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Home Q&A Forum Komando News What was your first computer?

  • What was your first computer?

    Posted by KimKomando on March 14, 2021 at 3:27 pm

    Tell me about your first computer, where you got it, what you used it for, the best thing about it, the worst thing about it.

    Mine was a Compaq luggable. Compaq Computer Corporation introduced the first IBM-compatible portable computer in November 1982. It weighed about 25 pounds but it was sweeeettt.

    Sioux replied 3 weeks, 4 days ago 58 Members · 62 Replies
  • 62 Replies
  • TeamKomando:John

    Administrator
    March 15, 2021 at 10:11 am

    The year was 1997, Grandma gifted the family this Packard Bell multimedia machine. She wanted to make sure we were ready for a digital lifestyle. 🙂

    I remember setting up a camcorder to capture the process of re-installing Windows 98 with Best Buy support on the phone! Because you know, I had to break it a few times to figure out how it worked.

    Processor – 133MHz Pentium Processor
    Memory – 16MB, Upgradeable to 128MB
    Hard Drive – 1.2GB
    Graphics Chip – S3 64v+, 1MB Video Memory, upgradeable to 2MB
    Sound Card – Standard Packard Bell Sound/Modem Card
    Optical Drive – 6x NEC CD-ROM Drive
    Optical Connection – IDE/Atapi
    Floppy Drives – 1x 1.44MB 3.5″ Floppy Drive
    Expansion Slots – Unknown
    Operating System – Windows 95
    Navigator Version – Navigator 3.6

    Packard Bell

    • Martin

      Member
      July 11, 2021 at 12:34 pm

      Requires Time travel. Radio Shack sold them. It had a math coprocessor button (Woohoo!). I can still “see” the cursor on the monitor. Done inputting? Double-check, yes! I’d push the “button.” Time… I did not sit and wait for the results. It would take maybe twenty minutes before I could print out the inventory information. From spreadsheet to databases and still using spreadsheets. We have come a long way together. Great question, Kim. Fun, dredging up old memories.

  • BetaGary

    Member
    March 16, 2021 at 1:35 pm

    My first computer was home-built with a 286 motherboard and DOS 3.1, later upgraded to Windows 3.1. It had 64K of RAM and a 20MB hard drive. It was built by another ham radio guy in trade for a ham radio antenna in 1992. My son taught me how to use it as he was in the 5th grade and had a Commodore 64.

  • Walt

    Member
    March 17, 2021 at 4:50 pm

    Commodore 64.
    and I learned to program on it.
    That is that!!!!

    Move over Froger

    • Barney Lerten

      Member
      August 5, 2021 at 1:25 pm

      Did any C-64 user (like my late brother Pete) EVER buy software? I don’t think so;-)

  • Thomas Wypa

    Member
    March 27, 2021 at 1:20 pm

    Gateway. I bought it from HSN about 2001. Previously I had WEBTV.

  • Dave Nicholson

    Member
    April 12, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    TI-99/4, the first 16-bit home computers – I did not want the TRS80 (8-bit). Before IBM’s PC.

  • Edward Cones

    Member
    April 14, 2021 at 8:00 am

    Mine was an 8088 clone. Darned if I can remember a brand. A friend put it together for me, and I used to to start my career as a Clipper programmer. Before that I was a bookkeeper, and that little 8088 jump started my career in computers. That was in the early 80s, and I retired in 2013 after 30 years in the computer field, the last 21 working support for a regional bank. That little 8088 was a life-changing experience.

  • Karen Richards

    Member
    April 28, 2021 at 7:10 pm

    My first computer was a birthday present from my husband. It was 1990 and we lived in Cairo, Egypt. My husband thought it would help me pass the time. There weren’t any computer shops there at the time, so the guys at his office built it from parts ordered from the states. It had a 1 mg hard drive and I can’t remember how much memory it had but it was in bytes not megabytes. No pictures, only typed words. I learned a lot on that computer. I also learned how to take it apart and put it back together and add components. I don’t miss it. By the time we came back to the states I was using Windows.

  • Jim Robbins

    Member
    May 19, 2021 at 9:36 am

    My first computer was a commodore 20 with dos as Windows did not exist and we were excited to play pong on it. It was hard to do much when you had to educate yourself every step of the way.

  • Mark Etzler

    Member
    May 22, 2021 at 5:57 am

    My first computer was the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer, bought with my paper route money for $399, included 4k ram, later upgraded to 32k ram.

  • cfi512

    Member
    May 22, 2021 at 8:07 am

    Commodore Vic20, connects to TV as a monitor.

  • Amiga Nerd

    Member
    May 22, 2021 at 10:55 am

    TRS-80, the time was during 2 yrs of electronic school. Later had an Apple IIe, then a Commodore 64. Also dealt with the Amiga 500 and the 1200.

  • Gwen Werner

    Member
    May 23, 2021 at 5:23 pm

    It had to be about 1982 or so. One of the first IBM desktops made….big box with a screen not so big.
    My boss came to town….set it on my desk….and left me with it. No training no book. The spreadsheet program then was Lotus 123. I figured out how to get into the program, but could not figure out how to exit for the longest time…. just had to turn the power off. Been learning all I can ever since. Of course, the most important thing I have learned over all these may years is….just about the time you catch on….they change it.
    Kim, you are the best!!!!

  • Bob Praetorius

    Member
    May 23, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    My first computer was the first TRS80 that was made. I used it with the phone modem , and visited many bulletin boards and made some friends. I played Scott Adams adventures, which was a lot of fun. I remember thinking my computer was broken when I subtracted.18 from 1 and the answer was .81999999 . I expected .82 as the answer I also purchased and subscribed ro Cload which sent me a cassette tape with programs on it on a regular basis. I don’t know how I was satisfied with just 16k of memory and wrote many programs in Basic. Someone said around that time that one day everyone would have a computer and we thought that would never happen

  • Mike Sparks

    Member
    May 29, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with expansion memory, thermal printer and a audio cassette recorder for media storage.

  • Dan

    Member
    June 5, 2021 at 1:39 pm

    My first computer was the Atari 800 I purchased in the early 80’s for almost $1000. At first I mostly played games on it like Star Raiders, but eventually bought an Assembly language cartridge and learned assembly language programming on the old 8-bit 6502 microprocessor.

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