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Winn Stephenson: Question for the Legends Group....

What is the first PC that you owned?

 

Winn Stephenson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Mine was a Radio Shack Color Computer (CoCo). It had 4k memory and used a cassette tape for storage. You had to save your data at least twice to have a good chance to read it back in. I used Turbo Pascal and actually could do a lot. You used a traditional TV for a monitor and needless to say was not very sharp. Graphics were very, very basic and most apps (we called them programs in those days) were text based.

But being my first foray into computing, I loved it and wish I still had it as memorabilia, but I'm sure the cassettes would have deteriorated by now and be unreadable.

What was the first computer you used at work?

I started as a programmer trainee at the Memphis City Schools and we had a IBM 360 model 30, which was quite the berries at the time. It had 32k (core memory) and we developed in Cobol. The disk drives were 2311's and had 7 megs (I think). My cell phone has about 27x power and 4 million times the memory.

I, like several posts I have seen, got hooked on computing with the ole 1620 at Memphis State, using Fortran and punch cards.

Ah, those were the days.........

Winn
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Jimmy Burk

 

 

 

 

 My first `PC' was an Intel computer running CP/M(Control Program for
Microcomputers).

At work my first `PC' was some type of 386 based desktop.

At home the first computer I played with was a TI-99(Texas Instruments) and
later I bought a MAC Plus which I programmed in C, but bought primarily to
develop technical courses for CBU.

Bob Higgins

 

 

 

 

 

 

bought my first computer in 1978, from a small Denver company called "The Digital Group" (not related to DEC). It came as a kit that I had to assemble. Bare circuit boards, plus bags of components. The CPU board had 4k of Ram on board, plus three 8K memory boards. Each memory board had sixty-four 1024 bit chips. I still remember hand soldering well over 1000 points on each of these boards. My monitor was a 21 inch surplus flight display monitor from the Denver Airport. I mostly programmed in Z-80 assembler, but also had a primitive Basic compiler. Mass storage was cassette tapes. I wrote a fairly nice full screen editor that I could use in place of the included simple line editor.

My first computer at school, was an IBM 1620. In the summer of my junior year, I started writing payroll and simple accounting programs in Fortran on an IBM 1130, for a local CPA firm.
Jim Gonka Commodore 64

Carl Hardeman

 

 

First I wired accounting machine panels IBM 407, then programmed 1401 and 1440 and 7090.

First PC commodore.
Randall Jackson My first PC was a cassette load TRS-80 with 1 Kb memory. I used basic to do
my lab reports.

John Toscano

 

 

 

 

 

 
My first PC was in 1983. An NEC APC. It ran CPM on an 8086 chip and weighed as much as my first car. It also doubled as a space heater. I purchased it through Federal Express. Remember that program, Winn?

The first computer that I programmed, in 1965, was a Burroughs B263 in BAL (Burroughs Assembler Language). It made made my first IBM 360 (Mod 30) seem like a rocket. Used 360 BAL on that one. If it counts, I also wired the old IBM 407 Accounting Machines as well. I think that ours was personally autographed by Thomas Watson. Remember him? How was he buried when he passed? 9 edge face down, of course.
Jim Moore

IT was a TRS 80 Radio Shack circa 1983/84

Then with Jimmy's input decided on the NEC 283 Color with 15" screen and printer… for $2700. It was that or a MAC, right choice… 1986 time frame…
Wade Waldrup TRS-80 Model 1 16K...

Ace McInturff

 

 

 

 

 

 
For my first computer, I built a TRS-80 clone from a kit. yep, I soldered every resistor, capacitor and IC socket on the (one) board. Last time I saw it, it was in the care of Terry Cox. Later updated to a Commodore 64. That had outstanding graphics! Let me explain. Some years later, Doris and I were discussing with a group which game had the best graphics. She proffered the opinion that SUSPENDED had, in her opinion, the best graphics of any game she had played. I remembered playing that game on the C-64 but something had seemed strange. Then it struck me: SUSPENDED was an Infocom ALL TEXT GAME! Any graphics it had were all in your mind! (BTW Infocom and other text games can still be played on a PC; google FROTZ to start) Evidently, your mind still creates the best graphics! To close the circle, my current computer is an Alienware X-51 suitably optioned, currently used to work on the latest DLC associated with Borderlands 2.

ace
Charlie Derrick
Timex Sinclair ZX-81. It arrived as a plastic case, motherboard and bag of loose parts. I stayed up half the night soldering to put it together.

Kandi Tippit

believe that was the Radio Shack model.

Dan Elliot Mine was a stick and some rocks!
Deby Abbott Jolley Mine was one of the earliest IBM PCs around 1982/3 - It has two 5-1/4" floppy drives - no hard drive.