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The first computer I used was a TRS-80 back in grade school. They had a dozen of them at the local science center where I took classes after school. I learned to program in BASIC and store my inventions on a cassette tape.


The first machine I owned was an Apple IIe. I remember my neighbor was jealous because, unlike his Apple II, my computer could handle lower case letters :-) Fancy! I learned to do basic graphics programming using the Apple IIe's awesome palette of six colors, one of which was spandex magenta. I was also exposed to computer porn when my friend got his hands on an ultra secret copy of "sex olympics". In six colors, it was all very... abstract, but its easy to get excited when you are thirteen.


After a brief affair with an
Apple IIGS, I moved on to the
Amiga. The Amiga was absolutely amazing for the time. It could display 4096 colors and had advanced sound capabilities. The fact I could use the "SAY" command in AmigaBASIC to get the computer to talk was a never ending source of excitement. I used a program called Deluxe Paint to do everything from digital paintings to designing self contained ecosystems (a long running obsession dating back to junior high - I was a weird kid.) The Amiga was the first computer I used to compose music. I used a MIDI interface to connect my Korg T1 keyboard. I lost quite a few hours in the basement writing music with this setup. I convinced many of my friends and parent's friends to bet on the Amiga as the computing platform of the future. Oops! How was I to know? It was so friggen cool!


Here is the full progression of computers I've used going back to grade school:

TRS-80 -> Apple IIe -> Apple IIgs -> Amiga 2000 -> Amiga 3000 -> Various Macs -> PowerWave (Power Computing's Mac clone) -> Various Intel Boxes Running Windows -> MacBook Pro (today)

What was your first computer? How about your first programming language?

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Comment by Randall Wong on July 17, 2008 at 2:26am
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000, souped up with a 16K RAM pack. I even had a Flight Simulator for it. I can thank this computer for starting me on the path to geekness.
If fact, I think still have, but I doubt it works... I should get it framed.
Comment by Bill Spencer on July 16, 2008 at 8:31pm
Software development. We produced the first programmable communication language for PC's that could operate as "browser" as we know it today, or a remote host, what used to be called a bulletin board system, 1979-1985 timeframe. My programmers invented the word, "groupware". Our BBS sytem was called CONEXUS. OK, enough reminiscing.
Comment by Mika Leuck on July 16, 2008 at 6:58pm
My first compuer was an Apple II, which got stolen from my house within barely a coule of weeks of owning it.

That is terrible luck. I wonder if it was a crazy Apple fan or just a burglar that thought it was a fancy TV :-)

It was a Vector Graphic Z80 with a 5Mb hard drive. The computer cost $5999.00 retail.

Wow! Today that would buy a cluster. What did you use it for?
Comment by Bill Spencer on July 15, 2008 at 10:24am
My first compuer was an Apple II, which got stolen from my house within barely a coule of weeks of owning it. My next computer was purchased by me in my first business in 1979. It was a Vector Graphic Z80 with a 5Mb hard drive. The computer cost $5999.00 retail.
Comment by Truman Leung on July 15, 2008 at 7:42am
My first computer was an IBM PC, the first model (prior to the XT). I think my mom forked over $4000 for it in the early 80s. I remember typing in a snake (Tron-like) game in BASIC on the PC. At school we had Apple 2Es where we used LOGO. At home we had various a 386 and a couple 486 machines until I got this ultral cool and small Toshiba Portege in 1994 which I took with me to China on my one-year stint in Beijing as an English teacher.

It's a 486 33 Mhz. I think the hard drive is a whopping 40 MB. I still have it although the screen is shot and it won't boot. I'm thinking to keep it as a toy computer for my first born son when he's old enough.
Comment by Daniel Leuck on July 14, 2008 at 8:59pm
Jared I. Kuroiwa: I remember getting a hex editor and ripping apart Ultima III to make a bunch or treasure chests all over the place and make my characters maxed out.

That's so funny - I did exactly the same thing. Later I discovered an Ultima III construction kit that let you create your own maps from scratch.
Comment by Viil on July 13, 2008 at 5:44pm
My first computer was an Olivetti (the Italians were there leading personal micro computer producers in Europe in the early 80s) with cassette tapes for storage. It served for playing games and programming very complicated stuff in basic... hehehe

My first computer experience was playing games on Commodore 64s. It was awesome, and definitely worth the wait for the games to load from cassette tapes ;)
Comment by Chris Takakuwa on July 13, 2008 at 2:04pm
A Wang desktop used mostly to play Sopwith.
Comment by Jared I. Kuroiwa on July 13, 2008 at 1:18pm
The first one I played with was a Commodore 64 (math teacher had one)... I remember making a stickman "walk"... Yikes.

My father bought an IBM PC XT. Must have been in the early 80's. Back then, it had CGA and 640K. Tapper... Dig Dug... Ultima. I remember getting a hex editor and ripping apart Ultima III to make a bunch or treasure chests all over the place and make my characters maxed out. To think I'd have to build an 8088 in class in college and how really simple the box really is...

The first one I personally had was a Pentium 90 when I came back from college. Built the thing from pieces parts to play Doom with friends back in Cali. Imagine... We had to use Trumpet Winsock and WFW 3.11 to make it work. I waited to P90 as the P60 and P66 had heating problems... Too funny.

Maybe we'll start another nastalgia thread on programming languages. Yikes.
Comment by Daniel Leuck on July 13, 2008 at 1:12pm
Jeffrey: I liked the idea so much, I did a rundown of computers in my past on a podcast I did Thursday.

Hi Jeff - I'm glad you liked the idea. For those of you interested in hearing Jeff's podcast you can find it here.

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