First computer!

**Nicky** · Sep 25, 2000 15:12

Peter - I too have a ZX81. People, you should really come round my house and play on my Specccie, those of you whose first computer was a PC don't know what you are missing!
We can program Hangman in Basic (first time took me about 2 days to type the **** program in!). And we can play Rambo and save the prisoners.
Adam, I used to do the colors too. you just specified a few lines of Basic and then specified:

40 GOTO 10

OK let me see if I remember!

5 REM Hangman
10 REM set up screen
20 INK 0:PAPER 7:CLS
30 LET x=240: GO SUB 1000: REM draw man
40 PLOT 238,128: DRAW 4,0: REM mouth
1000 REM set up word
110 INPUT w$: REM word to guess
120 Let b=LEN w$:LET v$=" "

...and so forth

**mjames** · Sep 25, 2000 15:35

Originally posted by jumpthru
Ours was a Mac with 16 megabites of ram, and a top of the line 28.8 modem. Top of line, oh yea.

Hey, I STILL only connect at 28.8K... so...

**Chicken** · Sep 25, 2000 16:42

Originally posted by mjames86
I STILL only connect at 28.8K... so...

Shall we take up a donation pool to get him a $5 56K modem? I'm in for 50 cents... anyone?

**wdmny** · Sep 25, 2000 17:15

Technically, my first computer was a used C64. Not long after aquiring(sp?) this computer we got a top of the line Pentium I(ooooh!) with 100mhz(ahhh!), a super fast 14.4 modem, and Windows 95(wow!). After getting a 400mhz IBM, I upgraded the RAM to 32 and put FreeBSD on it. Now, it runs faster than ever! Well, that's all kind of off topic...

**anton_r** · Sep 25, 2000 17:58

My first computer was Spectrum 48k , than we upgrded to spectrum 128k .... it was cool computer

.... but took too long to load games

...and we actually used our stereo system , to load games ;-)

**Aidan Bahta** · Sep 25, 2000 18:28

Originally posted by Chicken

Originally posted by mjames86
I STILL only connect at 28.8K... so...

Shall we take up a donation pool to get him a $5 56K modem? I'm in for 50 cents... anyone?

Actually, I think he has the same problem I do. I have a brand new 56K modem, but due to poor wiring, I can't connect to the Internet over 26.4k. And I have tried many many ISPs (MSN, AOL, iConnect, Microav, NetZero, 1stUp, WhiteHorse and a few others).

**JRS385** · Sep 25, 2000 18:47

Originally posted by Justin S
I think my first computer was a 1988 (or 86?) Apple Macintosh with a 3 1/2 floppy drive, tiny black and white screen, and like a 25MB HD with 4MB Ram. I think those were the specifications...

Was it black and white, or Black and Green?

My first computer is sitting on floor in pieces after I was trying to get my favorite game off it (Rogue - it's a really cool, ancient game). It's Northgate 286 (well..I think it's northgate) with a couple megs of hard drive space, 5 1/4 and 3 1/5 inch floppy drives. It runs DOS, and I've been using it since I was three. Then we got a 486, then a compaq 200mhz, then a compaq 700 mhz. My parents seem to like compaq, but my dad just realized that they aren't that great. Just realized it - lol - don't listen to me...I don't know that much about computers.

John

**jumpthru** · Sep 25, 2000 20:50

Originally posted by anti_alias
(My dad) I had an 8086, 4.17mHz, 51/2 Disk drive, Tape drive, Color monitor, DR DOS (later upgraded to MSDOS 3.11)...
All the mod cons..
We also added a 20mb hdd.. and we were never short of space.
The latest thing we got to run was windows 2.0 before we sold it..

I didn't know there was a windows 2.0. I thought 3.1 was the first...hmm.

**mjames** · Sep 26, 2000 16:25

Originally posted by abahta

Originally posted by Chicken

Originally posted by mjames86
I STILL only connect at 28.8K... so...

Shall we take up a donation pool to get him a $5 56K modem? I'm in for 50 cents... anyone?

Actually, I think he has the same problem I do. I have a brand new 56K modem, but due to poor wiring, I can't connect to the Internet over 26.4k. And I have tried many many ISPs (MSN, AOL, iConnect, Microav, NetZero, 1stUp, WhiteHorse and a few others).

Exactly, Aidan.

**Chicken** · Sep 26, 2000 21:32

AHhh, interesting (in a, "I'm sorry for you" way). How much is new wiring gonna cost us?

**Hierophant** · Sep 26, 2000 22:27

Originally posted by Chicken
AHhh, interesting (in a, "I'm sorry for you" way). How much is new wiring gonna cost us?

Most phone companies, in the United States, will say that if you are connecting at a speed over 14,400 K that they won't help you. It seems the FTC requires them to provide a maximum speed of 14,400K and if you get better your lucky.

Of course they will always rewire for a fee. Pacific Bell quoted my mother a fee of $8 a foot, if my parents dug the trench. It would have cost my parents $800 dollars for rewiring. They are stuck with 26,400 to 31,200 until DSL or Cable is available in their neighborhood.

Ten years ago, GTE (Now Verizon), charged my father-in-law $12 a foot to lay phone cable after he dug the ditch.

If the phone company has to dig the trench then it will of course cost more. $24 a foot for Pacific Bell is what my mother was told after she stated that they were physically unable to dig the trench.

**PeterW** · Sep 27, 2000 11:16

I didn't know there was a windows 2.0. I thought 3.1 was the first...hmm.

lol.. there was a windows 1.0), windows 2.0, windows 3.0...
windows 3.1 was only in 1991..

**Chicken** · Sep 27, 2000 11:20

Originally posted by wluke
edited to save space, but you know what you said

Damnnnnnn. If I had more money than I knew what to do with, I'd cut you a check. But alas, I don't. That really bites the big one.

**Michel V** · Sep 29, 2000 06:35

Justin S you must be talking of the wonderful macintosh of 1986 to 88.
I still type my diary on the most evoluted model, the Mac SE/30. It has a small black&white screen (no, no grayscale, really only 2 colors: a true black & white), a 40 Mo harddrive, and a 1.44 Mo floppy disk drive (wow that was enormous).
There's a cheat code that will show you a photos of the development team, i'll tell you about it if you want.

**jumpthru** · Sep 29, 2000 08:17

Hey what is it?

**Chicken** · Sep 30, 2000 21:23

Not sure how many of you owned the Atari 2600 video game unit (not a computer exatly, but...). There is an interesting shot of one of the first Atari 2600 game units at: http://www.atari-history.com/videogames/proto2600.html

Ohh, and these remote control joysticks (I remember them, but I never owned a set

) : http://www.atari-history.com/2600rc.html

enjoy old timers

**Michel V** · Oct 1, 2000 03:42

For christmas '89, Mom let me choose between an Atari 2600 and a Nintendo NES. I choose the NES, but knew kids who chose the Atari. But in '89 it was already so out-dated ...

About the Mac SE cheat, i'm still searching for the right link, i had it somewhere.

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