First computer?

[carmel_andrews]

My first computer...A Dixons Atari 800xl w/1010 bundle...I bought it with one of my first pay packets back in may 1986 (my first job)

 

I still have an 800xl (a friends one that's being os and ram upgraded) as well as several xe's (130 and 65)

[+Guitarman]

First computer I used: A friend's Apple IIc that we used to play GATO on. I taught myself how to use it, mainly the SynFile database program. Got good enough that I started setting up SynFile databases for other Apple users I knew using Apple IIc, IIe computers. Circa 1983-84

 

First computer I owned: Got a used Atari 400 at a local swap meet in San Diego around mid '84. It was all over from there. Within 2 weeks, I bought a used 800XL and 1050 drive from the same swap meet and it took off from there. Still own most of my original setup to this day.

[+warerat]

The first computer I used was the Apple II in 1983, but I wanted an Atari. So much that I had a large collection of newspaper clippings from ads for the 2600, 400, and 800-- not a very subtle hint.

 

My parents finally caved. I got my very own Atari when I was 10 in 1984, a 48K 800 (recently price reduced!). Didn't get a 1050 until much later. I shudder thinking how much my parents spent on that 800 and 1050. The 1050 is long gone, but I still have pieces of my original 800. As the 800 was my "first", it has a special sentimental value to me. My next machine was a 130XE in 1988 or 1989. These little machines paved the way for my current career with HPC in the aerospace sector.

[Big Player]

On Christmas of 1984 I got:

 

Atari 800XL

Indus GT disk drive

 

And I can't remember the name of the monitor that I got. For some reason, the brand name "Texas Citrus" sticks in my mind, but I don't know if that is correct. Texas was definitely in the name, which I know doesn't narrow down the name much.

[Urchlay]

And I can't remember the name of the monitor that I got. For some reason, the brand name "Texas Citrus" sticks in my mind, but I don't know if that is correct. Texas was definitely in the name, which I know doesn't narrow down the name much.

 

Texas Instruments? (Did they make monitors?)

[grokk]

mine was a 1200xl. i remember it cost hundreds, and the very next week after me mum bought it it went on sell for 90 or so at federated. man she was pissed( i still have it. typical video problems but other than that in great shape)

[+remowilliams]

Texas Instruments? (Did they make monitors?)

Well the 99/4 was sold with a monitor that was a slightly modified Zenith TV. The 99/4A had a nice compact 'real' monitor.

[LoTonah]

After working on Apple ][+'s for a few years, I fell in love with the Atari the first time I saw it.

 

I was 12, it was 1982...I asked Mom & Dad if I could get one for Christmas. My parents weren't rich, but I'd never asked for anything quite like it before.

 

Lo and behold, for Christmas, I got an Atari. Unfortunately it was an Atari 2600, not the 400 I wanted.

 

Turns out the local Atari store was closed when my parents went shopping--and since they really didn't know what I meant by Atari, they went to K-Mart and bought the first Atari they could find. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I played it to (near) death--still have it about 7 feet from me. But I wanted to program in BASIC! Oh yeah, and play 4 player Asteroids, not 2 player

 

Next year, I decided to try my luck again. Atari, please?

 

Got a Coleco Adam instead. The salesguy told them that it was the hottest machine on the market, and it was all-in-one, and a great bargain. Plus my Aunt and Uncle already owned a Colecovision, and my Mom liked playing Donkey Kong and Venture.

 

Dammit! Except for playing Coleco games, it pretty much sucked as a programming machine. ADAM SmartBASIC had some weird bugs ("mostly" Applesoft compatible!) and the graphics commands were aweful.

 

I wouldn't actually own a different computer until 1988 when I bought my own. An Amiga 500. And about a week later I was given an Atari 600XL...sigh again.

 

Now I own every commercially-made North American Atari computer, minus an original Atari 800 and the TT/Falcon units...and every video console except for a Lynx and Stunt Cycle...but I'm working on it! Take that, Mom!!!

 

(just kidding, I love my parents )

[Tickled_Pink]

My first computer...A Dixons Atari 800xl w/1010 bundle...I bought it with one of my first pay packets back in may 1986 (my first job)

 

I still have an 800xl (a friends one that's being os and ram upgraded) as well as several xe's (130 and 65)

Dixons reputedly sold 100,000 XL bundles both in 1985 and 1986.

 

I got my 800XL with 1010 bundle in 1985 (from Curry's). But my folks surprised me by also getting me a 1050. Power supply for the 1050 was faulty so had to get it replaced a few days after Christmas.

[Ross PK]

Dixons reputedly sold 100,000 XL bundles both in 1985 and 1986.

 

Is that good or bad?

 

I got my 800XL with 1010 bundle in 1985 (from Curry's). But my folks surprised me by also getting me a 1050. Power supply for the 1050 was faulty so had to get it replaced a few days after Christmas.

 

I got my 800XL and 1050 from Curry's too, and I'm sure it was in 1985.

 

It'd be cool to see an old picture of the shop to see the A8 and stuff on the shelves. I can't even remember it.

[Fletch]

I bought an Atari 400 for $189 at Sears Surplus in 1982, I was 11 or 12 years old. I saved my paper route money for quite a long time to buy it. I bought it home and was devastated to find out that it didn't come with BASIC. My parents felt bad for me and gave me the $40 so I could buy the BASIC cartridge.

 

I couldn't afford the tape drive so I had to wait until Christmas to get one.

 

 

I still have the 400.

 

 

Fletch

[1050]

My first was a borrowed Timex/Sinclair 1000 with 16k RAM pack. It came loose in a carton of 100 coffee mugs printed with the name of the gas station I worked at. It didn't get much of any response until we came across the manual and the RAM pack too eventually. Then it didn't get much of a workout until I came up with a cassette recorder and after that, I got really interested in it.

 

A few months later I was Christmas shopping and came across a Timex/Sinclair 2068 outfit which included thermal printer, joysticks, a few ROM and cassette games for $140 total. I snapped it up not knowing that Timex had already jumped ship and would never offer anything else for it. It is a full featured Color 64k computer very much like our own favorite system at least size wise. Cut my teeth with it doing Z80 assembler and some incredible S-parameter transistor programs with it in BASIC. And with that, found a couple of errors in a Sam's book on RF design from which I gathered all the formulae to make the BASIC program with. Confirming the internationally published mistakes also with my hand held calculator, I just smile and giggle like a fool gone off the deep end - still do.

 

Two of my Uncles paid me a visit one day back in those 2068 days with a "challenge" problem. One deck of cards which is 1/2 inch thick. How many times would one have to rip the deck into two parts and stack the parts to reach the moon at 250,000 miles away? Before the TV had warmed up enough to show my BASIC program, I had half of it already entered and about that much more time I entered RUN and said "about that much" as the exponent answer pops up on the screen. They double checked their calculator and were in agreement even though I couldn't get them to show me their exact answer. They said it wasn't an exact match but close enough they weren't going to make a fuss about it. I had dazzled them with science.

 

Main reason I switched to Atari in the first place was the 1050 disk drive and the letter quality 1027 printer my soon to be brother in law let me borrow. The 800XL promptly broke down (bad 6502) and so I joined the closest Atari club in an attempt to find out how to get it fixed for him so I wouldn't feel so darn guilty about breaking it for him. Then I came across plenty of other Atari systems at flea markets which I snapped right up so as to let him have his own system back. Have never looked back really, even though I would like to see some of those Timex BASIC programs converted over onto the Atari, I don't actually use them enough for it to be worthwhile if it is even possible to begin with. All water under the bridge now.

[Defender II]

1975-1981 Not actually mine... The first computer I used was an IBM main frame at a college in a nearby city. I used a teletypewriter terminal at a school to connect to it. The terminal had a keyboard with built-in printer, a paper-tape reader & punch so I could save programs and re-enter them. The display was the printed paper. Woo hoo I was rockin'!!!

 

1977 Another school computer. TRS-80 (It wasn't called Model I until later) with cassette tape storage. Other students asked me for help, because the instructor was clue-less.

 

1985 played Defender on an Apple Mac? IIRC Defender is my favorite computer game to this date.

 

1985 Bought a 1200XL NIB ~$50 <---first I actually owned.

 

1987 Designed, etched board, and assembled board to read carts. (still have it somewhere as I have never sold or traded any of my Atari items yet...)

 

1988-91 got used 256KB ICD MIO with 400MB hard disk for $400

Edited April 4, 2008 by Defender II

[Jetboot Jack]

Atari 800 - 1980, still got it and it works...

 

(well I had a ZX80 for about 2 days before that, but it was rubbish)

 

sTeVE

[guyjin]

Dixons reputedly sold 100,000 XL bundles both in 1985 and 1986.

 

Is that good or bad?

I don't know. If anyone has some verifiable evidence of how many Atari 8 bit computers were ever sold, the Wikipedia article could use that information (most other 8 bit computer articles state approximately how many units were ever sold).

[thomasholzer]

My first computer...A Dixons Atari 800xl w/1010 bundle...I bought it with one of my first pay packets back in may 1986 (my first job)

 

I still have an 800xl (a friends one that's being os and ram upgraded) as well as several xe's (130 and 65)

Dixons reputedly sold 100,000 XL bundles both in 1985 and 1986.

 

I got my 800XL with 1010 bundle in 1985 (from Curry's). But my folks surprised me by also getting me a 1050. Power supply for the 1050 was faulty so had to get it replaced a few days after Christmas.

 

 

Atari 8-bit computers were far better supported in UK than people and magazines give it credit.

[a8isa1]

What was your first rig? i got my start on a timex-sinclair 1000... 16k...w/ the expansion cart!

not sure of the year,,,1981-2 maybe

c ya

greg

In 1979 my friend (a hardcore TRS-80 owner) kept hounding me, "Have you seen the Atari?", "Did you hear about the 800?", "You gotta buy one of those!". Finally I gave in. At the time the only 48K systems to be had were at retail stores priced at either $999 USD or $1099. I decided to buy from a discount mail-order store. $749 bought me a 800 with 24K of memory, BASIC, and a 410 cassette. The vendor was throwing in the extra 8K (over a base 16K system) for free. I had always assumed the 8K board was recycled from an upgraded 400.

 

Soon afterwards (perhaps a year actually) my friend purchased a Radio Shack Color Computer. He never did buy an Atari.

 

The first soldering I ever did was on that 8K board. Analog Computing had an article which describe how to upgrade a 8K board to 16K. It worked but the soldering was ugly. Sadly, my soldering skills never did improve.

 

I believe the 4116s cost me $18 for the eight chips. At one time a 16K board was over $300 but at the time I did the upgrade I think they were closer to $190. $18 was a bargain but I was sweating bullets when I first flipped the power switch.

 

In 1983 or 1984 I upgraded the 800 with OS Revision B and a GTIA. About the same time the keyboard died and was replaced.

 

Somewhere along the way I picked up another 16K board. Don't remember when or how much it cost.

 

I still use that 800 to this day, though I favor a 800XL which a good friend gave to me in 2005.

 

- Steve Sheppard

[Christos]

Atari 130XE for me. 1987 or 88... 20 years on the Atari . Followed by a falcon030 in 1995...

[neopeius]

I love all of these stories!

 

Atari has always been my first and best love. Here's the timeline:

 

1979 Dad buys an Atari 2600

 

August, 1983 We get a 1200XL with a 410 tape recorder, and a 1027 printer. The recorder doesn't work so for a month, I enter in basic programs which disappeared when I hit reset.

 

September, 1983 We get a 1010 tape recorder which does work. I do Basic programming, Atariwriter documents and play Bomber Attack, Final Flight, and Eastern Front.

 

April, 1984 We get our first Indus Disk Drive and Dimension X. I also play a lot of Gateway to Apshai, River Raid, Robotron, and Blue Max.

 

Late 1984 A month of chores earns me Return of Heracles, a $30 bargain I've never regretted

 

Summer 1985 Dad gives our 1200XL to my eldest brother. We buy a 130XE and an 800 as a back-up.

 

December 1985 My brother gives me the first batch of dozens of pirated software (guilty expression)

 

1986 Dad sends a 130XE to be fixed, gets two back by mistake. Oops!

 

Late 1986 My brother sends me the second huge batch of pirated software

 

Late 1988 Atari supplanted by IBM 80286 clone, relegated to game and auxiliary status

 

1989 Atari retired from active duty (though I do write my first published article on it this year)

[mrnukem]

In 1980 my dad bought me a TRS-80 Color Computer with 4K of Ram and a Tape Recorder. Have these memories of staying up late at night listening to Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album and programming in Coco Basic. Within a month I had added a 300 Baud Acoustic Coupler Modem. I have been online in one form or another ever since.

[Big Player]

And I can't remember the name of the monitor that I got. For some reason, the brand name "Texas Citrus" sticks in my mind, but I don't know if that is correct. Texas was definitely in the name, which I know doesn't narrow down the name much.

 

Texas Instruments? (Did they make monitors?)

 

 

No, I would have remembered if it had been Texas Instruments. But thanks for helping.

 

It turns out I still have the monitor out in my garage. It was from Texas HiTech, which is based in Oklahoma City. I can't find out much else about them. They must have gone out of business in the late '80's.

[atarian63]

Mine was an Atari 400 bought at Lazarus in Columbus Ohio in 1982.

800xl in 1984

130xe in 1985

atari st in 1986

[doctorclu]

This is a lot of fun. I liked Warerat's subtile hints of the newspaper articles to get the 800 (an expensive machine back then), and good to see Cybernoid started on a 400. I think a lot of us did.

 

However, I believe I have about everyone beat in a computer that predated everyone else's computer and uniqueness. Ladies and gentlemen, I started on a Sol Terminal 20.

 

 

http://www.sol20.org/index.html

(Website has a full blown Sol Terminal 20 emulator. Let me suggest Trek80 & Targ. Though games made of ascii characters the fun is practically Arcade style for Targ, and Trek80 is just a great Star Trek game.)

 

 

(Targ was really funny... the simple RF output of the computer (prior to heavy RF shielding required soonafter) was enough that you could put a AM radio next to the computer and have sound effects to go along with the game. What you hear in this sound bit is regular noise and then the debris of the ships trickling down to the ground as you shoot them.)

http://www.sol20.org/media/targ_am.mp3

 

Yes, this machine was slightly before the Apple 1 and the Atari 800 in the ability to store buy the computer. This was a computer that they sent as a box of parts and you assembled. I didn't assemble it, I was six years old in 1977, but my earliest video games, programming, and text editing was on a computer. This was actually the machine that I used to type 100 times "I will not talk in class". My dad sent a note to my teacher that I probably spent longer to learn how to program a computer like the Sol Terminal 20 to do that than it would be to actually WRITE the sentences. The teacher agreed on that.

 

In time I sold the Atari 2600 I earned selling newspaper subscriptions. I was going to get a ColecoVision, however, when I saw a friend of mine with a Atari 800 and how you could COPY games, I decided to get a Atari 400. All I could afford.

 

My dad upgraded that 400 to 48K, and in time my dad added a 1200/1400 keyboard.

 

(Actual picture of my Atari 400)

 

I later learned that dad was glad to have a Atari 400 in the house. He was very supportive of me having it, but he secretly wanted an Atari 800. He tried to get one in a raffle back when they first came out, so when I had a Atari 400, though he didn't let on at the time, it was fun for him to tinker with as well.

 

And all the while the Sol Terminal 20 was dad's machine used to help in various tinkering with the Atari 800 and for copying Atari 2600 games and later running them on a 2600 flash ram cart the Sol Terminal would program.

 

Dad replaced the Sol Terminal at long last with a Tandy TRS-80 Model 100, then a HP95, HP100, and a HP 200 which he still uses. And he has some modern PC's. His tinkering has become more basic... with the programmable BASIC STAMP.

 

My progression after the Atari 400 with a Macintosh 128K, Mac Plus, Mac Performa 550, All-In-One Mac, MacDuo, Mac Quicksilver G4, & Mac Aluminum 12" Powerbook. Hmmm... I think I see a pattern here...

 

Portable computing I had a Tandy 100 while in high school (which I actually communicated null modem with my Atari 400 when I got back home), then Newton for the longest time (1995-2006, may start using more again for special LARP Project), currently use a Zaurus 5600.

 

The Atari 800 is my premier tinker machine now. That is like the classic car I drive the BBS's, chat rooms, internet, play in the Atariage 8-bit high score club, and so on. The Atari 800 was my dream machine from back when I saw my friend have one.

 

I've had shorter times with the IBM clones commonly wrongfully called "PC" types, Atari ST from 520 ST to TT030, Amigas from 500 to 3000, and I count the Dreamcast.

 

But my original Atari 400 and my dad's Sol Terminal 20 are still with us both, and while mostly retired, are powered up from time to time.

 

(And to wrap this up, more fun screenshots of Sol Terminal 20 games, and enjoy the whimsical Sol Terminal 20 music from it's 1 bit audio sound card!!!)

 

http://www.sol20.org/media/d-minor.mp3

 

Yeh if I was not such a Atari 800 nut, I would be a retro Sol Terminal 20 user. But you know, the Sol Terminal 20 doesn't have Star Raiders, so that ends that...

Edited April 20, 2008 by doctorclu

[pps]

I got my first computer in april 1988 (or 89), and of course it was an 800XE with XC12. I lived in GDR and my parents wanted to by a computer, where I can easy get programmes. As many other people here also had an ATARI, it was sure they choosed the right product

 

Inspired by my little machine one of my uncles soon got a Robotron KC 85/3. A machine based on a Z80 compatible processor which completely was made in GDR. This machine was a lot expensive and in many ways the ATARI had more power.

 

When the Wall fellt down he gave his machine up and discovered the world of IBM. I got in 92 an 104STE and later as the Falcon was available in autumn 94 I got one with Falcon Speed and Windows 3.11

 

All my machines are still here (only my 800XE was lost when someone wanted to upgrade it to 256k, he gave me his 800XL) and I´m still coding on the 8 bit

[jdh]

I got my first computer in april 1988 (or 89), and of course it was an 800XE with XC12. I lived in GDR and my parents wanted to by a computer, where I can easy get programmes. As many other people here also had an ATARI, it was sure they choosed the right product

 

I'm fascinated by the 800XE, when did it get released? and how far was its distribution in Eastern Europe? Until I read your post I always assumed it was released after the collapse of communism.

Was it easy to get Atari software and peripherals in the Eastern Bloc at that time?