About 11 or 12 years ago I got an IBM PS/2 for my birthday. That was quite a machine. I think it ran off of MS-DOS and had Windows 3.1 installed. I can still remember having to use that stupid command prompt thing on DOS and always forgetting what the specific titles were for each of my programs. The main use for this computer was gaming. I remember having Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, and quite a few others.
My first was the Atari 800XL that came with a big book of programming and a Choplifter Cartridge. Then we got a Commodore 64 and I played mad Hangman off the cassette tape drive.
(edited by Ffej on 8.9.05 1234) Ffej- The 2005 NCAA "W" Tourney Pick 'Em Champion
Originally posted by CerebusMy first computer was a Texas Instruments TI99/4A (old-computers.com). I had some games with it. The ones I can remember off hand are MUNCHMAN which was a PAC-MAN ripoff and PARSEC which was a STARGATE DEFENDER ripoff. I also had this shooting game where there were two guys on each side of the screen and you controlled one of them trying to shoot the other. you dodged bullets by ducking beneath a tree.
You could program in BASIC with it. I even remember my very first program.
010 CLEAR SCREEN 020 PRINT "Dad is a jerk!" 030 END RUN
...He WAS a jerk, too, because I didn't get the Speech Synthesizer which would have made this program all the better.
That pretty much sums up my first computer experience. Same computer, same BASIC programming, same awful games that seemed so awesome at the time. I just remember being able to save my basic programs by hooking up a tape recorder to the computer.
Originally posted by cranlsnWith all the games and hardware available now, I still think M.U.L.E. and the text based adventures were some of the best games I've ever played.
For the longest time, I thought those were the only purpose for the ugly Commodore 128 in the family room. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the wonderful world of Irata and trying to get back to the store after foolishly trying to prospect a 3rd square.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
Slightly off-topic but since old and crappy but still excellent video games have been mentioned, I wasn't the only person here to have played Oregon Trail, was I? Perhaps I'm overstating it's popularity outside of my six year old realm.
Originally posted by BigSteveSlightly off-topic but since old and crappy but still excellent video games have been mentioned, I wasn't the only person here to have played Oregon Trail, was I? Perhaps I'm overstating it's popularity outside of my six year old realm.
It was part of a required computer class when I was in 5th grade. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was part of the same class in 6th grade.
At some point we also had Yukon Trail, but I recal Oregon being a far superior experience, mostly due to being able to hunt buffalo.
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Originally posted by BigSteveSlightly off-topic but since old and crappy but still excellent video games have been mentioned, I wasn't the only person here to have played Oregon Trail, was I? Perhaps I'm overstating it's popularity outside of my six year old realm.
No way. I remember all those MECC games. Oregon Trail, Odell Lake, Number Munchers, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? They were all awesome.
I remember you'd get near the end of Oregon Trail, and you'd have to decide if you wanted to go down the river (while avoiding the rocks, of course) or pay to use the toll road. Or when someone in your party would die of cholera with absolutely no notice. Good times...
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An Apple ][+ in 1981. This was followed by a ][e in '83 and my Dad picked up a //c for himself the next year (and got hisself one of the half-height fold-up monochrome LCD screens to go with it, making it truly "portable").
We upgraded to the //e "platinum" or whatever it was called when those came out in '85 and then ditched that for the glory that was the IIgs ("Woz Edition") in '86.
Dad got his first Mac a few years later. Yes, I grew up an Apple whore. Someday I'll be one again, I'm sure; once the Intel Macs arrive (with corresponding price cuts, I hope), my fiancee will definitely be getting a Mac.
TRS-80, old gray case with the near impossible to push keys and 16K RAM. I got that one because it was the same type as the computer class at my middle school used. Actually, it was the teacher's with a whopping 4K of RAM. He was jealous... :-)
Unfortunately that machine and my CoCo 3 didn't follow me to Mass when I moved to get married.
Originally posted by BOSsportsfan34Mine was a Pentium 60 with 32MB of RAM. Pretty sad by todays standards.
That's it, I'm old
The first computer I ever used was a TRS-80 in a computer class for the G&T section which meant we played a lot of some weird Star Trek simulation and learned how to program infinite loop pictures.
My first computer was a Commodore 64 with both floppy and tape drives and a copy of M.U.L.E. (pc.ign.com). I also remember a really primitive word processing program whose name escapes me and a daisy wheel printer with interchangeable wheels for different fonts. It also provided me with an entrance into the world of CRPG's with the first of the great SSI Dungeons and Dragons games, The Pool of Radiance (gamebanshee.com). It's been onwards and upwards ever since.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
All others things being equal, the simplest solution is usually stupidity. -- Darwin Minor
Ours was a second-hand PC with an 8086 processor, a 20 MB hard drive (that we figured we'd never use up), and a monochrome monitor (yellow and black). It had some simple games programmed in BASIC that I very much enjoyed playing.
Mine was a Southwest Tech 6800 based system. It had a mighty, mighty 6k of memory and after I upgraded it to 28K it would run CP/M and Wordstar. I had to solder and wirewrap the new memory into it - and I had to initially put the four board together to make it work. Backed it up onto a casette at first, then I got an 8" floppy for it.
The first color and prepackaged PC I had was the Vic-20 - I LOVED that PC. It used the same floppy as the TRS-80. That was external, of course. It was HUGE.
My Palm pilot is more powerful than either of them. Crap, my phone (not a treo) probably is.
Feel better, Bash? I do too. Dr. Dirt's was an ENIAC.
(edited by AWArulz on 4.8.06 2225) We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
The first we owned as a family was a Vic 20 with a tape drive. Start loading the game, go play outside for 30 minutes and you're ready to go. I don't remember the name of the game, but you were a dashing swordsman in the desert. I also used to copy Basic programs from a book that made the screen change colours. WOW!
Originally posted by MercThe first we owned as a family was a Vic 20 with a tape drive. Start loading the game, go play outside for 30 minutes and you're ready to go. I don't remember the name of the game, but you were a dashing swordsman in the desert. I also used to copy Basic programs from a book that made the screen change colours. WOW!
This is pretty much my story word for word. I remember having to flip the tape over at times to continue loading some games. I ended up playing some Pac-Man knockoff most of the time.
The first computer that I had was a TI-99. I remember typing out the long-ass programs in BASIC and putting them on tapes so that I could play Grizzly Quest or something like that. I also remember the games that you could buy for it, set up like cartridges for the Atari. You could customize things like the name of the teams in Football. I loved that computer.
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