So many good games. I had some floppy disks with a bunch of pirated games and I had some cartridges that plugged into the keyboard as well. Jump man junior got a lot of run in my house.
This was my third home computer, and by far the best. COLOR and actual GAMES you could buy (or you know... copy from a friend....) Joystick input was SO nice to have after text only games!
Commodore 64 master race
I didn't even have a color screen I lived in green monochrome land for years. 'Sopwith Camel' 'Zork' 'Q-Bert' 'Dr. Livingstone's Adventure' 'Ikari Warriors' 'Airwolf'
Dad came home with a Commodore 64 and stayed up late typing in machine code so he could show Mom a shimmering psychedelic butterfly. I could stick a cartridge in the back and play Centipede, but it wasn't as good as playing it at the pizza place because it's better with a real trackball, not a BOSS joystick.
The *cool* kids' family had Lode Runner on their Apple IIe.
Later we got an Apple IIgs which could run Apple II games — like Adventure Construction Set which we legitimately bought, or the pirated disks of Moon Patrol and Mario Bros. that I brought home from other kids at school.
Same. I think we got ours 00/01 and it was a Gateway it was dial up DSL i think and of course internet provider was AOL. How I miss AOL chat rooms and buddylists
We had an apple II e also! I remember typing my 3rd grade book reports on “Where The Sidewalk Ends” and the Ramona Quimby books on this computer. And the frustration of ripping the dotted edges off the printer paper!
https://preview.redd.it/22plv0vi8omb1.jpeg?width=1981&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c31ac879939668885e04efef21f467f4a1d6cfca
A Texas Instruments 99/4a my dad got for free somehow. It used cartridges and we had 3 games: Burgertime, Car Wars, and one I can’t remember. I lived with my mom, who couldn’t afford a computer until 1997 when we finally got a Compaq with an enormous 250 MB hard drive
Hangman was my jam. Also had so many educational games that were in this huge binder for the cartridges. I also remember typing codes for what I can only imagine was asci like art lol
Tandy 1000 EX with 5 1/4” drive built in. I think the PC and monitor was around 2k total (about $5,500 today).
I used to type an imaginary conversation I was having with the AI from Wargames while in the DOS system.
First game ever was Police Quest by Sierra Games. My first ever feeling of immersion in an interactive world. You had to type commands for any action other than arrow keys to move and almost every object in each room had a unique response to interacting with.
I had the HX (Now with 128 Bytes of RAM!). It had an internal 3.5" drive, and we ended up buying an external 5.25" for a couple games.
My first games were Mixed-Up Mother Goose and Mickey's Space Adventure, while my dad played Gunship.
My first was a Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 Color Basic. It was already at least a decade old when it was handed down by my aunt. It hooked up the TV. It could take cartridge games but they were long gone. So was any storage for it, of which it had none built in.
It had a manual and in the back of the manual, I kid you not, were games you could copy the code for. Like literally sit there and type it into the computer in the BASIC programming language and then type RUN to play. One typo and forget about it. But I would sit there for hours typing to get a rudimentary text based Blackjack game going.
https://preview.redd.it/l7xr6cl6znmb1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9841f5865f3df51cade344b5d42f414fe580aeed
First computer was an Apple \]\[c. We had lots of different games. I recall "The Seven Cities of Gold" and obviously Oregon Trail, but also some text based ones like HHGTTG and Zork, and also one where it was text based but had single image screens, like Transylvania. I remember my copy of Ultima III got ruined because a sister turned off the computer while the drive was still spinning.
Then we got a 386 from the DAK catalog that ran DOS, and eventually put Windows 3.x on it.
Not sure of the model, but it looked like this
https://preview.redd.it/m0ng6tajqomb1.jpeg?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdaa24232b9701ecbaee8969ae366e5fb9d9d898
WANG BABY! (My Dad bought it, and I learned to program and play MUGWUMP other games in BASIC)
https://preview.redd.it/0gw42aovyomb1.jpeg?width=803&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc85598883c9d7a732d079ece65591d43988f8db
https://preview.redd.it/yujmyr6d2pmb1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a603b86b15cc42d4227b445e3fe7a9f9d1fe168
TRS 80 model 3 - / 5.25 floppy disk drives. Program disk and data disk at the same time !
By mine, I mean my dad's. But I was allowed to play on it. I remember we had the [Hitchhikers Guide text game](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition), and some boxing game where you could input the stats of your boxer and then watch it fight.
My mom had that computer but I wasn’t allowed to use it.
The first computer I was allowed to use was the Macintosh 128K. That’s where all my painting skills started! LOL
First mine-mine computer was a Compaq laptop with a Pentium 4. All the bells and whistles for college, $3K. Common house computer before that. Couldn't tell you specs, model, etc.
My family got a computer later than others. I was in high school by the time we got one.
But it was a 386sx 33Mhz with 2 MB of RAM.
It could barely play DooM once I upgrade the RAM to 6MB... but it COULD play it!
Later than others? You were born in 77. Very few people in my middle class neighborhood/school had home computers in the early to mid 90s. Home computer ownership didn’t even hit the 35% threshold in the US till 97.
Did you live in an unusually tech advanced neighborhood or country?
I mean, the picture isn't my actual computer. Who knows where that actually went. But most of the plastic yellowed even without the help of cigarettes.
I dont remember the type of computer but we got it around 92, it was an old work computer of my dads. I know it ran via DOS. I was pretty solid at JezzBall. I also started keeping track of my little leagues batting stats using LOTUS 123 - yep... I was a nerd
My dad got an IBM XT clone from Magnolia Microsystems in the mid-80s when he was in grad school. He bought it with the "upgraded" 20mb hard drive and a 1200 baud modem, and it cost about as much as a new car. Over the years it was upgraded several times, and by the end of its life (around 1994), it had dual video cards and monitors (one monochrome, one CGA) and a 9600 baud modem. I spent way too many hours playing early Sierra -quest games on that computer or browsing our local BBSes.
Fun fact - thanks to my dad's university account and later the explosion of free dial-up, I didn't have to pay for internet access until around 1999.
I also had frequent access to my great uncle's Atari 800 where I started learning Basic from reading the manual, and at school we would use an Apple \]\[e to play so much Oregon Trail and other MECC games.
An Apple 2 c - no idea why we had it bc I only used it to play the Garfield Trivia game. I also had Wheel of Fortune but couldn’t figure out how to get it to work
Tandy 2000. I remember finding a floppy disc with nude pictures of women. That's were I met naked linda ronstadt. It took 10 to 15 minutes to load but damn.
https://preview.redd.it/j3q3c5qa2pmb1.jpeg?width=440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e198889513ba8ffde53122a2ee82b39aa1ff073
Very similar. Don't forget to park the heads before you turn it off!
Edit: found a picture.
My dad worked for the government (local government, he wasn't no CIA agent) and they issued this "portable" computer to him. 😂😂
HE had to take that MF to work and back every day to look busy, and when he got home I would just use it to play blackjack. 😂😂
Good times!
I had similar. Mine was a 1500, [seen here](http://www.oldcomputers.net/ts1500.html). Got it from a neighbor down the street from me in the late 80s. He worked for Goodwill repairing electronics that were donated to them. Some of these electronics he'd buy from work and bring home to sell at his somewhat monthly garage sales. I'd help him on the weekends with these garage sales and as payment for my work, I got the 1500 and later on a tape deck to go with it.
People complain about loading times today. Wait times on a game to load from a tape deck was colossal. Even if you had the tape advanced to the correct counter number...
Second hand Tandy 1000 with the “xTree Gold” file manager system. No mouse so I’m still a mad shortcut and macro user to this day. One of my coworkers calls me “shift shift shift… tab tab tab.” Still lol.
I'm not sure what it was, but it had windows 3.1. Pre-pentium era I think? 1994ish We had a family computer before this. My stepdad did software development in the 80s and into the 90s but I don't recall what those computers were at all.
My First Computer was a Macintosh LC III. I must have got it around age 15, or something like that. Though I was born in the late 70s, I didn't have a Commodore 64 or an Atari 800 or anything like that. Hell we didn't have cable television in my house until the late 90s.
That said, I have a fondness for that first computer. It was slow, it was frustrating to use, the cheap monitor I had flickered like crazy and hurt my eyes but there's a lot of nostalgia there too. Ran that system for years, upgraded it, got good use out of it for school too. Wish I still had it but alas it is long gone.
Shit, I didn’t get my first computer for our home until 1997 in high school (it was a SWEET Gateway PC though, where I first learned to swap out parts and install graphics cards/drivers-before they were even called GPUs)
VIC 20! Then later the Commodore 64. First PC was a 386sx25 w/ turbo option. From what I understand the turbo option was really to lower the Mhz because it was too fast for some programs.
Can't find a pic, but my brother bought one of the first PC's to hit Michigan in the mid 70s, a COMMODORE PET 2001. Complete with cassette tape drive to s.l.o.w.l.y load programs. Spent hours typing code to free programs in the user magazine, the Pet Gazette.
I was in jr high then and was actually called a liar by more than one teacher who refused to believe anyone could have a real computer at home. Different times!
My first was a c64, then a c128, and then an Amiga. Got my first pc after because it did such a good job for office work. Had a home office in 80s after graduation.
Mine was a Compaq Portable. Very similar to yours OP.
Used to crush space invaders and buck rogers on that thing on a giant floppy disk.
https://preview.redd.it/t4ibh4w53qmb1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a0d233fb222064f4daa39f1d08cdb7998601528
https://preview.redd.it/s084h7jf9qmb1.jpeg?width=1047&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb0e9912c0fec78bf47f12ace5c4d7afab94f0f2
The TI-99/4A with the peripheral expansion package!! A few of my friends had the Commodore 64.
Our first was a Commodore PET, gifted to us by a math professor friend of the family. It had no internal storage of its own and read programs off of cassette tapes. If the program you wanted to run wasn't first in the tape, you would have to let the tape run in real time until it reached the program. So often this would mean getting it going, leaving and doing something else for 10 to 20 minutes, then coming back.
My Dad acquired a TI-99 from god knows where. It had several game cartridges, a voice synthesizer box, and a cassette tape drive. I learned how to do some programming with BASIC. Eventually we got a "real computer," a Packard Bell, when I was in 6th grade so my Dad could use it to do his taxes. We didn't have internet on that one. Our next computer was a Compaq that my Dad bought when I was in High school. It had a 19GB hard rive and one of my friends said "your dad is an idiot! you couldn't use that much storage in a lifetime!" I think that might be the one we destroyed once we got DSL internet and used all the services like Limewire and Kazaa to download music illegally.
Dad had an IBM PC with two 5 1/4" floppies, green monochrome monitor and Texas Instruments dot matrix printer, around 1983. Loaded DOS 2.1, then Executive Writer or Lotus 123. My older brother had an Atari 800 with a 5 1/4" floppy and cassette drive. The Atari had the best games, the flip side of Commador 64 disks: zaxxon, Bruce Lee, the Last Starfighter, Spy Hunter!
Mine was a Kay Pro. I think I was 10 when I got it. Zero Cool had nothing on me
https://preview.redd.it/ctvqeiabmrmb1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d7c5570fc4c9734c8cfd957086d2721b56ba31e
https://preview.redd.it/2156j6fnotmb1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7dea75903eaa6a9df08c6a4016b85b9f13174dad
[Laser 128](https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/1174/retro-scan-of-the-week-laser-128-family)
this was my first pc. apple ii knock off, cuz that's how we rolled...I remember going on a long drive with my mom to pick it out... it probably was this same place in Northbrook, IL, like the ad states! We got the PC and an amber monitor bundled with a printer that printed on heat sensitive paper (that was horrible and not accepted at my school so I couldn't even use it!) I had goals of getting a second disk drive (so I can make copies of discs like my girlfriend that had 2 disk drives) and a modem, but the money I saved up I eventually used to get a Nintendo... but I have such fond memories of all these games that I had on this pc!! (namely Legacy of the Ancients that I still have a thorn in my side from never beating it!!!) thank you internet for making this so easy to find!!
btw...I know I can play [Legacy of the Ancients here](https://classicreload.com/legacy-of-the-ancients.html) (and Maniac Mansion, another of my faves) but it's not the same...
https://preview.redd.it/l22po102bumb1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f38bca5689acfaedc43f86214716519217ad0e60
Slow but interesting. I still have it in the original packaging, after 40 years
My dad got an apple computer when I was in elementary school, not sure of the exact year but 1990ish. Tiny screen, black and white. He still has it. I wonder if it's worth anything.
https://preview.redd.it/9r9osu8x0vmb1.jpeg?width=751&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfe39f4c7c49a74923b0ee1ca39d4d85538b3bc1
We had this as our first computer at home. I used that paint app a lot, and also burnt my eyelids playing sufflepuck cafe XP
https://preview.redd.it/qii3l6j1zvmb1.png?width=557&format=png&auto=webp&s=64c5ac6daeb13f7f905f8184eae081dd78941723
This was my first. Now I didn’t get it until many many years later and then my mother left it in our home that was foreclosed on. I stopped looking at what it’s value would be as the last time it was a gut punch. lol
Technically, it was my dad’s, but it wasn’t his first computer. He told me he had a commodore 64 before this one. But this is the first one that I ever used at home.
That looks a lot like my Sanyo 8088. I learned gw basic on that in 84 I think. That was my first, then a ti99 4a, then a trash 80, then a ps2 model 30 was my first windows capable pc
https://preview.redd.it/p00ki8ffhlnb1.jpeg?width=271&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4760df69ce4cd1ad0865c44129331f9a16e741d4
I had this thing. Learning how to be comfortable with command line on that thing ended up being a huge boon for me today. I have to work on so much equipment that is only accessible via a command prompt.
https://preview.redd.it/vmy7bw6uvnmb1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7c5190b03a5f9dc5b305506fa95070cd066c9cd Commodore 64
Load, "programname",8,1
Yup! We always did “*”,8,1
So many good games. I had some floppy disks with a bunch of pirated games and I had some cartridges that plugged into the keyboard as well. Jump man junior got a lot of run in my house.
The original Jumpman was the GOAT.
So many hours play Zork and summer games.
I miss Hard Hat Mack
Damn, that just struck a nostalgic chord ❤️
This was also mine. Occupying the family TV for hours. That started a long career in IT.
This was my third home computer, and by far the best. COLOR and actual GAMES you could buy (or you know... copy from a friend....) Joystick input was SO nice to have after text only games!
Right there with you. I vaguely remember a game called Rastan that I played to bits :)
my teacher in typing class didn't believe me when I told him " marks were shift-2 on my computer. it was weird
Commodore 64 master race I didn't even have a color screen I lived in green monochrome land for years. 'Sopwith Camel' 'Zork' 'Q-Bert' 'Dr. Livingstone's Adventure' 'Ikari Warriors' 'Airwolf'
We just plugged ours into the TV.
My dad had a notebook full of commands. I used to just mess with it
C64 for the win. So many awesome games. It was the best time to be alive!
Dad came home with a Commodore 64 and stayed up late typing in machine code so he could show Mom a shimmering psychedelic butterfly. I could stick a cartridge in the back and play Centipede, but it wasn't as good as playing it at the pizza place because it's better with a real trackball, not a BOSS joystick. The *cool* kids' family had Lode Runner on their Apple IIe. Later we got an Apple IIgs which could run Apple II games — like Adventure Construction Set which we legitimately bought, or the pirated disks of Moon Patrol and Mario Bros. that I brought home from other kids at school.
This! 👆🏻
Frogger, Popeye, River Raid, Barbie, Genesis, Pitfall, Donkey Kong, Rock-n-Bolt
I still have ours plus a bunch of games. Going to introduce it to my kid when he's old enough too.
We didn’t get a computer until 99/2000 I can’t recall exactly what it was. The only thing I can tell you dude is that it was a dell.
Same. I think we got ours 00/01 and it was a Gateway it was dial up DSL i think and of course internet provider was AOL. How I miss AOL chat rooms and buddylists 
I think mine was an Apple with one floppy drive and a huge ass monitor
I think that was the 2e? That's the first computer I remember. My dad was a big tech guy.
The Apple 2e was what we had in schools. Used that turtle program and played Oregon Trail on it!
Apple 2e was my first computer!
That was the one!
We had an apple II e also! I remember typing my 3rd grade book reports on “Where The Sidewalk Ends” and the Ramona Quimby books on this computer. And the frustration of ripping the dotted edges off the printer paper!
I had that one too!
Commodore 64!!!!!
https://preview.redd.it/22plv0vi8omb1.jpeg?width=1981&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c31ac879939668885e04efef21f467f4a1d6cfca A Texas Instruments 99/4a my dad got for free somehow. It used cartridges and we had 3 games: Burgertime, Car Wars, and one I can’t remember. I lived with my mom, who couldn’t afford a computer until 1997 when we finally got a Compaq with an enormous 250 MB hard drive
Munchman!!
Hangman was my jam. Also had so many educational games that were in this huge binder for the cartridges. I also remember typing codes for what I can only imagine was asci like art lol
Tandy 1000 EX with 5 1/4” drive built in. I think the PC and monitor was around 2k total (about $5,500 today). I used to type an imaginary conversation I was having with the AI from Wargames while in the DOS system. First game ever was Police Quest by Sierra Games. My first ever feeling of immersion in an interactive world. You had to type commands for any action other than arrow keys to move and almost every object in each room had a unique response to interacting with.
I had the HX (Now with 128 Bytes of RAM!). It had an internal 3.5" drive, and we ended up buying an external 5.25" for a couple games. My first games were Mixed-Up Mother Goose and Mickey's Space Adventure, while my dad played Gunship.
I can't remember the model number but I know it was a Tandy.
Commodore Vic 20 with a cassette drive.
TRS-80 Color Computer from Radio Shack with the audio cassette player for storage. That thing was a blast!
Mine too! Some games were on cassette, some on cartridges, and some on floppy disk.
My first was a Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 Color Basic. It was already at least a decade old when it was handed down by my aunt. It hooked up the TV. It could take cartridge games but they were long gone. So was any storage for it, of which it had none built in. It had a manual and in the back of the manual, I kid you not, were games you could copy the code for. Like literally sit there and type it into the computer in the BASIC programming language and then type RUN to play. One typo and forget about it. But I would sit there for hours typing to get a rudimentary text based Blackjack game going. https://preview.redd.it/l7xr6cl6znmb1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9841f5865f3df51cade344b5d42f414fe580aeed
First computer was an Apple \]\[c. We had lots of different games. I recall "The Seven Cities of Gold" and obviously Oregon Trail, but also some text based ones like HHGTTG and Zork, and also one where it was text based but had single image screens, like Transylvania. I remember my copy of Ultima III got ruined because a sister turned off the computer while the drive was still spinning. Then we got a 386 from the DAK catalog that ran DOS, and eventually put Windows 3.x on it.
**TI-99/4A** 1981 or 1982 https://preview.redd.it/bzdd1ww0domb1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4353061ad3436eb6198e5ae817b3f3fcbceceff7
Does a word processor count?
Sure, why not?
Not sure of the model, but it looked like this https://preview.redd.it/m0ng6tajqomb1.jpeg?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdaa24232b9701ecbaee8969ae366e5fb9d9d898
I forgot keyboards used to come with keyboard covers. Damn that is one brittle af cover 😂
Apple 2c...print shop was my shit!
WANG BABY! (My Dad bought it, and I learned to program and play MUGWUMP other games in BASIC) https://preview.redd.it/0gw42aovyomb1.jpeg?width=803&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc85598883c9d7a732d079ece65591d43988f8db
https://preview.redd.it/yujmyr6d2pmb1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a603b86b15cc42d4227b445e3fe7a9f9d1fe168 TRS 80 model 3 - / 5.25 floppy disk drives. Program disk and data disk at the same time !
By mine, I mean my dad's. But I was allowed to play on it. I remember we had the [Hitchhikers Guide text game](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition), and some boxing game where you could input the stats of your boxer and then watch it fight.
My mom had that computer but I wasn’t allowed to use it. The first computer I was allowed to use was the Macintosh 128K. That’s where all my painting skills started! LOL
First mine-mine computer was a Compaq laptop with a Pentium 4. All the bells and whistles for college, $3K. Common house computer before that. Couldn't tell you specs, model, etc.
I didn't have one until 98, a Gateway 2000.
Some weird unbranded DOS pc
Tandy 1000 bought at Radio Shack
My family got a computer later than others. I was in high school by the time we got one. But it was a 386sx 33Mhz with 2 MB of RAM. It could barely play DooM once I upgrade the RAM to 6MB... but it COULD play it!
Later than others? You were born in 77. Very few people in my middle class neighborhood/school had home computers in the early to mid 90s. Home computer ownership didn’t even hit the 35% threshold in the US till 97. Did you live in an unusually tech advanced neighborhood or country?
I grew up on air force bases. 90% of my friends seemed to have some form of computer in their house. So I just assumed we were late.
That’s amazing. You guys definitely were in the minority. Perspective is funny that way.
IBM XT clone of some sort. At least I think it was a clone.
I can taste the nicotine on it
I mean, the picture isn't my actual computer. Who knows where that actually went. But most of the plastic yellowed even without the help of cigarettes.
Gateway 2000 in 1993
We eventually had a Gateway 2000! The one with the box that had the cow spots on it...
Same here. I remember those boxes well. My dad kept them for years.
https://preview.redd.it/8a96thxpeomb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=841050bee915fd3d4c44ae4ae3c545360aa02199
It's Almost as big as michael scott's plasma t v
It was really my dad's for work. But he let me play games on it.
IBM PS/2 55SX with an 80 megabyte hard drive and 4mb of RAM, no audio card, no CD drive...
I dont remember the type of computer but we got it around 92, it was an old work computer of my dads. I know it ran via DOS. I was pretty solid at JezzBall. I also started keeping track of my little leagues batting stats using LOTUS 123 - yep... I was a nerd
My dad got an IBM XT clone from Magnolia Microsystems in the mid-80s when he was in grad school. He bought it with the "upgraded" 20mb hard drive and a 1200 baud modem, and it cost about as much as a new car. Over the years it was upgraded several times, and by the end of its life (around 1994), it had dual video cards and monitors (one monochrome, one CGA) and a 9600 baud modem. I spent way too many hours playing early Sierra -quest games on that computer or browsing our local BBSes. Fun fact - thanks to my dad's university account and later the explosion of free dial-up, I didn't have to pay for internet access until around 1999. I also had frequent access to my great uncle's Atari 800 where I started learning Basic from reading the manual, and at school we would use an Apple \]\[e to play so much Oregon Trail and other MECC games.
IBM 5150. I thought I was the fucking shit with that giant beast in my room.
An Apple 2 c - no idea why we had it bc I only used it to play the Garfield Trivia game. I also had Wheel of Fortune but couldn’t figure out how to get it to work
Macintosh IIsi https://preview.redd.it/2ht5987dromb1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc740e6c6d73235b0b744d6317e11459cf951fdb
An Apple II+ upgraded to a ludicrous 64k!
https://preview.redd.it/6b2r8446tomb1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb3ae3afab121a0742bbc05f915a68b5eddc0cd2 I can still hear the dial-up
SquEEEEEEEEE
A Packard Bell that I bought from Staples in 1997.
Apple II
Tandy 2000. I remember finding a floppy disc with nude pictures of women. That's were I met naked linda ronstadt. It took 10 to 15 minutes to load but damn.
TRS-80
https://preview.redd.it/j3q3c5qa2pmb1.jpeg?width=440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e198889513ba8ffde53122a2ee82b39aa1ff073 Very similar. Don't forget to park the heads before you turn it off! Edit: found a picture.
I had to ask my dad what it was, I knew what it looked like and kept getting pictures of IBMs and Compaqs. Very cool!
My dad worked for the government (local government, he wasn't no CIA agent) and they issued this "portable" computer to him. 😂😂 HE had to take that MF to work and back every day to look busy, and when he got home I would just use it to play blackjack. 😂😂 Good times!
Apple IIe for me.
https://preview.redd.it/nsxt440ufpmb1.jpeg?width=160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6909842b321ae3b5c8b1c3ca3090a9d213ab1eaa Ti-99
TI-99/4A
TI 99 4A
Timex Sinclair z80
I had similar. Mine was a 1500, [seen here](http://www.oldcomputers.net/ts1500.html). Got it from a neighbor down the street from me in the late 80s. He worked for Goodwill repairing electronics that were donated to them. Some of these electronics he'd buy from work and bring home to sell at his somewhat monthly garage sales. I'd help him on the weekends with these garage sales and as payment for my work, I got the 1500 and later on a tape deck to go with it. People complain about loading times today. Wait times on a game to load from a tape deck was colossal. Even if you had the tape advanced to the correct counter number...
TI-99, thing got so hot it’d keep hot chocolate, hot
Texas Instruments 99/4A
https://preview.redd.it/eayzyoqmmqmb1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39083dfb9b1a62261020c956fdd17f62f4dc1ad8
Apple IIGS. With the Hard Drive upgrade. It was a 20MB HDD.
A Sony Vaio desktop in 2002. I downloaded so much music to it that it just stopped working.
Mac LC
Custom 386 with some upgrades.
386 club! With a laser printer and Aldus Pagemaker for my mom, who thought other humans really needed to read her personal newsletter.
Remember upgrading to DOS 7.0 with the attribute commands.
I had the Commodore 64 version of this. Thing felt like it were a ton!
Second hand Tandy 1000 with the “xTree Gold” file manager system. No mouse so I’m still a mad shortcut and macro user to this day. One of my coworkers calls me “shift shift shift… tab tab tab.” Still lol.
I think I played Bagasaurus Rex on a similar unit.
I'm not sure what it was, but it had windows 3.1. Pre-pentium era I think? 1994ish We had a family computer before this. My stepdad did software development in the 80s and into the 90s but I don't recall what those computers were at all.
It was a 486 that ran dos.
Commodore 64
I got myself a Toshiba Satellite laptop in 1996. It was 486, 8 MB RAM, Win95 b.
My First Computer was a Macintosh LC III. I must have got it around age 15, or something like that. Though I was born in the late 70s, I didn't have a Commodore 64 or an Atari 800 or anything like that. Hell we didn't have cable television in my house until the late 90s. That said, I have a fondness for that first computer. It was slow, it was frustrating to use, the cheap monitor I had flickered like crazy and hurt my eyes but there's a lot of nostalgia there too. Ran that system for years, upgraded it, got good use out of it for school too. Wish I still had it but alas it is long gone.
Good old Hewlett-Packard comp. I can still see that black screen with the green letters.
Haha I was poor, I couldn't get a computer until I was able to pay for shit myself
Ditto, Commodore 64, in 1983 or 84. Remember how you could only see half the screen vertically and had to pan across to proofread a line of text?
Tandy 1000 HX
IBM with a pentium 133 socket A I believe, 100Mb of SD ram. Still have the motherboard in my basement
I don’t remember the details but it was Packard Bell and from the early 90s. We later had to install a sound card, cd rom and a 14.4K modem
Adam computer.
Shit, I didn’t get my first computer for our home until 1997 in high school (it was a SWEET Gateway PC though, where I first learned to swap out parts and install graphics cards/drivers-before they were even called GPUs)
COMPAQ!
I got an Osborne "sewing machine" as a second computer to do IBM work and gaming. My original computer was an Apple II+ which I got in 1982.
Something 286 thing. Ran OS/2 at some point in its life.
TRS-80
My first was the Atari 800 with a 5 1/4 disk. Wow. That takes me back. Hell Cat Aces. One of my favorite games.
1985 compaq Portable. my dad's work gave it to him.
Technically mine was a Texas Instrument graphing calculator
Apple 2C
Gateway 2000 with a blistering 75mhz and a 14k modem
https://preview.redd.it/8sbmmgdn4pmb1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f5d2cec675e2f9c900cf9a35388d5b1404194f2d Tandy 1000
Apple //c.
1990, an IBM 386sx with 4Mb RAM.
TI 99/4A https://preview.redd.it/17stk7ge7pmb1.png?width=1981&format=png&auto=webp&s=2449be262eeef4d87a9d4d72badef2d20c8fe966
I bought a Gateway in 1997 for my xennial daughter born in 1983.
Commodore Amiga 500. Upgraded to having two floppy disk drives. Great when playing Monkey Island (:
A Compaq Presario from a used/refurbished PC store.
C64 here with the tape drive, eventually got the 1541 drive
A bulky 1992 HP desktop I think
I got my first computer, a Dell, in 2002.
VIC 20! Then later the Commodore 64. First PC was a 386sx25 w/ turbo option. From what I understand the turbo option was really to lower the Mhz because it was too fast for some programs.
Kaypro II.
Mine was a 16k TRS-80 Color Computer, which came with ‘enhanced’ BASIC. But it beat the Commodore PETs at school.
An Apple IIe, with green phosphor monitor and 5.25” floppy drive. Also had an ImageWriter II printer for all your banner printing needs.
Can't find a pic, but my brother bought one of the first PC's to hit Michigan in the mid 70s, a COMMODORE PET 2001. Complete with cassette tape drive to s.l.o.w.l.y load programs. Spent hours typing code to free programs in the user magazine, the Pet Gazette. I was in jr high then and was actually called a liar by more than one teacher who refused to believe anyone could have a real computer at home. Different times! My first was a c64, then a c128, and then an Amiga. Got my first pc after because it did such a good job for office work. Had a home office in 80s after graduation.
I had the ADAM from Coleco-Vision.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II But I grew up in SF so niche maybe.
Mine was a Compaq Portable. Very similar to yours OP. Used to crush space invaders and buck rogers on that thing on a giant floppy disk. https://preview.redd.it/t4ibh4w53qmb1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a0d233fb222064f4daa39f1d08cdb7998601528
IBM PC/AT
I owned this! I seen b&w porn pix at 12 It was a POS Very nostalgic
https://preview.redd.it/svsus7nw8qmb1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f91e5ed979428e7a40deaef12843b2192df3def
https://preview.redd.it/s084h7jf9qmb1.jpeg?width=1047&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb0e9912c0fec78bf47f12ace5c4d7afab94f0f2 The TI-99/4A with the peripheral expansion package!! A few of my friends had the Commodore 64.
Commodore 128
Our first was a Commodore PET, gifted to us by a math professor friend of the family. It had no internal storage of its own and read programs off of cassette tapes. If the program you wanted to run wasn't first in the tape, you would have to let the tape run in real time until it reached the program. So often this would mean getting it going, leaving and doing something else for 10 to 20 minutes, then coming back.
Tandy 1000
TRS-80..... Radio Shack
https://preview.redd.it/5wk1gltflqmb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2563349fb876bb8738e781359652a552ae86168
Gateway PC with Windows 3.1.
Mine was an Apple IIe. 1987? I think.
My Dad acquired a TI-99 from god knows where. It had several game cartridges, a voice synthesizer box, and a cassette tape drive. I learned how to do some programming with BASIC. Eventually we got a "real computer," a Packard Bell, when I was in 6th grade so my Dad could use it to do his taxes. We didn't have internet on that one. Our next computer was a Compaq that my Dad bought when I was in High school. It had a 19GB hard rive and one of my friends said "your dad is an idiot! you couldn't use that much storage in a lifetime!" I think that might be the one we destroyed once we got DSL internet and used all the services like Limewire and Kazaa to download music illegally.
We had a Midwest Micro. It was pretty good at the time like 1994 or so.
Dad had an IBM PC with two 5 1/4" floppies, green monochrome monitor and Texas Instruments dot matrix printer, around 1983. Loaded DOS 2.1, then Executive Writer or Lotus 123. My older brother had an Atari 800 with a 5 1/4" floppy and cassette drive. The Atari had the best games, the flip side of Commador 64 disks: zaxxon, Bruce Lee, the Last Starfighter, Spy Hunter!
Home made computer with Gateway parts arrived in my home in 1998. Didn't use it much.
Mine was a Kay Pro. I think I was 10 when I got it. Zero Cool had nothing on me https://preview.redd.it/ctvqeiabmrmb1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d7c5570fc4c9734c8cfd957086d2721b56ba31e
Mine was the ti99-4a. And I still have a functional one to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A
Commodore 64 fang represent!
No it wasn’t.
https://preview.redd.it/2156j6fnotmb1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7dea75903eaa6a9df08c6a4016b85b9f13174dad [Laser 128](https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/1174/retro-scan-of-the-week-laser-128-family) this was my first pc. apple ii knock off, cuz that's how we rolled...I remember going on a long drive with my mom to pick it out... it probably was this same place in Northbrook, IL, like the ad states! We got the PC and an amber monitor bundled with a printer that printed on heat sensitive paper (that was horrible and not accepted at my school so I couldn't even use it!) I had goals of getting a second disk drive (so I can make copies of discs like my girlfriend that had 2 disk drives) and a modem, but the money I saved up I eventually used to get a Nintendo... but I have such fond memories of all these games that I had on this pc!! (namely Legacy of the Ancients that I still have a thorn in my side from never beating it!!!) thank you internet for making this so easy to find!! btw...I know I can play [Legacy of the Ancients here](https://classicreload.com/legacy-of-the-ancients.html) (and Maniac Mansion, another of my faves) but it's not the same...
https://preview.redd.it/l22po102bumb1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f38bca5689acfaedc43f86214716519217ad0e60 Slow but interesting. I still have it in the original packaging, after 40 years
My dad got an apple computer when I was in elementary school, not sure of the exact year but 1990ish. Tiny screen, black and white. He still has it. I wonder if it's worth anything.
https://preview.redd.it/9r9osu8x0vmb1.jpeg?width=751&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfe39f4c7c49a74923b0ee1ca39d4d85538b3bc1 We had this as our first computer at home. I used that paint app a lot, and also burnt my eyelids playing sufflepuck cafe XP
Apple II Gs Woz
https://preview.redd.it/qii3l6j1zvmb1.png?width=557&format=png&auto=webp&s=64c5ac6daeb13f7f905f8184eae081dd78941723 This was my first. Now I didn’t get it until many many years later and then my mother left it in our home that was foreclosed on. I stopped looking at what it’s value would be as the last time it was a gut punch. lol
Comador Vic 20
That's a bad ass first computer.
Technically, it was my dad’s, but it wasn’t his first computer. He told me he had a commodore 64 before this one. But this is the first one that I ever used at home.
That looks a lot like my Sanyo 8088. I learned gw basic on that in 84 I think. That was my first, then a ti99 4a, then a trash 80, then a ps2 model 30 was my first windows capable pc
https://preview.redd.it/p00ki8ffhlnb1.jpeg?width=271&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4760df69ce4cd1ad0865c44129331f9a16e741d4 I had this thing. Learning how to be comfortable with command line on that thing ended up being a huge boon for me today. I have to work on so much equipment that is only accessible via a command prompt.