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[Credo]

I don't remember much about my first computer, but I know that I got it at some point in 1996, and it ran a late version of MS-DOS. The first games I had on it were a collection of awful action games on floppy disks. There was some sort of bad Doom clone and a horrible side-scrolling action game with ninjas.

I did love one game in that collection and can remember almost everything about it except the name, and I've still never been able to identify it. It was very similar to Risk, and it had a World War 2 setting. You could choose to play as the Allies or the Axis. I used to think the name was something like WinWarII, but I've looked that name up and don't think that's it.

Anyway, the computer worked fairly well, and I only remember having a few blue screens during the years I had it. I knew it was time to get a new one when I tried to install Diablo 2 and it took up 95% of the hard drive.

 

[Jamesfrom818]

Apple II was actually my first. It was a hand me down from one of my cousins.

 

[Nemo]

I had an old Toshiba Sattelite with Windows 98 on it. Greatest piece of tech I ever owned

At some point the power brick cable failed and I always had to bend it to the max to get a connection, but even then it didn't stop me to play some amazing games from the 90s <3 Bullfrog and Westwood

 

[Doc Holliday]

Cinemaware games were godly. <3 Defender of the Crown and Rocket Ranger

I wanted an Amiga too. The Cinemaware games looked similar on IIGS and Amiga. The IIGS had the best sound out of all the 80s 16 bit systems, but the Amiga did all the arcade/action sprite scrolling games so much better.

Ahh yes the IIgs, another classic. I miss how weird and colorful those old designs were.

 

[Retro]

Macintosh LC II (Also know as the "Pizzabox").

So many hours spent on AOL, playing Glider and dreaming.

 

[grap3fruitman]

Not my pic but a Compaq Presario 5140 with a 400mhz Pentium 2:

 

[Lkr]

this was the first that was MINE

P4 3GHz
512mb DDR
GeForce FX 5500(PCI)
40GB hard drive

was a dream computer

 

[thoughthorizon]

Atari 600XL... feel the wrath of my 48K of RAM.

Ah the joys of this machine: moon patrol, blue-max, mr-robot. Grabbing the ANTIC magazine and seeing what cool new things were in it...

Not to mention the fun of learning to code in Atari BASIC with it's awesome "player-missile graphics" system.

Sometimes I wish things were still that simple.

 

[NightmareTrigger]

looked something like this, had windows xp on it, i remember 256mb of ram

I ran this thing until EARLIER THIS YEAR. You have no idea. Mine had 512mb of ram though.

 

[trinest]

My parents owned various Commdores etc. which where around the house- but I remember we had some sort of Amegia, then we got a Osborne.

 

[ClassyPenguin]

we got a second hand generic pc that was a gift to my parents
Pentium II 266mhz
5gb hard drive
I think it was 64mb of RAM
video card with 16mb
Soundblaster something or other
windows 95


first computer I personally owned was my laptop that I bought for college in 2007

 

[Jill Sandwich]

You're not hardcore

Spoiler

an old fart

if your first computer's RAM isn't in kilobytes.

 

[alphaNoid]

First was an 8086, my mom worked for the sheriff's department in IT for 35 years and used to sign out computers dating back to the early 80s. That was our first family computer, she brought me home "My" first computer a couple years later

Wyse 286, it was 1990 and I was 10 years old. I think I might have been the only kid with a computer within 10 square miles, it was leagues ahead of the stuff we had at school. I upgraded over the years, 386, 486, P60, P133. Played Doom over LPT networks, built and maintained 8 node BBS's in high school.

Basically was so far entrenched into the hobby prior to 1993 that my friends and I basically witness the internet come to life in front of our eyes. We were heavy into the BBS scene and the GUI interfaces of Windows 3.1, services like Prodigy and AOL slowly, SLOWLY started to change the way people got 'online'. Prior to those it was all ATT connections through older modems and BBS.

These were the glory years of the computer, and networking. Everything that came after 1993 was mainstream and it ruined the experience for me Even to this day I'm kind of bitter of how it all turned out lol. I want my super closet computer nerd childhood back, I dont care if that means 99.9999% of the world never gets exposed to the internet.

Even to this day I'm pretty much a Pre internet snob anytime it comes up. That was computing. I miss Door games, I miss staying up until 4am on school nights working Marvel style ANSI art for art groups and I miss spending lunch time at high school playing Quake while everyone else was out chasing tail and smoking behind the bleachers.

In end, I experienced it all unfolding so I suppose thats cool or a neat story to tell kids when I'm like 80. It was like being around when the first airplanes took flight.

/tear

The glory years are long behind us now.

 

[mj1108]

48K of computing glory.

That's what I had as well.

 

[N4Us]

The first computer our family had was a IIGS, but the first one I personally owned was, uh, I think an Intel or something close to that, it had Windows 98 though. Given to me by my uncle. It worked decent for a while until several months later it refused to load up. These days I'd probably be able to figure out why but back when I was a PC-illiterate 12 year old I couldn't do jack.

And yet the IIGS still worked for two or three more years after.

 

[UltimaPooh]

An Old Gateway Tower in 1998. It was delivered to us shortly after Christmas, we got AOL for it and my life was forever changed when I started chatting on the net and building website based on Dragon Ball Z and the Simpsons.

We also used this computer for our first foray into broadband internet and I also installed my first hardware on the thing, a CD burner.

It only had 32MB of RAM and a 20gig Harddrive. It also came with an Intel II Processor and Windows 98.

 

[gblues]

Pentium 200 MMX
8MB hercules stingray 2d/3d
32MB of RAM
4.3GB hd
Soundblaster AWE64

Just citing those specs fills me with nostalgia: I'm getting flashbacks of quake 2, diablo, starcraft, total annihilation, warcraft II, interstate 76. And, ah, the sounds of the HD seeking, the BIOS beeping and the modem screeching.

To this day, I can differentiate between 2400BPS, 14.4K BPS, and 28.8/33.6KBPS modem handshaking.

 

[Trouble]

Barely remember anything about it. But yeah. There it is.

Same here. Fond memories of using it to play Parsec, Munchman, Chisholm Trail, Tunnels of Doom... and then learning to program in Extended Basic and writing my own games, including a Return of the Jedi speeder bike two player thing I was very proud of. Saved on cassette tape, probably still in an old box in the garage.

Internet high-five, TI-99 buddies!

That fucking cassette drive! 7 year old me spent a weekend typing in a BASIC program for creating greeting cards I found in a programming magazine. I wanted to make my mom a special card for Mother's Day. Saved it on the tape. Tried to load it later... garbage. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU...

 

[GodfatherX]

was in 1996 i think, American Computers IBM 686 dont remember the rest of the specs

 

[alphaNoid]

To this day, I can differentiate between 2400BPS, 14.4K BPS, and 28.8/33.6KBPS modem handshaking.

I salute you fellow Lord of the glory years!

 

[bill0527]

48K of computing glory.

That was my first comp too. I had the 16k version though and a tape drive!!! Had to teach myself basic to get it to do anything and I had a subscription to rainbow magazine which was the official mag full of programs to type in. I wasted days of my life trying to get 4 colored dots on the screen and jingle bells to play in the background.

I think it was Christmas '89 I got the CoCo III with 128k and eventually a 5 1/4" floppy drive for my birthday. I had no idea what to do with any of this stuff. But hearing the hard drive whirr and grind while accessing the disk was like the coolest sound in the world to me.

 

[alphaNoid]

was in 1996 i think, American Computers IBM 686 dont remember the rest of the specs

Don't believe there was technically ever a 586 or higher, (including 686). When the pentium processor came out it started with the P60.

So 8086, 8088, 286, 386, 486, P60, P133 and so on.. I could be wrong though and haven't done 1 second of research but thats how I remember it. I remember it being a 'big deal' when the 586 never came around, hence the huge emphasis on Pentium chipset. Prior to the P60 nobody ever cared nor followed processor 'brands' by name like that. Intel was starting something new with the Pentium.

Didn't start so well eigher, Intel has major issues with the P60 and recalls. Sooner after the P133 was out and that resolved most issues IIRC.

 

[mwgiii]

IBM-AT

She was a beauty:

It was a screamer with a 286 running at 8 MHz and DOS 3.1.

 

[polyh3dron]

Parents got it for me on my 5th birthday in 1987. I played the whole first generation of Sierra graphic text adventure games on that thing (the 16-color ones), Leisure Suit Larry notwithstanding.

 

[Crazylegs]

Same here - Timex Sinclair with 4K RAM. Think I upgraded to 20K. I never want to see Basic PEEK/POKE commands again.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

#1: Packerd Bell with windows 95.

I think it looked like this:

These MAY have been the specs:
Intel Pentium 200 MHz, 4.3 GB hard disk, 32 MB EDO RAM,

#2: Dell with a Celeron and XP.

 

[polyh3dron]

To this day, I can differentiate between 2400BPS, 14.4K BPS, and 28.8/33.6KBPS modem handshaking.

You're not the only one. Hell, I can do pretty accurate approximations of the handshake noises with my mouth.

 

[Shizzlee]

Was a piece of shit, but I think I had the one with the Pentium III with Windows 98 SE on it. Rocked it until 2008...

 

[ntropy]

one of the early 90s Macintosh pcs that was integrated with a monitor.

 

[Shaneus]

8086, 8MHz, 20MB HDD, enhanced EGA... $3000AU in 1987. Amstrad PC1640. Was fucking boss. The day my brother bought an AdLib card, I was in gaming heaven. So much awesome.

Fond memories of the old girl :')

Apologies for the massive image, can't stealth post shit at work whilst resizing pictures :/

 

[DJ_Lae]

A piece of shit Commodore Vic-20. I didn't do much with it because half the time the games I had on the tape drive wouldn't work - I'd have to load them over and over.

The first computer I spent a decent amount of time with was a Mac Plus, though. Our old one died, but I picked up a Mac SE-II a couple of years back so I'd have something to play Dark Castle on again.

 

[gblues]

Don't believe there was technically ever a 586 or higher, (including 686). When the pentium processor came out it started with the P60.

That is true of Intel processors, but one of the clones (Cyrix, I think?) had a 6x86. Also, Pentium Pro onward are also known as i686 architecture.

 

[Confusion Illusion]

Mine was generic/no-name brand or something. My cousin gave it to me.
It was a:
Pentium 120MHz
24MB of RAM
1GB HDD
2MB ATI graphic card

 

[IGotBillySoSpooked]

First computer was a Macintosh that we had for about two weeks before returning. Then we bought a Compaq, but never took it out of the box before returning it. Finally, we settled on a Gateway 2000.

The first computer that I owned personally was a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop.

 

[Sapiens]

800 MHz G3 CPU
648 MB RAM (upgraded from base 128MB)
40 GB HDD



Was a close to 1700 dollars in 2002 money - which was a lot of money to spend for me, but I needed it. Kind of regret not saving a little more up and getting a power book, but this thing has been a little workhorse, and to this day, serves as my mothers computer.

 

[dark10x]

Started with one of these.

Not great, but it was my first computing experience.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

The first computer I ever used had Windows 3.1 or some shit.

The first computer I ever owned was in 1992, built by AST Computers. I had imported it from UK. It had DOS and QBASIC. It had a boosting 6GB Hard Drive. The first game I bought for it was "One Must Fall". The first game I ever played on it was "Snake" and "Gorillas". It was (luckily) powerful enough to run Windows 95 when it came out. Played shit load of DOS Games on it. The last games that I remember playing on it were Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and FIFA 2000.

AST Computers doesn't exist anymore, which is why I feel old now...

 

[SolsticeZero]

Compaq Presario 524 CDS
486 processor
8mb RAM
512mb HDD
4x CD-ROM drive
Built in 15" monitor

 

[weekend_warrior]

Apple II. Lemonade Stand like a boss.

 

[Technosteve]

my dad's gradschool computer, HP Vectra 286 upgraded with two 5 1/2 inch floopys 6 megs of ram add on video card 2 megs of vram 20 megabyte hard drive. We had a IBM type M keyboard and an original microsoft ball mouse.

 

[Strike]

Power Macintosh 4400. Got it secondhand from a cousin around 2000. Had no games or internet, so I just ended up using it as a CD player. Got a Compaq Presario 5000 (and internet) a year later.

 

[IGotBillySoSpooked]

I ran this thing until EARLIER THIS YEAR. You have no idea. Mine had 512mb of ram though.

I'm still "running" this thing. Dimension 7100 that I got in 2004 or so. Mine also had 512 MB of ram. I've thought about upgrading it to the max 1 GB, but I'm going to be getting a new machine in the fall.

I'm on my third hard drive, but it has been fine otherwise. Actually, I think the heat sink is broken, which has caused the past two hard drives to overheat. The fan runs loud as crap almost all of the time.

I'm not a PC gamer or anything, so it has been fine for my needs. I store everything on an external drive, too, so I didn't really get upset when this last hard drive went kaput.

 

[Ovid]

My first PC was back in 1992. It was an IBM 486SX 25Mhz processor and a whopping 256 MB hard drive. Shit was the bomb diggity.

 

[Salmonax]

128K Mac.

 

[NZNova]

 

[Nard Bagman]

Some POS Compaq my parents had. It was so slow and I was a kid, so I was impatient. When it was just too much to handle, I would take scissors and act like I was cutting all the cords in hopes that it would get scared and work faster.

btw i knew that wouldnt work, it was just frustrating

 

[Goodacre0081]

 

[BuggyDClown]

An Apple G2

 

[BuddhaRockstar]

Apple Performa

Ran DinoPark Tycoon, The Dig, Fate of Atlantis, and Sim Tower like a champ.

 

[geeko]

something very similar to this.