anybody remember having a computer before Windows existed ?

[Fritzo]

I remember being on Compuserve and paying $12/hour off peak time and paid a long distance charge also ... seems like it was the 300 baud days for I remember thinking that the 1200 baud modem was the shizit

I forgot about that!!! I had a VICodem- a 300 baud cartridge modem for the VIC-20. I got a special deal on Compuserve for $6/hour. You could actually see the text printing out line by line LOL. You could get up to date stock quotes and do basic chatting....think that was about it. I still have all that stuff in my basement too...I should fire it up and see if it still works.

 

[cquark]

I started with a TRS-80 with 32K, a cassette tape, and an acoustically coupled 300bps modem in the 70s, but I've never really had a MS Windows-based computer. I bought my first IBM-compatible PC in 1995 and immediately put one of the earliest releases of RedHat Linux on it.

 

[DurocShark]

C=64 baybee!!!

My computer history:

TI 99/4a
C=64 (and variations through the 128d)
Epson 8088 box
Pentium 100 Packard Bell box (first Windows machine)
Then it was all downhill from there....

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: cquark
I started with a TRS-80 with 32K, a cassette tape, and an acoustically coupled 300bps modem in the 70s, but I've never really had a MS Windows-based computer. I bought my first IBM-compatible PC in 1995 and immediately put one of the earliest releases of RedHat Linux on it.

Went right to Linux? Man, you deserve some kind of Uber Geek Award or something! That's impressive

 

[SilverThief]

Originally posted by: DWW

Originally posted by: SilverThief
Packard Bell 286 with Windows 3.1, 2400 baud modem.
1985
I remember playing Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, Bard's Tale II, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and connecting to BBS's for my porn fix.


SIGH

Sorry but you are off by about six (6) years. Windows 3.1 came out in 1991.

WHoops! Well, it wasnt 3.1 yet then. I was 15 in 1985, thats when my dad brought home a $3000 packard Bell 286 PC.

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Dude- I had a C-64, a Vic-20, and a Commadore PET Commadore should have really taken over the PC industry if they weren't run by two monkeys and a goat fscker...those guys were idiots.

Fixed it for ya.

Those guys blew such a good thing. The Commies were even heavily crippled with the daisy-chain serial connection crap that had to send a buttload of verification bits for every single data bit. But the sid chip and video chip were friggin amazing! There was talk about one of the big PC makers (can't remember who, but they're not around now...) getting C= to make video and sound cards based on those chips for PCs. Jack Tramiel refused. Sigh.

 

[JackDawkins]

Apple IIe in the early 80's

 

[adlep]

Amiga 500, no HDD, KickStart in ROM, 2MB RAM
Sweet
Like 92-95

 

[Analog]

Your kidding, right?

My first computer was a single board COSMAC VIP (video Interface processor), programmed with a hex keypad in machine code - not even assembly language.

That was 1977, it did interface with a TV using a video modulator, and I bought the cassette interface, so that I could save my programs and not have to key them in every time the thing was powered up.

It used an RCA 1802 microprocessor, with 256 bytes of RAM and 512 bytes of EPROM.

So, what's all this DOS stuff anyhow?

 

[Jeraden]

When I was a kid, my friend up the street got a commodore 64 and we always played games on it. I begged my parents to get me one for christmas. Xmas came and there was a big box. I was expecting it to be a C64. To my dismay, I opened it to find a Coleco Adam. Apparently my dad thought the Adam was a better computer since it had 80K of memory instead of 64K, plus it had a printer with it. That was biggest piece of junk. The only good thing about it was it played Colecovision games. Nobody sold Adam software. I remember I found one place and bought a few games. One was this Moria type game - very simple. Using the high tech cassette drive (no disk drives for the Adam), it literally took half an hour to save your game. It was ridiculous. I ended up buying a C64 for myself a year or so later with my own money.

 

[Staples]

I had a TRS80 but it was given to me in 1995. The first computer I got was a P90 in the Summer of 95, I was 14 at the time.

 

[dethman]

of course.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Apple ][c

- M4H

 

[Daishiki]

apple IIgs

 

[0roo0roo]

memories of dos 6.22, not fond.

 

[JupiterJones]

TRS-80 Model I

 

[BurnItDwn]

When I was a little kid My father bought an Apple II E. It was around 1984 or 1985 if I remember correctly.

 

[Pepsi90919]

windows has existed since like 1983...

 

[Geekbabe]

286 was the 1st system I used.

 

[alkemyst]

I had an Apple //e around Christmas of 1983 or so. Many claim to have had them but seriously it was a $2500 machine with the options, not a small task in that year...I knew no one else that had one...some did have older ]['s and ][+'s and later were able to upgrade them to //e enhanced status (yes it was sort of like an enhanced ][ enhanced, I still have an original box and manuals to the kit).

In 1987 a PS/2 Model 80 (386/20) at an insane $20,000+, yet some will claim they had one and it was about 'two times the price' of a 'stupid' C64. (what many forget is a VIC20 was around I think since 1980 and the C64 came out sort of with the //e).

I think original I had 300....then a 1200 baud modem (whatever was fastest at the time)....I skipped the whole dialup services nonsense and just hacked through Tymnet/X.25/outdials to QSD/Lutz/tchh/etc...some BBS systems and what not. However 'Windows' was around a long long time....macintosh was born in 1984 I think and it's gui was stolen like apple claimed of MS.

Å

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: SilverThief

1985
I remember playing Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, Bard's Tale II, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and connecting to BBS's for my porn fix.


SIGH

Wolf 3D and Doom? you should your 'decade' is right? BTII was a late 80's game though.

 

[alkemyst]

GUI Gallery

 

[StormRider]

My first computer was an Atari 800

 

[XMan]

macintosh was born in 1984 I think and it's gui was stolen like apple claimed of MS.

Which Apple stole from the retards at Xerox PARC.

(looks at 401k and sobs quietly, thinking of what could have been)

 

[waggy]

My first computer was a Timix Sinclar 1000! it was tiny and useless. We had a bunch of diffrent computers also (my mother runs a computer center in Oregon).

I remember running games in dos. man it was a pain in the rear.