Were you into computers 20 years ago

blacklab · Post by **blacklab** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:30 pm

A comparison of computers and accessories then and now.

I remember paying $1200 for my first hard drive.

When I bought my first Intel based PC it had a speedy 8086 processor and a really large 10 Meg HD.

20 Years ago

I would never have thought things would come this far so quick.

Starmax · Post by **Starmax** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:43 pm

I think my first one was a Packerd Bell, kinda like the Tandy in the pic, it had Harvard Graphics that came with it and word perfect if im not mistaken,,,and it ran me like $4500 if not better.

It was cream of the crop then but i look back at it now and its like WOW one of the programs i use right now would burn that computer up.

But for its time i got my use out of it. Good subject and post BTW....

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:56 pm

I was 8 years old 20 years ago

But I remember our first computer, a Packard Bell 386, I think 25 MHz, it had 1 MB RAM, 16 color graphics, the graphics wasn's so good on it, couldn't do color in Windows 3.0 cause it lacked enough VRAM for it, had a sound blaster sound card though, and 1400 baud modem, I mostly used DOS, also had a 5.25" and 3.5" floppy, and 20 MB hard drive, it was really high end for its time.

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:26 am

My first computer like thing was an Atari 800xl. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1984ish I believe. My first more real computer was when I graduated High School in '90. It was an IBM of some kind with a mono monitor. It did word processing really well and that was about it lol. I remember trying to get one of the first test drives to work on it. No go. see mono monitor.

My first real pc was a 486 dx4 100 that I put together piece by piece. first upgrade I did on it was to go from 2mb of memory to 4mb and from a single speed cdrom to a 2x. Total cost of upgrade $400. That was in 1991-1992. It ran Windows 3.1 and then Windows 3.11. It didn't make it Win95

So, not really 20yrs, but damn close. I'm 36 now for reference.

Did a lot of BBS'ing with that first pc and main stay on it was Wolfenistein 3d and then Doom

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:34 am

486 SX/S

Maybe 8 MB RAM, 16 MB hdd.
Windows 3.11

Didn't upgrade it until college, 500 MHz.

OSULLY · Post by **OSULLY** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:38 am

I just used them at work. I laugh at the memory of the 300 baud modem with the rest for the phone. I'm a rotten typist so I hated the punch cards. I managed to skip the 8 inch floppy.Didn't own one until the 75 Mhz pentium

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:43 am

Funny old thread https://www.speedguide.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=107767

Mad_Haggis · Post by **Mad_Haggis** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:52 am

I still have my 486 mobo with 8 ram slots, with 4 X ONE MEG and 4 X 0.250 MEG RAM chips in it, for a total of "5" Megs of ram.

The difference from playing "DOOM"(c) single player, too, Multiplayer LAN on BNC Network.

Or single player and the birth of surrond gamming.

I bought DOS 6.11

I no longer have my TI 99/4A with the 1 meg expansion card.

I still have my printouts for poking a pet.

The apple IIe plus uses hexadecimal code for spining colours across the screen.

The fear of Y2K was the the letter "a" started at the ASCII code 65.

I paid 350.00 for a 4X cdrom.

The Commadore 8088 came with hercules monochrome graphics(4 Colours), but, would still boot up off a 5 1/4 inch floppy in pascal to play wizardryl.

I still have 2 active Arcnet cards "ISA" BNC with S/W.

I have ma bell's "Alex" s/w on floppy

A sinclair computer would take the same codes as a Commadore Vic 20, "440" the colour red or the sound of a dial tone.

I have a copy of "Rebel Assault" the first PC game ever released on CD.

I have a dvd copy of "Starship troopers", the first released double sided dvd.

I have a lot of first of everythings, like a museum.

A working PCI ATIPC2TV Vers. 1.0

My best USB 2.0 pen is 2.0 Gig held together with masking tape, never faulters, always there, no matter what pc. 350.00 bucks

I just got a 8 gig 2.0 USB pen last year for 45.00, on sale. I saw one yesterday, diff model for 29.00.

How long have i had a computer?

If you buy it, it's out of date at the end of sale.

Telix was/is an awsome proggy for connecting to BBS's.

My friend had a card with dip switches that would let you copy Commadore cartridges to cassett.

I know what the blue screen of death is, and have a wicked screensaver to match.

Harvard Graphics/Wordstar/Lotus123

I've fried the best of the best networking devices, until i replaced them with the same but put them in the fireplace. "Heat sink", note : no fire.
Still work. Have not gone wireless yet.

Best games of all time....

Full metal planete...C64
Buzz Adrin's Race into space...P1 Himem sys req/works
Warzone 2100...P2 333
Gazillionaire...P1 80
PGA tour...Sega 1.0
Airobiz...Sega 1.0
Airobiz Deluxe Ninetendo 1.0
Battlefield 1942...P4
I won a prize at an expo for "space inavders" on the atari 2600
I also like Utopia for the intelivision.

Games i like now? Crysis looks cool, need to upgrade.

As far as game like WOW and LinieageII, pay to play?, i pay for the intenet service, thats it. Ask ken, said i was going to send him a cheque for SG services, never happened. Sorry.

Oh... almost forgot.

I blew up a/all desktop P/S's (Power Supplies), i'm the king. Never fried a mobo, but i have pics of clouds of smoke comming out of my towers. No problems since i put in the 750W suckker. I'm still running the SE(special edition mobo) asus, 8 X 2.0 USB ports no risers. Sometime the external ATI capture card does not connect if your transfering large...{looks cool on a volt graphic metre}

In the end... I still put on my USRobotics purple T-Shirt, Sportster crashing prices.

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:56 am

20 years ago my mom desided to do her masters so we had to get a computer. was a packard bell 386sx 16mhz with 1 meg of ram and 256 color, 80 meg hard drive and came with windows 3.0. we later upgraded it to 7 megs of ram and 250meg hard drive and added a sound card. we had that computer till 1998 till i got a new IBM P2 400mhz for college

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:11 am

Noevo wrote:My first computer like thing was an Atari 800xl. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1984ish I believe.

Heehee....Atari 400 here! Around '83 or '84 too I think.
1.8MHz...16K of RAM...woohoo!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:23 am

I have no idea... can't remember but I know I had one back around 89 or early 90's... played DEFCON on it!

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:52 am

Hmm Rockwell AIM65 think I still have it in the attic somewhere too.

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:24 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Heehee....Atari 400 here! Around '83 or '84 too I think.
1.8MHz...16K of RAM...woohoo!

LOL

I started with an Atari 1200XL then an 800XL

I still have them including Star Raiders and of course, Zork I, II and III and even a Zorkmid!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:43 am

downhill wrote:LOL

I started with an Atari 1200XL then an 800XL

I still have them including Star Raiders and of course, Zork I, II and III and even a Zorkmid!

I think I remember Star Raiders.

I did a lot of programming classes back then..using the "Basic" cartridge.

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:51 am

Yeah, I was. I had an Atari 520ST and a 1040ST, switched over to a Mac PowerPC (with a DOS card no less) then in 94 or so I left for the dark side with a sexy 450MHZ PII. 300 baud modem on that Atari, midi inputs, HDD of some nature, and even a graphics driven desktop, called GEM, it was eerily similar to windows 3.1.

Great machine that Atari, robust, amazing music capabilities and ddecent selection of software for it back in the day. I even conned my parents into buying me a program called "CyberCad" so I could try my hand at 3-D modeling. Odd thing is nowadays I make my living with AutoCad, guess I knew from an early age what turned my crank.

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:56 am

blacklab wrote:A comparison of computers and accessories then and now.

I remember paying $1200 for my first hard drive.

When I bought my first Intel based PC it had a speedy 8086 processor and a really large 10 Meg HD.

20 Years ago

I would never have thought things would come this far so quick.

no,besides the atari game console for pong and asteroids,my first actual PC was in 1997,like starmax,my first was a packard bell,I forget the specs,been addicted ever since,

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:17 pm

9 years ago, a $4000 Alienware computer....

twwabw · Post by **twwabw** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:34 pm

Yep- Apple IIc and an 8088 during the mid 80's, then a Packard Bell 386SX20, 3MB ram in 1990 or 91 I think. LOL. Splurged on the PB and bought a 14" color monitor. The 3MB ram was an upgrade from the 1MB included-

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:36 pm

20 years ago I was a 9 yr old kid spending hours typing BASIC code out of a "games" book for my Radio Shack TRS-80.. I never could get any of the games in that book to work.. they all needed further debugging and my 9 yr old brain was stretched to the max. But at least I had Zaxxon to play on that crappy monochrome display.

I didn't get my first real PC until the 486DX2 became king of the crop and DOOM took over my young fragile mind for weeks and weeks. I think I spent the whole summer in my bedroom playing custom levels, with the SoundBlaster blaring and the shades closed to make it dark and spooky while playing.

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:39 pm

ahh, nostalgia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family

Indy · Post by **Indy** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:30 pm

Y'all are a bunch of noobs

. I had my first computer almost 30 years ago...the Timex Sinclair 1000 back in Christmas of 1980. My Atari 2600 pre-dates my first computer tho, as I got that for Christmas in 1979.

My Timex had a whopping 2k of memory on it, and I upgraded it with a 16k expansion module that was the size of an ac adapter sticking out the back of it.

blebs · Post by **blebs** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:35 pm

Anyone remember the Timex Sinclair?

Post by **Philip** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:09 pm

My first one was a Pravetz 8M (around '86)... Dual processor

, Rockwell-6502A (1MHz) and a Z80A (4MHz), 512KB RAM.

My second one ('91) was a Packard Bell 386SX, 25MHz, 2Mb RAM, 80Mb HDD... Came with a free 2,400 baud modem. Later upgraded with a math coprocessor ($80) and maxed out the RAM at 4MB ($40 per meg).

I used to get online with the modem to some local BBSes and Fidonet.

Gixxer · Post by **Gixxer** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:27 pm

trs 80 from radio shack

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:20 pm

I had two old XT for a long time... I remember those "dip memory" 8 bit ISA cards. I remember posting this before, but there was recently some people that owned XT's that were using web server software called "JNOS" to host web pages on these old legacy computer.

I also had a commodore 64... Later came the 286 and the 386"sx" and the 486's. Probally the best time thinking back to the past was the 386 and 486 days.. That was the longest time that you didn't have to "upgrade". LOL

loop2kil · Post by **loop2kil** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:49 pm

I still have my first pc...purchased ~ '91 for $3500.
pentium 60
8 mb ram
win 3.11 (now running win95)
1 mb video
14" crt

Mad_Haggis · Post by **Mad_Haggis** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:38 pm

blebs99 wrote:Anyone remember the Timex Sinclair?

My friend had one, smallest pc in the world, b/w and used basic. At the time i had my ti 99/4a, and a friend of my dad's had one with "hard drives", mine did not.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:40 am

i was 4 years old 20 yrs ago. my first was a packard bell 486sx, 33MHz, 4MB of ram, 1MB of vram, soundblaster 8 bit sound, 380MB HD (I believe), 14.4 kbps modem, windows 3.11, flight sim 5.1 via dial up was fun..haha. i remember upgrading it to 8MB of ram at some point and installing a cd rom with my dad (first installation of a computer part).

SlyOneDoofy · Post by **SlyOneDoofy** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:05 am

I don't remember alot in the computer world since my first computer was a 300mhz celron.

But my dad bought a computer years before that I tried to play a "rented" pc game and he (to this day) bitches about how he paid $800 for 4 mb of ram.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:50 am

Noevo wrote:ahh, nostalgia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family

Loading games from cassette tapes ruled!

rogue313 · Post by **rogue313** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:48 am

Actually, yeah... I was into computers 20 years ago.. longer too.
1971: programming a PDP-8. manually enter the binary switch code for one byte at a time then press the switch to store that data. This was a minute or two just to get the commands in so the pdp-8 would read the paper punch tape (created by using an old teletypewriter (Model 15)). Once set up, the paper tape got read in. If you made a typo, then the program usually didn't work; go back to the teletype and re-enter the whole program again (this time carefully); go back to the pdp-8 and re-do the hand bombing of the bytes.
Once a successful program was in, you coul dview the program operation in a little screen that was about 2 1/2 inches by 3 inches and only black and white.
Nice touch was the mag tape cartridge that was adapted so programs could be saved. Unfortunately erasing of an individual program was not an option, the whole tape was erased. (... that was another series of hand entered bytes).
Reading the mag tape could be done, but it was a lot faster to enter the shorter list of manual codes to have the paper tape re-read.
A simple game involving an artillery gun shooting at a target was less than 1K, but it did seem like a heck of a lot of typing... nicer with current editors; but OS overhead makes games like that very large in comparison.

Andrzej · Post by **Andrzej** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:27 pm

still have my
since:
1987 Atari 1040ST
1995 Compaq LTE elite 4/75cxl & smartstation
2003 ThP x31 & docking station
2006 ThP x60s & docking station

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:13 pm

20 years ago i was more concerned about getting laid and bicycle racing, now i am just fat and lazy and look at a stupid CRT screen for entertainment.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:35 pm

blacklab wrote:...When I bought my first Intel based PC it had a speedy 8086 processor and a really large 10 Meg HD.

Sounds like you, Shinobi, and me were running IBM AT/XT for our first computers.

The first computer exposure I had tho was in high school, on IBM tape machines. I believe we were using FORTRAN.

This looks like the model:

a lil fyi historical link, http://www.thegalleryofoldiron.com/

Humboldt wrote:Funny old thread https://www.speedguide.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=107767

would you believe that this week I started going thru a box my bud was storing for me... I have several of those chips. man I remember how I used to look for overdrive chips, and when I found one I bought it even if it was $10. Like a million years ago or so, lol.

I'm gonna chit can those chips later this week, along w/ all the P1 &2 stuff I have.

Mark wrote:20 years ago i was more concerned about getting laid and bicycle racing, now i am just fat and lazy and look at a stupid CRT screen for entertainment.

Welcome to the club.

cool thread

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:50 pm

ghettoside wrote:Sounds like you, Shinobi, and me were running IBM AT/XT for our first computers.

The first computer exposure I had tho was in high school, on IBM tape machines. I believe we were using FORTRAN.

This looks like the model:

a lil fyi historical link, http://www.thegalleryofoldiron.com/

Did that use the 9-Track tapes?

Debbie · Post by **Debbie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:20 pm

20 years ago, I was into plants, snakes and lizards!

I got my first Dell computer (25Mhz) when I went back to school in 1990. That was when I started with AOL.

Debbie · Post by **Debbie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:21 pm

Mark wrote:20 years ago i was more concerned about getting laid and bicycle racing, now i am just fat and lazy and look at a stupid CRT screen for entertainment.

You crack me up!

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:57 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Loading games from cassette tapes ruled!

Load

triniwasp · Post by **triniwasp** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:22 am

Comma Do 6 Fo' sucka!

blacklab · Post by **blacklab** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:04 am

The first computer I ever saw had vacuum tubes in it.

A friend of mine worked for a computer company and was under contract to General Electric in Peterborough, Ontario. A few times I helped him change some of the tubes. This was a regular maintenance item that was done regularly to make sure one would not quite during operation.

I wish I had paid more attention to some of the facts about it. I think it was a UNIVAC computer that had over 2000 tubes in it. I think it took over 100 kiloWatts of power to operate it(GE had their own power plant), and had one hell of size air conditioner. This sparked my interest in computers.

The first computer I ever owned, well I owned half of it, was a PET with 4 KB of ram. My half cost me $2200. I didn't get to use it much because the company I worked for moved me to Edmonton. I sold my co-worker my half for what I paid.

The company I worked for started building Motorola 6800 base computers to control their chromatographs and I got to play with them.

When I started working in the oil patch I was installing drilling computers on drilling rigs. It wasn't much of a computer and Totco was very secretive about what was in it.

In 82 I was out of work for awhile so I borrowed a Color Computer from a friend and for 3 weeks I never left the house. I went through the book that came with it and learned how to program in BASIC.

A month after that I bought my first computer. A Timex Sinclair with 2 KB of ram and sold for $99.00. I spent another $129 to buy another 8 KB of ram. It was not a great computer, but I was able to use it to take a BASIC programing course that was broadcast on TV from University of Alberta. They would only accept programs written on an Apple so I had to convert any commands that were different.

A couple of years later I bought an Atari 800 for around $1000. Over the next couple of years I got an Atari colour monitor(can't remember the price), a floppy disk drive for $700 and a 300 baud modem for a little over $200.

It was with this computer I got my first introduction to the Internet. With a little arm twisting and trading I got a phone number and password for the mainframe in our local college. They were connected to the University of Alberta, who had a portal on the Internet.

I talked to people all over the world in real time. There was no such thing as graphical interfaces then. Everything was text. I had this account for almost three years before someone at the College found it and cut it off. That was goodbye to the Internet for a few years.

Until 1988 when I bought my first MS DOS based machine I owned an Atari 1200XL and then a 1040ST also built by Atari (first home computer that had an almost multi-tasking OS).

From here it has been Intel all the way starting with an 8 MHz 8086(12 MHz when in turbo).

A 12MHz 286 AT

A 25 MHz 80386DX

A 33 MHz 80486DX

A 300 MHz Pentium II

A 3 GHz Pentium 4E - my present computer. Not sure when I am going to upgrade, but it will be awhile. I am looking at Linux and if I can get the few Windows programs I use that are not available in Linux working in a Windows emulator, Linux will become my OS.

I have been playing with computers for a long time, but when I read about some of the things members of this form do I realize what a dumb ass I am. Some days I wonder if I have learnt anything at all.