What was your first computer?

jayn_j

Press On Regardless
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Sep 29, 2003
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Sheboygan, WI
Another one with a PDP-8/L. This was in my High School for the first 2 years (1972-1973), the replaced with a HP-1000(?).

I thought I was the only one here that remembered the old DEC stuff.

Nah, we used PDP-8s throughout college (73-77). I have many happy memories, including designing a centronics interface for the computer. Also being offered a position as staff on the TSS-8 shared system after breaking security for the third time.
 

TNGTony

Unashamed Bengal Fan
Sep 7, 2003
10,041
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Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
The first computer I actually bought was an Atari 800 computer (now with 48k RAM!) with a cassette tape drive and printer that printed 80 CPM (in one direction, no printing on carriage return!) Later I got a 5 1/4" Disk Drive for it. I still have everything in my closet if anyone wants to buy it! :) It all works great. I even have a couple of unopened ribbons for the printer.

The first computer I used on a regular basis was an Apple II in 1977/78 at my high school. I was one of three students in the school allowed to use it. After that I used my brother's Atari 400.
 

skyviewmark

SatelliteGuys Pro
Sep 29, 2006
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Bay Minette, Al
Commodore Vic-20.. Texas Instrument T/I 99. Then a commodore 64 with two floppy drives and a very slow modem.... Also got a Commodore 128 but by then it was obsolete..
 

mike123abc

Too many cables
Supporting Founder
Sep 25, 2003
25,357
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Norman, OK
1) What was the first computer you have owned?
IBM PC XT

2) What was the first computer you used?
PDP 11 - 6th grade, we dialed into it from school with 300 baud...

3) When did you first have an email account?
1983
 

televisionarchives

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Aug 25, 2008
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Mine was an IBM PC around 1987. I want my money back. When I was in North Carolina last year I found one on display at a collectible store. My first email account was AOL I think. Now I could give you a whole bunch of stories about how stupid I was when I first using one. And I love gadgets and electronics. But I was so overwhelmed with my first computer. DSCF7052.JPG
 

Hall

SatelliteGuys Master
Feb 14, 2004
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Germantown OH
1) Some version of Commodore 64, from the early 80s. Looks just like this:
C64combo.jpg
We also had a cassette tape drive for it.

2) ^^^

3) Does a BBS system count ? I'm pretty sure it only worked within that BBS or possibly within some sort of BBS-pseudo network. Otherwise, it would be a prodigy.net e-mail account.
 

rockymtnhigh

Hardly Normal
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Apr 14, 2006
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I had been thinking of actual email addresses that would go outside of a system, so yeah, prodigy.net counts. :) I am pretty sure I was on bitnet (the academic version of the internet in the days when we talked about gophers and only tended to access it from VAX mainframes and the like) before I had an AOL account. :)
 

Hall

SatelliteGuys Master
Feb 14, 2004
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Germantown OH
Scott may know more about this, but in the BBS days, I think different systems, i.e. Joe's BBS, D&D BBS, OHIO-BBS (all made up names :)) could link together and users could e-mail amongst those systems.
 

rockymtnhigh

Hardly Normal
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Apr 14, 2006
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Normal, IL
Scott may know more about this, but in the BBS days, I think different systems, i.e. Joe's BBS, D&D BBS, OHIO-BBS (all made up names :)) could link together and users could e-mail amongst those systems.

I don't remember that. Been a long time since I used a BBS. Those good old 1200 baud rate days. :D
 

dfergie

Proud Staff Member
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Hah...with my C64 I had a 300 baud?, upgraded to a 1200 baud which was blazingly fast... ;) there was a local BBS, but for better stuff had to go long distance to Albuquerque... I started with a cassette and got a 1571 drive (the C128)before upgrading to the C128D with the internal...
 

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