First Loves....er...computers :)

[oddvark]

Seeing that there was already a First Loves...Language thread, I thought I might start a first loves...computer thread. Forgive me if this has been done already :)

My Path:
Commodore 64 -> Commodore 128 -> Commodore Amiga -> Mac ->IBM

My Favorite:
The good old Amiga

The second saddest day of my life:
When I sold my entire amiga system to buy a harddrive for my IBM :(

[James C. Smith]

The primary personally computers I use at home:
Atari 400 -> Apple ][+ -> Apple ][GS -> 386 -> Pentium II -> Pentium 4

Around the ][GS time I was coding on a 286 at work. My professional career has always been MS-DOS / Windows stuff but I did make some money off of my Apple ][ stuff with shareware and published magazine articles/programs. One of my programs made the cover of GS+ magazine.

[Ricardo C]

My collection's pretty boring:

8086 --> 386/33 --> 486DX/66 --> PII/200 --> PIII/500 --> Ahtlon/1.4

Favorite? They all suck :p

[Midnight Synergy]

Fun thread!

Mine? C-64 ---> Atari ST ---> 386 DX40 ---> Pentium 133 ---> Athlon 1 Gig.

Video consoles: Interton 4000 (wohoo!) ---> Atari 2600 ---> long silence ---> SNES (actually, my brother's) ---> N64 ---> GameCube

Favourite? Either C-64 or Atari ST. Both have real nostalgia associated with them, and I'm going through a nostalgia "all things 80s" phase. I've even recently become an avid reader of Retro Gamer. Plus, the DOS/Windows machines don't have any real personality, IMHO.

[PoV]

C64 -> 486 SX 33 -> 486 DX 66 -> P120 -> K6 233 -> K6-2 433 -> Athlon 1333 -> Athlon 2800+ -> P4 3400

Of course, the C64 was the best. :D

[bentlegen]

I'm all budget ...

C64 - 386/33 - 486 DX100 - Cyrix 686 (P166) - AMD K6-233 - Celeron P-466 - Athlon XP 1800+ - Centrino 1.6 (Laptop)

- ben

[Jim Buck]

TI-99/4a --> 386 --> Pentium --> Pentium III

[svero]

hmmm.. maybe i'll get the order wrong but anyway here goes...

ti99/4a -> apple 2e -> amiga500 -> various pc's from then on

[Duke]

ZX Spectrum -> Amiga 1200 -> P166 -> C300 -> Duron650 -> Athlon1500+ -> Barton 2500+

"**ck the rest Amiga is the best"

[Bluecat]

Apple 2e->Vic20->Amiga1000->386->486DX66 Notebook->Various Pentiums->Apple iBook

[FlySim]

IBM 3090 Mainframe -> SGI 4D/340 (?) -> SGI Indy -> SGI Indigo2 ->
SGI O2 -> various PC's...

Those old SGI's had some graphics for the day, but you paid for it - well school/work paid for them.

[Lerc]

With the good ones overlapping quite a lot of the others

TRS-80 -> PET -> ZX-80 -> CBM 8032 -> VIC 20 -> ZX-81 -> C64 -> C16 -> Amiga 1000 -> 286XT* -> Cyrix486-33 -> 486-99.

Somewhere after that things blurred. Lot's of CPUs, cases motherboards all PC.

Some others should be in there too. I own a few Amiga 500s and I have currently set up; an Amiga 1200 and a Dreamcast.

The pivotal ones were the TRS-80, C64 and Amiga 1000.

*The 286XT was a truly weird beast. It had a spike on the motherboard that the power supply impaled itself upon. The motherboard was for an 8086 and the 286 was on a card with a ribbon cable coming down and plugging into the slot where the 8086 would normally reside.
I eventually gave the 286 card to a friend after I had upgrading. We screwed up plugging in the 8086 connector and when we turned it on. One wire of the ribbon cable immediately turned black (not good). Off-power, turned it around and it was happy as larry.

[ManuelFLara]

I started really late into this :mad:
Celeron 300MHz -> P3 886MHz -> P4 2.6GHz

Although I was playing console games before getting my first PC:

NES -> SNES -> Nintendo64 -> GameCube + PlayStation (1! Just for dancing-games ;) ) + GBA SP

[James C. Smith]

The motherboard was for an 8086 and the 286 was on a card

I had one of those as my work computer for a while until I got upgraded to a real 286 that ran at a blazing 20 MHz.

[Vectrex]

personally I don't trust anyone who never had a Z80,6502 or 68000 ;) PC's had no reason to live before vga and 386's *ducks*

anyway...
various game and watch thingys -> atari 2600 -> amstrad cpc128 -> amiga 500 -> amiga 1200 -> 586 -> pII 233 -> duron 600 (running at 950 :) ) -> Athlon 1800+ -> athlon 2500+ -> laptop (pentium m 1.7)

learned how to program on Amstrad basic.
*best* amiga 500. Got me into making music and making 'proper' games (AMOS!)

[Diragor]

Same boat as ManuelFLara - I'm late to the game. The first computer I owned and actually used was a P75. A Packard Bell, no less :). Played around on TRS-80 (aka Trash 80), Atari 400/800 and Apple II in school but didn't really do anything with them. Went from buying my first computer to being a full-time programmer in 4 years - I dove in with both feet. :)

Also like Manuel, I grew up on game consoles:

Sears Pong machine -> Atari 2600 -> NES -> SNES + Genesis w/CD -> Dreamcast -> Playstation -> XBox

What I didn't own I played at somebody else's house: TurboGrafx 16, Odyssey II, Intellivision, ColecoVision (LOVED that machine), Playstation 2, many others. Only ones I can think of that I haven't spent much time with are the Gamecube and the Sega Saturn.

[Nonz]

TRS-80 -> Amstrad 464 -> Vic 20 -> C64 -> 8086 XT -> 286 -> 386 -> 486 DX/33 -> Cyrix 233 -> Duron 800 -> Athlon 2000 XP -> Athlon 2700 XP+

You'll have to forgive my faulty memory but I can't remember the clock speed on the 286 or 386 that I owned, I do remember that the XT was a blistering 8MHz with a humungous 10MB hard drive.

I've also owned a good dozen C64's over the years but always seemed to get tired of them and practically give them away, only to go out and buy yet another one. I think I'm over that now.

Personal favourite was the Amstrad. I got it when I first moved out of home and spent many an hour on it lost in games or reading the newly purchased Amstrad magazine (available on audio tape) while scoffing Crunch bars and downing litres of Coke. Made me the man I am today.

Fat!!

:D

Nonz

[lakibuk]

Homecomputers
Laser 210 -> C64 -> Amiga 500 -> PCs

Consoles
Creativision -> NES -> SNES -> N64 -> PS1 -> PS2 -> Gamecube

[luggage]

BBC Micro, Archimedes (a few different ones), 486, P120, P2:300, P3:800, P4:2Ghz

There was also a C16 and C64 in there somewhere.

Atari 2600, Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive, PS1, Dreamcast, GBA, PS2, Xbox

* Anyone else use an Archimedes? Now there was machine. I remember being annoyed it took about 3 seconds to reset - I can only dream of that now.

[Jack Norton]

C64->C128 (crap investment) ->386 ->486DX2 (great system, played lot of great games with it like Darklands, UFO, Wing Commander, etc) ->all the modern Pentium and Athlon...

[Triple_Fox]

Atari 800 -> 800xl/Packard Bell PC(probably a 286, I was too young to really know and it only did monochromish stuff) -> 386/33 -> 486/66(100 later) -> Pentium 1/133? -> P2/400 -> Athlon Thunderbird/1400(usually underclocked to 1050 because for the longest time I wasn't willing to deal with the heat issue properly) -> A64 2800+

The best? Either the 800 or 800xl of course. Late 1970s technology, a Jay Miner design that I've sometimes heard the C64 partially copied, and awesome classic games :) I've learned to like the Speccy, C64 and MSX through emulation but the 16-bit machines haven't gotten my heart yet.

I find 8-bit computer games incredibly inspiring....not because they're all that great - most sucked even by period standards - but because the games that were actually good tended to show passion and dedication from the developer that more modern titles can't match; the size of the team and the level of polish and manufacture blur out those signs of craftsmanship.

It was only in the late 90s that I slowly started to realize that increases in color depth and resolution, and the transition from synth chips to digital sound, meant the sudden and heavy influence of "pop culture" onto gaming. All scenes, characters, and sound effects now had to be either realistic or gratutuitously cartoony; similarly, all music had to be either orchestral or dance music. And I think that's what was really lost; primitive hardware gave developers the ticket to a nearly-full exploration of game concepts, but today's standards - and budgets - push us to go only in the most obvious directions. As an indie, I want to rediscover those less-traveled roads and exploit them as much for the benefit of gamers as for myself.

[AndyN]

Atari console (cant remember the model but it had a walnut effect dash :) )-> ZX Spectrum 48k+ -> C64 -> Sega Master System -> Amiga 1200 -> 8086 PC (Had a dodgy hard drive that stuck occasionally and I had to open it up and start it spinning again :/ ) -> 486 -> AMD K6-2 500 -> Athlon 1.7

And I use those 1.7 gigs of power to play Atari, Spectrum and C64 games so I'm going full circle.

[ggambett]

ZX 81 (age 2-4) -> ZX Spectrum 48+ (my first true love, age 5-10) -> 286/486/Pentium with That Other OS (age 11-17) -> x86 with Linux (age 18-now) -> Mac OS X (age 23-now)

I truly have a special love for the ZX Spectrum 48+... and a deep admiration to people that pushed the boundaries of the unbelievable limited hardware and software to make awesome games.

[Greg Squire]

Home machines

TI994a -> Atari 800XL -> IBM 386 -> 486 -> PII -> P4 -> iMac G5 (still have the last three and a couple of celerons for the kids)

My favorite is still the Atari 800XL (spent way too much time on that as a kid).

[Mike Boeh]

Astrocade->Intellivision->c64->amiga 500->amiga 1200->tons of pc's and a mac :)

My all time favorite was my c64 with the 1670 modem to download games.

[Linusson]

Intellivision -> C64 -> Amiga 500 -> PC PC PC PC PC......

I don't want to sound boring, but I really like my PC, so I guess it's my favorite. Sure, all the others were fun, but I can't imagine a life without my PC today. And if I want to, I can play all my old C64/Amiga games on it. :)

[Chaster]

Got ya ALL beat... LOL..

PENCILE & PAPER - BEFORE I even had access to a computer I was trying to write adventure games in BASIC (not easy considering I couldn't test them...)
Yes, I was a strange kid..

DEC-10 (on a thermal printer dumb terminal with a 300 baud acoustic-coupled modem).

PDP-11 - through direct connect CRT dumb terminal.

VIC-20

My friend's Apple II (various iterations)

Zenith 8086 system, then a 80286 10mhz system...

a period of Macs (various incarnations)

Returned to PC's with a 486 33mhz (or was that a 66mhz?) system...

Been PC ever since...

[FlySim]

DEC-10 (on a thermal printer dumb terminal with a 300 baud acoustic-coupled modem).
That brings back memories - teletype to some mainframe in high school and punched cards in college - I'm feeling old :eek:

[Phil Newton]

Vic 20 -> Atari STfm -> Atari STe -> Pentium III -> Celeron Laptop (a step backwards there)

I've got plenty of consoles (Jaguar, Dreamcast, XBox, Lynx, GBA), and combined with my brother we own a scary amount of console stuff. Favourite console is probably my DC, although the Jaguar has Tempest 2000 and some other nifty stuff. They're all good.

My STe is is by far my favourite machine. It's in the loft at the moment, but it's still got a special place in my heart. First thing I did when I got my Pocket PC was stick an ST emulator on it. Nowhere near the same, but it's cool to have a bit of nostalgia on the the bus.

[Coyote]

Chaster's got me. But here I go - here's what I programmed on:

#1 - Sinclair ZX80 - I couldn't learn much with only 1K of RAM and a tiny subset of BASIC.

#2 - Commodore 64 (THE Computer!!!!!)

#3 - Vic-20 and a TI-99/4A: Didn't use them much, but we had 'em

#4 - Some kind of IBM PC Clone from Phillips. No Graphics

<Short period of time with NO computer whatsoever - I'd use friends' Apple II's or Macs>

#5 - 386 SX/16 that I built, upgraded to a 386/40. The machine that made me consider game programming for a living, as I played Origin's excellent games of the early 90's, id's games (Keen, Wolfie, and Doom), X-Com, Frontier, and Falcon 3.0

#6 - A MacIntosh System 7 or something along those lines, doing AI-related stuff in CLOS (Object-Oriented LISP) for a professor on a research grant.

#7 - 486/ 50, upgraded to a 486/100, followed by a string of additional PCs through the Pentium Line

#8 - Sony Playstation - programming this thing was a DREAM, at first I couldn't believe they were paying me to do that!!!

#9 - Nintendo 64 - not such a dream, especially for a burned-out game programmer. Didn't do too much on it though - we experimented with the porting some of our PS1 games to the N-64 (and the Sega Saturn), but those never panned out.

#10 - Sega Dreamcast - A VERY fun machine to work on, even doing assembly-language programming for the dual CPUs. But the high-level API was, IMO, as good or better than the Playstation's. Pity the platform didn't succeed.

#11 - My current home box, probably due for an upgrade: an AMD XP/1800+ and a GForce 4 card.

[Dom]

ZX81->C64->Amiga600->Amiga1200->[N64]->[Playstation]->Athlon 1200 ->[Ps2]->[GameCube]->Athlon 2400

favourites:
Amiga 1200 - 68020 Assembler... Hardware registers...
PS2 - VU1 Microcode... DMA Registers...

[Abscissa]

PCs: Apple IIc -> 486 SX2 50 MHz -> Bunch 'o Pentium-class stuff and an eMac
PDAs: Handspring Visor Deluxe -> Palm Zire71

I wish I hadn't sold my Apple IIc. I'm gonna have to try to get one on eBay or something sometime (Maybe a IIgs since they made 3.5" drives for those. 5.25" disks would be impossible to get ahold of now.)

Game systems (I'm not even going to attempt to put these in chronological order ;) Especially since many of the older systems I got used just recently):

Atari: Atari 2600 jr
Nintendo: NES (Toaster-model), SNES, N64 (x2), Gamecube, Game Boy (Original), GBA (non-SP), DS
Sega: Genesis, Sega CD, Saturn, Dreamcast (x2), Game Gear
Sony: Playstation (Original), PS2 (non-slim)
MS: XBox

Game systems and classic PCs I want: Everything I don't have! Even the crappy ones :D (Except the NGage - I can live without that ;) )

Favorites: Apple IIc, NES, SNES, GBA (only because of homebrew), DS, Sega CD

[Martoon]

VIC-20 -> C64 -> Amiga 500 -> Desparately clinging to Commodore line until it was undeniably dead -> Pentium 90 -> Dull succession of PC's

Favorite? The C64, beyond any doubt.

[1EyedJack]

"Basic 2000" (Some strange thing based on ZX81-technology, I programmed my first games with this computer in BASIC) ->
C64-> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 600 -> Variuos Athlon PC:s + A Laptop

Hanged on with the Amiga until 1999, then even I had to admit that the Amiga was dead. I still consider the Amiga to be the best gaming-computer ever. :)

[oddvark]

Dom, did you use the Michtron assembler? At least thats what i think it was called.

[Mark Currie]

Apple IIe, 286, 486, Cyrix (133?), AMD-350, AMD-750, AMD-1.8, Pentium-2.8

Apple broke my heart when they switched their focus to Mac.

[James C. Smith]

Apple broke my heart when they switched their focus to Mac.
Ditto! I couldn't believe how many of my Apple II friends made the switch to Mac after Apple abandoned the Apple II line. I had enough of the underdog and switch to the main stream PCs

[Dom]

Dom, did you use the Michtron assembler? At least thats what i think it was called.

No - I think it was called the 'Pheonix' Assembler or something.
Used a shareware text editor (EdWord?) and this assembler (I think I downloaded it from Aminet) and had my own primitive IDE - press one button to compile, another to run, etc. :)

[Cartman]

Favorite Magazines of the Time: Creative Computing

First Programing Book: Wang BASIC manual

Path: TRS-80 > TI99-4A > Apple II > PC > Amiga (still my favorite) > Mac > PC

Fondest Memories: Spending junior high after school hours with a very cute English teacher, learning BASIC.

Funniest Moment: I asked the teacher if I had to type really fast to keep up with the tape recorder on the TRS-80.

[Mark Sheeky]

My path

Dragon 32 -> C64 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 1200 -> Win PC

Favourite, C64. Fond memories of the Dragon though. 8 colours and 4 were green. PC definately least favourite.

Mark

[tolik]

Some old USSR computah (LVOV PK 0011 or smth) -> Atari 65XE -> 486x5-133 (AMD one)

Quite a power boost, eh?

Since then I had NES, Genesis, SNES, Jaguar, PSX, N64, GBA, Xbox, GC and probably dozens of neat things which I can't even remember about...

[mkovacic]

Atari 800XL -> 80286 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 1200 -> upgraded the miggy (030/50) -> P120 -> P166 -> Duron700 -> etc..

[gpetersz]

ZX-81 -> ZX Spectrum+ / Hungarian stuff (PRIMO / HT / VIDEOTON) -> C64 / Amiga 500 (same time) -> 486DX2-66 -> 486DX4-100 -> 5x86 133 ->
Celeron 300 -> C433 (for a looooong time) -> Athlon XP 1700+ ->
Athlon XP 2200+ -> Celeron 2.4 (blah, never again) -> Athlon64 3000

Well. That's it.

[C_Coder]

Amstrad CPC464 -> Amstrad CPC6128 -> 8086 8Mhz -> 286 33Mhz -> 486DX4 (overclocked to 120Mhz! :D ) -> Cyrix 166+ -> Pentium MMX 166 -> Pentium II Celeron A 333Mhz -> Pentium III 500Mhz -> Pentium III 1Ghz (laptop) -> AMD Athlon 2500+

phew...

[Kovac]

Hmm...guess I'm still too young for this one...
AMD K6-2 450mhz > AMD XP 1300> AMD XP 3200+
A short life in computers indeed...

[TheBren]

TI-99 -> Vic 20 -> C64 -> Atari 2600 -> Apple IIe -> Atari STe -> 286 -> 386 -> 486 -> 486DX2 (ooh yeah baby!) -> Pentium -> Athlon

[Dingo Games]

First was an Apple IIgs.. I was quite young so I just used it to play a Ghostbusters video game.. and that submarine game Silent Service.

Then we got a Mac Performa 6200..

Then I moved to windows.. first with an AMD 350 then an AMD 1200.

Now I have a cheap Dell Laptop, Inspiron 1100. Not good for games but very convenient for me.