1. Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 came out in 1982, priced at just $595 in the US (the price later dropped to $200). It was the successor to the legendary VIC-20, and was tremendously popular, selling tens of millions of units — partly because it was sold in retail stores and toy stores instead of computer stores, and also because it carried a low price tag.
The C64 had 64k of RAM and a 1 MHz processor, a surprisingly good audio chip, and it came with BASIC built into the ROM. For the price, you really couldn’t beat the C64 — and after Commodore offered a $100 rebate to anyone trading in an old computer or game system, the system because price-competitive with game consoles of the day, contributing to the Atari Debacle.
The C64 was discontinued in 1994 (yes, it was on sale for twelve years) but you can get a C64 Direct-to-TV device today that includes various built-in games.
2. Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
This bizarrely named computer from 1981 has a special place in my heart — my family bought one in 1982, and we’d type in BASIC programs from magazines as a family bonding exercise. I recall one remarkable debugging session involving a Pac-Man clone that refused to run, during which we had to review pages and pages of code in order to figure out what we’d mis-typed. Afterwards we saved the program to a cassette tape. Then when the cassette drive overheated, we swapped in the spare cassette drive we kept around for just this purpose; this pattern repeated for some years. The TI-99/4A also had heating problems just to the right of the keyboard, in the area in front of the cartridge slot — that housed power regulation hardware, and became very hot, leading it to be known only semi-affectionately as “the coffee cup warmer.” I’m sure TI would insist that this was a feature, not a bug.
The TI-99/4A featured a 3 MHz 16-bit (!) CPU and an unusual RAM arrangement involving 256 bytes of super-fast “scratchpad” RAM plus 16k of VDP (effectively, RAM for the graphics chip that could also be accessed by BASIC programs). There was an optional speech synthesizer module (which we owned) that could produce a remarkably decent voice — though its vocabulary was extremely limited, and most words had to be sent to it phonetically.
The TI-99/4A was discontinued in 1983, though ours lived on until at least 1985, overheating tape drives and all.
3. Tandy TRS-80
Known to owners of superior computers as the “Trash 80,” the TRS-80 was sold through Radio Shack starting in 1977. It featured a 1.77 MHz CPU and 4k or 16k of RAM (later models went up to 48k), and was priced aggressively at only $600, including a monitor (in those days, most computers simply used your TV for a monitor). Although the TRS-80 was not trash by any means, it had some early hardware problems. Wikipedia sums it up: “One major drawback of the original system was the massive RF interference it caused in surrounding electronics. This became a problem when it was determined to violate FCC regulations, leading to the Model I’s phase out in favor of the new Model III.” Ahem. Oops.
Like many computers using cassette tapes for data storage, the TRS-80 had problems reliably writing to and sometimes reading from tape. Again, Wikipedia gives us a good summary: “The cassette tape interface was very slow and erratic; it was sensitive to audio volume changes, and the machine only gave the very crudest indication as to whether the correct volume was set, via a blinking character on screen when data was actually being loaded — to find the correct volume, one would sometimes have to attempt to load a program once, adjusting volume until the machine picked up the data, then reset the machine, rewind the tape and attempt the load again. Users quickly learned to save a file three or more times in hopes that one copy would prove to be readable.” Floppy drives were made available in 1978.
The original TRS-80 was discontinued in 1981, though it was followed by a series of improved models, including the rather impressive Model 16, which could run a multiuser Xenix — Microsoft’s version of UNIX.
4. Apple IIe
There were many flavors of the Apple II line; the IIe is what my elementary school had, and thus what I played with. Introduced in 1983, it sported a 1 MHz CPU and 64k of RAM (expandable to 1MB!). The IIe was a big deal in the Apple II world primarily because it supported both uppercase and lowercase letters; its other notable feature was its huge expansion capacity — this thing had seven expansion slots in addition to its built-in connectors.
The Apple IIe was a very popular computer, and remained in production through 1993. Its software library was immense, but the only game I really cared about was Oregon Trail.
5. Timex Sinclair 1000
The Timex Sinclair 1000 was a delightfully limited gadget. Introduced in 1982, my family also had one of these, picked up by my father for just under $100 at retail. The Sinclair was most notable to me for its utterly horrifying keyboard — a “membrane” keyboard on which each keypress had to be firm, deliberate, and slow. No touch typing for you, my Sinclair friends. The Sinclair had a 3.25 MHz processor and just 2k of RAM (expandable to 16k for another 50 bucks), but it was also tiny and lightweight — only 12 ounces for the little guy. And because it was dirt-cheap, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to buy one…until you tried to input a program; this process generally ended with throwing the thing in the closet.
The Timex Sinclair 1000 was discontinued in 1983. Ours was discontinued a few weeks after we bought it, though it kicked around in closets and desk drawers for some years.
6. IBM PCjr
The IBM PCjr (“PC Junior”) was a sad, sad computer. Introduced in 1984 and discontinued in 1987, this machine was still in service in my middle school computer programming class through the 1990s, though everyone tried to avoid using it. With a pretty decent 4.77 MHz CPU and 64k of RAM, it was intended to be an inexpensive alternative to the IBM PC, and with its cartridge slots and joystick port it appeared to be aimed at homes and schools. However, its price point (initially $669, much lower than competitors like the Apple IIe) didn’t seem to work with its target audience. IBM PC buyers wanted a “real” IBM computer with standard expansion ports, a good keyboard (the infrared PCjr keyboard was terrible — and in educational settings an utter disaster, as one kid could point his keyboard at another computer and start typing), and full IBM PC compatibility. The PCjr failed on all counts, as price-conscious buyers who wanted a “real” IBM PC instead went for more capable (and competitively priced) PC clones. To make things worse, aggressive price cuts in the education market by Apple (plus the introduction of the cheaper Apple IIc) led to the PCjr’s failure in the marketplace.
One notable historical footnote on the IBM PCjr: the game King’s Quest was originally released by Sierra On-Line for the PCjr as a way to demonstrate the machine’s better-than-CGA graphics. Everyone I knew played King’s Quest on cheaper PC clones or an Apple II instead.
7. Coleco Adam
The Coleco Adam was introduced in 1983 in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the ColecoVision game console. It failed. Although the hardware was pretty good, featuring a Zilog Z-80 CPU running at 3.58 MHz and 64k of RAM (plus 16k video RAM), and the software was fine as well (the CP/M operating system was available, plus the machine ran existing ColecoVision titles), the price didn’t quite make sense. By the time the Adam shipped, it cost $725 — far more than its previously announced price of $525. At $725, the Adam was more expensive than a Commodore 64 or even an IBM PCjr — and if Coleco couldn’t beat the PCjr, it had no chance. Furthermore, the Adam had a variety of technical problems. Here’s Wikipedia’s summary of the technical difficulties of the Adam platform:
The Adam was not without weaknesses:
- The Adam generates a surge of electromagnetic energy on startup, which can erase the contents of any removable media left in or near the drive. Making this problem worse, some of the Coleco manuals instructed the user to put the tape in the drive before turning the computer on; presumably these were printed before the issue was known.
- Initial shipments to customers included a high rate of defective tape drives, some say up to 50%. Ejecting a tape while it was moving would usually destroy the drive as there was no eject lock-out mechanism and the tape (based on a standard Compact Cassette) moved at an extremely high speed.
- Since Coleco made the unusual decision of using the printer to supply power to the entire Adam system, if the printer’s electronics failed or the printer was missing, none of the system worked.
- Unlike other home computers at the time, the Adam did not have its BASIC interpreter permanently stored in ROM. Instead, it featured a built-in electronic typewriter and word processor, SmartWriter, as well as the Elementary Operating System (EOS) OS kernel and the 8kB OS-7 ColecoVision operating system. The SmartBASIC interpreter was delivered on a proprietary format Digital Data Pack tape cassette.
- Once put into Word Processor mode, SmartWriter could not get back into the typewriter mode without the system being rebooted.
- The Adam’s Digital Data Pack drives, although faster and of higher capacity than the audio cassette drives used for competing computers, were less reliable and still not as fast as a floppy disk drive. Coleco eventually shipped a 160K 5¼ inch disk drive for it.
After an attempted relaunch (including a fiscally questionable scheme to give a savings-bond style $500 college scholarship to young kids who bought the computer), the Adam was discontinued in 1985.
8. Commodore Amiga (1000)
The Amiga, to use the parlance of the day, totally ruled. It shipped in 1985, with a 7 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU and 256-512k of RAM (expandable to a whopping 8MB). Unlike the Commodore 64, the Amiga was sold exclusively in actual computer stores, to emphasize the seriousness of the machine. And indeed, it was a whole lot of computer — with an excellent audio system, high-resolution and high-color graphics, built-in voice synthesis (in software), and a sweet 880k 3.5″ floppy drive. This was truly a multimedia computer, but it appeared so early in the market that it was unclear what to do with it. It was also expensive, with a base price of $1,295, but a “realistic price” of around $1,600 after you added in a real monitor — you wouldn’t want to hobble this computer by plugging it into your TV.
The Amiga was renamed “Amiga 1000″ when later models were introduced, and the original model was discontinued in 1987. Similarly hardcore Amiga computers were released in subsequent years and always seemed ahead of their time. I recall seeing the game The Secret of Monkey Island running on a friend’s Amiga and being shocked by both the graphics and the incredible sound — the Amiga was in its own league. Unfortunately it stayed in its own league, and never achieved the commercial success of the IBM clones nor Apple’s machines. Amigas were built well into the 2000′s, and an AmigaOne X1000 has been announced for release late in 2011.
9. Osborne 1
The Osborne 1 is best known for business problems associated with its successor, the Osborne Executive. But let’s not forget how awesome the Osborne 1 was in its day. It was released in 1981, weighed over 23 pounds, and cost $1,795. With an unbelievably small 5-inch display, dual floppy drives, 4 MHz CPU, and 64k of RAM, it was a high price to pay — so why was it a hit? Because it was portable. Ish. We now call this class of computers “luggables” but at the time they were advertised as “portables” because the entire computer could fit under an airplane seat (if you didn’t strain something shoving the 23-pound beige box under there). The Osborne 1 was actually lighter than its (few) early competitors, and it came with an impressive software bundle.
The Osborne 1 was discontinued in 1983, and is famous for the Osborne Effect, a business problem that appears to have been taken to heart most by Apple — the problem being that if you sell a product today but announce that something better is coming out soon, people will stop buying the current product and delay their purchase until the new model ships, causing cash-flow problems. This appeared to have happened with the Osborne 1, as the company declared bankruptcy in 1983 after the computer press leaked information about next-generation Osborne Executive model — which had been given to them by the company itself. Interestingly, though the Osborne Effect is considered gospel by many in the computer industry, it apparently did not cause the failure of the Osborne Computer Corporation. That link is definitely worth a read if you’re even vaguely aware of the Osborne Effect.
10. IBM PC 5150
The IBM PC 5150 is what most people are talking about when they think of the original “IBM PC.” Introduced in 1981, it was IBM’s entry into the home computer market, and spurred the PC compatible (and PC clone) market that came to dominate the computing world in the following decades.
The original IBM PC 5150 featured an Intel 8088 4.77 MHz CPU and 16-256k of RAM, in a now-familiar beige box that could house two floppy drives. It could run PC-DOS or CP/M (and later other operating systems), and included BASIC. The core machine started at a shocking (but IBM-appropriate) $1,565 without any drives. The thing was also built like a tank.
Designed by a skunkworks in Boca Raton, Florida, the IBM PC eschewed many previous IBM design constraints, while retaining the IBM focus on high quality construction. Its most important design decision was its open architecture, which meant that other companies could create IBM compatible hardware to work with the computer. What ended up happening was that those companies reverse-engineered the IBM hardware and BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and created their own “clone” computers that were cheaper and sometimes technically superior. The IBM clone market led to an explosion of competition in the computer landscape, and many of the computers (and indeed, their makers) listed above were indirect casualties of the war among IBM clone makers.
The IBM PC 5150 was discontinued in 1987, but its influence lives on, even on the Mac (arguably a flavor of PC clone) I’m using to write this article.
Image credits (all from Wikipedia and/or Wikimedia Commons): Commodore 64; TI-99/4A; TRS-80 Model I; Apple IIe; Timex Sinclair; IBM PCjr; Coleco Adam; Commodore Amiga 1000; Osborne 1; IBM PC 5150.
Have I Left Out Your Childhood Computer?
This list is obviously for People of a Certain Age — if you had a different computer as a kid, tell us about it in the comments!
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Let’s see. As somebody who grew up in Germany the Timex Sinclair 1000 was my very first. The built-in 2KB of memory made it incompatible with original Sinclair memory upgrades and so I had to purchase a Sinclair ZX81 (same computer with just 1 KB of RAM). Once I outgrew it I stuck with the Z80 on the processor side and upgraded to a Schneider (aka Amstrad) CPC 464. Loved it to pieces. Never really dug the Commodore love all my classmates had. Then once my high school got a computer lab I jumped on CP/M on some Z80 based computer (forgot the make and model).
In between I cheated on my beloved Z80 and was interested in Atari’s ST line. Those were awesome with the Motorola M68k processor family and GEM. Once graduated from high school I went PC AT (80286 processor) and everything went quite downhill from there in regards of actually keep understanding how computers worked on hardware level.
posted by Don on 6-14-2011 at 2:56 pm
Atari 2600 was mine. Loved the cassette tapes you stored data on.
posted by HansMoleman on 6-14-2011 at 2:59 pm
Another entry in the “luggable” class was the Kaypro. I loved that machine.
posted by Joshua on 6-14-2011 at 3:16 pm
I had a Timex Sinclair, pre 1000. you hooked it to your TV for a moniter and used a separate cassette player/recorder to save/download the little programs you made for yourself, you know… if this then that stuff. I was so thrilled when I first completed the programming for a clock and watched it run on my TV.
posted by mary ann on 6-14-2011 at 3:18 pm
What, no Kaypro II? http://oldcomputers.net/kayproii.html
I remember my uncle having one. It sure beat the Timex Sinclair 1000 my dad bought!
We also had an Atari 65XE
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8bits/xe/65xe/65xe.html
posted by Dan on 6-14-2011 at 3:20 pm
What the hell???!!!!!
No mention of the ATARI 400 or 800?
I had (still have) the 800.
What a great machine for the time.
Nothing like waiting 20 minutes for a game to load off the cassette player.
We were ostracized then and apparently now for owning one. Screw this list.
posted by Joey on 6-14-2011 at 3:24 pm
Tandy Color computer or CoCO
what a hunk o krap!
but, i learned basic programming on it
posted by loopiecajunboudreaux on 6-14-2011 at 3:28 pm
I feel fortunate that my older cousins were nerds from the very start…I actually logged serious time on all of the mentioned machines. I was born in 1981, but still had a lot of experience on all of these lol.
posted by xanderjones on 6-14-2011 at 3:29 pm
I had the a TI99 my dad got for $100 after they discontinued them. I could never get the tape drive storage to work with my casette player, so everytime I turned it on I had to rewrite everything I did. I still enjoyed it though.
In college I moved up to an IBM XT clone. Got all my papers done it, ran Lotus 123, Word Perfect and played Leisure Suit Larry a bunch.
Oh, and I had a 20 meg had drive, which was double space on the typical drive of the day.
posted by Morris on 6-14-2011 at 3:39 pm
I have very fond memories of my Apple IIE. I remember learning how to type and playing Oregon Trail on that beautiful green screen. Ahhhhh….
posted by leslie on 6-14-2011 at 3:51 pm
Growing up in the 80′s, I only knew floppy disks. when i found a stash of my dad’s old cassette tapes he used for programming and, ya know, such like that. i totally messed all of them up and he was SOO mad at me. in my defense, they were not labled.
posted by megaroo on 6-14-2011 at 3:54 pm
Most people who remember the Atari computers never remember the 520 ST or the 1040 ST. I didn’t have any computers when I was a kid, but when I was older I had a friend that was an Atari freak. The ST was pretty advanced, but it was marketed here as mostly a game machine, and their were plenty of those. In Europe it was very popular in the workplace. There was desktop publishing software and spreadsheets. Musicians liked them because they had a MIDI processor inside.
I ended up buying my friends ST from him and then upgraded to the STe, which had better features and used SIMM memory up to 4 mg. I still have it and it works. Lots of cool games and graphics programs for the ST.
posted by crocostimpy on 6-14-2011 at 4:03 pm
we had one of the early compaq portables (luggables) with the detachable keyboard, the 6 inch green screen, and a 5 1/4 drive. it was my step dad’s “business machine”. the last time i saw it was in my folks barn with a birds nest on top of it.
posted by thunderbunny on 6-14-2011 at 4:13 pm
Thanks for the memories. I remember typing away on my IIe many afternoons writing line after line of basic. Then playing Burger Time and an early version of Castle Wolfenstein I found on a BBS. I was jealous of my freind with his C64 and 800bps modem he always seemed to be able to do so much more.
posted by Bill on 6-14-2011 at 4:14 pm
Very interesting article, Chris!
I didn’t know beans about computers when my younger brother Karl bought a VIC-20. I mainly remember that particular computer not becaused I used it (it pretty much confounded me) but because of how he raised the money to purchase it – redeeming bottles and cans. Taking advantage of Michigan’s 10 cent deposit and the fact that at that time local outdoor venues allowed folks to bring in their own refreshments, I’d drive Karl to places like Pine Knob after a show and help him collect the zillions of empties left behind. We’d get 10 or 12 trash bags full each run and by September of that year he had enough between the bottle returns and his part-time job earnings (he was still in high school) to get that weird gizmo he hooked up to an old TV set in the basement that served no practical purpose. (Well, my car stunk of stale beer for *months* thanks to him so I was probably a little ticked that he’d bought some goofy contraption that didn’t make a lick of sense to me…..)
posted by Kara Kovalchik on 6-14-2011 at 4:17 pm
Amstrad PC 1640 from 1986. I played Budokan on that bulky beast all the time. Took eons to boot up.
Had it til we made the move to the Macintosh LC II.
posted by LV on 6-14-2011 at 4:19 pm
I had teh good ol’ VIC-20, and was “fortunate” enough to work on my father’s Epson QX-10 that he used to essentially run his business at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_QX-10
posted by Parker on 6-14-2011 at 4:27 pm
Of all those 10, only one is British – the Timex Sinclair was an uprated/rebadged version of the original British Sinclair ZX81.
I had one.
It wasn’t that great, really.
posted by Simon C on 6-14-2011 at 4:31 pm
How about the HeathKit H-89, my dad and I assembled it ourselves of course.
posted by Mike on 6-14-2011 at 4:33 pm
It’s hard to really appreciate today how damn sexy the Amiga was, after growing up with the C64 and the Apple IIe.
posted by DaveB on 6-14-2011 at 4:40 pm
I actually don’t recall the very first computer my dad got, but the first one I really used, was the “portable” Apple IIc. I made banners for birthdays & family calendars (Print Shop!), and played a lot of Lemonade Stand, until the Apple IIGS came alone & took center stage. Naturally (sarcasm) I am a PC person now…I blame that on my job.
posted by Liz on 6-14-2011 at 4:41 pm
Apple IIC – Castle Wolfenstein
posted by Stu on 6-14-2011 at 4:42 pm
No Atari 8-bits (whether 400/800, XL, or XE)? The list is woefully incomplete without them.
posted by Jay Seaver on 6-14-2011 at 4:52 pm
Does anyone remember Comodore 128, Lisa,
KayPro or Franklin?
posted by J. Steven Livacich on 6-14-2011 at 5:58 pm
I had the Atari 400 & the Tandy 1000 myself. The Tandy 1000 was mainly used to play the old King’s Quest games.
posted by Biff N Sully on 6-14-2011 at 5:58 pm
Whatever happened with NXT? Its different architecture gave promise to an ability to resist hacking and spaming, one’s like or dislike of hackers et al aside–if the data used by secure sites were a less universal set of systems–data could be more secure. Steve
posted by J. Steven Livacich on 6-14-2011 at 6:09 pm
@mary ann,
There was no “Timex Sinclair pre-1000″; the TS1000 was Timex’s first try at selling a computer, with a rebranded Sinclair ZX-81. The ZX-80 preceded that (lil’ white doorstop, as opposed to the lil’ black doorstop that was the 81), and its successors branched two ways: the European market got the Sinclair Spectrum, which was awesome, and the US market got the TS-2068, which was … weird. I loved it, naturally (and still do). That was followed by the utterly awesome, and mostly ignored by the mass market, Sinclair QL, a 68000-based computer with features years ahead of its time, like built-in networking. Sadly, Sir Clive was in the process of going bankrupt at the time. I still have my QL packed away somewhere, though, and my first commercial software, while sold for the PC, was based on something I wrote for the QL.
posted by Worldwalker on 6-14-2011 at 6:36 pm
One thing that I would’ve expected an Apple owner to have already pointed out: your //e picture shows the foreign model //e. The shape and size of the Caps Lock and Return keys are the giveaway.
We had a //e and a //c.
posted by Dave on 6-14-2011 at 6:43 pm
You should show the computers they had when I was a kid. They used punch cards and took up entire buildings or rooms. Sheesh. I guess I’m just too old for this blog. See ya.
posted by Border Bonnie on 6-14-2011 at 6:45 pm
A year before the Amiga, Apple brought out the original Macintosh. It was the first home computer to use the 3.5 inch floppy and the Motorola 6800 processor. Price for the basic unit which had a built in B&W monitor with a dot matrix printer — $3200. I had to take out a loan to buy it, but with the best user friendly interface at the time it was perfect for introducing my 3 year old son to computers. I tried earlier with the TI-99/4A, however the biggest kick my son got was talking “Robot” talk with the speech synh. Good memories. Oh, also had a Franklin 128 which was an Apple II clone.
posted by Prism on 6-14-2011 at 6:56 pm
Atari 800
posted by AlanaM on 6-14-2011 at 7:04 pm
No PC junior?!? Really?!?
Granted, I wasn’t exactly “a kid” (25), but the PCjr wasn’t exactly a computer ;-).
That said, it did run DBase and Basic and is where I got my first taste of programming. That lead to a series of programming jobs which peaked at software architect in the Silicon Valley.
Talk about your humble beginnings…
PCjr, I salute you!!!
posted by el kabong on 6-14-2011 at 7:09 pm
Another voice for the Atari here. We had two of the them: the 800 and the 1040ST. I actually had an early graphics tablet (Koala) I used with the 1040ST to do graphics. I’ve now graduated to a Mac Pro and Wacom but not quite the same charm as the old Atari.
posted by wrand on 6-14-2011 at 7:39 pm
I had an old 286 computer, I got in major trouble when my friend came over and tried to “fix” the computer so we could play the then cutting edge game, King’s Quest 4 (the one with King Graham’s daughter Rosiline).
My parents were so angry with me that they grounded me for one year, and I had to pay a computer repair place to have it re-formatted (the “correct” way).
That’s the only reason I got into PCs was to play computer games. I still remember creating boot disks on a 3.5 floppy so I could allocate the 591k needed to play old DOS CD Roms like the first Gabriel Knight, and Day of the Tentacle.
Remember Bill Gates said that the largest amount of memory that anyone would ever need was 640 kilobytes of RAM. LOL
posted by david on 6-14-2011 at 8:11 pm
Yeah, I had some of these, but not when I was a kid.
I hate to admit it, but I was an adult before any of these came out.
posted by Miss Cellania on 6-14-2011 at 8:29 pm
I played with most of these, and also the Commodore PET & VIC 20 models and the Atari 400 and 800xl.
Atari was developing an expansion for the 2600 that would’ve featured a keyboard, but it never materialized.
I still have and play with my C-64. I have the cassette unit, and remember finding a way to transfer some commercial stuff (like Telengard) to disk so I didn’t have the slowness of the tapes.
Patience is a 1541 disk drive…
posted by Wayne Stevens on 6-14-2011 at 8:45 pm
on another note, anyone out there happen to know Bicycle Bill? I haven’t seen him comment lately, wondering if he’s OK.
posted by Wayne Stevens on 6-14-2011 at 8:48 pm
I was Commodore kid, or young adult.
Missed the Vic 20 but had the
Commodore 64
Commodore 128
and the sexy Amiga.
I still have the first two, but sadly I sold the Amiga when the PCs finally started to catch up to it. Wish I had it back now.
posted by ArdRi5 on 6-14-2011 at 9:13 pm
We got a Timex Sinclair for Christmas when they came out and it broke the same day. My parents never bothered to replace it.
The first computer I ever used was a Commodore PET in middle school. We thought that was an amazing thing at the time.
posted by RB1969 on 6-14-2011 at 10:25 pm
TRS80!
posted by neti on 6-14-2011 at 10:26 pm
We had a Hewlett-Packard 125, purchased I believe in 1982. It had a back-breaking (to lift) monitor which housed a lot of the workings. Separate two bay floppy disk drive, and a surprisingly eloquent, user-friendly keyboard. We added a modem (the kind you put the phone handset into after dialing on the phone keypad) a few years later. My father used this computer until the early 1990′s. It still worked, but was hopelessly out-of-date at that point. T-Maker was the one program I remember using frequently. It required a great deal of memorization to use all the commands. As good as the system was, I was delighted to be rid of it and finally get an IBM clone with a mouse!!
posted by Drew on 6-14-2011 at 10:33 pm
We had an Apricot! http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=499
posted by Claire on 6-14-2011 at 10:36 pm
We had an Apricot! Reminiscent of an Apple IIe.
posted by Claire on 6-14-2011 at 10:38 pm
Growing up, my dad worked at the world headquarters for NCR, in PC sales. So the family had demo units which he brought home. The earliest I remember was the NCR 8086 (although I know there were earlier models in the house). Later we had a 286, 386, and a 486. These were great machines and I take pride in having learned dos before I learned to read a book. Thanks dad!
posted by Brian on 6-14-2011 at 10:44 pm
I had the Adam! I think I was the only one. I seem to remember my dad got a deal on it because they were about to (or had already) stopped making it. So we didn’t have a lot of the tape programs; I only really remember the typing program and Dragon’s Lair (which was really excellent for its time). But it also played Coleco cartridges, which I think were still being sold for the Coleco game system (I forget what it was called), plus I think it had an attachment to play the Atari 2600 games, of which we had dozens, so we got a lot of use out of old Adam.
posted by Susan on 6-14-2011 at 10:45 pm
When I was a kid I had a Digi-Comp I. It was made of plastic and metal. It had a 3-bit accumulator, and a cpu cycle occurred when you pushed a bar in and out. It was programmed by putting plastic tubes in strategic spots on one of the three bars.
And yes, this sounds like something I made up, but you can read about it on Wikipedia: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Digi-Comp_I
posted by Beirne on 6-14-2011 at 10:47 pm
We had the PET computer. Had to load games from a cassette tape before playing. It would only hold one program in memory at a time. It was all one piece – CPU, monitor, keyboard..
posted by Jenny Williams on 6-14-2011 at 10:47 pm
My dad got an Apple IIgs when I was about five. My mom convinced my sister and I that it was a birthday surprise for my Dad, and it was our job to keep him from finding out. It wasn’t until we were adults that we thought to question how, for instance, the computer got to our house in the middle of nowhere, let alone got set up without Dad knowing about. He later said that teasing us by making up reasons to go into the spare room where the computer lived was more fun than playing with the computer itself.
I remember playing Math Blasters and a reading/spelling game on that computer, as well as a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” game.
posted by Corianne on 6-14-2011 at 10:49 pm
hehe – I still have the TI994A and all the goodies with it tucked away.
I’ll be leaving it behind after I’m gone to confound my grandkids. Might just be worth something by then.
The price of sliderules (a stick that did math calculations before calculators and computers were available) has skyrocketed compared to when I had to use them…guess that makes me older than dirt.
posted by cindy on 6-14-2011 at 11:07 pm
We had the PCJr and it was great – lots of fond memories of hours spent typing in code from the latest Compuserve (?)magazine.
We also had the Intellivision as a gaming system and at the time there were rumours that they were bringing out an attachment to turn it into a computer….not sure if that every happened.
Great memories – thanks for the post!
posted by justcallmejo on 6-15-2011 at 12:45 am
Aah, fond memories of the trash-80. Also had the Apple II+. Remember Eliza?
posted by Reressler on 6-15-2011 at 1:20 am
I’m surprised that there has been no mention—in either the article or the comments—of the good old BBC model B. It was more popular in British territories than the US, but was an incredibly powerful machine for its time. It sported a full 32k RAM at the time, and its software library was huge, with such wonderful games as Chuckie Egg, Galaforce, and Manic Miner. I recall getting the magazines with BASIC code for the ZX Spectrum or C64, and translating that code into BBC BASIC. Good days!!
posted by Tyrannicalduck on 6-15-2011 at 1:54 am
We had the TI-99/4A and I distinctly remember the coffee warmer part. We had the voice synthesizer as well and me and my pals tried to get it to say all the words Mr. Webster left out of his dictionary…lol. I remember the part in the middle of the pic that you had to slide over to change the tv screen over to a monitor. Man that thing was simple but so much fun!
posted by JW on 6-15-2011 at 7:53 am
Wow, I had a lot of those! I also had a programmable calculator from TI, I forget the exact model, but it was a computer as well, in a limited sense.
posted by Tom Rankin on 6-15-2011 at 8:12 am
I grew up with a Spectravideo 328 that my cousin lent me when he moved on to newer stuff. Thanks, Einar! There were an MSX module to convert it to a common standard that sadly saw little use. C64 wiped the floor with the competition. I learned some Basic programming and had lots of fun with the few games available.
Some of my friends had the Amiga 500, and I spent a lot of time playing IK+, Barbarians, Super Hang On and Nuclear War, to name a few.
Thank you for a nice article!
posted by Thomas R on 6-15-2011 at 8:52 am
@Reressler – “Does that question interest you?” :-)
*Excellent* article!!! Scares me just a little that I actually did own most of these at one point. I’ve actually got a C64 on my desk right now! But my 1541 disk drive has banged itself out of alignment over the years, and I’m in the market for a replacement. So if any _flossers have one taking up space, lemme know!
posted by Roger on 6-15-2011 at 9:16 am
Our first computer was an Apple IIgs. There was a golf game that I played a ton that featured a gopher that was a complete rip-off of Cadyshack. We also played Wheel of Fortune constantly. I remember it having great audio for its time.
posted by Matt on 6-15-2011 at 9:16 am
i first learned on the apple IIe with number munchers, oregon trail, and jeopardy. it took me a week to memorize all the questions on the jeopardy game.
my fondest memory is when my middle school had its first computer room filled with macintoshes. we took classes on how to use a mouse. amazing.
posted by theYerg on 6-15-2011 at 9:28 am
Hi
I used to own a computer store. (so?)
I think when the dust settles the most
impact in the home market will be the
(drum roll please) — Commodore 64.
Yea!!!
Mike Z
posted by Mike Z on 6-15-2011 at 9:29 am
We had the VIC-20. My parents bought it at K-Mart for $30. I don’t remember if the cassette drive came with it or if that was extra. It was hooked up to the TV in the bedroom I shared with my brother, and I don’t think our parents ever touched it. He just played games, while I taught myself BASIC on that thing.
That was right around when my school got its first computers, a pair of Commodore PETs.
posted by Kevin on 6-15-2011 at 9:44 am
I had the COCO 1.5 (released between the COCO 1 and COCO 2, it basically had most of the components of a COCO 2 but in a COCO 1 case. I also had the COCO 3 with the disk drive and OS9.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer
posted by Francis on 6-15-2011 at 9:51 am
My first personal computer was a “Blue Chip” purchased from Target. It had an 8 MHz 8086 processor, 640 kb of RAM, a monochrome monitor and two 360 kb floppy disk drives. It cost $1000 back in 1987. I had problems with one of the floppy drives and returned it to the store. I then turned around and bought a Hyundai-branded PC mail-order through an ad in Computer Shopper magazine. It turned out that Hyundai was the manufacturer of Blue Chip computers. Check out this link:
http://www.dendmedia.com/vintage/index.php?title=Blue_Chip_Personal_Computer
posted by Gordon Daily on 6-15-2011 at 10:12 am
My father was an engineer at IBM, and brought home a 5150 when it was first released. That was our main (and only) computer until the mid-90′s because he never saw a need to upgrade. He finally caved and bought an x386 in 1994.
posted by Dr Jones on 6-15-2011 at 10:16 am
The description of the TRS-80 is not quite accurate. That’s what you get for depending on Wikipedia. The amount of RF noise was typical for its generation (it is the earliest computer on this list). The FCC didn’t issue any regulations on RF emissions until after the TRS-80 had been released. The new regulations required a redesign so Radio Shack released the improved Model 3. Apple had a similar problem which they solved by incorporating a metal plate into the case.
posted by Mark on 6-15-2011 at 10:25 am
I grew up in the UK and started with the BBC Micro B before moving on to the Archimedes 310. Later I would get the Archimedes 440 and would engage in holy wars regarding the Archimedes vs the Amiga.
posted by Dominic on 6-15-2011 at 11:00 am
LOL- Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe- ahh, memories…
I also had the IBM PCjr- I had no idea it was so poorly regarded. I mostly used it to play this game involving firemen having to catch babies being thrown out the window of a burning building (hmmm…suddenly trying to hit militant pigs with a slingshot full of birds doesn’t sound so odd, does it?)
Anyway, great article- but you left out the Mac Classic 2 (maybe it was not old enough to be included?) I still remember the day my mom brought it home for us when I was 12 and we marveled about how small it was, LOL.
posted by Alana on 6-15-2011 at 11:43 am
What about the KAYPRO ? We had one for years and loved it. Not many people had computers and the KAYPRO was a big hit and did everything I wanted to do at the time. Wish I had it back.
posted by GRACE on 6-15-2011 at 12:07 pm
One of my admins has a Sinclair 1000 at his desk in the original box with the owner’s manual and the 16k RAM module. We tested it and it still works. I believe he found it at a second hand store. There’s also an Atari that the guys play Pong on :)
posted by Eden on 6-15-2011 at 12:14 pm
As a UK PC user, I bring to mind the Dragon 32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_32 which was a UK version of the Tandy TRS-80.
I got it for Christmas in 1981, I think, and the tape drive didn’t work, so I had five days before the shop reopenned after Christmas to amuse myself with the BASIC Interpreter and from there I was hooked on coding!
It had a Motorola 6809 chip and I learnt to code in raw Assembly Language on it! The book on 6809 programming was at the time the most expensive book I owned (about £20!). If only I knew how much I would go on to spend on programming and sysadmin books!
My other first computer was the BBC B Micro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_B , which was massive in UK schools.
I did A’Level Computer Science on this back in 1986, programming a database program in Pascal rather than the standard BBC Basic for the expedient reason that I realised the examiners wouldn’t look at the screen output but only see the source code, and Pascal looked better on the page (even if its I/O was far worse). Someone in my class spent weeks coding a beautiful front screen with music, which was never seen.
Thank you for this post, it brought back some lovely moments of nostalgia as I remembered many of the machines you mentioned. Fr. S
posted by Fr. Simon on 6-15-2011 at 12:57 pm
All you Commodore 64 fans – ever heard of the Commodore Plus 4? I’m told that it was only sold for one Christmas buying season, the one right before they introduced the 64. All of the programs were contained on cartridges similar to 8-tracks. So, if you wanted to write a document, Word processing cartridge, spreadsheet, spreadsheet cartridge, you get the idea. And, like most of it’s competitors, it used a TV for the monitor. You could use a computer monitor but they cost close to a grand when the TV would only set you back a couple of hundred.
The only thing I liked about it was the keyboard layout but since the keyboard and all the other electronics were all in one piece, you couldn’t even use the keyboard on another PC.
At least I got it for free!
posted by Berbert on 6-15-2011 at 1:25 pm
I remember the first computer my family had, my dad bought it at Sams Club…which for those of you that don’t know is the bulk side of good ole Wal Mart. It came with 2 (yes 2) 5.25″ floppy drives, and an awesome dot matrix printer. I remember that lovely green and white lined paper, and the awesome noise it made while printing only the most amazing of pictures; in black only…amazing!!! I remember playing sokoban and oregon trail fondly. What a great time that was.
posted by Nathan on 6-15-2011 at 2:23 pm
Not sure of the model details, but our first computer was a CompuColor. It had some of the best hardware around in 1980/81(?), but sadly not much softare was ever made for it. The second family computer was the Apple IIe in 1984 and we played many hours of the original King’s Quest and So you want to be a hero Series
posted by darin on 6-15-2011 at 3:13 pm
I had a pre-production model DEC Rainbow. It has self test program that checked all components when starting up. If something was defective you took it to the nearest DEC store and they replaced the component. It could have made DEC the first major PC seller. Unfortunately, the President of DEC only saw it as a desktop tool for mainframe interface for engineers. Too bad, they could have ruled the PC world.
posted by ken dowlin on 6-15-2011 at 7:36 pm
What about the Slide rule? That was my first computer and I just turned 50?
Of course the first ‘computer’ we had was our fingers, at least our first ‘personal computer’. We’ll leave the ‘lap top’ for another day shall we?
posted by PAUL L. on 6-15-2011 at 8:24 pm
Like Francis (06/15 @ 9:51 am), I had a couple of CoCo’s – a II and a III. OS-9 (from Microware, not Apple) Level II. A no-halt controller. Great little computer with ‘C’ language 2-pass compiler and linker. OS-9 was a great system – everything was a file. Very easy to grok. Lotsa fun.
posted by Shan G. on 6-15-2011 at 9:57 pm
The Atari 800 series and the more powerful Atari ST led me into computing. I think I had more fun on those computers then than on my modern Mac and PC. (Perhaps it was merely because I was young.)
posted by Allan W on 6-15-2011 at 10:06 pm
I sold many of these machines(atari, texas instruments, timex sinclair, coleco,vic commodore) when I worked for Service Merchandise(1982-1992).
We had so much fun playing with everything when the computer displays were set up in the Sight and Sound department. Many parents came into the store to buy a computer and I always asked them why did they want to buy one-the answer was for the kids for education purposes. The reality was that most of the software on the market at that time was games. The funny this is how many of the old games can be found on the net.
When I look back on the stuff I sold then and the stuff I am using today it still amazes me how far computer technology has come in these past 30 years.
posted by norman on 6-16-2011 at 8:50 am
What about the Commodore Pet, the Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81 with the beer-proof keyboards and 1K of RAM. I bought a book called ‘What can I do with 1Kb?’ Quite. The Sinclair Spectrum And don’t forget the BBC Micro. And the Rair Black Box. And the Apricot/ ACT Sirius 1.
posted by Alun Richards on 6-19-2011 at 9:40 pm
the first pc I can remeber us getting when I was about 5 was an Ibm 286 with windows 3.0 and my dad showed me paintbrush and I was in awe. I have been hooked on computers ever sicne
posted by David on 6-19-2011 at 11:58 pm
My first computer was a Franklin, the Apple clone.
posted by Dennis M on 6-20-2011 at 5:35 am
I still have my Apple II plus in my garage… Maybe I should try to fire it up again!
posted by Paul on 6-20-2011 at 5:57 pm
Mine was the Atari 1200XL– the second generation of Atari machines. It had it’s problems but was pretty sweet for its time.
posted by MusicPapa on 6-21-2011 at 5:01 pm
Oh, and I traded the 1200Xl in for an Atari 1040ST, though I wasn’t exactly a kid anymore.
posted by MusicPapa on 6-21-2011 at 5:06 pm
Tandy 1000 for me. We paid a shitload of money to upgrade from 640k of RAM to 768k. As far as most performance went, it was pretty much an IBM clone. Except for the sound card. It may have only been a 286 and it may have only been able to do 16 colors… but it could do wavetable sound. Only three sounds at a time, but still. In Space Quest 3, you could hear Roger Wilco say “Where am I?” at the beginning. None of my friends could hear that. But I could.
posted by Tirade on 9-29-2011 at 5:59 pm