Foo - What is the first computer you remember.

When I was 8, my grandfather took me on a tour of the Reader's Digest headquarters where he worked. I remember seeing an impressive array of tape drives and other equipment in an air conditioned room with glass walls. I assume it was an IBM.

Western Electric did a demo at our school in the early 60's with a computer
that was more of a calculator but it could do math quickly! Took several hours
to get it set up for the demo. Input was punch cards, out put was ticker tape
device.

I had a TSR-80 and a TI.

Couch

My first was an Cosmac ELF based on the RCA 1802 processor, which my brother and I built from a kit in high school in 1976. It had 256 bytes of RAM, which we eventually bumped up to 4KB. It was fun - I started with a hex keyboard to manually enter a bootstrap loader, and I think we got that down to 6 bytes. A bootstrap loads itself, a driver and the program on whatever device the driver enables. For me it was a paper tape reader which I constructed with photo-cells programmed with magic markers on adding machine tape, which in turn read in a driver for a cassette tape player we interfaced. With only 4K bytes of memory we were somewhat limited in applications however, mostly simple games, I/O controllers etc.

I forget which grade, but it was in elementary school. Working on TSR 80s, the class was divided into teams of like 2-4 to program a simple image. While the other teams were doing flowers, sunshine, rainbows.... my team did an electric guitar wired into an amplifier.

Second year university we did a fortran course and we had to pencil out boxes on cards and deliver them to the computer dept who would run them through. Later we used an analogue computer in about 1972.

First computer I remember seeing was the terminal at my high school that was connected up to the main frame at, I believe, the NASA research center in town. First one I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81. 1 MZ ZILOG Z80 CPU with 4k internal RAM. Had the expansion pack taking the RAM all the way up to 64K. (WOOT!)

A slide rule.

Remember working with a Vic 20, Commodore 64, Trash 80 (sorry Couch), Apple 2e. Can't remember which came first.

ZX81 at school

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/ZX81.jpg

^^ I think TRS-80 came out before the Vic 20, which preceded the C-64. Not sure about Apple. I've come to this conclusion as I remember the friend's dad across the street getting his TRS-80 (~1983) before I had my Vic 20 (which had pretty much just been released) (1984). I then did a major upgrade to the SX-64 in '86, which was Commodores "portable" system. Tiny 3" screen, build in 5.25" floppy, keyboard was the lid for the front. Oh YEAH I was styling. :)

A Sinclair of some sought

Probably an Osborne 1 CP/M machine, at a car dealership of all places. It was running dBase I think, but basically it was a sales gimmick.

An Altair 8800, with a home made keyboard, and tape storage.

First one I ever saw was the mainframe at Magnavox in Fort Wayne in66 or thereabouts. I now have pocket calculators faster and more capable than that mainframe was.

TRS-80
and Apple 2C

I had a college work-study job at the Health & Safety Labs of the Atomic Enegy Commission in NYC - 1975-76, and they had an IBM monster in its own air conditioned room. Part of my job was to key-punch for the scientist's article library. There was a key card sorter in the computer room that I had to use to sort the cards. It occassioanly went nuts, sending cards all over the place at high speed. They just don't make machines like that any more!

After that, I worked at a printing school that boasted IBM Selectric typwriters and CompuGraphic print-set machines.

Then, I worked at another school that let me loose on a AT240. MOS 1.0 - when that was new. PCs have come a LONG way!

<.< I was born owning a commodore pet.. true story.

My first was an Cosmac ELF based on the RCA 1802 processor, which my brother and I built from a kit in high school in 1976...

I built one of those in 1977 (when I was 13)! It was my first "real" computer (my first programmable device was a TI-58 calculator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-59_/_TI-58)).

BBC Micro in school.

I built one of those in 1977 (when I was 13)! It was my first "real" computer (my first programmable device was a TI-58 calculator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-59_/_TI-58)).

That's a blast from the past. My first calculator was a TI-55 sometime in the late 70's. That thing was a workhorse and lasted for years.

In kindergarten about 1982 we had a robot turtle -- something like a 3 foot clear plastic dome -- that we would program in LOGO. I went to a lab preschool on a university campus. My parents were not into the whole computer thing, so the first computer I got was an IBM PS/2 Model 25, no hard drive. I didn't have one at all through college, only getting one in 2000 or so.

An Abacus in Japan, 1952.
Fast, no tubes,no screen . . . just them little beads!

I can remember Walter Cronkite being proud as punch reporting the results of an election (Presidential in '60) that were being tabulated by a computer in New York City.

An Abacus in Japan, 1952.
Fast, no tubes,no screen . . . just them little beads!

There was a corner store up around the corner from home and I can remember Mr. Wong being able to add a column of numbers on an abacus faster than his son on the adding machine.

I built one of those in 1977 (when I was 13)! It was my first "real" computer (my first programmable device was a TI-58 calculator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-59_/_TI-58)).

Cool. I knew there had to be another one out there, somewhere. Funny coincidence, I got a TI programmable a year later when starting university classes, maybe the same model or the TI59. Or maybe not so coincidental since there weren't really any others then.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Commodore_4032.jpg/220px-Commodore_4032.jpg
took some hunting to find a non swanky one like mine in a pic (Note, no built in tape drive.)

Tricky question... multiple answers:

1. First computer I owned: Tandy TRS-80
2. First computer I used: Apple II
3. What I remember as first computer for historic purposes in modern times: ENIAC
4. What is often called the first computer (mechanical): The Antikythera Mechanism
5. First "computer" I saw in person: An IBM TeleType

My dad had one of these:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/CBMVIC20P8.jpg/800px-CBMVIC20P8.jpg

I remember using it for video games.

First computer I remember seeing was something like this, though I don't know if it was exactly like this:

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/appleii-system.jpg

First computer I ever actually used was like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Apple_iicb.jpg

And I never owned a computer until about 1996. It was $1400 and about as powerful as my desk lamp.

Between my first computer (Tandy TRS-80) and my 2nd one (286@20) there was a 10 year lapse. I was in the 7th grade when my parents got me the Tandy. I bought the 286 when I was in college, thanks to Mom and my sister who subsidized the purchase. After that I bought all computer equipment on my own. Can't remember how much was the Tandy but the 286 was $999.99 and it was on sale, early 90's. The price of the 286 was what motivated me to learn how to assemble computers. The next upgrade was a 386@40 by AMD, I ordered all parts by mail from "Computer Shopper" back when the magazine was thicker than the phone-book and the bible combined.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Commodore_4032.jpg/220px-Commodore_4032.jpg
took some hunting to find a non swanky one like mine in a pic (Note, no built in tape drive.)

I was just looking for exactly this computer. We had these in my elementary school, all with a tape drive. How far we've come...

Bought this new in 1984 for $3K. Still have it in the basement. It still works. I'm still an Apple fan boy.

http://www.smashinglists.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Mac-128k.jpg

The first computer I ever saw was a Sperry Univac honker with big tape drives.
The first computer I owned was a Texas Instruments TI-99 micro with audio cassette storage.
The first computer I ever had to operate at work was a DEC VAX minicomputer with toggle switches and paper tape loading.

My oldest brother had a Digi-Comp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I) mechanical computer from Edmunds Scientifics (http://www.scientificsonline.com/), although this really stretched the definition of the word "computer". IIRC, he built this kit in high school, and he graduated HS in 1973. It was almost certainly the first programmable logic device I ever saw in person.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Digicomp_I.JPG/350px-Digicomp_I.JPG

Keith, I posted this before I saw your post. I'm your brother's age. I also graduated HS in 73.


I built one of these when I was in elementary school. They were made of plastic then, not cardboard like this knock off:

http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/digicomp.jpg


http://www.retrothing.com/2009/10/build_your_own_.html

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Babbage-Difference-Engine.jpg

First computer I remember seeing was something like this, though I don't know if it was exactly like this:
http://oldcomputers.net/pics/appleii-system.jpg
That was my family's first, an apple II plus. I remember playing Castle Wolfenstein (2D original) and making pictures on the screen using some grid coding system?

Bought this new in 1984 for $3K. Still have it in the basement. It still works. I'm still an Apple fan boy.

http://www.smashinglists.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Mac-128k.jpg

My geometry teacher in high school had one of those, although that was the mid 90s so it was pretty old even then. I never once saw that computer malfunction in any way; it always worked exactly as it should. Students used it all the time.

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/appleii-system.jpg

They had those where I went to the university. I conned the microcomputer lab and the art department into letting me do what I pleased and getting class credits for it. My first images were written in Pascal.

And I was the first student there to create computer art of any kind, as well as computer animation and interactive computer graphics. For the student art gallery showing, I managed to borrow one of the microcomputer labs machine. And was pleasantly surprised to discover that when the university museum returned the computer, that they kept the floppy disks, meaning they considered the work good enough to impose their "right" to keep the art work.

That was also the first computer I owned. I actually created a painting program for it, developed image compositing and 3D animation software for it. My first animation demo reel was done on it. It was a 36 frame flipbook that combined everything I could do into one little story. It got me the job using a much more advanced 48 bit machine doing graphics for a major bank.

That Apple II got loaned to my Dad, who became a lifetime Mac addict, and given to my nephew who became an avid gamer.

Like several members have posted here the first "electric" computer I used beyond TI calculators was the Trash 80. I used it solely for primitive email and electronic "bulletin boards" and ridiculously slow dial up data speeds. I think my first year on the 'net was spent at 0.1kbs.

I had a Compuserve account and my username was a string of numbers. What fun!

My Dad had one of these:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg

I played games on my dad's Osborne

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/osborne1.jpg

My Dad had one of these:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg

I have my dad's. But my HS chem teacher had ditched his 6' long teaching slide rule by the time I got there.

My Dad had one of these:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg

They are becoming collectible. My Mom had a nice one with a leather case. I got a really nice price for it on eBay.

I spent hours using one of these as a kid. My parents used them for car rallies.

http://www.vcalc.net/images2/Curta-506677-1-267x415.png

My dad let me be the navigator one time. When it was over, all the other teams were chagrined to learn that they had been beaten by a team that missed the driver's meeting and had a 9 year old kid for the navigator.

Keith, I posted this before I saw your post. I'm your brother's age. I also graduated HS in 73.


I built one of these when I was in elementary school. They were made of plastic then, not cardboard like this knock off:

http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/digicomp.jpg


http://www.retrothing.com/2009/10/build_your_own_.html

Very cool! Good to know Edmunds sold at least two. (j/k -- They seem to have an almost cult-like following.)

My father ran his own TV repair business, and my oldest brother was a EE major. (He's been a EE at GD/Lockheed for ~35 years now.) I grew up surrounded by discreet electronic parts, schematics, data sheets, power supplies, oscilloscopes, and frequency counters.

I abandoned all that hardware stuff when I "discovered" software, but I still claim that my first programming language was solder. :)

My Dad had one of these:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg

I remember using them in High School. Went on to this as my first career related computer..
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab143/jatodon/StudentE6BFlightComputer.jpg

First PC was a Vic20.

My head (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68GeL8PafE). Though it hasn't been used in years.

Very cool! Good to know Edmunds sold at least two. (j/k -- They seem to have an almost cult-like following.)

My father ran his own TV repair business, and my oldest brother was a EE major. (He's been a EE at GD/Lockheed for ~35 years now.) I grew up surrounded by discreet electronic parts, schematics, data sheets, power supplies, oscilloscopes, and frequency counters.

I abandoned all that hardware stuff when I "discovered" software, but I still claim that my first programming language was solder. :)

The electrical engineering I did as a kid was to take apart transistor radios, and hook up various components to my lionel train transformer and turn up the voltage to see what would happen. I stopped doing that after I blew up a little capacitor in my face. It exploded with the force of a black cat firecracker.

After that, I focused on taking apart D-cells and sharpening the carbon rods in my pencil sharpener, and making carbon arcs, also in my face, with the train transformer. I did squint or look away, and for serious "experiments" I used a pair of army surplus nuclear blast goggles (bought at sunny's surplus for a couple bucks) that used polarized lenses and a knob to provide variable density, which I let me make them almost opaque.

Good times, good times.



@jdon: the E6B... also good times, good times.


Back to the OP, the first real computer I used was an AT&T mini running Unix System V, back in the early 80s. I did sys admin stuff (15 terminals) in addition to ad copyrighting for a small ad agency.

My Dad had one of these:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg

This one was nicer than my Simplex Trig by Pickett that got me through 11 years of college. Still have it, but Wilson Pickett was better.