I have an odd path before my first PC. Those were fun times. Anyone ever use the Sinclair or Aquarius. I never met anyone else who owned either one.

I have a working T/S 1000 in my shed. It has the serial port and 16K RAM expansion packs on it. I even have the original user's manual for the T/S 1000!

Later,
Sean

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Re: Re: My First Computers
By: Ron Lauzon to Davew on Sun Nov 08 2020 10:07 am

Davew wrote to All <=-

I jumped over the whole VIC-20, C-64, TI-99/4 era and started right in on th Univac 1100/80 in college.

The first computer I actually owned was a Sperry HT (IBM-XT clone with a hig clock speed). My college had a plan to
allow us to purchase computers on a payment plan.

That's cool! I had no idea that Sperry made PC compatibles. I Googled it and checked it out. Would have been pretty neat to own a personal computer with the Sperry name on it.

My first computer experience was on a TRS-80 Model III. But the first computer I owned was an IBM PCjr. Worst of both worlds: not as good at business software as the IBM PC, and not as good as games as a Commodore or Atari. But I learned a lot by trying to make things work.
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Re: Re: My First Computers
By: Michael Knapp to Ron Lauzon on Thu Jan 14 2021 05:00 pm

I jumped over the whole VIC-20, C-64, TI-99/4 era and started right in on th Univac 1100/80 in college.

The first computer I actually owned was a Sperry HT (IBM-XT clone with a hig clock speed). My college had a plan to
allow us to purchase computers on a payment plan.

That's cool! I had no idea that Sperry made PC compatibles. I Googled it and checked it out. Would have been pretty neat to own a personal computer with the Sperry name on it.

My first computer experience was on a TRS-80 Model III. But the first computer I owned was an IBM PCjr. Worst of both worlds: not as good at business software as the IBM PC, and not as good as games as a Commodore or Atari. But I learned a lot by trying to make things work.

My apologies for the over-quoting but whenever I see a TI-99/4a I jump at the opportunity to talk about it. I got my first one in 1982 (Christmas, I was 7). Even though it was a little lame, cartridges, 40-column display, it was still amazing! I spent too many hours learning the ins and outs of computers, dialing up BBSes and college VAXs and learning more and more. When I finally got my IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 a couple years later I was living the dream.

What it ultimately comes down to is what brought us our love for computers. If it wasn't for my father buying me that TI-99/4a, I wouldn't be where I am today (thanks Dad).
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Michael Knapp wrote to Ron Lauzon <=-

That's cool! I had no idea that Sperry made PC compatibles. I Googled
it and checked it out. Would have been pretty neat to own a personal computer with the Sperry name on it.

I liked it. I'm still looking for one (or at least the box to make into something but they are RARE).

But in college, our Sperry/Univac did not have a good reputation. During crunch week, your FORTRAN program would lose its parameters. If you did something like CALL FUNC(1,2,3), what FUNC got was 1, 2 and nothing that had anything to do with "3".

My first computer experience was on a TRS-80 Model III. But the first computer I owned was an IBM PCjr. Worst of both worlds: not as good at business software as the IBM PC, and not as good as games as a
Commodore or Atari. But I learned a lot by trying to make things work.

A lot of us had the same. I had to beg and borrow computer time when I
was in high school. Luckily we had some good teachers and when they got tired of us pushing the Commodore PETs in the computer "lab" to their limits,
they got us an account on the school's IBM mainframe doing FORTRAN.
(Until we got kicked off for trying to print out some "proprietary" program listings - not trying to change our grades or anything.)


... Got my Uzi, got some Scotch...let's go to Disneyland!
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Mine was also a TI-99/4a I had the entire Plato series and made my son
do one lesson a day to help him with his education. It had a terminal
emulator so I could make it talk computerese. I had a couple of game cartridges as well.

I subscribed to Boardwatch magazine so I could learn TI Basic.

Ah, the memories!
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My apologies for the over-quoting but whenever I see a TI-99/4a I jump
at the opportunity to talk about it. I got my first one in 1982 (Christmas, I was 7). Even though it was a little lame, cartridges, 40-column display, it was still amazing! I spent too many hours
learning the ins and outs of computers, dialing up BBSes and college
VAXs and learning more and more. When I finally got my IBM PS/2 Model
30 286 a couple years later I was living the dream.

Brian, the TI-99/4A was my first computer, as well. And, I also got mine on Christmas 1982 (I was 9) -- same morning! I have a photo of the system that I took with my Kodak Disc Camera, which I also got for Christmas that year.

https://is.gd/x0LzAC

I did a blog post that shows photos from '84 when it was a rather more
expanded system. Have a look:

https://bytecellar.com/2016/07/03/33-year-old-roll-of-film-offers-a-glimpse-of- my-vintage-computing-beginnings/
( short link: https://is.gd/GMKfnl )

A great machine. I still have a TI setup, in full, with 80-col F18a
expansion and a RPi 3 connecting it to the Internet (TIPIPeb). Pics of all
that can be seen in the gallery that's part of the first link posted above.

Cheers!

bp

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Brian, the TI-99/4A was my first computer, as well. And, I also got mine on Christmas 1982 (I was 9) -- same morning! I have a photo of the system that I
took with my Kodak Disc Camera, which I also got for Christmas that year.

A great machine. I still have a TI setup, in full, with 80-col F18a expansion and a RPi 3 connecting it to the Internet (TIPIPeb). Pics of all that can be seen in the gallery that's part of the first link posted above.

It was my first computer as well. I had 2 game cartridges, a terminal emulator, and the
entire Plato series of education floppies on 5-1/2 disks. I joined a Users Group and met
plenty of others that wanted to share their knowledge.

I subscribed to Boardwatch magazine and took time to copy endless lines of code just to
show a sprite moving across the screen.

Great memories!

My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 with a very slow modem. I purchased Wildcat DOS
version from Mustang Software and had 4 phone lines connected to it. I was able to
share my internet connection because one of the phone lines was on an auto-dialer to an
internet provider.

We've come along way since then!

Mike

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On 16 Mar 2021, Mike Dippel said the following...

It was my first computer as well. I had 2 game cartridges, a terminal emulator, and the
entire Plato series of education floppies on 5-1/2 disks. I joined a Users Group and met
plenty of others that wanted to share their knowledge.

Hi, Mike!

Have you checked out irata.online or cyber1.org? Both are running CDC Cyber emulators to make PLATO available again. A special comm program (or, I
suppose, a PLATO IV terminal) is required, but the Windows/Mac/Linux clients are available at both sites. Cyber1.org tends to focus on the history of
Plato, while irata.online tends to lean towards new development and microcomputer access, with Atari, Apple, TI-99/4A, Commodore, and other
clients available for download.

Jeff.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

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Mike,

My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 with a very slow modem. I purchased Wildcat DOS version from Mustang Software and had 4 phone lines
connected to it. I was able to share my internet connection because one
of the phone lines was on an auto-dialer to an internet provider.

My first PC was a Radio Shack TRS-80 MC-10 Micro Color Computer, with
the 16K RAM expansion pack. Programs were loaded and saved via cassette
tape, and I had a 300 baud modem that you flipped the switch to ANSWER
or ORIGINATE (the latter if calling a BBS, CompuServe, etc.) once you had loaded the software, then manually dialed the phone number. You'd "hang
up" once you connected. I had a portable TV as a monitor.

The next computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (then 102) laptop.
I found 2 programs in the Model 100 Special Interest Group when I was on CompuServe, that let you run a BBS on the Model 100...but you could only
run it at one baud rate (I chose 1200 baud). I no longer have those two computers, but the program is on the files area on my BBS.

For my birthday 29 years ago in 1992, a friend of my brother's (I
originally didn't know him) was an employee at Arkansas Children's
Hospital in Little Rock. They were getting rid of their old computers,
so I got it as a present. It was an 8088 XT, with a monochrome green
monitor (you could see the burn in), with DOS 3.2, a mouse, a 3.5"
and a 5.25" floppy drive, with 640K of RAM, and a 20 Mb hard drive.
That was the birthplace of The Thunderbolt BBS, running GT Power 15
on dial-up.

We've come along way since then!

Every time I look at the bulletin of the history of the BBS, it
brings back a lot of memories.

Daryl

... I finally got 8 hours of sleep. It took 3 days, but whatever...
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Blake Patterson wrote to Brian Klauss <=-

@MSGID: <6050BE1E.236.fidonet_classicc@caughtinadream.com>
@TZ: 003c
Brian, the TI-99/4A was my first computer, as well. And, I also got
mine on Christmas 1982 (I was 9) -- same morning! I have a photo of
the system that I took with my Kodak Disc Camera, which I also got
for Christmas that year.

https://is.gd/x0LzAC

I did a blog post that shows photos from '84 when it was a rather
more expanded system. Have a look:

https://bytecellar.com/2016/07/03/33-year-old-roll-of-film-offers-a-g limpse-of-
my-vintage-computing-beginnings/
( short link: https://is.gd/GMKfnl )

A great machine. I still have a TI setup, in full, with 80-col F18a expansion and a RPi 3 connecting it to the Internet (TIPIPeb). Pics
of all that can be seen in the gallery that's part of the first link posted above.

The memories...

I had the "white" unit, speech synthesizer, PEB, GRAM Kracker, two 5
1/4" half-height FDDs, and a memory expansion card in the PEB.

Those were the days.


Brian Klauss <-> Dream Master
Caught in a Dream | caughtinadream.com a Synchronet BBS

... The number you have dailed...Nine-one-one...has been changed.
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The first computer I used was a TRS-80 Model I Level II (It had been upgraded from Level I and had RAM added). My dad brought it home from his school
for the summer.

My school system had Commodore PETs, so I spend plenty of time on those
too.

But the first computer I actually owned was a Sperry HT. IBM-XT clone, but
ran at about double the clock speed. My college offered them on a payment
plan for students. Upgraded the RAM (to a full 640K!) and added a Hercules Monochrome Graphics card to it.


... Took an hour to bury the cat. Silly thing kept moving...
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