Your first computer?

[purplehairedwonder]

I used a family computer (and don't ask me what it was; all I know is that it was a desktop using Windows 98, though that probably upgraded at some point) until I graduated from high school in 2006. My graduation gift was a Dell Inspiron B130 that my dad picked out for me. I used that thing all the way through undergrad. I loved it at first, but I was so sick of it by the time I graduated undergrad because it was slow and the cord/charging port was busted. I got to pick out a laptop (up to a certain point) for my college graduation gift and picked out an HP Pavilion dv4i series laptop, which I'm using now and absolutely love.

 

[GWOtaku]

The first I ever got for myself was a Dell Inspiron 8200, a laptop model I paid for with my own money. It's over 8 years old now and I've still got it. Good for simple things when I'm traveling, but the disc drive often has problems playing DVD's now and the battery is in such awful condition that leaving the machine unplugged for fifteen minutes drains it. But hey, it mostly works.

 

[Manga4life]

The first I ever got for myself was a Dell Inspiron 8200, a laptop model I paid for with my own money. It's over 8 years old now and I've still got it. Good for simple things when I'm traveling, but the disc drive often has problems playing DVD's now and the battery is in such awful condition that leaving the machine unplugged for fifteen minutes drains it. But hey, it mostly works.

I've noticed that with a laptop battery it's best to keep it plugged in only when you need to charge it and that leaving the charger plugged in while the battery is fully charged can kill it's life, but a battery is only good for a laptop for a few years anyway before it starts to die naturally, especially if it is subject to heavy usage.

 

[Temple Fugate]

If we're also talking about the first computer the family ever owned, mine was a Tandy 1000 running DOS. I've got a lot of fond memories of that, playing super-pixelated games of Wheel of Fortune, The Black Cauldron, some Mickey Mouse space adventure, and the awesome Midnight Rescue.

We eventually donated the computer to our elementary school when my dad bought our first Windows (3.1) computer in 1992. The tower was a meter tall! Those were the days.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

Macintosh Performa 575. I still have it actually, though it's not good for anything except being a glorified CD player and notepad now.

 

[KarlOlson]

Radio Shack TRS80, though the first one to really get used was a 486DX66 IBM Clone from a local computer builder with a 300MB HD. First one that solely mine (as opposed to a family computer) was a 500mhz Celeron with a staggering 8GB hard drive. Produced a lot of music on that. From there, I started to fully build my own, except for notebooks/netbooks.

 

[tucsoncoyote]

The first 3 I hae...

You want to see Old? I got your old right hre

First up, it was 1979 (yes some 21 years ago), when I got my first machine, and you want to talk archaic? We're talking not even a hard drive or a floppy... But ratehr.. a casette tape storage device.

Doctor Weird: Gentlemen, behold! The future!:

​

That's right, an Old Tandy TRS-80 (Model 4).. Mine wasn't that expensive (Maybe 1000 bucks.) but no floppies, no hard drive.. just the caseete player and the casettes to go with it..

But less than 2 years later, I upgraded, and in this case I decided to get away from Tandy (and their badly designed computers, and move onto another company..

And this time... I went with Gary Wozniak, and Steve Job's little creation:

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Yep the Apple IIe model.. and this one was more expensive than the first, coming in at around 2300 bucks! (And yeah I had to take out a loan to get this one...

But within another 2 years I was already obsolete... and I stuck wtih apple, and this time, I got me:

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The Apple IIc, you could say my first college laptop... and granted it was also worth another 2000 bucks.. talk about expensive..

But it wasn't until 1992 or so that I went with an IBM XT, followed by a 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium 2 Pentium 4, an AMD athlon and now oIm on an Athlon Duo core machine.. but is it the end of the line for me? Hardly..

My next machine is already on the drawing board... and this time, it's an AMD Athlon Quad core with a mother board that is so forward compatible, I could put a six core into it..and with 8 Megs of ram, 2 TB hard drives, and even a Radeon 4580 1 GB video card, this one is going to make the first one's look horrendously expenive..

The price? Just under 1000 bucks.. for this next one.. I expect it to be ready by say July of next year..

But yeah I've live a good long life to have a slew of computers..

and when I finally go, I probably be close to the top of the line..

Ah those were the days... good times, good times indeed..


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[JShaggy]

My first computer: An IBM PCjr. Don't remember doing much with it (considering a squirrel damaged the CPU drive). Even so, I didn't realize how crappy they were.

I'll be one to say that I too had experiences with Commodore computers when I was in grade school (the old montessori school I attended had lots of old Commodores and one Mac). I still remember the blue input screens from those days.

 

[Light Lucario]

The first computer I ever owned was a Mac Powerbook laptop. I'm not sure what kind it was, other than it was made in 2000. I think that too much dust and hair got inside of it, which eventually lead to it crashing at times. It was a used laptop too. When my older brother took a look at it, he said it was pretty much done for. But now he gave me his old lap top, which I think is the same kind of Powerbook I had, and put in my hard drive for me.

As for the first computer I used, I know it was an Apple since there's only been Mac-based computers in my house. I think I only started using a computer when I was around twelve for Internet searches, forums and school work and that lasted until I got my own laptop.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Like Tucson, my first was a TRS-80, only a Color Computer 2 model. It used our TV as its monitor and was almost completely useless except for the 2 cartridge games we had for it. Later replaced by an Apple II, which I used until.....1999, truthfully. Apple IIs rock, that's why.

 

[Harmonie]

My first computer (that was solely mine) was an Windows XP desktop back in fall of 2004. My grandpa decided to buy it for me for high school work, and it wasn't the best computer ever but it did its job and was still working when I got my new one for this last Christmas.

It was pretty good back in its day. Not the best, but that was okay, I've never needed the best. I don't play those games that require major graphics.

Now for the first in my family, I'm not 100% sure. Our first real computer may have been an iMac back in 2000. If we had any before that I really don't remember them, i was too young. That computer was a disaster and shifted my family straight towards PCs. After having my laptop, I'm convinced that the Mac wasn't actually a disaster. At least it didn't stop working three months after we got it. -_-

 

[Mario500]

My first personal computer was a VTech I. Q. Unlimited Computer, which was built on June 24th, 1994 (the system was copyrighted in 1991). It was connected to a TV set and had a game in which words and letters slowly fell down the screen and the player had to type as many of the words and single letters as possible before they reach the bottom and make holes. If a letter or word were to fall down a hole at the very bottom of the screen, the game would end. This was not the first computer I had ever used, as I was given the chance to type on a school computer along with members of my first grade class. The VTech computer now sits on a shelf after not being used for more than 10 years.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

My first personal computer was a VTech I. Q. Unlimited Computer, which was built on June 24th, 1994 (the system was copyrighted in 1991). It was connected to a TV set and had a game in which words and letters slowly fell down the screen and the player had to type as many of the words and single letters as possible before they reach the bottom and make holes. If a letter or word were to fall down a hole at the very bottom of the screen, the game would end. This was not the first computer I had ever used, as I was given the chance to type on a school computer along with members of my first grade class. The VTech computer now sits on a shelf after not being used for more than 10 years.

I was just thinking I might have to restate my first computer. Before my Mac, I also had this thing. I wrote a few papers, literary and research, on this thing.

 

[mumbo]

The first computer my family owned was a Pentium II with Windows 95 on it. We had it for six years and boy was that thing useless toward the end. Before that we used an electronic typewriter, which you could actually erase letters with!

The first computer I used though was in elementary school, we had some ancient Apples. Like, most of them only had 5-inch floppy drives, while a few fancy ones had 3.5-inch.

I remember to play Carmen Sandiego, you had to put in Disk 1, type some things, then switch to Disk 2, type some things, then Disk 1 again, and type some more things. Ah, ancient games, like Cross Country Canada, Oregon Trail, Odell Lake...

 

[purplehairedwonder]

Before that we used an electronic typewriter, which you could actually erase letters with!

We had one of those. I pretty much thought it was the coolest thing ever when I was younger. I think it's still in my mom's house somewhere needing a part or something.

 

[Sparticus]

If we're also talking about the first computer the family ever owned, mine was a Tandy 1000 running DOS. I've got a lot of fond memories of that, playing super-pixelated games of Wheel of Fortune, The Black Cauldron, some Mickey Mouse space adventure, and the awesome Midnight Rescue.

A Tandy! That's what the dinosaur was. And I loooooved Midnight Rescue! Played it whenever my Dad wasn't around to hog the computer. XD

 

[J!!!]

My first computer was a IBM that had Windows XP, it was easily modifiable so we always upgraded it with the latest cool stuff. I still have it but I've moved on to bigger and better things (AKA Windows 7 Emachine)

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

Wait, if you're talking toy computers now, I had this, the Computron.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/1382805241/sizes/o/

It was a pretty extravagant toy for 1986 and my aunt and uncle got it for me for Christmas. It played some simple math and spelling games on a red LCD screen and took six C batteries and did not connect to a TV. I still thought it was awesome, but my little brother broke it later on Christmas eve by pushing the keys on its membrane keyboard with the point of an ink pen, for, some reason. It seemed like it took Sears forever to fix it. There was a talking version you can see in the ad, too, which I remember playing with but am fuzzy on whether I got it the next year for Christmas or my friends did.

 

[Kevin]

My first computer was a Compaq Persario 9234. I remember it having Windows 95, Intel Pentium Processer at 133 Mhz, 1.50 GB of disk space, and 16 GB of RAM. Amazingly enough, it lasted for over 10 years, and was still running when we donated it since we had a newer computer at the time and didn't need it anymore.

 

[cognitofalcon]

I am a tad younger than the rest of you it would seem. My first computer, that was...mine was a Dell Latitude 2003 C10, I think it was C10, not sure. The first family computer was a custom built Windows 95 machine. It was absolutely enormous.