Whats the first thing that really got you hooked on computers?

[BigToque]

My family got our first computer when I was 8 (1990). It was a 486SX 25 MHz. I was always playing the small shareware games that my dad would bring home from work. Commander Keen, Dr. Riptide, Mario Bros., etc. This was all fine and dandy cause I was just playing games and such.

The first upgrade we got was from 25 MHz and 8MB RAM to 66 MHz and 16MB RAM. I was excited because the ram was now at 16384 (even though I did not know what the number meant)! That system lasted us till I was 12, where my parents decided that we were gonna upgrade our system again. We got a package from a place called Mind Computers. We got a AMD K5 133 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 1 MB SVGA video card and a few pieces of software. Again, at this point, I just liked to play games. I had no real interest in the hardware, and I only knew that the numbers at POST were getting higher

Then came 13... I had just bought EA Sports NHL '96 and asked my parents if they could log me onto the Internet for the first time ever, so I could look for info on NHL '96 and some cheat codes. Well, they logged me on, and I was using Netscape 3 for the first time. The first thing I typed into the search was "Playboy" , then I went looking for NHL '96 stuff. I had a total burst of joy when I found out that you could download roster updates for the game. This got to more searching for NHL '96 and wanting a better computer so my game wouldn't be choppy. My dad said "Why dont you try searching for information on Parallel Processing?" I had no idea what he meant, but he said you could put 2 processors in a system. I was amazed! I wanted to know how you would connect 2 CPU's... Would you have to solder them together?

Off to http://www.infoseek.com, and I typed in "Parallel Processing". As I was looking through the results, I saw a link to a site called CPU Central. I clicked on it and read a few articles, then one thing jumped out at me... (can you guess? )

Overclocking


BAM! There it was, I did not realize it at the time, but that one single article I read at CPU Central about overclocking changed my life. I spent countless hours trying to convince my dad to let me try it out, with the same answer every time. One day when he wasnt home, I took it upon myself to actually overclock my system, I spent about an hour looking over my computer and motherboard, being extremely careful with everything, studying the jumpers on my board. I made my changes, sat back and watched the monitor as I flicked the switch...







AMD K5 166

 

[RobertCane]

My grandmother had a 286 that they let her keep from work (she was a teacher -- this was a BIG deal) and I always used to play Commander Keen and Pharaoh's Tomb when I went over to her house as a tyke. Eventually I had to learn my way around DOS, install stuff, and there you have it.

Rob

 

[DaveJ]

Our first computer was an IBM PC Jr., bought when I was 8... didn't really get into computers until 6 years later... Dad bought a Gateway 386/33 (4 megs of RAM, 120MB HD, and a 1MB SVGA card... woohoo!) It died and I was the only one home to fix it (Dad went off on contract work). After wrestling with tech support, I decided to fix it myself... 10 years later, and here we are...

Dave

 

[glen]

Star Trek on a TRS-80.
It took almost an hour to load it using a cassette tape.
The year was 1978 or 79, I think.

 

[TimeKeeper]

1981 Apple II...( I still have it, and still workable, I think )

Brun Roadrunner?

 

[Mday]

i've always wanted one.

i've always been into gadgets, and stuff, love taking apart things. one would say i take apart things to find out how they work. i say, i just like taking things apart ;-)

so, my wanting a computer, and that desire to take things apart ==> techie in the making... of course i took apart the first computer i had, the second computer i had, and built my third, and fourth ;-)

 

[sparkle]

Commodore 64 all the way baybee

 

[cmaMath13]

The game that got me hooked was on a Commadore 64: "Raid on Bungling Bay".

However, the first PC game that got me hooked was Wolfenstein.

First REAL component upgrade was the Creative labs 3D Blaster about 4 years ago. I have been through a lot of video cards since then:
3D Blaster
Diamond 3D Monster II (8MB)
Diamond stealth G460
Diamond 3D Monster II SLI (16MB)
Quantum Obsidian X-24 (24MB)
Diamond Viper TNT2 Ultra (32MB)
Currently: Hercules 3D ProphetII GeForce2 Ultra

 

[Sword]

Leisure vision in 1981 ( i was 3 years old) it was like an atari

Commodore 64 in 1986 ( i was 8)...The game was demon stalker

This game was as beautiful as nes game....

At 9 years old i began some programmation on this little computer...it was real hard

My parents bought me a NES in 1990...(my parents didnt like video games)and 3 years later my uncle gave me his HP286 12 Mhz with 4 Mb ram hehe

Then 1995 i had a pentium 75 with 16 mb ram ( if u remember well memory price was 70CDN$/Mb -> 60 US$ /Mb at this time) and a 2 Mb video card and 850 Mb HDD with windows 3.11.

I upgrade it to a 233mmx with 128 Mb ram and a ATI all-in -wonder 8 Mb rage pro in 1998.

Then this year i got this computer in my sign (bought it myself).

From 12 years old to 17 years old computers for me were only related to software ( i was programming all the time).

Then, my first upgrade in 1998 show me that there was another world in computer. Finally, when i began to search for my actual computer in january 2000, i came here at anandtech forums

This was the best move I ever done ! I learned here all I had to know about hardware

 

[aircooled]

xmas 1982... Commodore 64.

Ahhh...memories........

Anyone remember the dial up service Q-link for the C-64???? Thats what eventually turned into AOL....

 

[Jeff H]

1991 - walking through a mall, pass by a Babbage's, see Links, the Challenge of Golf on a computer screen, in the window. Got to have it <g>! Plus, see the need for a kindergartner to have a computer (great justification w/ the spouse).

So, we order a Gateway 2000 386-25, 4MB RAM, 1MB ISA video, 80MB HD, 14&quot; monitor. Delivered the day of the big Oct. 91 snowstorm (27&quot; in Minneapolis/St. Paul). Proceed to load Links, the game overwrites himem.sys, I attempt to restore from floppy, and proceed to lock it tight (didn't know the difference between copy and expand, at that point). Decide that will never happen again, and begin to read the DOS 5.0 manual from cover to cover. Later get a job offer (flattering, but probably not real), Gateway stating I then knew more about DOS 5.0 and memory management that they did <g>.

 

[velvtelvis]

I remember playing a space invaders clone on Vector-Graphic CP/M machine when i was 6 or 8. My dad is an archavist and he got the thing to keep track of records. I was doing programming his dBase II and Clipper progaming for him by the time I was 10 or 11. I pretty much just grew up around the things.

As far as what got me hooked on the net, it was free smut all the way.

 

[Modeps]

I was young. My dad had gotten an 8088. I tried to load on Paperboy. It crashed the hard drive.

From that moment on, I knew what career path to take.

 

[Dug]

The game Wizardry for the Apple.

 

[IamDavid]

My first was Pool of Radiance back in the day of my first 386.

 

[lostnthenet]

I think it was getting wing commander to work on my 486 33Mhz w/5 meg RAM that got me hooked. The main challenge was getting almost all my drivers loaded into high memory. I think I had my system running with 614K of Conventional memory available. Everyone thought I was a genius because I never had to use boot disks for more memory. The mem command rocks and memmaker sucks. Ahh....those were the days.

 

[eyeless]

the first spark was the fact that every christmas starting in 1988, I asked for a NES. Every year I was denied until I scammed my way into it in 1992. Then the SNES, that took some scamming also. What got me hooked to the pc was my first upgrade to my acer 2 1/2 years ago. I installed a win/tv into a pci slot and installed the drivers, all by myslef! I was absolutley amazed with what I had done and Ive been a hardware junkie ever since.

 

[dcdomain]

I got started in computers relatively late in my life. Think I was around 12 or 13 when I got my first computer. First person in the family to get a comp. It was a 90 pentium. Didn't even use it much, Windows 3.1 sucked... then came Win95, my friend helped me install it. Again, didn't use it much. Finally I got an AOL account (sad isn't it?) and was hooked. Stayed up 24/7 after that to surf the net. Thank god I'm on a broad band connection now at college.

 

[MWink]

The first thing that really got me hooked on computers was... MS DOS 5.0! So many commands! (at least until I tried the &quot;FORMAT&quot; command)

 

[nuttervm]

dos 5.0 on a 486 66mhz is what really got me hooked. i tried to play some game or another, and had to tweak the memory usage, so i read the dos manuals. of course my first attempt i screwed up and thought ok ill try this format thing. i got about 1/4 of the way through the format before i found out what was wrong. my dad still gives me crap about losing alot of his geneology stuff, and that was about 8 years ago. little by little i learned more. i didnt really start my lust for hardware until about 5 years ago. i've had an empty wallet ever since

 

[UsandThem]

$299.00 Diamond Monster 3D 4 MB PCI card, Pentium 150 Mhz, and Quake II!

I will never forget the first time I loaded that combo up!

 

[hungrypete]

pool of radiance on the C64 got me started. wow that game was top notch at the time..... i was so cool, i had a MOUSE

 

[Electric Amish]

Internet Porn.

amish

 

[pdo]

wow an Amish that uses electricity and are into porn too.

 

[Dug]

I also have to agree with antiABIT-
at least that was what got me hooked on upgrades. Damn you 3DFX.