# What was your first computer? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2010, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660 "2010-02-04T09:48:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/81 "2010-02-04T23:50:10Z")
A [Dragon 32](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_32) (without any of the fancy equipment save a joystick) and a [ZX Spectrum+](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ZX_Spectrum_48K#ZX_Spectrum.2B), which really does sound like a 1970s idea of a model name from the future 😃 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/82 "2010-02-04T23:59:50Z")
First computer was a VIC20. First PC was a Tandy PC clone, 486 SX 25 MHz, 1 MB RAM, 110 MB HD. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/83 "2010-02-05T00:34:00Z")
The one and only: OSBORNE 1 !!! Z80 running CP/M 2 (count em !) 5.25" floppy drives (whopping) 64 K RAM . . . . and built-in 3" CRT. Still have it, still believe it runs. (Warmed my heart to see one in the Smithsonian some years ago) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/84 "2010-02-05T00:43:33Z")
1988 Vendex Headstart Turbo 888-XT, with 20 meg hard drive, running an 8088, with two 5 1/4 floppy drives, running at up to 8 MHz. Endorsed by pro wrestler “King Kong” Bundy! It used DOS 3.0, IIRC. Damn, I was a command line warrior back then! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/85 "2010-02-05T00:56:19Z")
The one I learned to program on -[LGP-21](http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/lgp-21-prog-man.html). 4K of rotating memory, one accumulator, did not implement ASCII. No assembler on the one in my high school until I wrote one myself. The first one I owned was a C64, but I had used a dozen at least by then. When I went to the Computer Museum in Mountain View I had intimate knowledge of way too many of their exhibits. When I retire I’m going to volunteer to help program their PDP-1, which I used for my undergrad assembler class - the very one at MIT where Spacewar was invented. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/86 "2010-02-05T01:53:37Z")
Depends on the acception of “your”. The first computer ever in our household was a swanky 8086 “laptop”, no hard drive, monochrome orange screen built into the case. It looked like a big oscilloscope, with a hinged keyboard. And it played Zaxxon and Digger. It was stonking great. The first PC I actually owned and paid for myself was a Dell Pentium 90. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/87 "2010-02-05T02:23:39Z")
The first I used was an Apple //e. The first I owned myself was a Mac SE/30 which was a hand-me-down and was quite old when I got it. The first I bought myself was an eMac. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/88 "2010-02-05T03:29:27Z")
First computer(s) used; Friend’s Commodore VIC-20 with cassette drive School lab; Apple IIe, Apple IIc, TRS-80 Model 1, Model 3, and Color Computer (CoCo), Apple Macintosh 128K Parents purchased; Commodore 64, Apple Macintosh Performa 600CD (33Mhz Motorola 68030 IIVx without math coprocessor) Purchased by me; PowerMac 7100/66 ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/89 "2010-02-05T03:31:00Z")
A commodore Amiga 500. We still have it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/90 "2010-02-05T04:44:55Z")
My parents cashed in their 401k to buy a Leading Edge (I think it was Model D) with the amber monochrome monitor. For some reason, everyone thought amber was soooo much better than green monochrome. Real classy like. I still remember having to boot up DOS every time you turned it on. It was a big deal when some computer geek my sister was dating gave us a RBG monitor. It was like coming out of the dark ages. EDIT: Looking at Wikipedia, I remember we had the dual floppy disk drives. “The floppy disk model had two 360 KB drives, so that the user could run MS-DOS programs on the primary drive and work with files on the secondary drive.” Good times! ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/91 "2010-02-05T05:20:58Z")
The first I used was an early Apple in junior high (about 1982). The first we got at home was a TRS-80 with a cassette and a dot matrix printer with a 3-4 inch wide paper strip. The funny thing is, just about a week ago my mom handed me a bunch of papers with some programs I had written in BASIC in 1983. Apparently she found them in the basement somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/92 "2010-02-05T06:31:20Z")
Our first family computer was an IBM PCjr. What a hunk of junk. It was in the shop every other week for repairs. We played endless hours of Jumpman on it though. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/93 "2010-02-05T06:37:45Z")
TRS-80 Model III. 48k RAM, two 5 1/4" disk drives. Taught myself BASIC on that machine, with some tutorial programs, when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/94 "2010-02-05T18:40:10Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Depends on the acception of “your”. > > … > > The first PC I actually owned and paid for myself was a Dell Pentium 90. By that definition the first _I_ owned was an anonymous P100. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/95 "2010-02-05T19:46:04Z")
Mine was a PCjr. Complete with cartridge slots for stuff like BASIC. And the infrared remote half-keyboard that needed new AA batteries all the time. I never did get the stinking 10MB hard-drive attachment that mounted on the top and side. Held onto it long after my friends all had 486’s or even Pentiums. I think my sister still has it. Og knows if it works. (I also had a Timex Sinclair 1000, with 16KB expansion memory pack and cassette tape drive. The less said about that one, the better.) ---
**Author:** ![BCHH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/53a042/32.png) [@BCHH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BCHH)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/96 "2010-02-05T19:53:33Z")
My school had an Apple II when I was in sixth grade ('79 or '80), but only a handful of students were allowed to use it, chosen by teachers. I was not among those chosen. I was able to play with one in middle school once or twice though (Swashbuckler). Our family got a VIC-20 for Christmas in about '81 or '82. We had a tape drive and a six-pack of games for it on cassette. I bought my first PC from the owner of the hardware store I worked at, it was a 286 (HP maybe) with 256KB of memory, 40MB HDD, 3 1/2" & 5 1/4" floppy drives and a color monitor. I eventually added a 1200 baud modem and a Prodigy account. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/97 "2010-02-06T00:01:19Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > We had a Tandy 1000, with 128k of memory (I think). It had two 5.25" drives and that was it. Up until a few years ago my mother still had it and I believe it still worked. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > That was the first computer I, personally owned—I used it in college. It’s been years since the last time I turned it on, but it might still work—but only if one of my floppy boot disks is still readable. The Tandy 1000 was essentially a clone of the (original) IBM PC, but with the better graphics capabilities of the PCjr (you could display graphics in 16 colors at once, rather than just four!). AFAIK, I bought the very last Tandy 1000–a 1000 RL on clearance–sold by Radio Shack in northern Virginia. It was what the PCjr should have been. I was in 8th Grade when my school finally got computers, the last one in the district to do so. The district went with Apple II; I think e. We didn’t have a computer at home until four years later when Dad bought a Commodore 64 system. Ostensibly for him to use as a word processor but we could never get it to work with the electric typewriter that was supposed to double as a printer. The monitor died years ago but I still have the rest, even though two of the keys are missing. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/98 "2010-02-06T00:47:49Z")
First one I ever used was a Commodore PET - the early one with the chiclet keyboard and that horrible futuristic font on the keys. First one we owned was a Timex Sinclair ZX81 that my dad and I soldered together from a kit. It had that awesome flat-panel keyboard with five (!) functions per key. Real joy to type on. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/99 "2010-02-06T00:59:25Z")
My life in machinery: TRS 80 Model II - learned BASIC on it. IBM AT - first modem connected machine. Macintosh 128 - found that you could DO things with computers! Apple ][c at school - learned PASCAL WYSE terminal hooked up to the Tragedies (mainframes at school) - learned LISP and Prolog Mac SE / SE30 / II Ci - carried me through school as I ran away from programming. Now - just a series of different PC laptops as I make my money telling others what to do. I miss the joy of those first 3 machines - truly discovering new things to do, rather than just incremental changes. I did not return to that discovery feel until I picked up my first iPhone - something truly new and different. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660/100 "2010-02-06T01:43:23Z")
The first one I used (at elementary school) was a TRS-80, quickly followed but various macs at school. First one at home was a mac. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer/527660.md?page=6)