Phil Conners Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 ^ Different things, I think Nintendo was a game console, a C64 was a, well, computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Bloody hell I thought I was getting old but there's some right fossils posting on here. " My first computer was a Noah Model BC made from bark and bits of twig. The mainframe was the Ark of the Covenant, power was provided by a series of wooden blocks and pulleys and storage was a roll of papyrus." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I learned FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM 360 with punched card input in the late 70s. I never did own a computer until 1998...there was always a machine to use at work and I could never see the point of owning one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaidDown Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Bloody hell I thought I was getting old but there's some right fossils posting on here. " My first computer was a Noah Model BC made from bark and bits of twig. The mainframe was the Ark of the Covenant, power was provided by a series of wooden blocks and pulleys and storage was a roll of papyrus." Ah yes, I remember that one, much more modern than my first machine, pulleys with rope ??? whats wrong with a simple lever. Plus the use of papyrus, a devils invention, stick with the clay tablets and pointy stick.. Of course in 50 years time someone will again ask"what was your first computer" the reply of "Intel core i7, 8gig ram, 2Tb drive etc" will be viewed in the same way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Bloody hell I thought I was getting old but there's some right fossils posting on here. " My first computer was a Noah Model BC made from bark and bits of twig. The mainframe was the Ark of the Covenant, power was provided by a series of wooden blocks and pulleys and storage was a roll of papyrus." Ah yes, I remember that one, much more modern than my first machine, pulleys with rope ??? whats wrong with a simple lever. Plus the use of papyrus, a devils invention, stick with the clay tablets and pointy stick.. Of course in 50 years time someone will again ask"what was your first computer" the reply of "Intel core i7, 8gig ram, 2Tb drive etc" will be viewed in the same way. I hear ya! I'm waiting for the day that being able to download a 700MB in minutes rather than seconds will be scoffed at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygourmet Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 What about earlier "mobile device"? I made a big mistake by buying this one: ... then made a quick move for this one: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSixpack Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I learned FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM 360 with punched card input in the late 70s. I never did own a computer until 1998...there was always a machine to use at work and I could never see the point of owning one... OK then. Now we need to know what you brought home in 1998. And it's always a laugh to compare performance/price then to now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I learned FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM 360 with punched card input in the late 70s. I never did own a computer until 1998...there was always a machine to use at work and I could never see the point of owning one... OK then. Now we need to know what you brought home in 1998. And it's always a laugh to compare performance/price then to now. it was a Toshiba laptop and the specs were pretty basic, about 32RAM and it had a floppy drive, no USB at the time...cost around USD1000 I think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crushdepth Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Bloody hell I thought I was getting old but there's some right fossils posting on here. " My first computer was a Noah Model BC made from bark and bits of twig. The mainframe was the Ark of the Covenant, power was provided by a series of wooden blocks and pulleys and storage was a roll of papyrus." Actually I have a book that describes how to build a wooden computer. I have another one somewhere that describes how to build one out of stones, but the processing is a bit slow since you have to carry the rocks around manually yourself. Unless you have minions, of course. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seismic Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Boy I am impressed by you guys! I expected to see a couple Commodore 64's and an IBM PC or maybe even an XT ! I'm 53 and I got my first computer in 1989, a 286 with 40 MB drive, 2 floppies and I guess 640K or maybe 1 MB even though DOS could not use it all. Cost about $ 1800 USD in the US. This post is a great trip down memory lane! My 286 in the UK, came with a 20 MB Stepper motor Hard drive, man was that thing loud, the case was built like a tank, and it had a 'Turbo' button to boost it from 10 to 12 Mhz, I also paid extra for the 1 MB rather than the 640K standard RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckamuck Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I remember the Turbo buttons, could never tell if they made any difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshiwara Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Paid what was then a small fortune for a Grundy NewBrain. Needed a cassette recorder to load a program every time I wanted to use it. Display just a few rolling characters. First 'portable' company to go bust. In the rubbish bin. A bad memory. First decent PC at work was the Apple IIe. Resilient even when we blew smoke into the 5.25" floppy drive. Smoking OK in offices then. Punchcards? Very useful for roaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshiwara Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 ....oh yes, forgot this piece of junk as well. The world's greatest 'luggable. Awful. Glad I didn't pay for it. The Osbrne 1. It was considered quite sexy at the time...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 ^ Bloody hell that's like something out of "Flash Gordon"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacnl2000 Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Straight from my most honest personal memory that must have been a FairChild positioned @ that time in a Quo Vadis room and currently most likely still stored for 1 symbolic Dutch guilder in one of the museums of Dublin @ that time run by a professor of Mathematics who'se name I've forgotton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Conners Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Oh I just remember, after my first IBM PC I got an IBM PC "portable" (aka. lug-able). In the "closed" state it looked just like a sewing machine, and weighted something like 20 kg. Ugh! And I think, if my memory doesn't fail me, the price was in the area of 180,000 baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffyDuck Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Apple II+. (Actually an ITT 2020) Good times, good times. Now, on Mac and iPhone/iPad - but just recently dug up my old Apple //c+ from the garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkk_mike Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 (edited) My brother and I shared a purchase of a 16K ZX Spectrum back in 1982. Long wait for delivery, which had allowed us to order the 3rd party RAM upgrade to 48K from East London Robotics (who I've never heard of before or since). It wasn't the first computer I ever used though as the school let me onto their Apple IIe. (and yes, the school had ONE computer back then). Worked out for me - did a degree in Computer Science... Next computer was an Amiga (after graduation, once I was working, so I had some spending money), then I went onto the PC side with a 486DX2 just after they came out, which allowed me to start working from home. Edited June 5, 2012 by bkk_mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notmyself Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I built my own from parts ordered from US, I think the year was 1983. Can't remember where I got the directions from, perhaps Popular Electronics magazine. Same, based on a Motorola 6809. Then a BBC B followed by building my own PC which I continue to do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bendejo Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 How about first tablet? Compaq Concerto I recall setting it up while on TV a real-life drama was taking place involving a black man and a white Bronco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 (edited) Oh I just remember, after my first IBM PC I got an IBM PC "portable" (aka. lug-able). In the "closed" state it looked just like a sewing machine, and weighted something like 20 kg. Ugh! And I think, if my memory doesn't fail me, the price was in the area of 180,000 baht. yeah...I useta borrow one of those when I was in engineering school in the early 80s to write, compile and run all my FORTRAN programs at home...and it weighed a ton and I always used public transportation...then, when I would get home after lugging the thing around I'd flop and open a beer and say: 'fukkit...the FORTRAN can wait...' and then the 5'11" GF would appear and say: 'does it make sense to you to lug that thing all the way back from school then fer you to sit on yer ass and swill beer and not get about yer work?' and she was right and I did get top marks in the engineering analysis class...she was my inspiration... these days ye can do most anything with an MS Office Excel spread sheet... Edited June 6, 2012 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffyDuck Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Awesome thread. Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tig28 Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 About 1983 -- A Microbee. It was based on a Zilog Z80 with up to 32 Kbytes of RAM plus 32 Kbytes of ROM holding Microworld Australia Basic, a TV display of 16 lines by 64 characters, and they origionally sold it as a kit. The Microbee by early 1980 was sold as an assembled unit and several hundred thousand were made during that decade. It was widely sold to Australian schools also exported to Sweden and Russia. It was a wonderful machine, the non-disk based version's RAM (8, 16 or 32 Kb) was entirely battery-backed CMOS. It also had software on EPROM such as a Word Processor and Telecommunications software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimite Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) This was my very first real portable Very hard to use unless there was a good light, but I could not have done my job without it It had two 3.5" floppies and internal modem. No hard disk. Powered by 10 'C' batteries Best of all it suited my budget Edited June 8, 2012 by thaimite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSixpack Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 This was my very first real portable Very hard to use unless there was a good light, but I could not have done my job without it It had two 3.5" floppies and internal modem. No hard disk. Powered by 10 'C' batteries Best of all it suited my budget What is it? Many of us might want to get one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimite Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) This was my very first real portable Very hard to use unless there was a good light, but I could not have done my job without it It had two 3.5" floppies and internal modem. No hard disk. Powered by 10 'C' batteries Best of all it suited my budget What is it? Many of us might want to get one. Sorry. It is /was an Amstrad PPC640 I think mine may have had a 20MB hard disk but I am not sure now If you feel a need to get one I suggest you go and lie down in a darkened room for a few days until the desire fades. Edited June 8, 2012 by thaimite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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