First computer tales
- Thread starter qwerty
- Start date
Yep, those were terminals connected to AEA "computers" in the base cities (ours was in Davenport). 1980-82 ish. You are correct, initially there was no screen, only dot matrix printout.
Mom would bring home this in the 80's to do some work on and we got to play games on it when she wasn't using it. Used the Apple II's and IBMs at the library or school. We never owned a computer until after I went to college. First one I bought for myself was around later 2001. Don't remember the brand.
The first computer I actually purchased for myself had Windows ME on it. Damn that was so bad. Upgraded to XP as soon as I could. I remember buying the student version of XP or whatever at the ISU bookstore. not sure if I legally could have done that since I was a few years out of college or not. Maybe it was cool and I'm just misremembering things.
I got my first computer my freshman year at ISU. My Dell was the envy of my dorm floor with a 10.4GB hard drive, 64MB RAM and 17" flat screen monitor. This was the late 90s, so "flat screen" meant the screen was flat, but it was about 20" deep and weighed approximately 50lbs.
Windows 95 at least I think for me. I don't remember much else about it since I was 7. Got the Internet in 2nd grade and only had 2 friends on ICQ - my buddy and a girl he knew.
I played a lot of all those early games, I remember playing SkiFree not understanding that you can't ever avoid the Abominable Snowman and getting pissed.
I played a lot of minesweeper growing up and actually just downloaded the mobile app version a couple weeks ago. MinesweeperGo with the app pic being a flag is the version I have - can play the regular 3 difficulty levels, competitively or do a campaign.
I played a lot of all those early games, I remember playing SkiFree not understanding that you can't ever avoid the Abominable Snowman and getting pissed.
I played a lot of minesweeper growing up and actually just downloaded the mobile app version a couple weeks ago. MinesweeperGo with the app pic being a flag is the version I have - can play the regular 3 difficulty levels, competitively or do a campaign.
I remember using Apples at work in the early 90's, but I didn't own one myself until around '96 I bought an Apple Performa something-something. I remember being part of a test neighborhood for Douglas County Cablevision's fiber-optic internet service at that time. It spoiled me for a long while. My hardware was definitely the limiting factor. I never had anything to rival it until recently getting Metronet.
Had the various Apple II's at the elementary school, but could just sign up for a time to play Oregon Trail and stuff on them.
When Texas Instruments introduced the TI 99/4A and then shortly after Commadore introduced the VIC-20 the two entered a price war. My dad got a 99/4A for our household at a deep discount. Great machine for the time. I learned BASIC on that machine. Later it got replaced with an 8088 machine that I continued learning basic with.
First computer I bought for myself was when entering ISU. Built a 486, 66 mhz. Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. Learned a ton about network setup through ISU's ethenet connection to each dorm room. Learned about having to set hardware interrupts, etc.
When Texas Instruments introduced the TI 99/4A and then shortly after Commadore introduced the VIC-20 the two entered a price war. My dad got a 99/4A for our household at a deep discount. Great machine for the time. I learned BASIC on that machine. Later it got replaced with an 8088 machine that I continued learning basic with.
First computer I bought for myself was when entering ISU. Built a 486, 66 mhz. Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. Learned a ton about network setup through ISU's ethenet connection to each dorm room. Learned about having to set hardware interrupts, etc.
First PC purchased: 8086. First job I was hired to get all the data off an obsolete, unsupported, CADO computer with proprietary everything. I built a printer cable to make the Cado think the IBM PC was a printer and printed the one report that had everything in it. Saved the entire company.
Not long after, my requirements were always more than box stores could provide. Been building my own (including servers) ever since.
Not long after, my requirements were always more than box stores could provide. Been building my own (including servers) ever since.
I think my uncle had one of those. Did you save things to a cassette tape instead of a floppy disk?
There was a floppy disk peripheral option and a cassette tape deck option. My family had the tape deck option. There were many different peripherals available and the machine had a neat way of connecting them where you'd plug one in to the machine, then plug the next one into the first, and keep daisy-chaining them together. At a certain point it would be too wide for most desks. There was a peripheral box (can't recall what they called it) that let you plug stuff into the box and set the machine on top of the box. Well after TI stopped supporting them 3rd parties were developing support and adapters with the box so a person could use a hard drive for storage.
There is the floppy disk drive next to the modem which is on the far right.
Back in the day, I had a manager (engineering). He always had a CRT in the corner of his desk. I noticed he never turned it on during our reviews.
One weekend I went to a furniture store (Home Furniture in Ames), and ask if I could use one of their cardboard desktop mock/up.
I waited until our manager went for he hourly smoke breaks and swapped it out.
It took that putz, two weeks (give or take), to realize it.
One weekend I went to a furniture store (Home Furniture in Ames), and ask if I could use one of their cardboard desktop mock/up.
I waited until our manager went for he hourly smoke breaks and swapped it out.
It took that putz, two weeks (give or take), to realize it.
Ahhh, the great era when you could download anything before the laws caught up to what was happening.
I had the TI-99/4A as well. During the price wars my dad got us it at a great price. We had the big box for periferals though. This is the setup we had.
Family got TRS80 in '81. Was pretty much a paper weight. Didn't game but did my first programming in BASIC.
