Comments on: What was your first computer?

On the anniversary of the ENIAC unveiling, we asked industry pros to reminisce about their first computers. Tell us about yours.

[Kazanti]

VIC 20

I was in 4th Grade I saved my allowance forever it seemed ($5) a week. Then I owned a VIC 20. Played Mission Impossible and other text based games, learned what it was to do simple BASIC. Was a blast I do wish I still owned that computer.

[Kazanti]

VIC 20

I was in 4th Grade I saved my allowance forever it seemed ($5) a week. Then I owned a VIC 20. Played Mission Impossible and other text based games, learned what it was to do simple BASIC. Was a blast I do wish I still owned that computer.

[avp0]

My first was a C64.

I bought it in college in `79 or `80. My roommate ended up playing in it more than me.

[avp0]

My first was a C64.

I bought it in college in `79 or `80. My roommate ended up playing in it more than me.

I'm a bit younger than most y'all,

The first computer that I used was an Atari 800 when I was in 4th grade. In 6th grade, our school got some used Apple I's. In 9th grade, my high school had some Apple IIc's and IIe's. The first one I actually owned I got in tenth grade. It cost $2000. It was built by Kaypro. It was IBM PC XT compatible. It had 768KB of memory. It ran at the whopping speed of 8 MHz. It was so fast that many IBM PC games would run too fast to be playable (unless I flipped a toggle switch that slowed it down to 4.77 MHz). It was on this machine that I learned how to keep BASIC programs from turning into "spaghetti" code (by using a "modular" approach to writing programs with most of the main program consisting of loops and "GOSUBS" and putting individual tasks in subroutines with their own range of line numbers.)

The one thing that I have never yet figured out is why GW-BASIC was an interpreted language (as opposed to compiled) on the PC. It was nothing more than an easy way to write machine assembly code.

P.S...

The Kaypro did come with a 20MB hard drive that was later upgraded to 40MB then 80MB. It seemed that the hard drive failed every 6 months or so.

I'm a bit younger than most y'all,

The first computer that I used was an Atari 800 when I was in 4th grade. In 6th grade, our school got some used Apple I's. In 9th grade, my high school had some Apple IIc's and IIe's. The first one I actually owned I got in tenth grade. It cost $2000. It was built by Kaypro. It was IBM PC XT compatible. It had 768KB of memory. It ran at the whopping speed of 8 MHz. It was so fast that many IBM PC games would run too fast to be playable (unless I flipped a toggle switch that slowed it down to 4.77 MHz). It was on this machine that I learned how to keep BASIC programs from turning into "spaghetti" code (by using a "modular" approach to writing programs with most of the main program consisting of loops and "GOSUBS" and putting individual tasks in subroutines with their own range of line numbers.)

The one thing that I have never yet figured out is why GW-BASIC was an interpreted language (as opposed to compiled) on the PC. It was nothing more than an easy way to write machine assembly code.

P.S...

The Kaypro did come with a 20MB hard drive that was later upgraded to 40MB then 80MB. It seemed that the hard drive failed every 6 months or so.

[pbsellers]

TANDY 1000

My first computer was a Tandy 1000. It was used and ran DOS 3...
it didn't have a hard drive only a single 5 1/4" floppy... CGA
monitor and 640K RAM... good times!

[pbsellers]

TANDY 1000

My first computer was a Tandy 1000. It was used and ran DOS 3...
it didn't have a hard drive only a single 5 1/4" floppy... CGA
monitor and 640K RAM... good times!

[bunglist.com]

AMIGA 500

An amiga 500, upgraded to 1mb, so i guess an amiga 500+ or whatever it was called.

[bunglist.com]

then a Risc PC with i think 4 mb

then a Risc PC with i think 4 mb, later i got a 486 card to put in it, so it could run windows in a window, one of the best computers ever, and an amazing os, all in rom, boots faster than anything still now.

[bunglist.com]

AMIGA 500

An amiga 500, upgraded to 1mb, so i guess an amiga 500+ or whatever it was called.

[bunglist.com]

then a Risc PC with i think 4 mb

then a Risc PC with i think 4 mb, later i got a 486 card to put in it, so it could run windows in a window, one of the best computers ever, and an amazing os, all in rom, boots faster than anything still now.

[arbourp]

Good Ol' C64

Having shown an aptitude for the mainframe based systems at school, and the Commodore PETs my parents opted to pick up a C64 for my brother and me, and I haven't looked back since. I was four I believe, and I remember waking up Christmas morning to see the animated sights and sounds of the C64 playing Christmas Carols... my life changed forever.

[arbourp]

Good Ol' C64

Having shown an aptitude for the mainframe based systems at school, and the Commodore PETs my parents opted to pick up a C64 for my brother and me, and I haven't looked back since. I was four I believe, and I remember waking up Christmas morning to see the animated sights and sounds of the C64 playing Christmas Carols... my life changed forever.

[pstarantino]

My first...

My first computer was an Apple II+ I bought in 1981. My first hands-on experience with a computer was playing SpaceWar on a PDP-x (PDP-6?)at MIT in 1963 or 1964.

[pstarantino]

My first...

My first computer was an Apple II+ I bought in 1981. My first hands-on experience with a computer was playing SpaceWar on a PDP-x (PDP-6?)at MIT in 1963 or 1964.

[tenbosch]

Apple II

My dad worked at Ford and on the weekends, I would go to work with him. I would spend hours playing on the Apple II, running basic programs. The best memory was of a basic demo that showed a horse galloping. I was determined to learn how it worked. From there, my parents bought me a basic cartridge for our Atari 2600. What a blast!

[tenbosch]

Apple II

My dad worked at Ford and on the weekends, I would go to work with him. I would spend hours playing on the Apple II, running basic programs. The best memory was of a basic demo that showed a horse galloping. I was determined to learn how it worked. From there, my parents bought me a basic cartridge for our Atari 2600. What a blast!

[Bill Moh]

ProGen 7350

My first computer was a ProGen 7350 in the year 2000. Learning all the vector based graphic programs was like magic to me and still is.
Bill Mohnack

[Bill Moh]

ProGen 7350

My first computer was a ProGen 7350 in the year 2000. Learning all the vector based graphic programs was like magic to me and still is.
Bill Mohnack

[peteruk]

Commodore 64

It ignited my interest in coding.

[peteruk]

Commodore 64

It ignited my interest in coding.