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Retro computers: How many do you remember?


Still Waters

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From the basic ZX81 to the school day classic BBC Micro, the endearingly clunky computers of yesterday will always have a special place in our hearts despite having only a fraction of the processing power that most of us have on our phones.

Here are some of the best retro home computers from the past.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/many-remember-retro-home-computers-slideshow-wp-154750454/photo-p-introduced-1981-design-classic-photo-154750307.html

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These are all before my time. My first experience with a PC was a typical desktop but it didn't have any form of internet connectivity (nobody really used it much in early 90s) and it took those giant floppys that almost look like vinyls.

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We had a second hand Atari 800? Kind of looked like the one in the article. Couldn't do much, but it was fun. There was a computer class in high school, those were gray and was all text stuff like learning how to "hello world". I've had a few computers since then- they have gone from big clunky towers to smaller towers or flat boxes, to laptop, to microbox. I did have a really neat processor/typewriter unit in high school that had it's own screen, keyboard, and could either type as you type or print off saved material. I have no idea what it's name was.

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First computer I used was a Tandy TRS 80.  It was the one that had the small screen and keyboard attached. 

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In our household we've had/have -

Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Commodore Amiga 1200, and a ZX Spectrum.

But the first computer which was mine was a second hand laptop, I don't remember the make. I remember it was bad for not keeping its charge but I always used it from the mains, we put that down to the battery pack being too old. We looked online for a replacement pack but found they cost more than what I paid for the laptop!

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apple IIs were the staple of my middle school and high school life (i mean they were crazy outdated by the time i was in high school, but my high school did not exactly have money)

the computer i had growing up was a vendex II. i still have it.

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We never had a computer at home.  I bought my first computer that cost me almost $1,000 and it had a -ready for it-500 MB hard drive!  Lol.  Now we have a 500 GB laptop and a 1 TB external.  Just crazy!

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i had a C128 filled with games and loved it  this piece of excrement i am on now isn't half the computer that 128 was even if it is faster it refuses to play anything other than sid meyers pirates

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My first computer was a Commodore 64. I miss that today's computers are not hobby computers like the home computers from the early 80s were. Then you came to a BASIC interpreter in ROM as soon as you turned on the computer. You had to enter BASIC commands to do anything so it encouraged learning programming. You could write directly to registers in for example the sound and graphics chip to program sound and graphics so you learned how a computer is working. Accessories like cartridges with built-in machine code monitors enhanced that understanding even more.

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LOL My first computer. Only one student in the high school had a calculator. 

First computer which I don't remember the name was a two floppy drive and no hard drive.

sliderule.jpg

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Commodore 64 all the way, still got a few lying around.  Soooo many tapes lol, some titles include doctor who, rocky horror picture show and many others.  Loved writing my own basic programs and games

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I owned an Amstrad CPC464, then replaced it with a CPC6128... WITH A DISC DRIVE!!!

I played The Thing With A Spring, Roland In The Caves, and Blitz.

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On ‎19‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 7:28 AM, fred_mc said:

My first computer was a Commodore 64. I miss that today's computers are not hobby computers like the home computers from the early 80s were. Then you came to a BASIC interpreter in ROM as soon as you turned on the computer. You had to enter BASIC commands to do anything so it encouraged learning programming. You could write directly to registers in for example the sound and graphics chip to program sound and graphics so you learned how a computer is working. Accessories like cartridges with built-in machine code monitors enhanced that understanding even more.

Oh em jee!

I forgot about plug-in cartridges!

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Can you imagine if we knew ahead of time how they operated, I mean my cousin was always ahead of us because it was his machine Omega/Amiga ? such I forget or first Apple or mixed but I can tell you PARENTS WERE NO HELP! and it took us most of the summer to get a handle on that thing, but naturally that was only because my cousin was breaking ground ! out ahead of us HA!   
UUUUUUPDATE: Must have been Amiga from pictures, I remember the floppy was a big deal and he had sheets of stuff all over that he'd written out.  I know he immediately nailed a job over at Microsoft later and I and other's new to get into systems right away but you know life and finances hinder/delay one sometimes.  Got a state of the art used WORPRO or WordPro, electronic screen spell check and thesaurus too I think for papers, worked pretty well but not as good it seemed as the University computers. PLUS! when you hit print, it would actually print at the University, well, most of the time until you had 5 minutes to get to class and turn something in, then NO WAY ! HA!
Oh.... REGARDING::::::::: 

On 3/19/2017 at 0:28 AM, fred_mc said:

My first computer was a Commodore 64. I miss that today's computers are not hobby computers like the home computers from the early 80s were. Then you came to a BASIC interpreter in ROM as soon as you turned on the computer. You had to enter BASIC commands to do anything so it encouraged learning programming. You could write directly to registers in for example the sound and graphics chip to program sound and graphics so you learned how a computer is working. Accessories like cartridges with built-in machine code monitors enhanced that understanding even more.

 

Edited by MWoo7
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First computer I ever used was at school, a Tandy/Radioshack TRS-80 with monochrome monitor. It was horrible, you turned it on and all there you'd see was a blinking cursor. Then after a series of commands, we could run some game with the graphics of Pong and that's when another kid would walk buy and press the large, orange button on your keyboard...the dreaded reset button, chuckling as you had to start all over.

I always wished I had a C64 though, mostly for some of those graphic adventure games and other types that you never saw on a Nintendo. I did however get a Texes instruments T/99 with a few cart games from a flea market but it had everything but a cord to connect to the TV so I couldn't do anything with it.

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My first computer was a Commodore Vic20, and I had the best fake Pacman game EVER, called Vicmen.

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Remember the crap word-processing Amstrads, called PCW---- ?

(I still can't believe that Alan Sugar is on The Apprentice UK, and hailed as a successful businessman! If he hadn't got the Sky Box contract with Murdoch, his company would have folded decades ago!)

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On 3/18/2017 at 0:59 AM, rashore said:

We had a second hand Atari 800? Kind of looked like the one in the article. Couldn't do much, but it was fun. There was a computer class in high school, those were gray and was all text stuff like learning how to "hello world". I've had a few computers since then- they have gone from big clunky towers to smaller towers or flat boxes, to laptop, to microbox. I did have a really neat processor/typewriter unit in high school that had it's own screen, keyboard, and could either type as you type or print off saved material. I have no idea what it's name was.

Here is my first one, l had a data recorder, that used cassette tapes, and a moniter/tv. And Miner 2049er of course.

3q0O5yL.jpg

It almost cost me $800, and l think that the highest res, was 800x1600, one color only.

I still have it, but the transformer is toast, (easy to replace).

And the data recorder, groan, l wished that l had enough for the floppy disk drive, half the time after 20 minutes or longer it would not save, and drive me a bit batty at times.

This is what l had in high school, l think that it was only 80x80 res, but it still had a pretty cool legends game, well, more text based only, lol.

kTRQj8w.jpg

B)

Edited by tmcom
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We had an Apple II at home... I guess. At least it definitely looked like this one and it was an Apple. Green was the only color for the screen and everything was done with floppy disk.

220px-Apple_II_plus.jpg

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On ‎17‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 0:29 PM, Still Waters said:

From the basic ZX81 to the school day classic BBC Micro, the endearingly clunky computers of yesterday will always have a special place in our hearts despite having only a fraction of the processing power that most of us have on our phones.

Here are some of the best retro home computers from the past.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/many-remember-retro-home-computers-slideshow-wp-154750454/photo-p-introduced-1981-design-classic-photo-154750307.html

They sell ZX81 remakes complete with 100s of games built in.

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Wow ... whatta throwback :rofl:

My first comp was a ZX :w00t: 

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