Sit around the fire youngsters, while Cascade regales you with tales from the Dawn of the Computer Age.
Dad taught math and got selected to have "the computer" in his portable classroom - this was late 70s/early 80s. It was shoved into a small closet in the portable classroom.
Young Cascade recalls that the initial computer did not actually have a computer. You typed stuff in, it went via phone to the actual mainframe in Dubuque, then it responded. TBH I think it initially didn't have a monitor either, it just printed out "the screen" on a dot matrix. But not sure if I remember that right.
Later the school got Apple II, IIc, II+, IIe of course.
Dad finally got an Apple IIe for home. Upgrades included 2 floppy drives (for faster copying of files), amber monitor, and (the big splurge) 128 kilobytes of Ram. This would have basically been Alienware in 1984(ish). I think it cost right about $2,000, which frankly, was a fortune for a guy making about $20k a year at that time. It would be around $10k in todays dollars.
I think it was a great investment though. I learned how to program (AppleBasic!), how computers worked and thought, word processor, spreadsheet, and really fed my desire to learn. So it was great from that aspect.
And of course all the games. Super Star Trek (look it up), a text-based football game, Bagels, Oregon Trail. Later recognizable video games like OG Castle Wolfenstein, Lode Runner, Silent Service, Kareteka.
