What was the first computer you owned?

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What was the first computer you owned? - zeno333 - 12-19-2017 07:31 AM

Mine was an Apple IIC bought in 1985.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - grsbanks - 12-19-2017 08:03 AM

Worked on numerous machines before this but the first one that I actually owned outright was a Sinclair ZX-Spectrum 48k back in late '83 or early '84.

That machine taught me a hell of a lot and I've been thinking about buying another one off TAS for the sake of nostalgia. One of the first things I did on that machine was write a disassembler to disassemble the ROM. I then went through that with a fine-toothed comb to remove any disk I/O routines because I knew I'd never own a disk drive for it, use the space freed up to improve on the 40-bit "precision" (I use that term loosely) of floating point calculations, and modify the cassette tape I/O to accelerate it by about 3x.

I then proceeded to write an assembler in BASIC. I used it to assemble the guts of another assembler written in assembly language and then used that to finish the job, burn an EEPROM with my modified ROM end up with a highly customised "speccy".

Those were the days *sigh* Smile

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - HrastProgrammer - 12-19-2017 08:07 AM

ZX Spectrum 48K in 1984.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Maximilian Hohmann - 12-19-2017 08:20 AM

Sinclair ZX-81. The solder-it-yourself kit version. With lots of modifications and extensions, most of them self made. Unfortunately lost while moving house long ago.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Didier Lachieze - 12-19-2017 08:26 AM

A Nascom 1 kit that I built myself in 1979, I learned a lot with this computer.

If you're interested in the history of these early computers, see: UK micro pioneer Chris Shelton: The mind behind the Nascom-1 ...and Clive Sinclair's PgC Intel-beating wonder chip

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - AlexFekken - 12-19-2017 08:55 AM

HP-67 :-)

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Thomas Radtke - 12-19-2017 09:30 AM

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k.

Recently bought a Recreated Spectrum as keyboard for Fuse :-).

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Arno K - 12-19-2017 09:34 AM

Seems like the Specci was used a lot, me, too.
Arno

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Massimo Gnerucci - 12-19-2017 10:04 AM

HP 41C, 1979 :)
Oh well, several Apple ][s (1980-84) but *fully* mine first was an Apple //e, 1984.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Garth Wilson - 12-19-2017 10:05 AM

Which one was my first is kind of foggy, as it was a progression. My first programmable was a TI-58c calculator, followed by the 59, then I think the Timex Sinclair 1000 computer which I bought for $25 but quickly realized it was pretty useless. Next was a home-made 6502 computer, but although it worked, it was pretty useless too (because of my lack of experience). Next came the HP-41cx, then the HP-71B, then a '286 PC which I never did any programming on, followed by my home-made workbench computer which I've been using for 24 years to control experiments and take data on the workbench, program microcontrollers, etc..

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Gamo - 12-19-2017 10:29 AM

IBM PS/1 with DOS, Windows 3.11
No CD-ROM Drive
No Sound Card
No Modem

Do an add-on later for all that when multi-media just start with macro media and flash.

Gamo

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - jthole - 12-19-2017 10:30 AM

The first I owned myself? That was very late, and was a 386 pc running Slackware Linux. Before that, I only had a terminal and a modem, and dialled in at work. Technically I also owned an Atari 1040ST, but I didn't pay for it (my parents did Wink

). The first computer I actually wrote a program for was the ZX-81 that our math teacher had in class.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Pekis - 12-19-2017 01:13 PM

Hello,
ZX81 (with 16K extension) and Spectrum 48K.

@grsbanks: I'm sure you enjoyed this book from 1983, which showed how tricky Smile

the spectrum Rom code could be : The Complete Spectrum Rom Disassembly

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Dave Britten - 12-19-2017 01:49 PM

A Vic-20 that my dad bought when I was about 2 or 3 years old (so around 1985, give or take). I still have it, it still works, and I still enjoy hooking it up now and then and playing the really great arcade conversions that Atarisoft did. (If anybody's got Robotron or Galaxian cartridges for sale, let me know!)

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - grsbanks - 12-19-2017 01:59 PM

(12-19-2017 01:13 PM)Pekis Wrote: @grsbanks: I'm sure you enjoyed this book from 1983, which showed how tricky the spectrum Rom code could be : The Complete Spectrum Rom Disassembly

Thanks for the pointer. I didn't know about that book but I agree that it was an absolute pig digging into the guts of the floating point stuff.

In 1984, I was living in France in a rural area where most of the older folk didn't even speak French (only the local patois), not everyone had running water in the home and the telephone was a new-fangled gadget treated with suspicion. I had to buy the Speccy in the UK and import it because nobody in France had heard of it. I had because I had only moved to France a matter of months before. In other words, I was on my own!

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - smp - 12-19-2017 03:25 PM

Altair 8800. 1976.

I convinced my wife that this would be the last electronic project that I would ever have to purchase, because it's a computer, so after it's running, I can play around with programming to my heart's content. I purchased the kit, built it up, and then discovered that MITS did not include any memory in the original kit! That meant another conversation with my wife, to explain why I had to get another kit, even though I already had the last one that I'd ever need! Big Grin

smp

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Dave Frederickson - 12-19-2017 04:00 PM

SWTPC 6800 in '76. Assembled it myself (in Iceland!).

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Guenter Schink - 12-19-2017 04:23 PM

Schneider (Amstrad) CPC 464 for Xmas 1984. That was a rather complete set with built in tape recorder and a green monitor.

At that time I was on a training course for assembler on Siemens BS2000 system. Good opportunity to have something in my free time to play with.

Günter

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - Maximilian Hohmann - 12-19-2017 05:16 PM

(12-19-2017 04:23 PM)Guenter Schink Wrote: Schneider (Amstrad) CPC 464[/url] for Xmas 1984. That was a rather complete set with built in tape recorder and a green monitor.

That was my second computer after the ZX81. But I had it with the colour monitor. And later I added two floppy drives (of the rare and unusual 3" format) and a third party extension board which among other things had some CP/M (which came as operating system with the floppy drives) programs in EPROMS like WordStar and VisiCalc. I wrote my diploma thesis on that and printed it out on a borrowed needle printer... On that computer I also wrote a program to keep my flight log and used it for about my first 1000 hours.

RE: What was the first computer you owned? - John Keith - 12-19-2017 05:33 PM

First "computer", a home-made 1802 board with one whole K of RAM. All hand soldered and wire-wrapped. First "real" computer was a Sinclair ZX-81 (apparently I'm not alone here :-) with the notoriously wobbly 16K RAM pack which would crash the computer if jostled. Then the HP-71B, followed by an endless succession of PC's.

John