Do you remember what the first computer at your home was like?

[Perhaps]

??

[anxiouslondoner]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81

I don't know if you'd even call it a computer nowadays.
It had a minuscule 1024 bytes of RAM. That wouldn't even store a few paragraphs of text, not that you be writing any since there's no word processor and your fingers would have died trying to type on the terrible membrane keyboard.
It's only real use was as a calculator. It plugged into a TV and could generate 32x24 character text, UPPER CASE ONLY. When it was 'thinking' the screen went grey because it couldn't think and generate a TV signal at the same time.
Later we got an expansion to a massive 16,384 bytes of memory and could play games like 3D Monster Maze loaded from the family cassette deck. It was terrible but I loved it, though I really wanted the ZX Spectrum which I got a few years later. Thus starting my long obsession with these interesting machines.

[Jen.]

This was the first one I remember at home:



75MHz processor, 8MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive.

[Sunrise]

Complete with matching tape deck. I still have it at the back of a cupboard somewhere. I'm tempted to dig it out now for old times sake but I'm not sure I can be bothered with the 3-4 week wait it takes to load the games.

[Dougella]

I don't know the model or anything but it was definitely a grey box.

[choirgirl]

Don't know any specs, it was a grey box, on which we played paperboy and theme park, followed by the colossal Tiny computer, also a grey box, on which we played Tombraider. My dad apparently still has the first one. Sigh.

[BFG_]

One of those ones you played very basic game where the two paddles went up and down each side of the screen and the ball bounced between them.

After that a commodore 64 with tape deck.

[humphrey]

ZX81 with 16k ram add on.

I then progressed to a ZX Spectrum, the first ones with a membrane keyboard.

Then on up to a Commodore Amiga.

[biscuits]

Yes. It was a Hewlett Packerd something or other.

In the dial up days:

https://voca.ro/1kni4Qjey6vE

[biscuits]

Originally Posted by Sunrise

Complete with matching tape deck. I still have it at the back of a cupboard somewhere. I'm tempted to dig it out now for old times sake but I'm not sure I can be bothered with the 3-4 week wait it takes to load the games.

I’m imaging how gorgeous those keys sound when typing on them.

[Perhaps]

^^ Lol, damn!

Glad I found it on YouTube.

[Sunrise]

Originally Posted by biscuits

I’m imaging how gorgeous those keys sound when typing on them.

They had a very distinctive sound and feel, totally different to a modern PC keyboard. I imagine it would be really annoying trying to type properly on one, but as I was only about 7 when I used it that was never really a big concern.

[limey123]

I had a ZX Spectrum. It had a whopping 48k of memory

[Perhaps]

Originally Posted by The Devil, Probably.

I find watching old long plays of c64 / mega drive games strangely comforting.

I get the same feeling with NES games, even listening to the games music gives a beautiful feeling.

In general, I find peace in watching the TV shows/programs I used to like back in the day.

[biscuits]

Originally Posted by Perhaps

^^ Lol, damn!

Glad I found it on YouTube.

It's a chune, right!

[climber9]

A Sinclair Spectrum. I used to play Scrabble and The Hobbit on it.

After a couple of years I got the 128kB version - very advanced! The main game was Elite.

[Perhaps]

Originally Posted by biscuits

It's a chune, right!

It's adorable. xD

[Mike.Kzov]

I remember having dial up AOL internet, and how slow it was. Sometimes it would take like 5-10 minutes to load a single image!

The first computer we had was an old Gateway, with Windows 95. The monitor was massive and proper heavy, and it had a floppy disk drive. Truly a classic.

[anewyear]

Binatone TV game with the paddles and skeet gun
48k spectrum
Amiga A500
Amiga A600
Sega Saturn
PS2

Then handed the mantle to my son with his Xboxes and PSs

Can't beat something like Elite or even Daley Thompson's Decathalon lol

[MissKatie]

We had a Spectrum ZX, it was bought so I could do my homework on it apparently but all it was used for was loading a game for two hours, getting past the first screen into a crash haha

[Percy]

The green screen, i remember it well

[Gellerbing]

First computer I ever had was an amstrad Cpc 464 with a green screen

Loved playing oh mummy, dizzy and a simpsons game but I can't remember the name if it

[Sea]

Yes, it was an Acorn Electron and my favourite games were Chuckie Egg and Hopper My parents understood that computers were going to be a thing (which is surprising to me now, although actually I realise while writing this that my mum has always been open to new technology even though she would never admit it), and some neighbours' kids came round (cringe) and taught us how to put basic code into it. I recently found that Chuckie Egg is still available online and have been reliving my youth ever since!

[Azalea]

I had a BBCb and the best game ever - Elite

[Percy]

Originally Posted by Azalea

I had a BBCb and the best game ever - Elite

Elite.

[Marie8]

We had a Commodore Amiga (not sure the model). I remember playing Lemmings and Superfrog, those were my favourites and my sister and I fighting over whose turn it was! It was my cousins and my uncle gave it to us in the mid 90s. We then got their old windows 95 a couple years or so later.
The first PC my parents bought was a Windows 2000. I loved that, I remember spending hours on paint and choosing a screen saver. We had this Kellogs game we played on it with tony the tiger and other characters, I think we collected vouchers from cereal boxes and sent off for it. Also The Sims and all the expansions! And then of course using Internet for the first time.. fond, nostalgic memories of the dial up sound!

[gregarious_introvert]

Mine was a second hand system with 482Mb HDD and 4Mb RAM, 66Hz, running on Windows 3.11 - it came with a dot matrix printer.

At the time (1996), I asked the guy who was helping me (as I had even less idea then about tech than I do now) if I should get something internet-ready and was advised that I wouldn't need that for years. Two years later, I upgraded to something which, though primitive by today's standards, was more in line with modern spec and could actually get me online (I think it had 16Mb RAM and speed was in MHz, not Hz, can't remember the storage).

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