# What was the first computer you used?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 6, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078 "2004-01-06T20:47:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/1 "2004-01-06T20:47:57Z")
Research Machines 480Z…I still remember the joy of discovering the dual graphic/text mode (gave you four lines of text underneath and independent of the graphics 😃 😃 )
[http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=600](http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=600)
Oh dear, even reading the specs makes me tearful…
BTW, post your date of birth…1980, so I’m only two years younger than the computer in question 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Vlad\_Dracul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Dracul)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/2 "2004-01-06T20:56:54Z")
A Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer. I’m pretty sure my parents still have it in the attic.
I think it was made in 1981. I was made in 1970.
---
### Author:  [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/3 "2004-01-06T20:58:12Z")
Oh my… my then-boyfriend’s Apple IIe, with the gigantic 3 x 4 inch screen! At least, that was probably the first use of a computer as a computer. I had Atari when I was a kid.
I think. It’s been a loooooooong time…
I was born in 1967.
---
### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/4 "2004-01-06T21:14:41Z")
That would be an HP printer terminal in a wiring closet of Madeira Beach Middle School in Madeira Beach Florida, connected via a 300 baud modem to a mainframe at the city hall or school headquarters or some such…
My principal usage of that machine was learning BASIC so I could modify the source code of [“Super Star Trek”](http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/star_trek.html) to make the game even more super… all at the age of 12. Of course, I played the game frequently, too.
It sounds nonproductive, but it taught me the basics of computer file and I/O systems, I learned the BASIC language by its example, and it even taught me some basic trigonometry (the aiming system).
Ahh… the early mystery of one’s first computer, and the thrill of exploring the code. Boy has that been ruined by OOP and Windows… so many youngsters these days become “1337 haxors” without ever cracking open a source module!
---
### Author:  [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/5 "2004-01-06T21:19:08Z")
Commadore 64 baby! in 1987 give or take.
Learned BASIC on that thing. I didn’t own it though, it was my friend’s.
My own personal computer was a 486 sx 25 with 14" monitor and 100 meg HD…4 megs of ram and a 256k videocard (trident). That was around 1992.
I was born 1978
---
### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/6 "2004-01-06T21:24:00Z")
First I really saw in use was an Atari … 800? It was a slightly beefed-up video game machine. It used CASETTE TAPES to save and read programs. Wild stuff. Took like 20 minutes to load a program.
Then our neighbors got an Apple II+, my parents grew envious and worried, and we got a rockin’ Apple IIe, with the expanded 80 column card. Awesome. If only we had owned a second disk drive … or a color screen. I still remember that green.
---
### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/7 "2004-01-06T21:26:54Z")
Oh–1974. The computers had to have been around 1982-3?
---
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/8 "2004-01-06T21:36:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by toadspittle \*
> \*\*Oh–1974. The computers had to have been around 1982-3? \*\*
LOL no, but don’t forget to post your DOB 😉 😛
---
### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/9 "2004-01-06T21:42:42Z")
First computer used: TRS-80 Model II, playing _Star Trek_ in the Electrical Shop teacher’s class. Eventually taught myself TRS-80 BASIC overnight when the school first unveiled an “Intro to Computers” class, and slept for the entire semester. 🙂
First computer owned: Atari 800, with 48K of RAM. That baby had _color!_ And _sound!_ Woo-hoo!
---
### Author:  [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/10 "2004-01-06T21:45:37Z")
I think it was an IBM PC/AT - circa 1983. It actually had a hard drive!
---
### Author:  [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/11 "2004-01-06T22:02:30Z")
I had a Vic 20
Pokes and Peeks, baby!
I really wanted one of those miniature Texas instruments home computers that were only $99. Glad I got the Vic instead. School had a few Radio Shack TRS somputer consoles in our brand new computer lab…groovy!
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/12 "2004-01-06T22:04:50Z")
PDP-1170, around 1980 or 1981.
As for my age, I’m older than 14, and younger than 89-1/2.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/13 "2004-01-06T22:21:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Vlad Dracul \*
> \*\*A Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer. I’m pretty sure my parents still have it in the attic.
>
> I think it was made in 1981. I was made in 1970. \*\*
Ahhh…the hours (yes, hours) of typing in a program in BASIC only to not be able to save to the cassette drive. and losing it.
Those were the days.
---
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/14 "2004-01-06T22:35:23Z")
I’m with Devilsknew – Vic 20 for me. My fond memories of it:
1. Programming it to flash random border and screen colors, programming it to make noises like a hideous piano, and programming it (never successfully) to run a little goblin-based game.
2. Recording my programs on regular cassette tapes, on the cassette-tape drive that came with it.
3. My exhiliration the first time I used an Apple IIe and discovered that computers could have **lower-case letters**.
Born in 1974; I think I was eight or nine when we got the Vic 20.
Daniel
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/15 "2004-01-06T23:02:10Z")
LGP 21, manual on line [here](http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/lgp-21-prog-man.html).
This was in 1968, when I was in high school. The LGP-21 was old then, coming out in 1962 or so. It had a 4 K rotating memory of 32 bit words, about 16 instructions, no interupts and no ASCII. (Its predecessor, the LGP-30, came out around 1956.) No assembler either - the first assembler I used I wrote myself. No punch cards - paper tape and a Friden Flexiwriter as the input terminal.
---
### Author:  [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/16 "2004-01-06T23:08:10Z")
Apple II.
16 years old. (I am)
---
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/17 "2004-01-06T23:15:36Z")
I was born in '54. First computer class I took was in 1973. It was a FORTRAN IV programming class. We punched cards. I can’t remember what kind of computer it was, but I was so pleased when my programs worked!
First one we bought for home use was a Commodore 64. That was in the mid 80s, I think.
---
### Author:  [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/18 "2004-01-06T23:23:21Z")
Apple IIe circa 1983, followed by the all-powerful Amiga 1000 a few years later. YOB 1974.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/19 "2004-01-06T23:29:53Z")
I’m so glad to be the first to post this:
WANG!! 😃 😉 :eek:
Stored the “program”, which was in Basic, on a cassette tape. Not very powerful, but us junior high kids really liked to finger and play with our WANGs.
* * *
Frostee Rucker? Sounds like a nice ice-cream treat. You might very well ask, “I’ll have a Frostee Rucker, please.” Of course, you’ll want to hold the nuts.
---
### Author:  [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078/20 "2004-01-06T23:32:25Z")
Mac Plus circa 1986. I was born in 1984. Man, times have changed…
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-computer-you-used/223078.md?page=2)