h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What was your first computer? When did you get it? Have you still got it?

ZX Spectrum, 48k. Purchased about 1982 IIRC. Now stored in a plastic bag in the loft (it doesn't work).

Amstrad home computer the one with built in cassette tape drive.

Then I had an Apple Macintosh LC with a Laser Printer.

First PC was a Qomaq Pesario.

Then I had a Connex.

Now have 2 PC custom PC Towers gave one to my stepdaughter it is set up in her room for when she comes to stay.

Compaq first Windows type PC

Was the Amstrad the Spectrum one with built in cassette drive? I think that came out when Spec was in its death throes?

It was about 1986/7 era

Apple ][+

48 K RAM
12 K ROM
5.25" floppy disk drive holding 128 K per disk
1 MHz processor (6502)

The computer was capable of supporting colour but I only had a black and white screen.

That lot cost me £1,500 in 1980.

First computer I ever used was a BBC B school computer it had Chucky Egg on it.

Used the Apple type computers at college 86 onwards first ones had black background on screen and green letters. Then the went black and white. The true colour VDUs.

then.........

Being a bit of a bifter I went to the school computer club, early 80s. They had mostly ZX81 then and the most popular games were Monster Maze and Flight Simulator. We thought this technology was phenomenal. The BBC computers were also used. One of the programs on the BBC was a turtle program where you would direct the turtle round the screen and it would leave a line wherever it went. I was fairly unimpressed by this but my mate nearly had an organism.

my first computer was a commodore 64... amazing. It had amazing games... on tape! . 'Mon the C64's

Sinclair ZX81 (in 1981 surprisingly enough)

Eventually took it to pieces and built a proper case for it with a real keyboard and bolted the whole thing down to a wooden baseboard to stop the 16kb ram card moving (a standard problem with the ZX81 - spend two hours typing - pick up a cup to take a drink, replace it on the table a little too hard and the connection between the ram card and the computer used to short - reseting the computer and wiping all your work.

My father used to sometimes borrow a BBC B from his work. The first one we had was a C64 though. Oh yeah, the tape games! Loading them for about 2 minutes with multi-coloured bars flickering on the screen before you could play. Then there were the multi-load ones, where you had to do this all the way through every time you reached a new level or something.

where they the ones with rubberised keys..............?

You had to be careful with the printer too. If you knocked the printer port you could kill your Spec! Local yobs (the 'hoodies' of the 80s) used to go to the computers at the local shops and stick their keys into the port to kill the Spec. I had my own trick. IIRC it went:

Print "Loading: Astral Attack"
Randomize USR 1331

When you RAN the prog it would make it look like the Spec was loading a game. This led to much confusion of sales staff who couldn't understand how the Spec was loading a game when there was no cassette in the tape recorder.

some kind of amstrad, the one that used tapes! its now long gone.

ZX81 1K

Still got it somewhere, not sure if it still works.

First computer I ever used was at age 2 when I had a Tomy Tutor Play Computer. Yep the one where you press the spacebar and it makes the beach scene animate. http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Tomy-Tutor-toy.htm

First proper computer I used was a few years later at nursery was a BBC Acorn Model B.
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First computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3

Probably not Orcus, they barely worked at the time

Went out with ark the cassette drives but some people like retro stuff.