple Lisa system for $500 in 1992, complete with printer.  Now I see them on E-Bay for about $300 - $600 for functioning machines.  The Lisa 1 is really rare, even junked ones are being snatched up.  Couldn't give you a price as I haven't tried to track one down.

But if you are looking for a very rare computer to make some money on, I think the pickings are slim.  Unless you can find an original hand soldered Apple 1, I can't think of a system that would be considered valuable in monetary terms.  Altairs in their original state and low serial numbers are sought by collectors on occasion but usually don't fetch big coin.
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They will SS, but it will take time. As time goes by and more and more of the original machines dissapear and get junked then the value increases. Give it 10 years and lets see in 2013 how much they are worth. I still have my functioning atari 2600, I hope that is worth alot by the time I am 60 LOL  :o

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How much would my Gameboy go for?
The 1989 version if I wanted to sell it?
I've had it for 10 years but the one I had is now all yellow-looking from years of having it on my shelf.How much would it sell for?

howard
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Dunno, but I would pay good money to get a functional Colecovision again...I kick myself all the time for selling it back in '96 when it was still working fairly well (although one of the controllers needed to be replaced.