www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Does this bring back memories

It is hard to believe the medium and way we communicate so much now a days is the computer. My first computer was an Apple IIc. Does this link bring back memories?

CNN Story [cnn.com]

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father bless!

That ol' Commodore 64 was my first.. could never really figure out if it was loading or stalling..

Most of my friends had a commodore 64. I however, had a TI-99-4A by Texas Instruments. If memory serves I got it because it was the featured computer at Radio Shack at the time. Never got a floppy drive cuz it was over $900.00! Used a standard audio cassette recorder instead.

How did the audio cassette link to the PC, and how did you save anything?

My first computer was an Amstrad.

Fr. Serge

Fr. Serge,

I'm unfamiliar with that particular computer. Did it look anything like this and have vacuum tubes?
[Linked Image]

or was it it like this one?

[Linked Image]
or this one?
[Linked Image]

I came late in the game, my first computer was an XT. I knew all of the DOS commands by the time I was eight.

Terry

Gosh it's been 25 years since I played with that thing! But it seems like it plugged in with a mini headphone jack. I would key in the program in basic and then turn on the recorder and hit save.

The girl next door, no I didn't marry her also had a TI-99-4A and recorded her stuff the same way. We would put a bunch of gobbledegook on cassettes and exchange and oooo and ahhh over each other programming prowess. It was just a bunch of random sounds and colors that would flash accross the screen! LOL but hey, we thought we were ahem, scientists.

I bought my first REAL pc in 1987. It was the original IBM PC. They had just come out with the second model and I bought the original at a bargain price of $500.00. A huge piece of metal and black plastic and ugly as sin. I had an orange monochrome monitor and a hercules graphics card and 2, yes TWO 5 1/4 inch floppy drives. I believe I had 2mb of memory and a 40mb hard drive. It had the original version of Microsoft DOS that came with a gigantic hardback manual. Seems like it was over 1000 pages. The only significant project I ever completed on that computer was keying in and categorizing every verse from the book of Proverbs for a school assignment. I finished the project the night before it was due but the printer decided not to work and I couldnt get it printed out. Two days later I was able to hand it in and got a B because it was late.

Jason,

Remember all the old DOS commands? I do! After my Apple IIc, I got an old IBM computer, I believe also an original PC (second hand of course). I remember the old DOS 1.2 program, and the double 5 1/4 floppy drives. I also remember my first modem was an external box, and was state of the art at 2400bps. I also remember the introduction in late 1991 of Windows 3.0 and getting a copy of MS Word 2.0. I was with a PC until last year when I returned to Macs. I just did not want to face VISTA, and my work required more of a creative edge that a PC just could not give.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father bless!

I remember a few of the DOS commands but not too many. I also remember Windows 3.0. Instead of Windows I upgraded to another brand of computer with a propriatary OS. I'm trying to remember the name but it escapes me. What sold me on the computer was that it had a CD drive and color VGA graphics! LOL that CD drive had a cassette you put the cd in and then slid the whole thing into the front of the drive. And talk about slow! It took forever to load anything. But man, that was cutting edge. I even looked into cd writers but at the 1 and 2 thousand dollar mark they were out of my budget. For that matter, software on CD was incredibly expensive too. Stuff like book collections that today sell for 15 or 20 dollars back then were several hundred. At any rate, the OS on that computer was similar to Win 3.0. I got rid of that pc after a couple years and bought one with win 3.1. Paid over a grand for it. I thought I had died and gone to computer heaven. It ran at 45 mhz, had a modem (don't remember the baud rate) and a roomy hd (150 mb I think) and a mouse. I was living in a travel trailer at the time and the pc took up the entire kitchen table. I had just enough room to squeeze a plate of food in to eat while I computed. That computer was a Pionex. I don't even think they are around anymore? About that time I discovered the bulliten boards and email. ANd then the wonders of Winsock! Late 1993? early 94 I was surfing the internet and www. NEver did figure out how to telnet. LOL I don't know if anybody else did this, but I used to print out all my email. I had it in my head that this was a momentous thing and I needed to save it all. My how things have changed!

Jason,

Was it GeoWorks? I remember that. It was kind of like Windows [en.wikipedia.org] . I also remember the first computer I got with a HD was 10MB. I have files that are larger than that now.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father bless!

No, it wasn't GeoWorks. I know people who had that but this was something else. If I think long enough I might be able to remember. I am guessing though, that no one else ever heard of it since it seemed to be pretty much proprietary to the computer brand. Seems like it started with an H though. Well, if it wasn't important enough to last more than a couple years I don't guess it's really worth the effort to try to dredge my memory for it! LOL but if it pops into my head I'll post it.

Jason

Father Anthony, Jason,
My first computer was a radio shack thing. I remember the radio shack, it was in a house and I think they sold flowers too? Anyway, we had a tape recorder too Jason. It had a side slot to insert the games, which were cumbersome cartridges. The computer was just a keyboard and plugged into the television. We would write programs on it to make cool effects that appeared on the monitor. I think it was a tandy.
Father, ours had a standard dos like system, where you had to enter code to do just about anything on it.


I did some looking around and here is my first computer! [old-computers.com]

Or it could have been the model before it. [old-computers.com]

Matt,

Flowers at a radio shack? Methinks thou has eaten too much pyrohy.

My Texas Instruments computer had a cartridge slot for games too. I remember one called Parsec that I thought was so incredibly cool. It was a space ship that moved up and down on the screen...if you pressed the booster button it would move forward a little bit but generally movement was restricted to up and down. The "scenery" consisted of graphics moving from left to right giving the effect that the space ship was moving forward. I think you shot at meteors or something that showed up in front of it.

I think the name of that computer and os, Father Anthony, was Headstart. I can't seem to find any info on it online. I guess it was too obscure.

Jason

HA! I found this! A press release in the New York Times about the company that produced my system dated November 28, 1989.

Here [query.nytimes.com]

The article gives a list of software that came with the system. I had all that stuff.

And here [i20.ebayimg.com] here is a pic of the system I found on eBay

Bless Father,

You are obviously older Mine was a IIe. As memory serves me, it was 1976 - my first-born had just arrived - and we had a $1000 (saved bit by bit over 4 years). A nearby bank offered a CD w/ an excellent rate (far beyond today's paltry ones) and, as well as some premium (maybe a toaster?) for new account holders, was giving chances on a drawing for the computer. We won

It displaced my IBM Selectric II self-correcting typewriter with a legal width roller - my pride and joy. I had gotten that used from work 2 years prior - at a time when IBM did not sell its typewriters, but leased them to firms on outrageous terms - allowing them to be purchased only when the lease was up. (My workplace had converted to Wang Word Processors - each took up the entire top of a standard desk)

Ohhh - do I feel old now. The Apple's long gone - the typewriter is in the attic - and still works

Many years,

Neil

Anyone remember this little puppy?

[Linked Image]

It was the first one I ever used...

http://www.millermicro.com/TRS-80.html

Of course, then the Apple II came out along with Castle Wolfenstein...

http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/wolf.htm

Thanks for the memories!

Gordo

I still have an XT in a box. I believe it still works.

Terry

Terry,

Mine was the Apple IIc and I still have it and it still works! I also have the original version of AppleWorks.

Picture [enginesystem.com]

This is turning out to be a fun thread, dredging up all these dinosaurs of technology and the memories associated with them.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

BTW, Neil I think we are about the same age. It might be I take care of my toys better.

I haven't heard anyone bring up the Amiga yet.

My first computer was a Trash-80 color computer (the CoCo). In 1985, I bought my first Amiga - an Amiga 1000 - and then moved to an AMiga 2000HD a few years later. For its time, the Amiga was revolutionary.

Dear Crule,

Actually, the Amiga was produced until about 10 years ago if I remember right. It was the computer and the system that launched studios like Pixar and their animation into the forefront. I understand that it was "the computer" for that type of video graphics, and still run at a premium on eBay today if they can be found just for that purpose. Also the Commodore was its ancestor in the production line.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father Anthony,

The first computer I used in first or second grade was an Apple II. I remember playing a math game on it, though I don't remember its version. I could have been a IIc.

I was a trouble maker in middle school. Knowing those DOS commands I went to the command prompt in Windows 3.1 and typed in "delete *.*". The next day we were in the computer lab I saw a sheet over the monitor and smiled, it said "Out of Order".

Terry

Bad Terry..Bad...:D

Actually the Amstrad (8256, I think) was not too expensive and was pretty good for 1987, which I think is when I bought it. I doubt that it had vacuum tubes. Alas, I've forgotten the name of the word processing system that went with it. But I managed to write a book on gadget - which drove the publisher crazy (he ended up scanning it on to a Mac).

While the Amstrad was very popular in Western Europe for several years, it was scarce in the USA - I don't know why. Anyway, I was given a Mac PowerBook about 4 years later, and that was bye-bye to the Amstrad.

Fr. Serge

Father Bless--another Mac user. I'm becoming convinced that if God uses compturs in heaven, they are Macs. Poor Bill Gates. Imagine when he shows up at the Pearly Gates and sees St. Peter using a wi-fi mac laptop, with a built in video camera for communicating with the Big Guy himself directly.

Just kidding. I used PC's for seven years before having to use Macs and now would never go back to PCs. But I don't care what people use. One of my brothers in law is a big PC user and is even now starting to use more Mac stuff. And his advice about the entire Vista fiasco is to run away from Vista as if your hair is on fire!

But I've heard some problems with Leopard as well. I've used it but only a bit.

Tim

My first computer was an old Compaq that was slower than waiting for the end of Lent. It had a peculiar processor that no other company in its right mind even considered using. Although I think Apple makes some fine machines, I teach computer technology to K-8 students on - you guessed it - Windows XP machines. Consequently, I have the same thing at home so I can be compatible with the school computer lab. I have heard both good and bad about Vista, but I won't change to it until the school buys new computers within 2 years.

Was it the Compaq with the paneled screen?

Before Compaq got big, my dad had an opportunity to invest in its stock before it went public. He declined the offer. After the XT he upgraded to an 8 MGz 286.

It wasn't quite that old. It was before Compaq was acquired by HP. The acquisition didn't make a bit of difference in the tech support. It was and still is wretched from both.