I’m retiring my 2012 Windows laptop today, it was not that expensive to begin with and has served its purpose. I’m definitely not a gamer so I wouldn’t need to keep something old around just for nostalgia games.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple family members have some older machines, perhaps as far back as 2000 or so.
I still have a 386 with Windows 3.1. Haven’t booted it in probably 20 years, but it still worked the last time. Or, now that I think of it, my TRS-80 Model 100 might be older. Both were bought used and cheap years after their heyday. (I junked my really useless stuff long ago, I think–even the tiny Timex-Sinclair 100.)
Depends on how you look at it. I have a laptop that I bought probably 4 or 5 years ago. But I also have a full size PC that I built back in college (around 2000ish). Over the years it was upgraded with new hard drives, OS, memory, video cards etc. Nothing special, just kept it up to date. I stopped using it maybe 10 years ago and slowly scrapped it for parts to be used in other computers. I finally tossed it a few weeks ago when I realized that it has no power supply and all the hard drives are on a shelf…somewhere, it wasn’t even really operational at this point.
Though I did like it. When I got it, I spent hours cutting a hole in the side of the case, mounting a plexiglass window in it and adding a bunch of LEDs. It looked pretty good and this was loong before I’d ever seen one you could buy like that.
North Star Horizon with terminal from 1977 North Star Horizon - Wikipedia
It was my dad’s. It was also the first computer I ever used. I have fond memories of dad programming Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and of the two of us playing Adventure.
If you count game machines, I have two Sega Game Gears, 2 or 3 first generation Game Boys, and possibly an Atari 2600.
The ADM terminal ADM-3A - Wikipedia.
Last time I chanced powering them on, both worked.
I’ve got an Intel Intellec 8 from circa 1974 sitting in my spare bedroom. I used to collect “vintage” computers, and this one was given to me by a retired computer science professor. Interestingly it actually predates the Altair*, but it’s not considered to be the first personal computer because Intel never marketed it to consumers; it was just intended to be a development platform for their customers.
*Widely considered to be the first personal computer.
The last time I used one of those was in high school in the mid-80s. We had a Honeywell DPS-6 mini-computer that was networked to a half-dozen junior high schools, including my own.
I have a lot of old hardware kicking around, but the oldest is probably a Tandy WP-2 portable computer/word processor that dates to the late 1980’s. And the thing still works and is perfectly usable for word processing. It has a great keyboard, us only 1" thick, weighs 3.1 lbs and runs more than 20 hrs on AA batteries. An amazing little machine for its time.
I guess it would be the iPad I bought somewhere in the first couple years of production. Still works fine, but the speed could be better. I only use it when we’re traveling, so it will probably outlast me.
I still own all my old computers, so I technically have my old 286 with Hercules Monochrome graphics. But I have no idea if it would boot or not. I know it can’t off the hard drive, since two pins broke off of it, but the floppy drives might still work.
I have a 286, a 486, a Pentium III, a Pentium M laptop that is disassembled, an AMD Duron, a dead Intel Atom netbook, a Pentium IV that my dad bought, a dual core Pentium, a Core2Duo laptop, a Core i7 2600, and now an AMD Ryzen 5 3600. Only the latter two are in use, and were purchased last year—one before and one during the pandemic.
I also have a few odds and end old computers that people would just give to me, which I would just make work as a hobby, or which I’d used before and were going to be thrown away, and I wanted to at least get the data off of them first. And then there’s not really a good way to get rid of them.
Yes, I am aware I have a pack rat problem with computers. 
(I actually lament not getting some computers, like my grandpa’s Tandy.)
I have my first computer, a Digital Group 8080 kit with a video interface from 1976. I’d be surprised if I could get it running. I kept a Zenith portable from about 1988, but it’s been a long time since the battery would take a charge. We rotate out old PCs through the kids and friends so aside from chips and parts no working machine here now is more than a few years old.
Hardware that I still have around the house and haven’t discarded:
RUNNER UP is a Palm Pilot IIIxe. I don’t know if it works. It probably does. I did a lot of writing with it during long trips on public transit.
WINNER is a TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-5, purchased in 1988. It came with a staggering 1x21 character display and a whopping 4k of RAM. I’m not sure if it works, and I’m disinclined to track down button cells to try it out, but that thing saved me a LOT of time crunching matrix problems and I could never part with it. It being compact has helped, because I’ve discarded larger, bulkier hardware, including a Nabu development kit.
This thread is made for me. I still have my 1982 TI-99/4a All 16kb of it.
I had given it to my niece and nephew and they gave it back to me about 22 years ago and I’ve moved it twice now.
So I know it isn’t the oldest in this thread, but pretty old.
I have a lot of old hardware, some of it still in use (a desktop from 2010 which was then my main computer still serves as a file and media server for example), the oldest being my first computer I got at age 16 in 1984, a C 64. It spent many years in storage on an attic, but the last time I fired it up a few years ago, it still gave me the good old blue screen with the “Ready” prompt.
This is only a technicality, but I have in my possession my oldest computer, a Commodore 64. It was taking up space in my folks house, and when they moved, they gave it to me along with a bunch of my other junior high stuff in a box. I figure we got it around 1986.
No, I haven’t tried to turn it on or use it, what would the point be. I don’t think I even have a tv with an input that would work.
The point would be fun. I only stopped really playing games on my C 64 when either all my disks went bad, or my only drive cable did. I want to play Forbidden Forest, and Pharoah’s Curse, and The Movie Monster Game! I cannot find a good C 64 emulator either.
Sorry DC, wasn’t meaning to cast aspirations on the old 64. I didn’t see the point in trying as I was sure I didn’t have a monitor or tv I could kludge to do output on. And while my folks kept the computer, they didn’t keep any of my discs (which I think I gave to my friends anyway when I upgraded to a smoking 386dx40 before I went to college [okay, 486 was out by then, but the 386 was soooo much more than the c64 on every level])
Sorry, my mistake then.
I just found a good home for the Kaypro 2 that I bought in 1982. It was in perfect shape with all the software and manuals. Gave it to a young man who collects and repairs antique typewriters. It went where it will be enjoyed.