First computers

[ctdctd]

Sounds a bit like angry birds.

MP or MS ?

[d000hg]

PC all the way for me. Introduced to both games and coding on an Amstrad 1512 running MSDOS 3 (I think it was 3.3, I was only 5). I remember WordStar, a program my dad wrote to teach me arithmetic in return for sweets, and coding a program which played Christmas Carols in GW-BASIC, using a book of recorder music for the notes.

[kingcook]

VIC-20, when I was about 10 years old.

I started off with reading the BASIC manual that came with it, doing pokes, dokes, peeks and deeks to change the background/border colours, then did a shop till type program where you enter a product code and it adds up the total and outputs products bought on screen (all hardcoded of course!)

Them we're the days...

[northernladuk]

Funny this thread came up. I found my Vic20 at my parents house over xmas and brought it home. Still in box, cassette player, joystick, the works. Was showing the kids how much fun it was which I am sure you can imagine went down like a sinking ship. Had fun for an hour and then it went up in the loft probably never to be seen for another 20 years.

[hyperD]

Dragon 32.

Wrote an address book - a very long 'if' statement with all the addresses hardcoded. Mind you, I saw some not dissimilar code in a commercial environment recently!

Er, yeah, sorry about that. Old habits 'n' all that...

BBC Model B after that, then discovered video games (Elite) and decided coding was too much like hard work. A view reinforced when I got to Uni and did a CIS degree.

Apart from VAX Macro and FORTRAN on a PDP11-23, the BBC Model B with cassette (the dreaded CRC error!) and then hard drive for me too. However, BASIC and assembler and peeking and poking into Elite seemed far more interesting than becoming a Process Engineer at a major oilco. The rest, as they say, is histrionics.

Still got the old Beeb Micro - and it still works!

[SteelyDan]

Mighta been a commodore 64 - one of those speedy things with a tape machine which gave you coloured lines across yr TV; 'game loading'...then didn't.

Giving them a 2nd chance, I quickly updated to yet another Commodore (I think) Amiga...now that was a machine!

[xoggoth]

VIC-20! I remember that, although will trump it with an Elliot 405.

Slow, but look on the bright side. 20 minutes loading the operating system on paper tape followed by another 20 loading the compiler was a great excuse for not doing any real work! Math simulation of coal milling equipment! Nothing has advanced humanity to the same extent since!

Actually, I am exaggerating my modernity. 1st computers I used were all analogue.

[xoggoth]

Gave all my old computer stuff to an a geeky acquaintance who collects that sort of thing. A 240cps 110V modem/printer, ZX81, Spectrum, 2 Qls, an Amiga. I will be really annoyed if it ends up worth summit! Is it too late to demand it back?

[jamesbrown]

I will be really annoyed if it ends up worth summit! Is it too late to demand it back?

Chart of the Day: From $400K Macs to $23K iPods

ZX Spectrum +2 for me.

[SantaClaus]

As a child, I spent most Saturday afternoon's in WH Smith or Boots programming their Dragon 32s and ZX Spectrums to play annoyingly loud sounds on an endless loop. Sad I know

Eventually after a lot of begging at the age of 13, my Dad bought me a ZX Spectrum for around 130 quid. A lot of money in those days. Cue nostalgic memories of dual cassette decks and hacking fastloaders with Z80 machine code.

My degree project was actually done on a Commodore Amiga 500. Nowdays, your average toaster has more processing power.

For some ZX Spectrum nostalgia, check this, complete with the 2 colour sprite limitation:

http://torinak.com/qaop#!sabrewulf