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Oldes computer you've owned?

lava89

lava89

Member
What's the oldest computer you've owned?

The first computer I actually used was a 386 (we upgraded it to a 1.66 Mhz Pentium I ). I forget how much RAM it had. But if you turned on a "turbo" button it would go from 8 Mhz to 40 :P

It had Windows 3.1, but killed later on by Windows ME. In between that, we had Windows 95 and 98 installed on it.

We also had a Mac Plus, from 1986, with a black & white screen. And it still runs! So it is technically the oldest, but I didn't really use it till later.
 
I had an Atari 600XL - with a total of 16k of memory. There was a way to attach a cassette recorder to it instead of a hard drive and it would forward and reverse the tape in order to "read the program in".

We used to use "peek" and "poke" instructions to write code and I remember writing a basic program for a game that could be called "Rescue Helicopter" back in the early 80's.
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Next on the list was a 4.77 MHz 8086. In fact, I was working in an IT department then and had several. Was especially proud of an IBM XT that was overclocked to almost 6.0 MHz! WOW, right?

Compaqs were really "cool" then because they could handle graphics and not just text. Here's one that I owned (used): The "Compaq Portable Computer". It looks small and was billed as "portable" but it weighed close to 30 lbs (more like a sewing machine than a laptop). This was the first, true "IBM Compatible" computer on the market. An 8088 CPU still at a blazing 4.77 MHz, with a Math Co-processor and now 640k memory. Single 320k 5 & 1/4 floppy drive. I got it used and the memory chips would "creep" so my boss gave it to me because he wanted me to get used to "flipping the lid" and working on the thing. They sold for close to $3000 new.
compaq_portable.jpg
 
I did not get my first computer until I was in my 20's. That was the early 80's and I had a 64K Atari 800XL. In those days it would connect to any TV. There was no mouse, just the keyboard over the computer and joystick for gaming, and the only "permanent memory" was an attached floppy drive. You could load games via the floppy, plug in a cassette (on the top) and also program your own stuff (I used to write math formulas) in BASIC and save them on the floppy.

It only ran (executed) one program at a time, and had crude graphics. If I wanted to load a game, lets call it "maze", I'd type in the command at the command line:
load"D:maze" and then hit return. It would boot up simply with a command prompt, you'd insert the disk, and load the program that way in turn would load it into RAM. To load another one, you'd interrupt the program (I think it was CTRL then something or other, I forget) to interrupt the program and get a prompt in which you could load another program. It was that simple to operate.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Atari-800XL.jpg
 
My first computer was more of a word processer made by Texas Instruments. It had a COLOR monater!!! It was given to me only partially working. I had started computer classes at a senior citizens center in the mid 90s in an attempt to get over my fear of computers. It was totally DOS and a real pain. The floppy discs were huge and I don't think the drive worked. But it did use a dot matrix that I found at a second hand store.
The second class was great, by the way. The teacher had a syllabus that he followed but he allowed us to experiment and get into jams, which he would get us out of. That helped my fear more than anything. He also introduced the 310 at that time. A while later my programmer friend gave me her old 386 and we found an ink jet printer at a second hand store so I was in business. It took both the 5" ? floppys as well as the smaller ones.
And some of you started with ataris? So have you graduated to X boxes or do you have real computers now?:lol Do you still play Pac Man and Frogger? Hay! They were fun.
 
Apple IIc then a IIGS (Woz Limited Edition, iirc), which a family member may still have packed away somewhere.
 
Carolyn said:
And some of you started with ataris? So have you graduated to X boxes or do you have real computers now?:lol Do you still play Pac Man and Frogger? Hay! They were fun.
Click to expand...

The Linux repository has Pac man or at least a Pac man clone game. It looks like Pac man to me but the maze layout is just a little different. That's all. So, if I wanted to I could download it onto my Linux computer here for free and play it, but...... do I really want to? that's so..... 1980's! :toofunny
 
First computer I had: built from a kit from Bernstein-Applebees out of Kansas City .... and a few spare parts from Radio Shack. Didn't have floppies (not available in '75 in my area...not even sure if they existed at that point!) .... designed it to use a typewriter ribbon to be able to print ....

It had a couple of games we 'programmed' in .... one was a simple number guessing game ... when my son was a toddler in '78, that program fascinated him ... he was great at guessing. Redesigned the program to include simple math (adding, subtracting), & my son loved that as well.

Computers in the house expanded from there..........Apples, PCs....

(It's funny....when Pentiums came out, we had those....trading in or outright buying the newest models as they came out .......... but......... we continued playing on the original Nintendo! Go figure!)
 
Re: Oldes computer you've owned? --- out classed

OK. My attempt to poke light hearted fun at a group of people that I truly admire was pathetic at best. Only one person bit (thank you tim-from-pa). Moment of truth. I am not over the hill because I only made it a short way up the hill in the first place. Oh well, I enjoy broadening my horizens and reading what you all have to say anyhow, and I am able to grasp some of it.
 
Got rid of all my old rigs. I kept 3, 3.1.s for a long time, I was not using them, but I could not part with them. I also had a 1986 Apple computer and countless Windows 98 and 98SE's OS Dell's HP's IBM 3.1,s Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP. I also had 2 Motion tablets the M1200 and a M1300 I still have Windows 95 on a hard drive, why am I keeping that I do not know.
 
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