Probably about 1994, maybe '93 is when I first got onto a computer.  My fam's always been pretty technologically affluent.

Ha, I didn't get my first computer until 2003. 


We never got a computer for the house until 2001, and it was a Compaq Presario.....something or other.  I can't remember the rest of it.

[quote author=whis

My first computer which I got for Christmas back in 1993 was a Macintosh Quadra 610. It was 25 MHz, had a double-speed CD-ROM drive I believe, 250 MB hard drive, 3.5 disk drive, 14" monitor. All I have left from that computer is the speakers, I threw the rest out in the late '90s because it wasn't working right.

My first computer which I got for Christmas back in 1993 was a Macintosh Quadra 610. It was 25 MHz, had a double-speed CD-ROM drive I believe, 250 MB hard drive, 3.5 disk drive, 14" monitor. All I have left from that computer is the speakers, I threw the rest out in the late '90s because it wasn't working right.



250 megs?  That's stone-ageish, a lot of programs today have more than that!

8) The first computer I came in contact with was an Apple, I believe, I was in private school...in 91..I think..the screen was all black and the letters were all green...Only floppy disks..It really didnt do anything..but we were freaked out by it!..Kinda like the first VHS..that was as big as i 13 inch TV...it was COOL!! :o

My first computer was back in 1986 and it was the Commodore 64

It was a HP 130.
This must have been in about 1994/95.
It came with a 1 gig hard drive which was just the shiznet at that point in time.
I remember being just in awe of this machine, I thought that playing solitaire on the computer was just phenomenal.

My first computer was back in 1986 and it was the Commodore 64


That pretty much sums up my early computer experience.

When I went to college in the fall of '85, they required you to buy a computer.  If you were on financial aid, though, it ended up being free.  Since the CEO of IBM at the time was an Amherst alum, we only got to choose an IBM if we were on financial aid.  It was one of the two 5 1/4 floppys, no hard drive things with a monochrome monitor.  Still with WordPerfect, it was good enough to do papers on. 

1987, Leading Edge model D: 512K(later upgraded to 640) Ram, 40Mb HDD, 5 1/4" high density(?) floppy drive, 10MHz(maybe less)processor, serial mouse and joystick, MS-DOS 3.1 w/BASIC, WordPerfect, later added WordStar(what a great program), Lotus 1-2-3, 14" EGA Thompson monitor, Star NX-1000 dot-matrix printer which still works and is still being used. It came with 3 or 4 manuals, really detailed stuff. Can't remember if it was a 286 or 386 motherboard. Back then you either paid by credit card or took out a loan to buy one of these. In it's day the Leading Edge PC had one of the highest ratings.
I was going through some old stuff the other day and found an airline ticket pouch from 1983 with an ad on the back for the Timex Sinclair 1000, $99.95

Compaq '97, horribly slow and freezy, died several horrible deaths before we finally chucked it in '01.

250 megs?  That's stone-ageish, a lot of programs today have more than that!


250-500, definitely no more than 500. And a huge 4MB of Ram. My first 1GB hd computer was the 2nd one I got in 1995, I thought it was a big deal to have a 1GB hard drive, lol.

Although I  never actually got one, I tried to buy a Texas Instruments computer in 1984 when they were on clearance. We had them at school that i used for my computer programming class. I programed a dancing bear to dance to "Heat of the moment" by Asia during class once, the teacher just looked at me like I was from Mars.  ???

My brother and I played electronic games until 1982 when we had our first computer. It was a Texas that was plugged into the TV. I only played video games on there such as Attack and an imitation version of Pac Man, and educational games like Alligator Munch. I remember it came with joysticks that were incredibly stiff! I remember getting so frustrated one day that I became too aggressive with the joystick that the stick came off. My Dad caught me red-handed, and I kept saying, "I'm sorry!" I only got sent to my room, but being only 7, I thought I was in serious trouble and going to jail later!

In 1986 we became more sophisticated, and got an Atari desktop.

My first IBM computer was a 286 with not even 1GB of memory.  It was around the time of Windows 3.1 which I didn't have because my computer was too small to hold it.  It was a dos based computer that required menu screens to function.  The day I got Windows 3.1. I was so excited.  Then when Windows 95 came out, I was even more excited.  Finuly enough, by the time I got Windows 95, Windows XP was already our ;D

My first computer was an Apple!!  Bit of advice for anyone of you that still have that old Apple tucked away in good condition, take it out and take care of it!!!  My computer geek friend told me about these select group of people in Japan that will buy old Apple computers and even the box it came in, under the condition that it is in very good.  He sold an Apple computer box, yeah the one it came in and only the box for $200.  So do your research, such as Ebay and monitor it.  Who knows it may make you money that you thought you didn't have!!!  Yeah, I will accept a percentage if you become a lucky one!!! ;D

My borther was the computer person in our house.  The first computer he bought was a Sinclair ZX81 (or maybe the ZX80) with a touch keypad.  You had load the programmes via a cassette player.  I remember spending ages helping him type in all the machine code.

8) The first computer I came in contact with was an Apple, I believe, I was in private school...in 91..I think..the screen was all black and the letters were all green...Only floppy disks..It really didnt do anything..but we were freaked out by it!..Kinda like the first VHS..that was as big as i 13 inch TV...it was COOL!! :o
  My mistake..I was in private school in 81..NOT..91..Where is my brain??

The first computer I used was the original IBM PC. This was in 1984!
64 KB RAM
(2) 360K Floppy drives (no hard drive)
9inch Green Monochrome Monitor

My first computer was a Comodore 64 in 1986, it had a cassette tape player to save files?  I had no idea then how to use it, One of my classmates gave me games to play on it and I learned how to write my basic program (which I forget how to program now).  It was a loop program that said "hello world" or something like that...  ;D  REAL useful.

The first computer I worked with was an IBM 360 mainframe, around 1975.  My mom was a programmer, so I often got to play with it when she worked weekends.

The first computer we owned was a Commodore Pet, that we bought around 1978.

My second computer was a Commodore VIC-20, I got for Christmas in 1982.

My third was a Commodore 64, I bought it in 1985.

My first "PC" was a Franklin PC-8000, an 8086 that ran at 4.77 MHz, I got it in 1990.

I must have gone through at least 15 of them between then and now.  My current one I built last year.  It is an AMD Athlon 64 3500, socket 939.  I think I will use it for at least the next 1-2 years.

  My mistake..I was in private school in 81..NOT..91..Where is my brain??


Yeah, I thought that was rather primitive to have even back in '91!

The first computer I worked with was an IBM 360 mainframe, around 1975.  My mom was a programmer, so I often got to play with it when she worked weekends.


My father has been programming these mainframes since the late 60's. He started out working with the IBM/360, then later on there was an IBM/370, the one I got to play on in the 80's. Then they moved up to an IBM/390, finally he programmed an IBM System/3090.

My other own computers in the past were:

1. IBM Aptiva A90 (1996)
2. Compaq Presario 7598 (2000)
3. Dell Dimension 4400 (2002 my current one)

Computers I didn't own but worked/tryed/played on were:

IBM PC (original)
IBM PC XT/AT
IBM PS/2
Apple ][e's 
various Macintoshes 
386's,486's 
Amiga (The original back in 1985!) 

Mine was also a Commodore 64, but in 1988. I convinced my dad to buy me one after several of the guys at school wouldn't stop talking about the games you could play on it. I also used a cassette deck to load the games.

Mine was a TRS-80 Model I in the late 70s/early 80s with a whopping 4K of RAM. My Dad passed it down to me after he upgraded to a Model III with 16K of RAM. The Model III had bays next to the monitor where you could install two floppy drives, but my Dad was not one to go for such trendy, newfangled gadgets. We used a cassette deck for both computers. :)

I miss the days of typing in BASIC programs from books, mostly games.

A second-hand Packard Bell tower system given(probably from the 90's) to me gratis in 2001...good enough to get me going on the Internet(via AOL 4.0)...

I now have a Compaq Presario 6100NX, which I love to death(figuratively)...way more power, speed, bigger hard drive(80 GB, bought the computer in February 2004)..I even love the tower's color, black and silver, way cool.

And excellent support via Compaq.com!

First personal family computer was a commodore 64 from the early 80s. Before that we had an Apple IIe, which was actually my mom's school computer that she had brought home so that my brother and I could teach her how to use it. Later in the 80s we upgraded to a C-128, though we kept the old 1541 disk drive instead of getting the newer 1571 drive. My first personal computer (mine, not my family's) was a 386/33Mhz with 4MB RAM and a 128MB hd.

first one of these

http://www.atariage.com/2600/systems/sys_AtariVCSC.jpg

and then one of these

http://www.granneman.com/images/ibm_pc_5150.jpg

when i was REALLY little i wanted one of these

http://computermuseum.50megs.com/images/collection/atari-super-pong.jpg

and when my folks got the ibm, it was over my objections, because i wanted one of these

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/atari400.jpg

that atari was more than 500 bucks!

In case you think today's computers are expensive, here's two from 1990:

Hyundai Super-386C    AT A GLANCE: A solid, no-frills 20-MHz 386 DX system in a space-saving design.

LIST PRICE: $3,785 (complete color VGA system)

MANUFACTURER: Hyundai Electronics America, 166 Baypoint Pkwy., San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 473-9200

MICROPROCESSOR: 20-MHz80386 DX

MEMORY: 1MB, expandable to 8MB on motherboard

DISK DRIVES: 40MB hard-disk drive; 5.25-inch 1.2MB floppy-disk drive

PORTS:1 parallel, 1 serial

AVAILABLE EXPANSION SLOTS: Two 8-bit, two 16-bit, one 32-bit proprietary memory slot

SOFTWARE INCLUDED: Dos 3.3, GW-BASIC, system utilities

DISPLAY: 16-bit VGA; color monitor

DIMENSIONS: 16.5 by 15.9 by 6.5 inches

WARRANTY: 18 months
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northgate 320 MicroStation    AT A GLANCE: A well-engineered, fully equipped, handsomely designed midrange 386 DX system with super VGA video (800 by 600).

LIST PRICE: $2,999 plus shipping (direct sales only, no discount)

MANUFACTURER: Northgate Computer Systems, Inc., One Northgate Pkwy., Eden Prairie, MN 55344: (800) 548-1993, (612) 943-8181

MICROPROCESSOR: 20-MHz 80386 DX

MEMORY: 2MB, expandable to 8MB on motherboard

DISK DRIVES: 144MB, 3.5-inch and 1.2MB, 5.25-inch floppy-disk drives, 40MB hard-disk drive (19 ms)

DISPLAY: 16-bit super VGA (800 by 600)

PORTS: Two serial, one parallel

AVAILABLE EXPANSION SLOTS: Two 8-bit, three 16-bit

SOFTWARE INCLUDED: DOS 4.01, GW-BASIC, Microsoft Windows 3.0

DIMENSIONS: 16.5 by 16.5 by 4.25 inches

WARRANTY: One year (five years on keyboard); 30-day money-back guarantee

Didn't get much for money back then. Convert that to 2006 dollars and it'll make your head spin.  ;D

In case you think today's computers are expensive, here's two from 1990:

Hyundai Super-386C    AT A GLANCE: A solid, no-frills 20-MHz 386 DX system in a space-saving design.

LIST PRICE: $3,785 (complete color VGA system)

MANUFACTURER: Hyundai Electronics America, 166 Baypoint Pkwy., San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 473-9200

MICROPROCESSOR: 20-MHz80386 DX

MEMORY: 1MB, expandable to 8MB on motherboard

DISK DRIVES: 40MB hard-disk drive; 5.25-inch 1.2MB floppy-disk drive

PORTS:1 parallel, 1 serial

AVAILABLE EXPANSION SLOTS: Two 8-bit, two 16-bit, one 32-bit proprietary memory slot

SOFTWARE INCLUDED: Dos 3.3, GW-BASIC, system utilities

DISPLAY: 16-bit VGA; color monitor

DIMENSIONS: 16.5 by 15.9 by 6.5 inches

WARRANTY: 18 months
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northgate 320 MicroStation     AT A GLANCE: A well-engineered, fully equipped, handsomely designed midrange 386 DX system with super VGA video (800 by 600).

LIST PRICE: $2,999 plus shipping (direct sales only, no discount)

MANUFACTURER: Northgate Computer Systems, Inc., One Northgate Pkwy., Eden Prairie, MN 55344: (800) 548-1993, (612) 943-8181

MICROPROCESSOR: 20-MHz 80386 DX

MEMORY: 2MB, expandable to 8MB on motherboard

DISK DRIVES: 144MB, 3.5-inch and 1.2MB, 5.25-inch floppy-disk drives, 40MB hard-disk drive (19 ms)

DISPLAY: 16-bit super VGA (800 by 600)

PORTS: Two serial, one parallel

AVAILABLE EXPANSION SLOTS: Two 8-bit, three 16-bit

SOFTWARE INCLUDED: DOS 4.01, GW-BASIC, Microsoft Windows 3.0

DIMENSIONS: 16.5 by 16.5 by 4.25 inches

WARRANTY: One year (five years on keyboard); 30-day money-back guarantee

Didn't get much for money back then. Convert that to 2006 dollars and it'll make your head spin.  ;D
OMG My PC has more RAM and hard-drive capacity(80GB)than both of 'em...and mine was just under $1,000 including software and peripherals...

OMG My PC has more RAM and hard-drive capacity(80GB)than both of 'em...and mine was just under $1,000 including software and peripherals...


Most today have more RAM than those had hard drive storage. ;D  A 100MB HDD was considered top o' the line then. And just think, those from back then had more power than the ones that sent astronauts to the moon. I still have and use an array of old systems simply because they're so much more stable and built like Mack truck. A couple don't even have mouse ports.  :o

The first computer I ever had was one of the Apple II clones, specifically the Multitech Microprofessor III(usually just called the MPF III). The Apple II, of course, was the world's first personal computer back in the late 1970s. The Multitech company has since changed its name to Acer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPF_III
http://www.apple2clones.com/?q=image/tid/134
http://www.apple2clones.com/?q=node/view/499

http://www.apple2clones.com/images/multitec_komplett-499.jpg

I can remember going to the mall with my dad to buy it in 1986, when I was 6 years old. It just had a green monochrome monitor. My brother and I used to play a bunch of games on it, like Pac-Man, Wavy Navy, Mario Bros., Space Invaders and Chivalry.

Probably about 1994, maybe '93 is when I first got onto a computer.  My fam's always been pretty technologically affluent.


When did you actually get your own computer, DD?

We've always had a computer of one sort or another, but my first computer (that was wholly my own) was an old shared computer...a custom-made pC with a Celeron 300MHz core, 32MB (later upgraded to 64MB), about 8GB of HD. Chugged like a slug...I got it about 98, and remember upgrading the VGA non-3d accelerated graphics card to a TNT 2 with 32MB! The frame-rate on games like System Shock 2 would drop to about 1fps: which means you would fire a shot - and wait one second for it to hit the enemy.

My present system is a P4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM, 256MB graphics. Funny thing is, I got it in 2003 (three years ago), and they're still selling pcs with similar specs. Whereas the difference between 2000 and 2003 was revolutionary.

When did you actually get your own computer, DD?

We've always had a computer of one sort or another, but my first computer (that was wholly my own) was an old shared computer...a custom-made pC with a Celeron 300MHz core, 32MB (later upgraded to 64MB), about 8GB of HD. Chugged like a slug...I got it about 98, and remember upgrading the VGA non-3d accelerated graphics card to a TNT 2 with 32MB! The frame-rate on games like System Shock 2 would drop to about 1fps: which means you would fire a shot - and wait one second for it to hit the enemy.

My present system is a P4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM, 256MB graphics. Funny thing is, I got it in 2003 (three years ago), and they're still selling pcs with similar specs. Whereas the difference between 2000 and 2003 was revolutionary.


My own computer?  Hmm, probably not until 2003 when I got a laptop.  Before that my family only had 2 computers, and before that only one.  Now we have four in our house.

My family got our first computer in 2000(we've never been up on technology). It was a Gateway with Windows 98 that we rented. Before that we just had a Brother word processor and we decided that we were tired of having to go to the library for internet. My mom still has the computer at her house, but it's pretty much gone so it's not used anymore.

You wouldn't believe how many problems I've had with software/hardware over the years. But then again, it's a positive because you learn more about how computers work.

Are you sure it's a PIII? I've never heard of a PIII as slow as 450MHz. But unless you're not playing games, there's no excuse for using such an outdated machine. I mean, you can buy a better computer for like $100.

Are you sure it's a PIII? I've never heard of a PIII as slow as 450MHz. But unless you're not playing games, there's no excuse for using such an outdated machine. I mean, you can buy a better computer for like $100.


I think 450 MHz's are the slowest PIIIs.

I see nothing wrong with using an older computer. I'm right now surfing with a PII 350MHz machine. It works fine, does what I need, and was had for $30 on eBay. I did later add a used Voodoo3 video card and recently had to replace the CMOS battery.        Why "upgrade" if your current system is adequate? Many times a newer, faster machine also requires replacing older,    non-compliant or outdated software incurring even more expense. My "best" machine, if best is only rated in CPU speed, is a PIII 866MHz. I only have it because it was given to me when the HDD partition was damaged beyond repair.
Heck, I still use computers down to 16MHz because they run software that is still usefull to me, but not compatible with newer machines. Most ATM's still operate on IBM OS/2 because it works, even though many consider it "outdated".