HamiC

Computers I have Owned:

1982 -- Atari 800 (programming in BASIC.....not just playing games)

1984 -- Apple IIc (with a 1200 baud modem.....loved those BBS's)

1989 -- Mac SE/30 (Got me into and through college)

1992 -- Mac IIvx (Purchased through the teachers' discount program)

2003 -- Dell Dimension 4550 (Before the "Dude" guy got busted...)

null_duality

My laundry list:
386SX 33mhz
486/75 laptop
P150
P200MMX
PII 333
T-Bird 900
Quantispeed 2100

Necronomicom

im 19 and my first (family) computer was a 486, my dad later sold it to my aunt who still has it

rubicon

I don't remember exactly, but in the 80s a Philadelphia-area college was requiring/highly recommending students buy a Mac (SE at the time?) for enrollment.

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Big Julie

First experience would have been in 2nd grade, '72 or '73, when the University(of Illinois) installed a Plato terminal in our classroom. It had a plasma screen, so we could actually play game type stuff on it. The terminals where frickin' huge,about the size of a small refridgerator. A couple years later, they added sensors around the screen, making them 'touch' sensitive. They could display photographs, too, if they had the slide projector mounted in the back.
By junior high, some of my friends were learning to program on them, at an open computer lab on campus.
My high school's 'computer lab,' a side room offa the math office, had, I think, TRS-80's. I never got into it, though.

I decided about five years ago that it was time to see what this computer/internet nonsense was all about, and got a generic-ish refurb with a 233 cyrix, onboard sound and video, and running win95. Started upgrading after a month or two, and haven't looked back since.

andyc

Well I'm 32 and I was about 10 years old when I got a Spectrum 16k. Cool computer, I did like the rubber keys !

Jolt

I was able to borrow a couple Apple IIe's at different times in my youth. My senior year of HS (Dec '91) we bought a Mac LC. Two months later I spent $120 to upgrade the memory from 2 to 4mb. Another bump down the road, and two external HD's along the way, and it got me through college in good shape.

In Spring '96 just after I got my first 'real' job I cobbled together a 486sx, mostly out of other pplz' castoff parts.
Since then I've gotten into the buy/sell/trade/repair game,mostly used and vintage hardware, so I have had perhaps 50 whole machines pass through this house...Macs Suns PCs.

I have a couple 8" floppy drives and a 300 baud acoustic coupler on a shelf in the garage. I know how to whistle into the coupler

charliex

first used, wang 2020 (i think that was the number) then a sinclair zx80 a real one not a timex

then the usual roadmap in approx order, pet, zx81, spectrum , vic20, c64, c128, aquarius, cpc 464, bbc model b, amiga , pc

hawkeye

19, IBM Aptiva 486dX win3.11/dos6.3

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You're just a giant ball
of love, covered in anger.

m0j0

mine was a 386

yotta

Yeah, and it looks like he's been banned along with the 17 year old. Can't belive they're too dense to lie about thier age.

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yotta

Um, been using computers since I was like geez... before I can remember. Before kindergarten.... Some old luggable running MS DOS 3.20 ( i think it was new at the time) was the first, unless there was something before that that I cannot remember, then something running windows 3.1, then a p166 with windows 95, then a celeron 500 with windows 98, then a celeron 700 with ME and linux on it, it ran XP for a while... now a celeron 1200 running mandrake 8.2.... damnit, I need to get me an athlon. for age perspective, I'm 18.

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J-Dubs

Computers I had/owned since I was a kid.

Apple IIe - 1MHz
Commodore VIC 20 - 1MHz
IBM 8530, PS/2 Model 30 - 8MHz
ZenithBull - 286MHz
Unisys - 386MHz
HP - 486MHz DX2
Handbuilt Pentium - 166MMX
Dell Pentium II - 450Mhz
Handbuilt - P3 1.4GHz
Alienware - P4 2.8GHz

I loved the Vic20 with the "Datassette" add on. Before the "Datassette" I would sit and type in code (for some random game) all day from the manual only to have it not work or have to go back and try to find any errors I made. In the end I would shut off the computer only to lose all data and have no game to play. Then my parents bought the "Datassette" and I was able to save all my data onto a cassette tape.

VirFighter

The first computer I remember using was a 386. Ah the good 'ol days. The first one I could actually call my own I built when I was around 13 or 14. It was a PII 333.

I'm 19 now btw.

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sweeze

386. the TURBO switched it between 8 and 16 Mhz, with a nifty led readout of what speed it was going. dos/5 windows/3.0 (i think i was the only one I knew with 3.0, everyone else had 3.1). don't remember other details... just that i ran "del .." from a directory i was trying to remove (since "del DIRNAME" said "directory not empty" and all that was in the directory was "." and "..")... that hosed autoexec.bat quite nicely :-\

Podmore

My first was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with 8K (yes, K, not MB) of memory. Hooked up to a TV for a monitor. I ltaught myself BASIC with it. I still have it!

My second was a Franklin ACE-1000 (guess I liked the 1000 series of things). It was an Apple ][ clone. Fun little machine. Got me through high school and college.

mtsgsd

The Texas instruments computer TI-90? can't remember the number. When I was 18, I worked for Radio Shack and we sold the TRS-80s. I remember the Color Computer was the hot item with 16K of mem. upgradeable to a whopping 64K!

Then I moved up to the commodore C128. First real computer was a Compudyne 286 16mhz. Back then memory was so expensive that it wasn't included with the computer. It came with a keyboard and 3.5" floppy. That's it. Started out with (I think) 256K of mem. on it.

Peetster

First one I used was in 1975. Punch cards. Fortran. Huge magnetic reel-to-reel tapes to load the OS in the morning.

First one I owned was in 1987 or 88. Commodore Amiga. In many respects, a better video tool than the P4 2 gig machine I'm on now.

bodypainter

Tandy CoCo 2 in 1982 (at age 25).

Jack Ruby

My first ever pc was a 1985 hunk o' junk (tm) German pc with 16K RAM, 3 inch disks, no hard disk and BASIC 1.0 on it. Can't tell you the brand name because I honestly don't remember. Thing is, I was born in 1984 so the PC was only a year younger than I was. Still, it was cool since my first computer experience was with programming - something that's always been an advantage.

In 1996 we got a Pentium 100Mhz with 8MB RAM, and a few years ago I got a Pentium III 900Mhz, which I'm still using today. I plan on getting a new one next year.

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BeatYaToIT

i dont know about you guys but my parents werent exactly the techno types,

i had no computers till i was about 8, according to u guys that means i was deprived

any way at about 9-10 i had 3 computers, a C64, a toshiba 386 laptop, that i still play wolfenstein on (yes the 2D version) and the good ol' 486, god that computer was a screamer in those days, you press enter and five seconds later your still waiting, even the most basic things took ages. oh well, that means that the pentium 3 733 im writing this on is only my fourth computer!

Tirian

I'm 35 now. I bought my 1st computer from my tenth grade teacher in 1983 which was a TRS-80 Model 1.



I learned a lot of BASIC programming on that thing.
Then later I upgraded and got a COCO MC-10 !



I still have the model 1 which is tricked out to look like this one.

mykockle

Lets see, it was probably 1983 and it was an amstrad cpc 6128. It had a disk drive, but pretty much all of my programs or games were on tape. My first game for it was blockout, which I typed in all the code myself (it came in the manual for the comp). Then I got donkey kong on disc. Sweeet. Then i had a Spectrum 64 (i think it was a 64 anyway), which was total crap. My next computer was probably my P1 133 back in 94 or 95, which was super computer status back then ... I'm 30 now.

Zar

I'm 19, my dad bought our first computer in 1988-89 or so, not exactly sure. It was a smoking Packard Bell 12 mhz 286 with a 30 meg harddrive and 2 MB of RAM.

I enjoyed playing paperboy on it.

Washington

My dad has always been into computers and lets just say I was very young when I got my first hand me down.


The first computer I actually owned and bought is the one im using right now. I bought it last summer.

DELL Inspiron 8200 Laptop. Its specs are:

Intel Pentium 4 Mobile CPU 1.6GHz
384 MB of RAM
Microsoft XP Home (I know, should have gotten PRO)
Toshiba 40gig HardDrive
NIVIDIA GeForce4 440 GO video card
Samsung CDRW/DVD drive
Internal 56k Modem
2 USB 2.0 Ports
1394 FireWire Port
Network Cable hole thingy
Infared Port
The best Sound Card I could get on it at the time (dont know how to look for its name)



Dont mistake me for a lucky rich kid. I worked my @ss off for this. (granted dad did pay half :}

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Washington

Oh yea, im 19 (turn 20 in 3 months!)

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there is no absolute, only the moment.

Flippy

I'm 19 - my first computer was a 386 33mhz with 4 mb ram and 100mb hard drive. I got this sometime in the early 90s. Was dual booting OS/2 and Win3.1, so I had about 20mb of free space left on the drive. I considered that plenty

westothemax

I can't remember what it was exactly, I think a Compaq Portable. It was an old (1982) XT (I think?) box that booted off one of the 5.25" floppies and ran programs (my dad's spreadsheet, my submarine game and word processor) from the other 5.25" floppy. Supposedly an early laptop, but bigger than most modern desktop. I'm 20 years old. By the way the first computer I owned, not my dad, was a 386 DX 33mhz that we bought from my elementary school when they switched to Macs.

Realizm

I'm 19, first computer was a TRS 80 Model I at around 7 years old or so. Good ol computer game via the cassette tape. Space Warp. Still have the tape. Broke the '80 and threw it away. I wish I hadn't, know enough now that I could have fixed it. :-(

I want another one.

Charlatan

I'm 35 (this Friday) and I used an Apple II c in High School for writing essays. Used a word processing program called Magic Windows (or something like that).

I later used my girlfriend's computer in University - a Tandy 1000. A 286 running on DOS.

The first one I owned was one I had made for me by a friend. A PC clone - 386 with 8 mB of RAM... just hummed along (that was 1992 or so).

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eyeseepeedude

my first 'computer' was a TRS-80... (*good way to learn BASIC*)

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AlphaFox830

Hmm, sometime around 3 or 4 i started with something less then a 286. This thing was so wierd i cant even remember what it was called.

This was somewhere around 1986

Then a 286. Then a P1 250mhz. Then finally a PII 700mhz.

Im on a P3 950mhz now.

scarry

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stnnotop

first computer was a 486 DX2 66, with a turbo button to do from 33 to 66 mhz. dot matrix printer, the works.

first one i owned was a 400 mhz Dell celeron that is still in use today, and runs like a champ.

dayvid

I'm 37. First computer I ever used was in '78 and I don't even know what it was. It was in a Jr High programming class: there was no monitor, just a continuous printout of inputs and outputs. We'd spend the whole period playing this car racing game.

Bought my first computer in '89. A 386 for $2500. Splurged on the color monitor but couldn't afford the HP inkjet for $750. Also insisted on a 3.5" floppy drive in addition to the 5.25" cuz I knew that was the wave of the future. In '90 I discovered the internet and credit card debt thru a 1200 baud modem with per minute charges from PC-Link->Prodigy->AOL.

GeekRomeo

My first computer was am 286 custome build with a green screen and a 14.4 Kb/s modem. I first learned about IRQ and Com settings then when trying to get the modem to work since it comflicted with the IDE card. It took me a couple weeks, but after than, I spent my evenings playing Door Games on various local Bulletin Board Systems with some friends. I was 13 then and I am almost 22 now. Three systems later, I currently have an AMD 1.2 GHz with GeForce II graphics. Man, I sure do miss the good ol' days, hehe ;-)

theguyondacouch

First computer was a commador 64.

MacGnG

i'm 19. we had an Apple IIe and IIc, about the same time they came out i dunno year 89?. then we got a Performa 575 in 94?, then I got a PowerMac 6500/225 in 1997, and last fall i got eMac 700.

madsenj37

I too am 21 but didnt get a computer until I was 14. I had an Apple Performa 6300 - 100 mhz. Still have it, remote control and all.

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"Only two things are certain: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not certain about the universe."
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titsmurf

Mine was a 286 with a 20MB hard drive. It ran at a nice 16Mhz, with the turbo button down. It was perfect for playing Dune 2 and wolfenstein 3D on. Doom, unfortunately, wouldn't run on it. It took floppies, and low density 3,5" disks.

I then switched to a cheap 386, then a pentium 133, and then to a pentium 2 300. I'm still using that last one right now. I don't need much processor power to be happy

MacGnG

madsen: i didnt get a remote with the 6500, but i programed my tv remote to do so although all it did was turn on/off and do volume, still cool though