What was your first rig?

[Bellerophon]

Here we go, and not showing my age at all! My first rig was an Apple IIe, a real beast as you can see from the specs below...NOT.

I remember when we really started to get into computers in the UK Government, we had 20MB HDD PC's and our beast business processor machine was a desk pedestal size 100MB unit, unbelievable when you consider we now have 16GB HDD's in mobile phones and don't get me started about what mobile phones used to be like!

Technical specifications

Microprocessor

• 6502 or 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz
• 8-bit data bus

Memory

• 64 KB RAM built-in
• 16 KB ROM built-in
• Expandable from 64 KB up to 1 MB RAM or more

Video modes

• 40 and 80 columns text, white-on-black, with 24 lines¹
• Low-Resolution: 40×48 (16 colors)
• High-Resolution: 280×192 (6 colors) *
• Double-Low-Resolution: 80×48 (16 colors)
• Double-High-Resolution: 560×192 (16 colors) *

*effectively 140×192 in color, due to pixel placement restrictions
¹Text can be mixed with graphic modes, replacing either bottom 8 or 32 lines of graphics with 4 lines of text, depending on video mode
Audio

• Built-in speaker; 1-bit toggling
• Built-in cassette recorder interface; 1-bit toggle output, 1-bit zero-crossing input

Expansion

• Seven Apple II Bus slots (50-pin card-edge)
• Auxiliary slot (60-pin card-edge)

Internal connectors

• Game I/O socket (16-pin DIP)
• RF modulation output (4-pin Molex)
• Numeric keypad (11-pin Molex)

External connectors

• NTSC composite video output (RCA connector)
• Cassette in/out (two 1/8" mono phono jacks)
• Joystick (DE-9)

 

[ittech]

hah, luxury! about 1980 or thereabouts an sinclair zx80 which had no hard drive, 1K ram, upgraged with an expansion pack at more cost than the original unit. no monitor your television did that. ran on basic, but could run machine code very fast and with memory saving techniques you could do a fair bit. programs were hand entered or loaded from tape..well that was the theory. subject to static discharge and a general pain but it was a goodie for its day. the timex version a year later or so in north america had a whopping 2K memory. sadly, I sold mine to a store catering to collectors in Florida about five years or so ago, mistake on my part.

 

[skunksmash]

well, if you can call it a rig....this was it



what a powerhouse.....



SK

 

[96accord]

wow I feel way young!

 

[Dragonfly]

An Atari 800 -8kb RAM (still in my basement in a dusty box).

 

[swarfega]

My first computer of any kind was a ZX Spectrum 48k which I bought in 1982. My first PC was a 286 running at a massive 12MHz!

 

[Bellerophon]

Rumour has it...

Rumour has it that this was z3r010's first computer

 

[swarfega]

its no rumour, he still has it

 

[slk2k]

Texas Instruments TI99/4a ....

 

[ittech]

@bellerophon,

actually about 1976 (yeah, 1976) after a specialist pulse digital techiniques course, i ran a simulator for the Canadian navy that was at least five times that size. it did very little, (actually it ran i guess what we would call simulations scenarios)..but it did it very, very well. the arrival of dos was a godsend because that one while not using punchcards was not a whole lot better.

for those with those old systems still, hang onto them. collectors want them now.

 

[OVERSOUL]

wow I feel way young!

im with him on this, my first rig was a Windows 98 with a pentium II, but it had a DVD drive, so..... (i still have the machine, and i still use it to play starcraft)

 

[calhounhusker]

First machine I used or first one I owned?

First machine I used was in elementary school, The same Apple II that the OP posted. Used to play Oregon Trail all the time on there.
First one I owned was a PII 350Mhz. w00t for technology.

 

[OVERSOUL]

First machine I used or first one I owned?

First machine I used was in elementary school, The same Apple II that the OP posted. Used to play Oregon Trail all the time on there.

i remember those! i used them at school to, but i kinda forgot about them considering Oregon Trail was about the only good game i ever played on those

 

[myzr7]

Packard Bell 240 mgs pentium multimedia
32mb ram 4gb hd 17" crt / built in speakers
windows 95. hp 722 desk jet printer , astro scanner and usb robotics web cam. Netscape browser.. good old days...

 

[Chappy]

@bellerophon,

actually about 1976 (yeah, 1976) after a specialist pulse digital techiniques course, i ran a simulator for the Canadian navy that was at least five times that size. it did very little, (actually it ran i guess what we would call simulations scenarios)..but it did it very, very well. the arrival of dos was a godsend because that one while not using punchcards was not a whole lot better.

for those with those old systems still, hang onto them. collectors want them now.

Yah...I remember 4 sure!
My first experience was in 1973 on an IBM Punchcard monster that filled an entire room at the IBM building.
I made a 5'6" poster of a girl in a bikini out of different characters (1 ! ~` so on). I think it took some 4000 plus cards but the entire project was done just to learn the logic pattern the machine used.
It was the only computer in the Province and we had to book time 3 months in advance to get our Gr 11 Computer class in there, and only a few of us were allowed to actually make the program. It was an eye opener cause all our school computer class consisted of back then was taking "plug" boards and putting them togather to make lights blink...ooooooooo

 

[fogkeebler]

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

My first rig. I can remember the day my dad brought it home

 

[skunksmash]

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

My first rig. I can remember the day my dad brought it home

...now that's old


you know its really old when the monitor is in fact an old black & white TV, with a mahogany finish....lol :sarc:






SK

 

[Dwarf]

Rumour has it that this was z3r010's first computer

That's just a rumour - actually, it was one of his later models. I have managed to find a picture of his very first one :huh:


Just noticed - I've managed to achieve my century.

 

[Joan Archer]

Congratulations Dwarf here's to many more

 

[Joan Archer]

Well my first was in '98 running Windows 98 and not even the SE version, it came with a massive 2.1 GB hard drive and I think it was 34 MB RAM either that or 64 MB, and had a 15" monitor. It came loaded with Lotus SmartSuite which was great with all those little drawers at the top of the screen