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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341888 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 15:05   |
Andreas Kohlbach
Messages: 1456
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions
> of long-since-abandoned operating systems.
This depends on the point of view. For many of us Commodore 64 users
(my first love btw.) with its 64K (while many others had still 16K) was
top of the line. And have you seen this smooth scrolling in Game XYZ?
Awesome!
Of course that's nothing by today's standards.
> Now I'd like to pose the same question to Slashdot's readers. Use the
> comments to share details about your own first home computer. Was it a
> back-to-school present from your parents? Did it come with a modem? Did
> you lovingly upgrade its hardware for years to come? Was it a
> Commodore 64 or a BeBox? It seems like there should be some good
> stories, so leave your best answers in the comments. What was your
> first home computer?
No modem. Poor me could just afford a datasette (not even floppy) and a
joystick, and was happy as can be.
--
Andreas
You know you are a redneck if
the home shopping operator recognizes your voice.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341896 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 15:38 |
Jon Elson
Messages: 646
Registered: April 2013
Karma: 0
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RS Wood wrote:
> Do you remember your first home computer?
In 1976 I did a project using the Intel 8008, using commercial development
boards. I then made an 8008 system with 256 bytes of SRAM and a keypad/LED
console. Obviously pretty useless, but I proved I could actually build a
working system.
Then, I got an S-100 backplane, an 8080 CPU board and some memory boards.
I slowly built up the system. I started with paper tape, then got a floppy
controller and floppy drives, upgraded to a Z-80 CPU, more memory, etc. and
CP/M.
By 1981 I had a 10 MB Winchester SASI hard drive, and by 1982 or so, 9-track
mag tape backup.
Jon
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341907 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 16:58 |
hancock4
Messages: 6746
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer?
To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
used?
Personally, I was using computers for about 20 years until I got one
at home.
(FWIW, the first computer I used was a GE Timesharing System.)
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341912 is a reply to message #341907] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 17:30 |
Anne & Lynn Wheel
Messages: 3156
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes:
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
>
> Personally, I was using computers for about 20 years until I got one
> at home.
>
> (FWIW, the first computer I used was a GE Timesharing System.)
my first "personal" computer was 360/30 ... I got student programming
job ... and they normally shutdown the datacenter from 8am sat. until
8am monday ... and I got the whole datacenter to myself ... although
48hrs w/o sleep made monday morning classes a little hard. It was then
upgraded to 360/67 and univ hired me (still undergraduate) fulltime to
be responsible for production systems (and I could still have the
datacenter from 8am sat. until 8am monday).
I have had online terminal at home since March1970 .... terminal didn't
turn into home computer until early 80s.
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341920 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 18:10 |
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Originally posted by: The Newest Other Guy
On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer?
Vic-20 with a tape drive, and a 19 inch TV as a monitor.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341934 is a reply to message #341929] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 20:54 |
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Originally posted by: JimP.
First computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1 kilobyte of ram, a
13" B&W tv, and a castte recroder/player. I later got the 16 Kb
add-on. And a large rubber band to hold it in place. That was about
1984.
About 1990, I bought an Amiga A1000 second hand. I bought an A500
second hand and I was able to fix the daughterboard so I had 3.5 megs
of total ram, with 512KB of chip ram. I have an A3000 with 2 SCSI hard
drives in it. One a 105 meg, and the other is about a 52 meg, or
smaller hdd.
Sadly, I'm currently using a Windows 10 crap machine. It looks like a
desktop, but it uses a laptop adapter to provide it with power.
--
Jim
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341935 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 21:17 |
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Originally posted by: Alan Frisbie
On 04/17/2017 04:01 AM, RS Wood wrote:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer?
Of course!
In 1974, I had been following microcomputer computer developments for
about two years, starting with the Intel 4004, followed by the 8008.
My employer, NCR, was one of the first customers of the 8080, and I
was programming it even before the public announcement in April, 1974.
Since native development tools were almost non-existent then, we did
all our development on the DEC PDP-11. This would have a significant
influence on my later purchase.
In November, 1974 I got my issue of Popular Electronics with the Altair
8800 on the cover. The list price of the CPU (in single quantities)
at that time was $360, and the price of the case was almost the same,
so the advertised price of $439 made it a no-brainer -- I ordered one.
However, deliveries were delayed, which changed the course of my
computer hobby. In February, 1975 DEC announced the LSI-11. Since
I was already in love with the PDP-11 and its considerable capabilities,
I called MITS and canceled my order for the Altair.
It wasn't until late that year that I was actually able to take delivery
of my DEC LSI-11 boards: CPU with 4K 16-bit words memory, one serial
interface, one parallel interface. and a backplane. A piece of
surplus TRW equipment provided a power supply and a case. I bought
DEC's paper tape software kit and joined DECUS (the DEC user's group).
My paper tape reader was a little box with a wire frame to guide the
tape, an optical sensor for the holes, and a desk lamp to illuminate
the tape/sensor. The tape was drawn through by hand. You had to
be careful to not pull the tape too quickly, as end-of-line processing
might cause you to skip a character or two. I didn't have a punch,
but did my development and punching at work during lunch and after hours.
I had hard-copy output in the form of an IBM Selectric I/O-Writer I
had found at the Dayton HamVention swap meet. I built a device to
convert from ASCII to Selectric Tilt/Rotate code. Keyboard input
from the Selectric was too difficult (half-duplex only), so I used a
surplus ASCII keyboard.
Eventually I upgraded with a Chrislin 32 KW memory card. By that
time my new employer (Xerox) offered employee discounts on Shugart
floppy disk drives, and I was able to get a deal on a controller
from Andromeda Systems, the start of a long relationship. I never
stopped upgrading whenever I could find a "deal", rarely spending
list price, and usually buying surplus.
Over the years, my original LSI-11 system evolved through the 11/73,
a MicroVAX-II, several DEC Alphas, and an Itanium (IA-64). Yes,
I do have multiple PCs, but the DEC systems are still my first love.
And yes, I still have that original LSI-11 system!
Alan Frisbie
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341946 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 23:06 |
Gene Wirchenko
Messages: 1166
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com>
wrote:
[snip]
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer? ...
[snip]
A TRS-80 Model I. Later systems could do a lot more, but there
was a sense of community that I have not seen since.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341947 is a reply to message #341841] |
Mon, 17 April 2017 23:41 |
isw
Messages: 19
Registered: April 2013
Karma: 0
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Junior Member |
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In article <5ujesd-n64.ln1@raspberry.therandymon.com>,
RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> From the «guy in the back with the Cray, sit down please» department:
> Title: Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer?
> Author: help@slashdot.org
> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2017 00:50:00 -0400
> Link:
> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/R-8G1BsgeRw/ ask-slashdot-what-
> was-your-first-home-computer
>
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting
> 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do
> you
> remember your first home computer?
Homebrew CP/M box using an S-100 backplane with a Z-80, 56k(!) of memory
and a dual PerSci 8" floppy drive. Later added a homebrew 300 baud modem
with acoustic coupler (ultimately modified to direct connect), a Calcomp
30" drum plotter (gutted and reworked with homebrew drivers to make it
listen to something like HPGL), and a hacked IBM Selectric terminal used
as a printer.
Isaac
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341948 is a reply to message #341841] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 00:00 |
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Originally posted by: ANTant
Texas Instrument (TI) 99/4A. My parents bought me one back in the 80s. I
was scared of it. And then, I found out it could do computer games like
my Atari 2600 and arcades. Haha. Then, came more computers later on as
shown in my http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html history. :P
In comp.misc RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> From the «guy in the back with the Cray, sit down please» department:
> Title: Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer?
> Author: help@slashdot.org
> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2017 00:50:00 -0400
> Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/R-8G1BsgeRw/ ask-slashdot-what-was-your-first-home-computer
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions
> of long-since-abandoned operating systems. Now I'd like to pose the same
> question to Slashdot's readers. Use the comments to share details about your
> own first home computer. Was it a back-to-school present from your parents? Did
> it come with a modem? Did you lovingly upgrade its hardware for years to come?
> Was it a Commodore 64 or a BeBox? It seems like there should be some good
> stories, so leave your best answers in the comments. What was your first home
> computer?
> [image 2][2][image 4][4][image 6][6]
> Read more of this story[7] at Slashdot.
> [image 8]
> Links:
> [1]: http://twitter.com/home?status=Ask+Slashdot%3A+What+Was+Your +First+Home+Computer%3F%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2pE7IRH (link)
> [2]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (image)
> [3]: http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fask.slash dot.org%2Fstory%2F17%2F04%2F15%2F0546240%2Fask-slashdot-what -was-your-first-home-computer%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_ medium%3Dfacebook (link)
> [4]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (image)
> [5]: http://plus.google.com/share?url=https://ask.slashdot.org/st ory/17/04/15/0546240/ask-slashdot-what-was-your-first-home-c omputer?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=googleplus (link)
> [6]: http://www.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-16.png (image)
> [7]: https://ask.slashdot.org/story/17/04/15/0546240/ask-slashdot -what-was-your-first-home-computer?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon &utm_medium=feed (link)
> [8]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/R-8G1Bsg eRw (image)
--
Quote of the Week: "I like ants, in chocolate. Crunch, hummmm." --unknown
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit-
( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341950 is a reply to message #341907] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 00:58 |
Alfred Falk
Messages: 195
Registered: June 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote in
news:6b0e2181-b0e1-4137-a44f-aa888274f254@googlegroups.com:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a
>> reaction: Do you remember your first home computer?
>
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
IBM 1620 in 1967. It was already obsolete and I could play with it quite
freely.
IBM 360/65 in 1967. For more "serious" work.
DEC PDP-9 in in 1968. I was actually paid to program that.
PDP-10 in 1970 (timesharing access only, although I was allowed in the
computer room once, for some reason that I don't remember.)
CDC Cyber70 in 1972.
PDP-11/50(?) running Unix in 1974.
and so on.
> Personally, I was using computers for about 20 years until I got one
> at home.
Data General Nova 2 in 1983. Still have front panel and all boards.
So that's 16 years from first use.
Data General Eclipse C/330 in 1984, which is still taking up room in my
basement but it hasn't been turned on for a decade or two.
First PC at home was 386Dx40 in 1992.
> (FWIW, the first computer I used was a GE Timesharing System.)
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341951 is a reply to message #341948] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 01:13 |
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Originally posted by: The Real Bev
1977, an 8080 machine put together by a local company called Computer
Power & Light. Details to be provided later by my beloved husband...
We narrowly escaped buying an Imsai because the Byte Shop guys kept
selling the machine they were building for us to someone who --
presumably -- was willing to pay more. After a month or so hubby
threatened to throw a chair through their plate glass window unless we
got our money back. We cashed the check immediately.
--
Cheers, Bev
"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime
is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin
is stupidity." -- H.S. Thompson
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #341956 is a reply to message #341934] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 04:31 |
Andy Leighton
Messages: 203
Registered: July 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:54:41 -0500, JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> First computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1 kilobyte of ram, a
> 13" B&W tv, and a castte recroder/player. I later got the 16 Kb
> add-on. And a large rubber band to hold it in place. That was about
> 1984.
The first one I owned was a ZX Spectrum 48K which would have been
bought in early 1983 when I was still at school - with savings and
Christmas money. My first significant purchase.
I had previously played with Commodore PETs (owned by the school),
and an Atom, UK101 and Nascom-1 (owned by staff or reasonably well-off
kids). Also the school moved to the Beebs pretty much as soon as they
came out, although only a couple at first.
--
Andy Leighton => andyl@azaal.plus.com
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
- Douglas Adams
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342426 is a reply to message #341841] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 04:34 |
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Originally posted by: Bob Eager
On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 08:06:09 +0000, Huge wrote:
> On 2017-04-17, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>>
>>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a
>>> reaction: Do you remember your first home computer?
>>
>> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
>> used?
>
> ICL1903S, IIRC. Programmed in FORTRAN on 80 column cards.
Mine was an Elliott 4130, installed at the University of Kent just before
I arrived in 1970. 24 bit word oriented machine.
I started with interactive BASIC and soon progressed to 4130 assembler,
with a bit of FORTRAN thrown in.
--
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342428 is a reply to message #341907] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 05:35 |
Ahem A Rivet's Shot
Messages: 4843
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:58:52 -0700 (PDT)
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a
>> reaction: Do you remember your first home computer?
>
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
That would be an IBM 1130 at the CCAT, followed by a DG Eclipse at
the same place. It was delivered in two stages for some reason (money
probably) and so was initially referred to as the partial Eclipse. Next up
was an original TRS-80 (one of the first in the UK as I was working at one
of the franchises chosen for the first delivery), then the IBM 370 at
Cambridge University.
> Personally, I was using computers for about 20 years until I got one
> at home.
Not quite that long, but it must have been around 10 years before I
owned one. I had computers at home on various occasions (mostly Torch model
C) before that but they weren't mine I just had them to do work on, usually
finishing with "Your programs done. You can come and collect it and your
kit. Don't forget your check book" - I was one of the few who *always* got
paid (and on time) in those wild crazy days of the early 1980s computer
business in Cambridge.
I didn't have my own computer at home until I bought an 80286 PC
clone which mostly ran XENIX - I still run unix at home.
--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342429 is a reply to message #341888] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 06:45 |
Ian McCall
Messages: 153
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On 2017-04-17 19:05:57 +0000, Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> said:
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>>
>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
>> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
>> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions
>> of long-since-abandoned operating systems.
>
> This depends on the point of view. For many of us Commodore 64 users
> (my first love btw.) with its 64K (while many others had still 16K) was
> top of the line. And have you seen this smooth scrolling in Game XYZ?
> Awesome!
Commodore pulled a bit of a con trick here though - it had 32k by most
system's standards, with the other 32k being ROM. In terms of usable
memory 32k put it on a par with the BBC B and behind my own first
computer, the ZX Spectrum 48k.
That said there was plenty else to recommend it of course - hardware
sprites, the incredible sound chip that got me into writing music. I
still have a full C64 (C15N datasette, 1541 snail drive, GEOS mouse,
MMC64 flash adapter to load from memory card) set up not three yards
from where I'm typing this now.
And I -shall- beat the third mission of Psi 5 Trading company within my
lifetime. I damned well shall.
Cheers,
Ian
--
Check out Proto the album: <http://studioicm.com/proto/>
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342435 is a reply to message #341956] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 09:29 |
philo[1][2]
Messages: 110
Registered: November 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On 04/18/2017 03:31 AM, Andy Leighton wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:54:41 -0500, JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> First computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1 kilobyte of ram, a
>> 13" B&W tv, and a castte recroder/player. I later got the 16 Kb
>> add-on. And a large rubber band to hold it in place. That was about
>> 1984.
>
> The first one I owned was a ZX Spectrum 48K which would have been
> bought in early 1983 when I was still at school - with savings and
> Christmas money. My first significant purchase.
>
> I had previously played with Commodore PETs (owned by the school),
> and an Atom, UK101 and Nascom-1 (owned by staff or reasonably well-off
> kids). Also the school moved to the Beebs pretty much as soon as they
> came out, although only a couple at first.
>
If one considers the processor, then my Radio Shack calculator purchased
in 1975 with a 4004 cpu would be my first "computer."
(Still have it and it works.)
The first actual computer I owned however was the Ti99/4.
I purchased it in 1982 when the price dropped to $50.
I no longer have it, but the for some reason still have the cassette
recorder I used with it.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342438 is a reply to message #342429] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 11:14 |
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Originally posted by: Nyssa
The Digi-Comp 1 in 1963. The box proclaims "first real operating
digital computer in plastic."
For those unfamiliar with this gadget, it's a kit to put together
a manually shifted 3-bit "computer" that will do simple binary
arithmetic.
The New Jersey company advertised in magazines such as Popular
Science back in the olden days, and I ordered it via snail mail
with a money order when I was a youngster.
And yes, I've still got it in the original box with the instruction
manual, unassembled now.
As for my first "real" home microcomputer it was a Franklin
Ace 100 with 64K memory. It was an Apple-compatible clone
that ran AppleDOS. I added the color chip (4 amazingly low-
res colors!) and later a couple of Apple floppy drives. One
thing that the Ace had that the Apple didn't was the ability
to type in lower case without an add-on and the full 64K out
of the box. Paired it with a Zenith monitor.
A few months later I added on a Z80 card that allowed me to
run the CP/M operating system including WordStar and several
other (for the time) higher end business and programming
packages.
Nyssa, who sometimes wishes she could have kept that Franklin
Ace system
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342439 is a reply to message #341841] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 12:02 |
Walter Banks
Messages: 1000
Registered: July 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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My first home computer was a PDP8 home made clone.
I then bought or built a number of other computers from evaluation
boards or kits. KIM-1, a M6800 around a Motorola evaluation board,
an OSI kit with three processors and a M68000 built around a
Motorola 68K evaluation single board.
Later (1979) I bought a PDP-11 from the assets of a company that had
gone bankrupt. Finally a real computer that I used for software development.
In the middle of all of that I built the worlds simplest 300 baud modem
I am sure it wouldn't have passed any standards tests but actually
worked quite well. It had FSK going out (at more or less the right
frequencies). To decode it had a filter whose center frequency was
between the two tones and used the filter to clock a D latch sampling
the incoming signal. The phase shift across the center frequency was
used to resolve the data.
w..
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342440 is a reply to message #342435] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 13:06 |
Andy Leighton
Messages: 203
Registered: July 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 08:29:59 -0500, philo <philo@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> The first actual computer I owned however was the Ti99/4.
>
> I purchased it in 1982 when the price dropped to $50.
I don't think many Ti99/4s turned up in the UK - I am not sure it had
a PAL TV output. Plenty of Ti99/4As of course but they were still 199
GBP in the summer of '82. Which was the same price as the Atari 400.
The Vic-20 was 179 GBP at the time IIRC.
--
Andy Leighton => andyl@azaal.plus.com
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
- Douglas Adams
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342441 is a reply to message #341956] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 12:00 |
Morten Reistad
Messages: 2108
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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In article <slrnofbjmg.b6v.andyl@azaal.plus.com>,
Andy Leighton <andyl@azaal.plus.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:54:41 -0500, JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> First computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1 kilobyte of ram, a
>> 13" B&W tv, and a castte recroder/player. I later got the 16 Kb
>> add-on. And a large rubber band to hold it in place. That was about
>> 1984.
>
> The first one I owned was a ZX Spectrum 48K which would have been
> bought in early 1983 when I was still at school - with savings and
> Christmas money. My first significant purchase.
>
> I had previously played with Commodore PETs (owned by the school),
> and an Atom, UK101 and Nascom-1 (owned by staff or reasonably well-off
> kids). Also the school moved to the Beebs pretty much as soon as they
> came out, although only a couple at first.
My first computer was a TI59 programmable calculator. That is where
I got permanently hooked on making the machines do work for us. This was
in 1976.
Later I got a vic20, and had PET8000's home for development work
for a local outlet. I made quite a bit of money on that front, as
well as credibility with the sales people that owned all the PETs.
This was 1980-82.
Then they let me have the country's very first C64 at home one
Christmas (on loan, for evaluation), complete with 220-110 volt
big transformer etc, before it was really approved in EUrope.
I ended up doing quite a bit of 6502 assembly. I can still remember
bits of it in direct hex.
And then there was the DEC20 at my college.
-- mrr
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342444 is a reply to message #341841] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:05 |
Daiyu Hurst
Messages: 81
Registered: December 2012
Karma: 0
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Member |
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On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
> From the «guy in the back with the Cray, sit down please» department:
> Title: Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer?
> Author:
> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2017 00:50:00 -0400
> Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/R-8G1BsgeRw/ ask-slashdot-what-was-your-first-home-computer
>
> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
> remember your first home computer?
A Processor Technology SOL-PC. I was subscribing to Popular Electronics at the time, and a prelim version was featured in the July 1976 issue. For $40, they offered the PC board, assembly & test instructions, and a theory of operation manual. When it came, I started scrounging for parts. I got parts from James Electronics, Allied, Radio Shack, and a local firm owned by Steve Roberts of The Recumbant Bicycle fame. it took me a year and a half to get it mostly operational, which included trips to Ray Borrill's Data Domain in Bloomington Indiana, where I met future Dr. Dobbs author Michael Swaine.. I had it housed in a cheap BUD box since I couldn't afford the nice cabinet. I used it mostly to log into the CDC6600 at IU Bloomington and the DEC-10 at IUPUI. I also used it to log into Ward & Randy's WRBBS, the first computer BBSm, where I met John Draper. I lost it along with my job and my house in 2011. But my memories will linger a bit longer.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342447 is a reply to message #341951] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:27 |
Michael Black
Messages: 2799
Registered: February 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017, The Real Bev wrote:
> 1977, an 8080 machine put together by a local company called Computer Power &
> Light. Details to be provided later by my beloved husband...
>
That's true. Everyone talks in terms of a specific brand, but soon after
the Altair came out, there were so many boards and replacement parts
available that one could put together a generic S-100 system. All those
Godbout and Morrow boards. I have a Processor Technology board from about
1977, I got it free much later, that's 16K of RAM, a pretty penny when it
came out. But it used the S-100 bus, so I assume it would work in any
S-100 system, and I gather they were better at dynamic ram than Altair.
> We narrowly escaped buying an Imsai because the Byte Shop guys kept selling
> the machine they were building for us to someone who -- presumably -- was
> willing to pay more. After a month or so hubby threatened to throw a chair
> through their plate glass window unless we got our money back. We cashed the
> check immediately.
>
IN the mid-eighties, Jerry Pournelle in his endless column in Byte wrote
about one 68000 based system where one of the programmers screwed the
computer to the side of their desk, because otherwise someone would come
along and grab the computer, and ship it out, demand was so great, but
each time that meant software was delayed.
Michael
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342448 is a reply to message #342429] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:32 |
Michael Black
Messages: 2799
Registered: February 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2017, Ian McCall wrote:
> On 2017-04-17 19:05:57 +0000, Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> said:
>
>> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>>>
>>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting
>>> 1980s
>>> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot
>>> readers:
>>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction:
>>> Do you
>>> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
>>> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early
>>> versions
>>> of long-since-abandoned operating systems.
>>
>> This depends on the point of view. For many of us Commodore 64 users
>> (my first love btw.) with its 64K (while many others had still 16K) was
>> top of the line. And have you seen this smooth scrolling in Game XYZ?
>> Awesome!
>
> Commodore pulled a bit of a con trick here though - it had 32k by most
> system's standards, with the other 32k being ROM. In terms of usable memory
> 32k put it on a par with the BBC B and behind my own first computer, the ZX
> Spectrum 48k.
>
Yes, there was a contradiction. It did include 64K of RAM, when most
computers didnt' out of the box. So one could make use of much of it,
except you needed the right software. But yes, it tied up half the
address space, when other computers were more efficient. The Apple II
could use 48K out of the box, the ROM and hardware used up only 16K.
I think there were tricks for the C64 where the BASIC was copied to RAM,
so the firmware could be modified. I know that happened with the Radio
Shack Color computer on it got 64K.
Michael
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342449 is a reply to message #341841] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:26 |
Quadibloc
Messages: 4399
Registered: June 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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My first home computer was a Timex-Sinclair 1000, and shortly after I moved up to a Commodore 64.
The first computer I used was a PDP-8/e running Cinet BASIC at my high school, and then at University I next learned FORTRAN using WATFIV on an IBM System/360 Model 67 running under MTS (the Michigan Terminal System).
John Savard
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342450 is a reply to message #342448] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:40 |
Quadibloc
Messages: 4399
Registered: June 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 12:23:42 PM UTC-6, Michael Black wrote:
> I think there were tricks for the C64 where the BASIC was copied to RAM,
> so the firmware could be modified. I know that happened with the Radio
> Shack Color computer on it got 64K.
Yes, I remember doing that so as to give it a typewriter-pairing keyboard.
John Savard
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342451 is a reply to message #341920] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:47 |
Charlie Gibbs
Messages: 5313
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On 2017-04-17, The Newest Other Guy <new> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>
>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting
>> 1980s BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot
>> readers: Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a
>> reaction: Do you remember your first home computer?
>
> Vic-20 with a tape drive, and a 19 inch TV as a monitor.
I had already been programming professionally for over 10 years, but my
first home computer was an IMSAI 8080, built from kits. It started out
with 8K (two RAM-4A boards), although I later bought a 64K board which
was originally populated with 16K worth of 2Kx8 static RAM chips
(pin-compatible with the 2716 EPROM). Every Friday on the way home
from work I'd stop at the local Heathkit store and drop $16 on another
chip, and eventually built the board up to 62K; the other 2K was
reserved for the boot ROM and scratchpad storage on the floppy
controller board.
But that came after I scraped up the bucks for the floppy disk system;
I started out with tape storage. I didn't have any cassette units,
but did have a couple of reel-to-reel recorders. I broke into their
motor circuits and built a little relay box which could switch them
under computer control. To generate and decode the signals for the
tape units I used a surplus Bell 202 modem. I later upgraded to a
CUTS board which gave better reliability, although not much more speed.
My printer was a Teletype model 35RO, and my terminal was a surplus
Uniscope 100, for which I hacked up a driver to handle its protocol.
Later I replaced the terminal with a Heath 19, and the printer with
a Centronics 102A.
I wrote a CP/M emulator for the CUTS system; it would emulate BIOS/BDOS
calls for the tapes (except for random access, of course). I wound up
downloading MODEM7 from a local BBS and running it under the emulator.
I also wrote some CP/M utilities (including a Life game which used the
H19's block character set to play on a 48x80 grid) - when I finally
upgraded to floppies and real CP/M, these programs all ran without change.
When the IBM PC came out, I considered it a big yawn. It wasn't
until the Amiga came out that I got excited about a new machine.
I got an A1000 in March 1986, then upgraded through the A2500 to the
68060-based machine that I used until just a few years ago. I don't
think I've ever had a purely native MS-DOS/Windows home machine,
aside from an early laptop or two that I used for work purposes;
my current home machine, and the laptop I'm writing this on, run
Linux with Windows XP under VirtualBox for work stuff.
Thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi...
--
/~\ cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855.
/ \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342452 is a reply to message #342444] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 15:00 |
Michael Black
Messages: 2799
Registered: February 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2017, Daiyu Hurst wrote:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>> From the «guy in the back with the Cray, sit down please» department:
>> Title: Ask Slashdot: What Was Your First Home Computer?
>> Author:
>> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2017 00:50:00 -0400
>> Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/R-8G1BsgeRw/ ask-slashdot-what-was-your-first-home-computer
>>
>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
>> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>> remember your first home computer?
>
> A Processor Technology SOL-PC. I was subscribing to Popular Electronics
> at the time, and a prelim version was featured in the July 1976 issue.
> For $40, they offered the PC board, assembly & test instructions, and a
> theory of operation manual. When it came, I started scrounging for
> parts. I got parts from James Electronics, Allied, Radio Shack, and a
> local firm owned by Steve Roberts of The Recumbant Bicycle fame. it took
> me a year and a half to get it mostly operational, which included trips
> to Ray Borrill's Data Domain in Bloomington Indiana, where I met future
> Dr. Dobbs author Michael Swaine. I had it housed in a cheap BUD box
> since I couldn't afford the nice cabinet. I used it mostly to log into
> the CDC6600 at IU Bloomington and the DEC-10 at IUPUI. I also used it to
> log into Ward & Randy's WRBBS, the first computer BBSm, where I met John
> Draper. I lost it along with my job and my house in 2011. But my
> memories will linger a bit longer.
>
So your SOL didn't have wood panels like the one from the factory?
Michael
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342453 is a reply to message #341907] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 14:55 |
Jon Elson
Messages: 646
Registered: April 2013
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction:
>> Do you remember your first home computer?
>
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
OK, in 1970, 360/50 in FORTRAN and some emulators in computer science
classes. The Turing machine emulator was truly a hair pulling experience,
it took so many states just to move the tape back and forth X many
positions.
1971, a LINC which had graphical output, was pretty cool, but quite slow.
1974 or so, Data General Nova.
1975, got a job, and worked on a succession of PDP-11's, finally ending up
with an 11/45 running RSX-11M. (We tried Unix, but as an all-FORTRAN shop,
Unix FORTRAN had a number of serious problems.)
1979 or so, we moved up to a VAX 11/780, and I was in heaven!
Jon
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342454 is a reply to message #342448] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 15:10 |
Ahem A Rivet's Shot
Messages: 4843
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 14:32:09 -0400
Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:
> I think there were tricks for the C64 where the BASIC was copied to RAM,
> so the firmware could be modified. I know that happened with the Radio
> Shack Color computer on it got 64K.
Yep it was a fairly common trick of the time, at reset reads go to
the ROM, writes go to the RAM. The startup code looks odd reading data and
writing it back in the same place then there's an IO instruction or access
to a special address and reads come from the RAM from then on. By the time
I used it in the Torch it was a well known technique.
--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342459 is a reply to message #342429] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 15:44 |
Andreas Kohlbach
Messages: 1456
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 11:45:25 +0100, Ian McCall wrote:
>
> On 2017-04-17 19:05:57 +0000, Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> said:
>
>> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>>>
>>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
>>> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
>>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>>> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
>>> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions
>>> of long-since-abandoned operating systems.
>>
>> This depends on the point of view. For many of us Commodore 64 users
>> (my first love btw.) with its 64K (while many others had still 16K) was
>> top of the line. And have you seen this smooth scrolling in Game XYZ?
>> Awesome!
>
> Commodore pulled a bit of a con trick here though - it had 32k by most
> system's standards, with the other 32k being ROM. In terms of usable
> memory 32k put it on a par with the BBC B and behind my own first
> computer, the ZX Spectrum 48k.
The ROM was "shadowed" into the RAM, no?. But if you wanted you actually
have far RAM for you own. Assuming you wrote your own service routines
and stuff the C64 usually does itself you might get some 60K.
BASIC announced "38911 BASIC BYTES FREE", which is already more than
32K. If you don't need BASIC (thus the "C64 command line") at all you can
use this space too. Don't need screen output? You can blank the screen so
no one sees the garbage writing program data into screen RAM at 1024-2023
($0400-$07E7) and have yet another 1K RAM for yourself. Plenty of more
options.
--
Andreas
You know you are a redneck if
you ever been arrested for relieving yourself in an ice machine.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342460 is a reply to message #342454] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 15:46 |
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Originally posted by: Marko Rauhamaa
Ok, all this hardware. What did you do with it?
I bought an Atari 520ST. A big disappointment. You couldn't do anything
with it. It came with the lamest imaginable Basic interpreter and a Logo
turtle. I joined a local Atari club, but nobody was interested in
programming so I quit.
I had had much more fun with my father's Xerox 820 (CP/M) office
computer, with its CBASIC and Pascal compilers and Z80 assembler. I
created a PACMAN clone. I produced polyphonic Bach's chorals with the
"IN 30" and "IN 31" assembly instructions. I produced computer graphics
with the graphic characters. I created a radio amateur's competition
logger that computed distances between contestants, etc.
Marko
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342461 is a reply to message #341907] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 15:52 |
Andreas Kohlbach
Messages: 1456
Registered: December 2011
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:58:52 -0700 (PDT), hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>> remember your first home computer?
>
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
Used as in "Go to a mall and hack on some on display"? ;-)
That what I was doing starting about 1981 or 1982 when Commodore VIC 20
or Atari 8bit showed up at electronic retailers in malls. Shortly after
the C64. Lots of kids like me were there. Amazing it was rarely the case
you could not find a free machine for yourself. And never any of the
staff kicked us out even though they knew we weren't buying. Friends then
also bought computers (most had C64) so I ended up at their homes
later instead. Took until 1984 until I had my first own C64.
--
Andreas
You know you are a redneck if
you ever been arrested for relieving yourself in an ice machine.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342465 is a reply to message #342460] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 17:04 |
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Originally posted by: Rich
In comp.misc Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> wrote:
>
> Ok, all this hardware. What did you do with it?
>
> I bought an Atari 520ST. A big disappointment. You couldn't do
> anything with it. It came with the lamest imaginable Basic
> interpreter and a Logo turtle.
The Atari ST's were Atari's offering to compete with the Apple
Lisa/Apple Mac that were released just a year or two before. Those
(the Lisa/Mac) were in some ways the beginning of the "your computer is
for consumption, not creation" mindset that is now everywhere. And
with that idea in mind, it is not surprising they did not ship with
much for programming them, the expectation was that buyers would be
"users" (of someone else's creations) and not "creators" themselves.
Fast forward, and now we have locked down tablets where you only get to
install programs that "daddy-steve" has preapproved as suitable for
you.
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342466 is a reply to message #341888] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 17:23 |
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Originally posted by: Brian Reay
On 17/04/2017 20:05, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:01:58 +0000, RS Wood wrote:
>>
>> We've recently seen stories about old computers and sys-ops resurrecting 1980s
>> BBS's, but now an anonymous reader has a question for all Slashdot readers:
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>> remember your first home computer? This usually provokes a flood of fond
>> memories about primitive specs -- limited RAM, bad graphics, and early versions
>> of long-since-abandoned operating systems.
>
> This depends on the point of view. For many of us Commodore 64 users
> (my first love btw.) with its 64K (while many others had still 16K) was
> top of the line. And have you seen this smooth scrolling in Game XYZ?
> Awesome!
As you say, it depends on your point of view/definition.
If it is something people would probably recognise as a computer- ie
with a QWERTY keyboard and a decent display (even if it was a TV), then
a UK101- built from a kit.
If, on the other had, you count a very basic uP system, with a simple
display and keypad as found on a cheap calculator etc, then various home
made beasts- an SC/MP was the first as far as I recall.
--
Suspect someone is claiming a benefit under false pretences? Incapacity
Benefit or Personal Independence Payment when they don't need it? They
are depriving those in real need!
https://www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud
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| Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? [message #342469 is a reply to message #341907] |
Tue, 18 April 2017 17:41 |
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Originally posted by: Brian Reay
On 17/04/2017 21:58, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:15:05 AM UTC-4, RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Whenever I meet geeks, there's one question that always gets a reaction: Do you
>> remember your first home computer?
>
> To me, the significant question is: What was the first computer you
> used?
>
Ferranti Pegasus, my school had one- it was one of a had full of
schools to have its own computer. It was installed in the mid 60s and
'died' maybe 1970/1, when we switch to using the local Town Hall ICL
machine.
The Pegasus pretty well filled a classroom on the ground floor and had a
small 'substation' outside.
We prepared programs on paper tape, left them to be 'loaded' etc. and
collect the results, which came on paper like giant loo roll (none of
the modern 'line printer' stuff).
When we switched to the Town Hall ICL machine, the process was the same-
save the results came on line printer paper and turn around was next
school day.
It was Uni, in 1976 (I had a working gap year) before I got to use an
interactive machine- Basic on a Data General Nova. There were, of
course, other machines as part of the Uni computer network.
--
Suspect someone is claiming a benefit under false pretences? Incapacity
Benefit or Personal Independence Payment when they don't need it? They
are depriving those in real need!
https://www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud
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