Feeling Old?

[StanAE86]

I was sitting here and starting thinking about how life was when the computer world was much smaller. Does anyone remember:

2400 baud modems
14.4 baud modems
300 baud modems

Dialing up to a "BBS" where we do basically what we do now on various "homepages", but at a slower and much more non-graphical manner

Apple II+ or IIe computers

When references to non-Apple computers was "and IBM based computer" versus "PC based computer"

That big orange power switch on the back/side corner of IBM computers

5.25" floppy disks

Green or amber monitors

The Macintosh commercial (a la George Orwell's book, 1984) that was shown during the Super Bowl

Choplifter

When 3D games were new - Dragon's Lair

When Attari still owned Chuck E. Cheese Pizza and they had all the best games and didn't have that stupid plastic ball thing kids jump and play in these days

10 print "StanAE86"
20 goto 10

run

:wink:

[RC45]

No comment... ;)

[BADMIHAI]

I still remember some of that but only because my mom is a computer engineer and has been for more than 20 years.

[graywolf624]

You guys are all youngins..

First computer I used.. trs 80.
First computer I personally owned.. comodore 64 with 300 baud modem.. yes you read it right.. 300 baud..

[BADMIHAI]

You guys are all youngins..

First computer I used.. trs 80.
First computer I personally owned.. comodore 64 with 300 baud modem.. yes you read it right.. 300 baud..

That's just because you're a ghetto banger. :lol: :wink:

[StanAE86]

My Apple II+ was during the same generation as the Commodore 64. I was rocking 300 baud back then too. My "upgrade" later was a Packard Bell computer with an 80286 cpu. That's a 286 and it was cutting edge fast at 12mhz. Storage capacity? 40MB harddrive. My computer ran on DOS and there was no such thing as Windows for another few years...and that was Windows 3.1.

My first game system was Pong by Colecovision... :lol:

[BADMIHAI]

My computer ran on DOS and there was no such thing as Windows for another few years



I still remember using DOS on my 286...later upgraded to a super-fast 486. 8)

[RC45]

I actually bought a NEW IBM-clone - one with the hotrod NEC-V20 8086 processor.. :P

That baby hummed at an awesome 8mhz... (we found a way to clock it up to 10mhz as well :)) and not only came with 640k of RAM, but had an upgarde option for an extra 384k of LIMS/EMS memory - to crack the 1mb barrier - IF you had the right software to use it.. ;) :lol:

[antonioledesma]

lets see. guys from 17 to 35 years, in countries were computers were more available. I'm 25 and I didn't really used a computer. only played a hotwheels game with a friend's computer, maybe IBM, and used a 5.25" floppy. That was way back in... 89-90.
Now the next time I saw a computer was a monocromatic (green) pc, again in a friend's house around 91.

then. in 94 in my school (Kids, don't touch or do anything we don't tell you), using windows 3.1. They treated us like retards (and we were)

computers stayed out of my life until the 96 when my dad (my parents are tech-idiots) decided we needed one (and we needed it, just imagine typing 35 pages of schools assignments, etc). A gigantic 1.2 GB HD, 16 MB of RAM, 166MHz, a whooping 16x cd-rom. A 28kpbs modem

just make the comparison of your lifes and mine :?

[RC45]

My computer ran on DOS and there was no such thing as Windows for another few years...and that was Windows 3.1.


I have been using Windows since Versoin 1.0 :)

Yep.. HP and Xerox used to ship a Runtime version of Windows 1.0 with the HP SCanJet I and Xerox Venturer Publisher DTP software - but that was only for real powerhouse Desktop Publishing uses... ;)

That baby had Notepad, Othello, Calculator AND Paint - as well as the Xerox/HP image viewing software.

If I dig around, I may even be able to find one of the drawings I made (of the then brand new 1989/90 Kawaski ZXR400RR) and a few scanned images... hehehe :D

[StanAE86]

I actually bought a NEW IBM-clone - one with the hotrod NEC-V20 8086 processor.. :P

That baby hummed at an awesome 8mhz... (we found a way to clock it up to 10mhz as well :)) and not only came with 640k of RAM, but had an upgarde option for an extra 384k of LIMS/EMS memory - to crack the 1mb barrier - IF you had the right software to use it.. ;) :lol:

Damn...8086? You got me. :lol: But you have to give me props for having had a Pong system...

[troskap]

OK, this is sort of going to date me here.

My first computer - an Atari 400, with a grand whopping 8K of RAM. How I remember learning how to program in Basic, just so I could get the text-graphics Defender game programmed in. And oh, the SPEED of that tape recorder drive - mmmm-hmmm, was that ever fast! Athlon 64, what? :)

Though the ancient computer up at the Uni that I played with once was the worst of the bunch, I think. You had to enter everything into the computer using punch cards....

[X-ale]

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
Released:............ June 1981
Price:.................. US$525 (without monitor) :arrow: that was a normal TV
CPU:................... TI TMS9900, 3MHz
Memory:.............. 16K RAM, 26K ROM
Display:............... Video via an RF modulator
........................... 32 characters by 24 lines text
........................... 192 X 256, 16 color graphics
Ports:.................. ROM cartridge (on front)
........................... Data storage cassette
........................... Audio/Video output
........................... Joystick input
........................... CPU bus expansion
Peripherals:.......... Speech Synthesizer
........................... Peripheral Expansion Box
........................... Data storage cassette
........................... 300 baud modem
OS:...................... ROM BASIC

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/ti-994a.jpg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cvanlan/994%20title.jpg

And Parsec was the name of the game :D

http://www.darkbasicpro.com.br/retro/imagens/52b.gif

Or a rip-off of Space Invaders... check out the 2 difficulty levels :twisted:

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cvanlan/994%20invaders.jpg

[graywolf624]

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
Released:............ June 1981
Price:.................. US$525 (without monitor) that was a normal TV
CPU:................... TI TMS9900, 3MHz
Memory:.............. 16K RAM, 26K ROM
Display:............... Video via an RF modulator
........................... 32 characters by 24 lines text
........................... 192 X 256, 16 color graphics
Ports:.................. ROM cartridge (on front)
........................... Data storage cassette
........................... Audio/Video output
........................... Joystick input
........................... CPU bus expansion
Peripherals:.......... Speech Synthesizer
........................... Peripheral Expansion Box
........................... Data storage cassette
........................... 300 baud modem
OS:...................... ROM BASIC

My old man had one of them too.. but he only let me use the trash 80..
still the guy with the oldest computer.. woohoo.. what do i win
lolj/k

[StanAE86]

Oh damn...punch cards and tape drives...that's old school.

Atari 400? I only remember the 2600.

[DMbaseball1604]

haha, well after reading a little bit..I just feel really young because I have no idea what some of you are talking about....my first computer had a 33.6k modem and a 2.0 GB hard drive..so I guess thats fairly old

[RC45]

haha, well after reading a little bit..I just feel really young because I have no idea what some of you are talking about....my first computer had a 33.6k modem and a 2.0 GB hard drive..so I guess thats fairly old

My first harddrive was a 10mb RLL drive... ;)

[Xploded]

well im kinda lost in some of the computer talk here as I didnt know alot back then I remember some of the older stuff back when I was in primary school all the old comps and that how much fun some of them where he he.

My first computer was a 486 so thats a fair while ago.

[possessed_beaver]

I`m 37, and my first PC was a AMD K6 2-450mhz wit 4,3GB harddrive........well....guess I was a slow starter ;-)

[possessed_beaver]

i can rember when 100mhz was fast and thats all :P

nah i can rember my 286, and i diden't have the internet.. i dialed into a bulleton board. and waiting a few hours to download games half a meg big...

*ahhhh* thoes where the days....

[StanAE86]

Looking at that picture of the TI cracks me up...it looks like it runs on an 8 track! :lol:

[graywolf624]

My first harddrive was a 10mb RLL drive...

you had a hd?
lol

And no im not entirely kidding.. my first 3 computers i was exposed too didnt have one.

[RC45]

My first harddrive was a 10mb RLL drive...

you had a hd?
lol

And no im not entirely kidding.. my first 3 computers i was exposed too didnt have one.

Well, it was a $1500 option I decided was worth it, as I had juggled dual 180k floppies on my unlce's computer, and it sucked.

Besides - 10mb was more space that the Library of Congress needed... ;) :lol:

[graywolf624]

Besides - 10mb was more space that the Library of Congress needed...

"no one will ever need more then 640k" (ram)- bill gates

[PaulGT2164]

i had several commodore 64/128s, most of which got mutilated and turned into a ping pong ball gathering robot for a high school competition years later

i hade a few old apples
i had a amiga
and a 8086, a couple 286s and 386s
i kinda skipped the whole 486 thing
i bought a 60 mhz pentium when they first came out with a 512mb HD, windows 3.11, 8mb ram for 2700 bucks, and had it for a while, i remember my friends gawking over it and saying things like "cold war russia didnt have that much power" and whatnot... lol
i sold a crap load of old compaq 486s last year i had from a service contract, the company finally upgraded and gave all those valuable machines to me heh

i used to have a p3 750 running at over a ghz overclock lol

ive prolly had over 40 different pcs in the last 15 years

[bradleykylenelson]

i remember back in the day when pong was one of the coolest games in the world. or those old text based adventures that had no grafics. the ones that were like:
"ye find yeself in a dungen. ye do not know how ye got there. there is a key on the ground and a blanket odvious exits are east and south.
what shall ye do?"
those were so freaking anoying. it gives me a headacke just thinking about them

[saadie]

this topic is fun to read .... remembring all the old actually kewl stuff ....

well .... i started wid a 286 lol ... it have a VGA too with TV output .. :D .. and the monitor supported 640X480 and was 14 inches ..... OS was DOS ... it was fun ... i still remember the old days ... :cry: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[SandyDingos]

I remember I used to have a huge collection of old computers in my basement. We had IBMs, Wangs, Compaqs. I matter of fact I still have 2 of the Compaq lunchbox laptops from way back when with there ugly amber monitors, those things had to weight 15lbs. I still have some instruction manuals that came with my ancient IBM that my dad bought when I was really little. I don't know what model it was but I just remember it had a green monitor which 2 black knobs on the right and the desktop unit had dual floppys and a annoying keyboard which used to have high pitched noises when you pressed the keys. Did anyone else have keyboards like that? Sometimes I think that the internet was sorta better back then....

[SFDMALEX]

My first was the Atari 65XE. That I had at quite a young age 6 or 5 and I played it alot. Then a 286, 386 came....I didnt even bother with those since I was programing the Atari at the time....then I had some other Atari for a short time......then came the uber super cuper puter the 486. And even when I had the 486 I spend more time on the Atari...

I was with the 386 for a long time. Higher stuff was availible but that stuff was way too expensive. All I had on it was Volcov.

[goose93]

i've been doing this since PC didn't have hard drives or cdroms. Everything was loaded on 5.25 flopy into ram.

My first computer though was a Mac (with the handle) and I used to get teased about how my computer used 2MB of memory to run my "stupid graphical interface". It even had a 10MB hard drive. I just laughed at teh PC guys with word perfect and batch files. I had a funtional Office package, built in network, and a mouse. I also had an authentic external hayes 2400 baud modem.

[EthanGilles]

Lol!

Looking this conviced me that i'm old

I had the Atari 2600 and my first pc was a Epson. It had the more weirdest OS (actually, you had to put the 5 1/4" disketts to make it run all the time)

I think i'll get the wheelchair later

Cheers

[chipanggo]

i can't remember the specs of my first computer as i really didn't care back then. i just remember playing king's quest and police quest on them. oh, and alley cat also.