vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

My first family computer was an Osborne One. Now, let me hear about yours.

peter,
@peter@area51.social avatar

@vwbusguy my first was the TI99/4A.

This one wasn't the original, but the one I recently got running with the PEB underneath it - something I would have loved to have back in the day.

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@peter My uncle just told me last week that he first learned on a TI99.

peter,
@peter@area51.social avatar

@vwbusguy The issue with the TI was that it was so slow due to it's architecture.

Processor was actually 16 bits but for some reason only 256 bytes of ram on the base machine - the 16K was in the video chip so the cpu couldn't access it directly & it was 8 bit.

Then the expansion memory was on a 3rd 8 bit bus, but at least the cpu could access it directly.

A shame as it could have been better

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@peter Oh weird - it was a different instruction set than the 6502 and 8080 based stuff everyone else was using. I imagine it probably had a very limited software library comparative to Atari, Commodore, Apple, Osborne, TRS-80, etc. as a result.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@peter @vwbusguy my first too! my dad insisted that any computer we got had a keyboard so we could do something other than play games on it. Worked nicely as I learned to program. Very smart my dad!

bradwilson,
@bradwilson@mastodon.social avatar

@vwbusguy Commodore VIC-20

Max,
@Max@corteximplant.com avatar

@vwbusguy

First computer in the house was an Eagle I, followed by an Eagle II, and a Rair Black Box.

CP/M and MP/M, and Compiled Basic, the most punk programming language!

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@Max CBAS2 for the win!

mwhjohnson,
@mwhjohnson@mastodon.online avatar

@vwbusguy Atari 800 XL here.

squalouJenkins,
@squalouJenkins@fosstodon.org avatar

@vwbusguy Thomson TO-8 (so now, you know my country :) )

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@squalouJenkins I hadn't heard of that one before. Seems similarish to an Atari 800xl.

sanityinc,
@sanityinc@hachyderm.io avatar

@vwbusguy Sinclair ZX81 with the 16kb expansion pack!

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@sanityinc That's the small one with a membrane keyboard that was difficult to type on, right?

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@sanityinc Ah, yes. I found one a couple of years ago:

https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/426499903667587216

cy,
@cy@fedicy.us.to avatar

It was a—heyyy this is a sneaky way to learn our ages, isn't it?

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@cy The person who replied with a pic of an emachines box certainly made me feel old.

the_skotts,
@the_skotts@mastodon.social avatar

@vwbusguy we had a Compaq Presario 5000. I'm pretty sure it was the AMD duron model with 64mb of ram. I just remember thinking that color on it was cool because the only computers I had seen before that were completely beige lol

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@the_skotts We had one of those for our 3rd family computer. Came with Windows 95 and we eventually upgraded it to 98SE. I remember playing Final Fantasy 7 on it. Ours had either a Pentium 2 or Pentium MMX, I can't remember which.

jdd,
@jdd@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

@vwbusguy
First family computer was a DEC Rainbow that my dad brought home from work … after it was surplused in 1990 or thereabouts. Early adopters my parents were not.

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@jdd I don't think I've ever seen one of those, but now I'm curious about the dual Z80 and 8088 CPU setup.

jdd,
@jdd@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

@vwbusguy
Dual CPUs didn’t mean anything to me at the time, so I couldn’t tell you anything about that feature … or pretty much anything else. I vaguely remember playing Zork on it but that’s about all

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@jdd Dual CPUs with Zork just means you're twice as likely to be eaten by a grue.

Mirppc,
@Mirppc@mastodon.social avatar

@vwbusguy Apple ][e

vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar

@Mirppc The distinct sound of those ][e floppy drives will forever be etched in my memory.

vathpela,
@vathpela@better.boston avatar
vwbusguy,
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online avatar
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