What was your Dream Computer as a kid?

[Arnuphis]

On 12/1/2023 at 7:06 PM, Boschloo said:

What I wanted to do was pick one system and learn it in depth (kinda like @pixelpedant with the TI-99/4A). But I struggled to find which one would be the one. 

 

I really, really, REALLY wanted it to be the TI. 

 

It can't be the TI. I love it to death, but my kids would find it limiting. It also doesn't help that TI went with the most limited version of BASIC possible. Not even PEEK or POKE.

 

I own a couple of Apple IIe computers (one Platinum, one Enhanced), and an Apple IIGS. The IIe computers can't go above 4 colors. The IIGS is awesome but it really never caught on beyond its Apple II roots. Software developers just developed for the lowest common denominator and didn't really do much for the IIGS. This is kind of like what happened with the C128 in that developers chose to cater to the larger C64 market.

 

But I decided that my sons would likely enjoy the C64 the most. Because of all the games.

So I have decided that I will take the time to learn the C64, even though my heart belongs to the TI 99/4A, because I know there's tons of fun games for my sons. My wife and I will incorporate Commodore Basic into their homeschool curriculum, and the C64 is going to be in their bedroom with the 1702 monitor. In my office I will have a C128 for research and development. So I can put together lessons plan in my own Commodore, and then go teach it to them on their breadbin. 

 

I'm totally new to the Commodore ecosystem. My C128 arrives next week, I can't wait to put it together. 

World's most awesome Dad award contender right here! I hope your sons enjoy the C64. 

[Trinity]

The TRS-80. And the PET.

[DarthDuke]

When I was a kid, it was the early 70's when most people didn't have a computer at home at all. The few who did had something that looked like a glorified typewriter with a tiny screen, if it had one at all. The first computer I remember seeing in person was at our local bank which had an IBM 5100 back in 1975. 

Back then, my dream computer didn't exist yet. It was the stuff of science fiction and was only seen in Sci Fi novels, movies, cartoons and comic books. My dream computer was a bit like Batman's Bat Computer only I remember wanting one that had a big screen the size of a house's window. Such a thing seemed almost impossible back then, but my wife's classroom now has a touch screen computer that is the size of a chalkboard. It's amazing how things change.  

[roots.genoa]

My dream computer as a kid was the laptop from the first sequence of every episode from the 1988 Mission: Impossible series, that used small optical discs. It still doesn't exist unfortunately, even though my laptop has fingerprint identification as well.

[eightbit]

When I was in kindergarten the teacher announced we had a computer at the school. So exciting!

 

They wheeled out a PET on a metal cart with wheels into the classroom so that us kids could press the keys. I pressed some keys and the exact letters I had pressed instantaneously came up on the screen as I had pressed them.

 

In that very instant it became my dream computer. As I grew I never did get that PET, but many others all the way until today. But, never the PET. 

 

Many years later I revisited my grammar school to see if they still had it in storage or something. When I went (late 90's) they had told me it was actually still in use in the library until like a year ago and then they disposed of it.

 

 

I have pretty much been heartbroken ever since.

[mr_me]

15 hours ago, DarthDuke said:

...

Thanks for posting this photo as the TV show was my first experience with computers as a kid, a large machine with switches, lights and printouts.  I heard of people playing games on computers at the time, didn't make much sense to me. I did learn programming in high school, and would have been happy with any computer.

[1980gamer]

As a youngster, I wanted an Atari 800.  I kept asking for McDonalds so I could get Monopoly game pieces.  LOL

 

I got a TI99/4A and loved it.  Still do! Classic99 - keeps the love alive.

 

Then 1 day Dad came home with a C=64 and I became a gamer and not so much a programmer.

 

In high school, we had TRS 80 model III's and DEC PDP11/23.  (very close to TI's BASIC, so the 99/4A got hooked up again!)

My friend David got a TRS 80 Model IV P portable, and I wanted one so much!  LOL

 

Then I saw the Tandy 1000, I could not afford it, but wanted it until I got an actual IBM PC based computer around 1991-92?  

 

But through it all, the TI99/4A has been my friend and go to system.  It is slow, only 16 colors, 3 channel square wave sound... Only 4 sprites per row etc. etc. and I still love to create for it!

 

[+OLD CS1]

6 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

I got a TI99/4A and loved it.  Still do! Classic99 - keeps the love alive.

 

Then 1 day Dad came home with a C=64 and I became a gamer and not so much a programmer.

A very sharp observation.  As a kid, my computer was the TI-99/4A and, while I played many of the classic games, I found myself doing far more creation than consumption with it.  Once I got my C64, I became more of a consumer than a creator.

 

This balance of consumption and creation is a difficult one to maintain in the direction I would like: I deeply enjoy, and feel far more accomplished, being a creator, but there is so much great content to consume.

[Arnuphis]

I agree with this. My first computer was a Vic-20 and although I typed in magazine listings and did some of the introduction to basic course it was all about the games. It was not until I sold my Vic-20 and got a TI-99/4a that I actually sat down and began to program my own stuff. I don't know if its was the lack of options as a cassette based user, or the scarcity of 3rd party software or even just the BASIC being more friendly but it motivated me to make my own software. For that reason alone the TI-99/4a will always have a special place in my heart.

[Hwlngmad]

On 12/17/2023 at 7:17 AM, 1980gamer said:

But through it all, the TI99/4A has been my friend and go to system.  It is slow, only 16 colors, 3 channel square wave sound... Only 4 sprites per row etc. etc. and I still love to create for it!

 

The TI99/4a also hold a special place in my heart as well.  I wish I would have done and/or learned more about the machine when I had it when I was a young boy, but it just didn't happen.  Still, I do appreciate and admire what it was as should've / could've / would've done better, but it just wasn't meant to be like for so many others.

[Zoyous]

I remember around '85 playing around at school and taking my Trapper Keeper, standing it on end, and then making a drawing of a computer keyboard and pretending that it was essentially what would come to be known as a laptop. So in a sense that was my dream computer, not really a real-world model at the time but at least the form factor. It was quite a long time after that until I actually had a laptop of my own, actually probably about 20 years.

 

Sometime around that year or the next, seeing the promotions for the debut of the Amiga, really surprised and excited me. There were short news segments about it, showing the bouncing ball and the Tutankhamen image. Around '91 I bought an Amiga 500 from a friend when he upgraded to a 2000.

 

I also had a desire circa '88 that some day Sega would release a keyboard and disk drive for the Master System, utilizing the unused expansion port and turning it into a multi-purpose computer. I realize now this wouldn't have been that great since everything about it was optimized as a consumer gaming-specific device, but I thought it would be awesome and it would allow me to create my own professional-quality games. 😁

 

Oh, one other computer dream/wish I remembered. Probably around '82 or '83, my elementary school established its first computer lab. I wish I remembered what they had in there, but all I can recall was it was a set of about 4 dumb terminals connected to a central computer. The math teacher was managing this little lab, and he let me come in and sit down and type on one of these terminals. I immediately started typing plain English descriptions of Pac-Man, hoping that the computer would understand this and create the game that way. Of course at most I might have gotten a syntax error message of some sort after typing out this cute, naive paragraph. With the advent of LLMs, though, I think this dream is actually not so far off these days.

[DarthDuke]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:28 AM, mr_me said:

Thanks for posting this photo as the TV show was my first experience with computers as a kid, a large machine with switches, lights and printouts.  I heard of people playing games on computers at the time, didn't make much sense to me. I did learn programming in high school, and would have been happy with any computer.

You bet! The Batman TV show was really fun! Computers have sure come a long way from when this show was on the air. 

[Boschloo]

Linus Torvalds's first computer was a VIC-20. Makes you think, don't it?

[+OLD CS1]

38 minutes ago, Boschloo said:

Linus Torvalds's first computer was a VIC-20. Makes you think, don't it?

Eh, not really.

[Boschloo]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

Eh, not really.

I always thought I never became a pro because we had the TI-99/4A instead of the C64.

But Linus Torvalds and Elon Musk both started with VIC-20's and the VIC-20 is complete garbage compared to the TI-99/4A.

So it turns out it wasn't the computer.

[Mr SQL]

On 1/8/2024 at 10:32 PM, Boschloo said:

I always thought I never became a pro because we had the TI-99/4A instead of the C64.

But Linus Torvalds and Elon Musk both started with VIC-20's and the VIC-20 is complete garbage compared to the TI-99/4A.

So it turns out it wasn't the computer.

I remember an editorial that made the salient observation we began coding less efficiently when 16K became the standard.

 

[Trinity]

On 12/16/2023 at 3:22 AM, eightbit said:

When I was in kindergarten the teacher announced we had a computer at the school. So exciting!

 

They wheeled out a PET on a metal cart with wheels into the classroom so that us kids could press the keys. I pressed some keys and the exact letters I had pressed instantaneously came up on the screen as I had pressed them.

 

In that very instant it became my dream computer. As I grew I never did get that PET, but many others all the way until today. But, never the PET. 

 

Many years later I revisited my grammar school to see if they still had it in storage or something. When I went (late 90's) they had told me it was actually still in use in the library until like a year ago and then they disposed of it.

 

 

I have pretty much been heartbroken ever since.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/386474283316?hash=item59fba99134:g:w20AAOSw0JBlhKEs&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0F08dGL4DBupleL0xfcsJdPpQ%2BIb4jSx6rcC4Jn6ClUyofdZ71gUvRsFihnKdUFDDYK79p8YBA51ivwCwaxyGWFKTIofEbwV7DbYd0LfJJKAzdlPz8%2FGOHOcFB4BqkyGYQjdi844CBXQxRhrbbtm2QGGCl2pZrw6vR51xzVKkAf7rGKAVXWrI9VfkhOUI9RkoWLcPYr8ZMWZtAhRn2X2i0M9G2NKS1SVfyEVkHMfDm2ZBASjuf0A9PJvuOiqPMYLmslG0xKaoYpDZlAyohicMU0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6ruoZajYw 

Edited January 17 by Trinity

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, Trinity said:

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You know, I seen me a mermaid once.  I even seen me a shark eat an octopus.  But I ain't never seen no cash register with a cassette drive.

[eightbit]

On 1/8/2024 at 10:32 PM, Boschloo said:

the VIC-20 is complete garbage compared to the TI-99/4A.

 

Hey now, that isn't true at all...at least from my perspective.

 

The VIC-20 was (and still is) a very awesome machine for its time. Of all of my machines it is my most cherished. I am of course biased as it was my first computer as well.

 

Nowadays its even better with things like the Penultimate+2 (https://www.tfw8b.com/product/vic20-penultimate-plus-two/) which not only includes the whole library of cart titles but also includes new games that are quite amazing. And, as much as I love the TI99/4A if I had the choice between the two it would be the VIC-20. Mainly because I am a gamer and I feel the game library is quite a bit better on the VIC.

 

Not slamming the TI99/4A mind you (I have three of them!) but I have to hand the gaming to the VIC.

Edited January 18 by eightbit

[Zoyous]

I don't think I ever encountered a VIC-20 in person, but I have been enjoying some amazing demoscene videos of what's been done with it in the past couple of decades.

[+OLD CS1]

4 hours ago, eightbit said:

Not slamming the TI99/4A mind you (I have three of them!) but I have to hand the gaming to the VIC.

Shots fired...  I will say I am impressed with some of the titles on the VIC.  To be fair, I think if we compare games of the equivalent era, there will be, percentage of library-wise, an equal number of good and bad on both systems.  And today, there are absolute magicians working on both, so, I would say we sit on equal footing.

[Arnuphis]

I think the VIC-20's strength is that you can get a decent machine code game on cassette to run on a base model. Like Cosmiads for example that you would need to put on a cartridge for an unexpanded TI-99/4a. It's a real shame TI pulled out of the market when the games really began to hit their stride with Parsec, Alpiner etc. Because those were show stoppers in the day.