First Computers

Posted By
Steve, United Kingdom, First Computers

My first computer was a Tandy TRS80 with a Mono screen, cassette to load games and software, small keyboard and built in Basic programming Language, At that time Internet was not available so like many Home Computer users each time a new magazine came out, I would rush off to buy the magazine and they would often have programmes printed in the magazine which you would need to type in manually, between the magazine making typos and my errors when entering programme the longer and more complicated the programme was the more likely it did not work after spending upwards of 4hrs entering the code. Any games I played by todays standards would appear as poor graphics but I did spend many hours playing text based adventures and they seemed to keep me amused. But I did learn a lot about computers and some of that knowledge helped me get my first job in the computer industry. When I think back I must have spent a lot on computers in those days in comparison to what I was earning as I seem to remember having a new computer to play with every 6 months, they were changing so fast it was difficult to keep up with the latest innovations. below are some of the computers I owned in that period Tandy TRS80 --- Commodore PET --- Commodore 64 --- Sinclair ZX81 --- Sinclair ZX Spectrum --- Acorn BBC computer --- Atari Games machine --- Lynx64 --- Amstrad PC 1512 ---

I think the same applied when I got my first PC as I never seemed to keep any longer than a year as the speed, memory, hard disc capacity, graphics, sound and external storage improved at such a rapid rate. Over the last few years I seem to get longer and longer from my PC's. They do not run out of disc space and the S/W and H/W changes but not at the same pace. But I also wonder if part of the reason I do not change my PC so often is due to my age ? Currently am waiting till next version of Microsoft Operating System is available Windows Vista prior to upgrading PC, possibly will also wait for 6 months after launch to find out how many bugs are in new OS.