Quidblog

EXPIRED: 6% Quidco cashback at Dell plus another laptop giveaway :)

July 31st, 2008

Dell are getting Quidco ready for back to school/uni/whatever?! with a short-term increase to 6% Quidco cashback. This rate is only going to be up until the 5th of August so there's a little incentive to think ahead and get the laptop, monitor, printer, PDA sorted for those papers :)

As a further incentive to head over to Dell and check what's happening they have sent us a laptop (Inspiron 1525) to give away to Quidco members. As ever it is easy-peasy to get in - just (1) visit Dell through the Quidco link and then (2) write a comment below letting us know the specs of your first computer :)

We will keep comments open until midnight 5th of August and then pick a winner from the eligible comments using random.org.

Start here! Dell Home and Dell Small and Medium Business

Enjoy :)

EDIT: Congratulations to w.harper7 who is the winner of this giveaway :)

You must to post a comment.

PWINCESS726 August 21st, 2008 a 10:09 pm

iv never had one because im just a tramp..nah seriously never could afford one :-(

Podzak August 13th, 2008 a 03:12 pm

Specifications?
My 1st PC was an Amstrad.
Did they have specifications in those "Green Screen" days? lol

bluehalf August 13th, 2008 a 12:48 pm

My first computer was a spectrum 48 something. My dad bought it between 4 of us brothers. I 'm not sure it had a spec , but, "Winged Warlords" and "Horris goes Skiing" were flipping brilliant. Still playing computer games at the age of 30, probably because of the spectrum.

Oh yeah, we also had an Atari before that. But my dad thought it would be good to have a computer for our education as well....right

w.harper7 August 8th, 2008 a 07:39 pm

hi its w.harper7 and i can't believe i've won the comp
thanks hulligan for your comment
quidco your simply the best.....can't wait to try it out

Hulligan August 8th, 2008 a 05:29 pm

Congrats w.harper7 you lucky so and so!

Enjoy yer laptop. :)

quidco August 8th, 2008 a 03:46 pm

Annnnnnd the lucky winner of this giveaway is w.harper7! Congrats :) We'll send you an email to get your details.

PLEASE NOTE THE ENTRIES CLOSED MIDNIGHT AUGUST 5!! It's ok if you want to keep chatting but the winner has been chosen :)

mike6237 August 8th, 2008 a 03:22 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum with 16k of memory. My ambition was to upgrade to a whole 48k! Never did manage it!

steve1221 August 8th, 2008 a 02:47 pm

My first 'computer' was a ZX81 with a massive 1k (that's not a missprint, 1 K). I ordered a 16k ram pack with it, but it ended up arriving 6 weeks after the ZX 81 !
Using 1k certainly made you think how to programme, trying to fit the most optimum code in the available space. And, while having a massive 16k add on helped, you had to take into account the dreaded 'ram pack wobble' which would reset the system if you typed to hard !!
It didn't have the mega screen res of modern systems, it didn't have hard drives or even floppy drives (just any old cassette deck you had to hand) and it didn't have mice or joysticks (until much later). But what it did have was the joy of writing your own programs and seeing them run.
I still look back on it fondly after all these years. . .

haroon August 8th, 2008 a 02:44 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 16k , 3.54 MHz Zilog Z80A CPU, loaded up from a cassette player, and had greay rubber keyboard :)

mikmikmik August 8th, 2008 a 01:58 pm

Mine was a Sinclair spectrum 48K. Mind you I had to wait ages for it, it was even more desirable than a 3g iphone today!

Ash23 August 8th, 2008 a 01:35 pm

Back in the day...

My 1st computer was a Commodore 16 :) Ikari Warriors was amazing on it! and Rolf's Cartoon Club, Punch and Judy, and some wierd shoot-em-up that had enemys as wierd font characters...

flyingflea August 8th, 2008 a 12:51 pm

I trust you have chosen a winner by now. Would you care to announce it, Quidco?

paulgrant August 8th, 2008 a 11:41 am

Ahh memories... Christmas 1984. I was so lucky to get a super duper BBC Model B, it had double the memory of the original at 32Kb, as well as the recommended CUB colour monitor and Datacorder. Just thinking of the noise the datacorder made makes me whince. Like a fax machine connecting, only alot more annoying. Plus a years subscription to INPUT magazine. Yes i was one of the first in the generation of kids spending all the weekend at the computer. Not playing GTA4, but spending hours programming in Basic, hours finding the mistake i made, and then hours convincing anybody in the house to admire my grand achievement of making the screen alternate colours or play pong - with sound effects too..... After that I had a Commodore Amiga 500, Amiga 1200, Amiga CD32 by far the best games console for its time just a shame Big C went down the tube, and ever since Dell PCs currently a Dimension 1000 in the office and an Inspiron 1501 on the move. Sadly both are used far too often as Amiga emulators. Long live Lemmings, Speedball 2 and Pinball Fantasies.....

littlesheepy August 8th, 2008 a 11:28 am

A Sinclair ZX Spectrum that my Mum's friend gave to me. Man i thought all my christmas's had come at once!

rdoublec August 8th, 2008 a 11:22 am

My first was a Sinclair +3 followed by a PC XT 286 which meant I went from using a 3" floppy disk to a 5 1/4" (very) floppy disk! And eventually back to the 3 1/2" which stuck around a while.

ssloan August 8th, 2008 a 06:28 am

Mine first prop.er one (I has an amstrad game consul) was a BBC Acorn, which was the system we were usig in school at the the time - I am a teacher.

Zigi August 8th, 2008 a 01:18 am

Mine was a Packard Bell Pulsar 500, 64 mb RAM, 7GB hard drive, P3 451mhz and an 8mb voodoo 3 graphics card.

doshman August 8th, 2008 a 12:29 am

First computer !. Blimey, thats rolling back the years. It was a Sinclair zx 81, in kit form !!
from a small ad in 'Practical electronics'. I remember it took a whole weekend for me and a schoolmate to get it to even function. No software in them days. You had to learn basic programming, and write your own. Graphic animation seemed like wizardry!! such simpler times.

frankienick August 7th, 2008 a 09:12 pm

Mine was an ACORN ELECTRON 32 k machine with a MASSIVE 16K of ram

dominicbrasher August 7th, 2008 a 07:49 pm

Mine was an Atari ST! It was fantastic, no hard disk, everything on floppy disk and I could do word processing and play games! The best one Buggy Boy!

xdaisyx August 7th, 2008 a 06:32 pm

Mine was a ZX81, which when i think about it would have made me around 8 years old...i remember crying and begging for it for christmas...i didnt realise i'd been a geek from such an early age! lol

It had a top of the range tape player to load the programs and i remember having a book where you could type your own commands in to "write your own" programs...i.e. make little stick men...those were the days!!! =)

freemancmj August 7th, 2008 a 06:15 pm

Packard Bell 386. 2MB of RAM, cost a fortune!

itsmyyard August 7th, 2008 a 04:39 pm

Too young to remember my first PC, but was good enough to play Wolfenstein 3D lol

annabd August 7th, 2008 a 03:05 pm

My first computer was an IBM too. I was a kid and I used to have to put a tape/cartridge in each time I wanted to play a game. It was so much fun though.

Doozer August 7th, 2008 a 02:28 pm

I had a Texas Instruments TI99/4A with the speech synthesiser, tape and cartridge games, I'm a little sad i sold it, I often fancy a quick go on Parsec ! The speech was years ahead of the game. Programming this when i was 8 is what got me started, who knows what would have happened if my dad got me a different christmas present!

yippeekiay August 7th, 2008 a 01:48 pm

First computer was a Vic 20 which I still have. I paid about £30 for the 16k memory upgrade which was HUGE...lol. I also bought a ton of game cartridges for it which are really cool games and fun to play even now.

I also got a...wait for it...Amiga CD TV which I think was the first computer to use CD's. How cool was I back then...ehhe. I still have that along with my Spectrum 128+ with the built in cassette drive.

My first PC was a £2000 rip off from Time which had a 6GB hard drive, a 233mhz processor and very little ram - about 32mb I think. Oh, I still have that aswell as I just can't seem to throw anything out.

janet15 August 7th, 2008 a 01:44 pm

My first own home computer was a Dell P90+

hussaifa August 7th, 2008 a 01:43 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16k - absolute classic!!

esmith09 August 7th, 2008 a 01:03 pm

My first computer was a hand me down Commdore 64 i think.

thepetman August 7th, 2008 a 12:59 pm

First computer was a Tandy 100 with 16K memory!!!!

Linzoid August 7th, 2008 a 12:06 pm

My first computer was a BBC Micro Model B! It had a whopping 32k of ram!

The very first program I wrote:

10 Print "My name is mark"
20 GOTO 10

My name is mark
My name is mark
My name is mark
My name is mark
My name is mark
My name is mark

lol

matphillips August 7th, 2008 a 11:25 am

My first computer had 16MB of ram and a 286Mhz CPU; it flew, back in the day!

Weirdfish695 August 7th, 2008 a 10:32 am

Seems like forever ago in computing terms but I started out with a ZX81 - how much fun was it trying to type in simple programs on 'that' keyboard. Saved my pocket money and managed to upgrade to the mighty Commodore Vic 20 - proper keyboard and 5K of memory to fill!! Was pretty jealous when my younger sister got a Commodore 64 with a 'floppy disc drive' - WOW!!!!!
Still have a ZX Spectrum in the attic.

pbrick August 7th, 2008 a 10:16 am

I had a BBC Micro model B with 32K of RAM and a 2MHz processor.

trebor August 7th, 2008 a 10:03 am

My first computer was a 600Mhz Celeron / 11GB HDD / 128MB RAM ! - still using it !

Doomanic August 7th, 2008 a 09:47 am

My first pc was an Amstrad PCW1512. Utter, utter rubbish. You had to reload the operating system every time you booted it up.

nuclearnick August 7th, 2008 a 09:11 am

My First computer.....A pocket calculator back in the 70's, well my first desktop PC had 32 mb of ram, a 6 GB hard drive, the processor speed was 500mhz, and it ran windows 98, and was forever locking up

hanash2006 August 7th, 2008 a 07:18 am

My first computer back in '96 was a Mertec, and came with one of the first integrated DVD drives, (as a £300 option). I tried to impress my friends with the only DVD I could find, (costing £35), which was Lord of the Dance by Michael Flatley! The spec which at the time was cutting edge would today be outperformed by a childs V-Tech computer.

lexus1cars August 7th, 2008 a 05:53 am

It was a Sinclair ZX81 with a massive 1K of RAM!! Tape loaded and I remember a complete nightmare as it would never work, but looking back it was the beginning of technology that you would only have dreamt of.

chubbybrown August 7th, 2008 a 03:17 am

I had a commodore 64,
256 colours,64 meg of Ram.
stuff that spectrums,zx81's and Vic20s could dream of.
It had a cartridge slot,joystick port and we used to upload programs by tape deck!
or if you were a teenager like me,type them out from a magazine.
You would wonder why they didnt work,becuase they would reprint the typing errors
in the next edition.
We had Peek and poke codes and nothing to do with online dating.
Just thinking back about the colours they were useless to me as I had 256 different shades of Grey!
HAHA
In school we had BBC 'B's and Acorn Electrons with an econet system.

Happy days really!

Roy Cleary

iwannamotorbike August 6th, 2008 a 11:50 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16k ram!

billyburke August 6th, 2008 a 11:39 pm

My first computer was a dell notebook, it was just called a notebook, it still works and my mom does her accounts on it.

nessybek August 6th, 2008 a 10:59 pm

My 1st computer was a hand me down, it was a business one( IBM one) I dont know the spec at all, but I do know it took half an hour to load lol.
ah them where the days, Id never used a computer and I didnt have a clue what i was doing (still dont lol) but im getting there.

Julzed August 6th, 2008 a 10:13 pm

my dad bought me and my sister an Amstrad CPC464 which we thought was great(at first)! - took about 30 minutes to load one game though - we would often get bored waiting and go out and play instead!

shaunchapman August 6th, 2008 a 09:29 pm

Commodore VIC-20, 3.5kb !

iansplace August 6th, 2008 a 09:28 pm

My first computer was(is) an AST 386SX25 with a massive 40Mb HD and 4Mb of Ram, whats more, I've still got it and it still works! Runs Windows 3.1 a treat. Paid £900 for it (must be worth all of 90p now). Battery life is now down to about 3 seconds or so. Used something called a floppy disc for data transfer

mimgraham August 6th, 2008 a 09:14 pm

Like several others my first computer was the Dragon 32, followed up with a Spectrum 128 and then countless PCs since.

stephanie61 August 6th, 2008 a 08:41 pm

my first computer was an amiga 500 my three year old son learned to use it faster than me sadly he is now twenty two and he is still faster on the computer than i am but i hope to catch up one day.

ChocoMoney26 August 6th, 2008 a 08:20 pm

Amstrad CPC when life was decent

the CPC 464 came with its own monitor and built-in cassette tape deck.

memory: 64 KB RAM.
processor: based on a Zilog Z80 processor clocked at 4 MHz
video output: Motorola 6845 address generator.
onboard sound: General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip

PIFCO August 6th, 2008 a 08:18 pm

Mine was a Sinclair something....can't really remember now though!

dbuk44 August 6th, 2008 a 07:28 pm

Hi,

My frist computer was a Commodore 64

veedubjai August 6th, 2008 a 07:15 pm

My first home computer was a Atari ST with 512MB memory that cost my father £299 with a bundle games pack. Was playing Arkenoid & Paperboy. There was some very good games that came out on the Atari ST like Gods, Xenon, Prince of Persia. There was a hugh stand off & following between Atari ST users & Amiga users. Did you know that the pop duo, Pet Shop Boys made their music on Atari ST's due to the built-in MIDI ports?

But my first real PC was a Escom Intel Pentium P75Mhz which came only 16MB memory with 40MB HDD space which I managed to have clocked it to P90 free of any extra cooling. That was my first clocking experiance.

mattcoxlich August 6th, 2008 a 06:18 pm

first pc, not too long ago, but i am young :P an emachines, cant quite remember the spec other than a 20gig hdd and not a lot of memory. ran dial up like a dream, haha.

kingkoopa82 August 6th, 2008 a 06:15 pm

ZX Spectrum 128k. Still have nightmares about that screechy loading noise...argahhhhh

LabMonkey August 6th, 2008 a 05:57 pm

My first PC was a was a Packard Bell 486. I miss it so.

danspen August 6th, 2008 a 03:50 pm

My first computer was a Acer Aspire, 1gb of ram and 1.6ghz centrino, blew up in just over a year.

rovingeye August 6th, 2008 a 03:05 pm

My first comp was an IBM 8086 with 256k of memory and a green screen. I was soo happy that the game prince ran on it :-)

ashminder August 6th, 2008 a 02:36 pm

my first proper pc was when i was a kid and was a x286 with a ridicously low amount of RAM running windows 3.11 and dos. I remember always having to use a boot disk to boost the memory for certain games. Cant complain this is my break into a career in IT. I remember the PC setting my dad back about 2k and i used sit there for hours playing links golf game.

jasmin49 August 6th, 2008 a 02:33 pm

My very first pc was an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen, that must have been about 1985/6 Memory was 64 to 576 KB and it ran Locomotive, WOW. I loved it so much I upgraded to the colour screen version when I could afford it.

doshivikas August 6th, 2008 a 02:17 pm

My first computer was HP desktop, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 15 inch monitor, PII processor

doshivikas August 6th, 2008 a 02:14 pm

My first laptop/computer was Dell 1150 Inspiron, 512 MB RAM, 40GB HDD, CD-DVD Combo drive, 14 inch monitor, in built wireless card, 2.8 GHz processor.

robwelford August 6th, 2008 a 02:06 pm

Spectrum for me too! Fist PC was a was a Packard Bell 486sx from PC World.

grahamburke August 6th, 2008 a 02:05 pm

an ZX81 i still have it in my folks loft i reckon, ahh happy days

slanted August 6th, 2008 a 01:30 pm

first computer was the ZX Spectrum 16k - the one with the rubber keys.
luved it !!

3430lee August 6th, 2008 a 01:01 pm

MY FIRST WAS A COMODDORE 64

xpander August 6th, 2008 a 12:23 pm

Spare my blushes, got confused with the other competition which ended recently. But still, this closed yesterday!

xpander August 6th, 2008 a 12:21 pm

Competition closed five days ago folks! Heck, a winner has been found already! Time to close this?

melcmgr August 6th, 2008 a 12:17 pm

I had a Spectrum +.

It had 48k and was there first one that actually resembled a normal keyboard, all plastic rather than with rubber keys.

I have fond memories of playing Robocop and Transformers as well as doiing some basic programming.

Anyone remember:

10 PRINT 'Hello'
20 GOTO 10

rsuitor August 6th, 2008 a 12:10 pm

My first computer was a lovely little Spectrum 48k!

A lovely little number with rubber keys and a nice little rainbow stripe over one corner. 48k of memory sounds small but the games you could play on this machine were amazing. I bought the joystick adapter that intefaced on the back of the spectrum too. Plus you needed an external tape player too to load the programs... them were the days :o )

tarenn August 6th, 2008 a 10:24 am

My first computer was an Amstrad something with the combined power of two soggy tea bags and some damp toast. I used to draw circles with paint on it and play arkenoid instead of doing my homework. I loved it.

willow110 August 6th, 2008 a 10:14 am

My first computer (if you can call it that) was a ZX81. It had a small printer with it that printed onto thermal paper. We couldn't actually do anything on it apart from typing as far as I can remember.
Oh and it had flat keys which after prolonged use wouldn't work!!!

sabino77 August 6th, 2008 a 09:59 am

my first computer : A Dell small bus edition
Processor: Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor T8800 (2.6GHZ)
Monitor: 17" Wide Aspect Ultrasharp WUXGA+ (1920x1200) Truelife
Hard Drive: 100GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Memory: 4GB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Optical Drive: 8x DVD ROM + 24 x CD-RW Combo Drive

weemee August 6th, 2008 a 09:46 am

My first real computer was a 386 IBM. It had vents you could grate cheese on and weighed somewhere in the region of a Jumbo Jet.

A huge red switch (a bit like the ones you find in fuse boxes) turned the power on to the machine. I always liked to think the huge switch was required to light the Caps Lock & Number Lock Keys â oh so bright; oh the eye strain!

Spec wise I canât remember, thought I do remember being upset that I was unable to play a new game which my friend, with his 486, could. Not that it bothered me............grrr!

Mattypants August 6th, 2008 a 09:20 am

100Mhz Pentium with 16MB of RAM, Diamond Stealth 64 graphics card, Soundblaster 16 coundcard and a massive 1.6GB of HDD space. I think it was a custom build from Simply Computers and cost slightly more than my current laptop and desktop put together!

IanTommy August 6th, 2008 a 07:42 am

My first computer was also a 48k ZX Spectrum with the rubber keys. My brother and I shared it. We had 3 different cassette players which we used to load games. Used to write the loading instructions on the tape box including which tape player worked at which volume . eg. Ferguson 30 seconds at 8 then turn up to 10. You felt like you had achieved something just getting the game to work. Best days of my life!

teltest August 6th, 2008 a 01:30 am

My first computer was a 48K Sinclair Spectrum bought for £140. My dad put up half the money as I had convinced him it would help with my college work. I think he probably sussed it wasn't helping that much when I managed to complete Manic Miner. Happy days.

skippity August 6th, 2008 a 12:37 am

First computer was a ZX Spectrum 48k - and boy, did it feel good to have that one over the lesser 16k model! Ah, the heady days of waiting 10 minutes for a program to load from tape and then getting that sinking feeling as the tape came to an end but the flashing screen border continued...

rodneynz August 6th, 2008 a 12:29 am

my first computer was in the 80's, a Dick Smith System 80 which was a Radio Shack TRS80 clone, monochrome and 16k memory and audio cassette tape drive, it even had a Donkey Kong type game
http://classic-computers.org.nz/system-80/index.htm

eSpratt1quid August 6th, 2008 a 12:06 am

a secondhand chunky compaq laptop about 4 years ago. slow and noisy. old then as running win 98

hqhqhq77 August 5th, 2008 a 11:59 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48K. Iâve had worse since.

kjlmorris August 5th, 2008 a 11:54 pm

Bought a Novatec laptop with a 10gb HD for £1400 about 7 years ago! HD is now in a caddy being used externally, alonside a 8gb micro sd!

narcotix August 5th, 2008 a 11:37 pm

Hi,

My frist computer was a Commodore 64 which came complete with a tape deck for loading games ... In fact alot I spent alot of time watching the multicoloured lines on screen while waiting for games to load ..

I can remember how I thought it was Absolutely Brilliant back then ... LoL

Anyway here are the specs:

8-bit computer
64 kilobytes of RAM

That's brought back some memories ... Thanks!

neilmonk August 5th, 2008 a 11:18 pm

(oops)

my first computer wasâ¦wait for itâ¦


A Sinclair ZXSpecturm 48k.

Mine was the plastic-keyed version (rather than the rubbered one) which is apparently quite rare. Shame it stopped working so was thrown out - if only I'd have known! :-(

neilmonk August 5th, 2008 a 11:17 pm

my first computer was...wait for it...

T8RSP August 5th, 2008 a 11:14 pm

My First PC - by T8RSP - Aged 23 and a few weeks

My First PC was an Escom P100 and it was brilliant and it came with a scanner and it came with a printer and it came with a free football game which I loved and I was able to play on it until I had my tea! :)

Anyway, it was an Escom P100. My parents bought it for me for my school work! Bet they wish they hadn't bothered now! :)

They were offered it for the same price as a P75! They thought they had a bargain! I've forgotten the price, but I can imagine it was about £1200! 64MB of RAM (instead of the original 32!) I can't remember the size of the hard drive, but I think it'd be no bigger than 10GB! Probably more like 6!

We were assured of the fact Escom were fine as a company, we'd heard rumours that they were soon to be going out of business, but we were told otherwise. We signed the papers, paid for the PC, brought it home and were happy, for a few weeks. Something wasn't quite right with it, we went to take it back but the shop was empty and they had been wound down a few days before hand!

How things have changed with the fact that a laptop is now a billion times more powerful than that!

orange69 August 5th, 2008 a 11:12 pm

I would of added to this post sooner, but my 16k Spectrum zx complete with green screen has only just returned from a service a PC world!!!! & the tape crashed 4 times before the internet loaded.

Phew - just made it with 43mins to spare

GioLeo August 5th, 2008 a 11:09 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64, complete with tape deck. I think I even paid £30 for a painting program which came with a mouse. The whole set-up (computer, tape deck, joysticks and TV) cost more that my current computer, and that was back in 1984!

mwdz159 August 5th, 2008 a 11:01 pm

Commodore Vic 20 with 16kb expansion cart

kennybeaton August 5th, 2008 a 10:50 pm

My intended first computer was a BBC Micro, ordered, big backlog, no joy, so decided on a ZX Spectrum and then ...... the BBC Micro turned up. Lovely machine and a proper keyboard, very happy ....

furiousd07 August 5th, 2008 a 10:36 pm

My first computer was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 - the one with the built-in tape player!

monkeypete August 5th, 2008 a 10:26 pm

My first computer was a Acorn Electron which was a striped down BBC Micro. It came with a tape deck and a massive 32KB of RAM! I think it's still in the loft somewhere...

seesaw August 5th, 2008 a 10:22 pm

When I first joined a large Building Society in 1985 we were still using ticker tape at our backup site ! Can't remember first PC but anyone remember the VEXTREX games console !

srfield August 5th, 2008 a 10:14 pm

My first computer was a Commodore Amiga 500 with an OCS chipset. I remember the proud moment when my Dad set up the machine and upgraded the RAM with a huge expansion pack to 1MB! Many happy memories playing Rainbow Islands and Formula 1 with the old beauty!

matthewsexton August 5th, 2008 a 10:04 pm

I had my fathers IBM PS/2 386 System, it was the first of the old AT models that had PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse and could you get hold of them in those days...noooo ! I also saved up for 6 months and had xmas n birthday money thrown in to buy a Creative Sound Card that was compatible with this machine too. Expensive it was and it was about 3ft taller than all other PCs.

I had fun editing the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files every time I wanted to play a game.

Bert August 5th, 2008 a 10:03 pm

First one for me was a speccy 48k...rubber keys and a tape machine to load the games

yarmie August 5th, 2008 a 09:52 pm

It was a 386 clone - can't remember who made it. It had a 5.25" floppy drive and ran Word Perfect, which was anything but.

chocmonster August 5th, 2008 a 09:42 pm

I inherited a Amstrad PC1512 - I only ever used it to play golf on!

FELIX65 August 5th, 2008 a 09:37 pm

i remember the first computer my perents brought.

an acorn A3020!

here is a small rundown of the spec..!...

AME Archimedes A3020
MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer
TYPE Professional Computer
ORIGIN United Kingdom
YEAR 1992
BUILT IN LANGUAGE BBC BASIC / RISC OS 3.1
KEYBOARD Full-stroke PC-102 style
CPU ARM 250 32 bit RISC
SPEED 12 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O)
RAM 2 MB (up to 4Mb possible with socketed zip ram chips)
ROM 1 MB
SOUND 8 voices
I/O PORTS Centronics, RS423, VGA, Network, 1 expansion slot (same as A4000, A3000 and A3020)
BUILT IN MEDIA One 3.5
OS RISC OS 3.11
POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit
PRICE £749 with floppy, £899 with a 60Mb hard disk.

kjh101 August 5th, 2008 a 09:24 pm

I had a spectrum. Very good machine and is still in the loft. Might dig it out sometime.

gjh100 August 5th, 2008 a 09:22 pm

Mine was an Amstrad!! Lovely Green and black screen!

gjh100 August 5th, 2008 a 09:18 pm

My first computer was a Commodor Amiga 500 - absolutely loved it!!

scrappy23 August 5th, 2008 a 09:15 pm

It was a dreadful old laptop that took an age to load - can't remember the exact specs but it was a compaq.

Chaosman August 5th, 2008 a 09:13 pm

16k ZX Spectrum loved loading those tapes bwwwwwweeer beep bwwwwwwweeer crshcrshcrshcrsh! then crashes with 2 seconds to go. B E A utiful

jobutcher August 5th, 2008 a 09:00 pm

It was a Amstrdell 486DX, can't recall the spec though - thoug

jobutcher August 5th, 2008 a 09:00 pm

It was a Amstrdell 486DX, can't recall the spec though - thoug

jobutcher August 5th, 2008 a 09:00 pm

It was a Amstrdell 486DX, can't recall the spec though - thoug

stnicholas August 5th, 2008 a 08:53 pm

My first PC was an Elonex 286, 1mb RAM 20mb hard drive. I think it cost me in the region of £1200 - loaded with Lotus 123 and Word Perfect. Think I sold it for £25 :-(

Denzil August 5th, 2008 a 08:34 pm

Dont remember the name but it was a kit with calculator led display as the only output.
Soldered it all together but didn't manage to get it to do anything to convince me it was working!

hollyimo August 5th, 2008 a 08:34 pm

My sisters and I were given a Commodore 64 Christmas in early eighties.... tedious memories of loading the cassette up and going away for half an hour to let it run, and then finding 'syntax error in 232' and starting all over again. Fun!

worthingtiger August 5th, 2008 a 08:26 pm

My first computer was back in 1981... a good old Commodore Vic 20, with a proper full-sized keyboard. None of the membrane keyboards on the Sinclair offerings of the time

urchingraham August 5th, 2008 a 08:21 pm

My first computer was an Acorn Electron. Was a great piece of kit !! Basic programming was the business!!

urchingraham August 5th, 2008 a 08:21 pm

My first computer was an Acorn Electron. Was a great piece of kit !! Basic programming was the business!!

ANDYCOOP August 5th, 2008 a 08:09 pm

It was the classic commodore 64 for me - that wonderful classic ahhh fod memories of playing frogger with the state of the art graphics!

Monkeyonamoped August 5th, 2008 a 07:51 pm

C64 for me - convinced my parents I'd become a programming genius if they got me one. The best I managed was:
10 print "I am ace"
20 goto 10

Robmods August 5th, 2008 a 07:44 pm

My first computer was Compaq's second best model ( the best was not in stock ). Speedy 200MHz Pentium 2, an impressive for its time 64MB RAM, a 4GB hard drive, and most impressively, a dedicated ATI graphics card with 2MB onboard memory.

iliko August 5th, 2008 a 07:37 pm

My first computer was IBM E369, Pentium I, 64 Mb. Just diesd recently.

Paulwardl2 August 5th, 2008 a 07:29 pm

first computer was the might spectrum complete with classic tapes like frogger et al - should mention that dell still haven't credited me for my purhcase cashback 4 months on! nice laptops though - rough gem

revans9 August 5th, 2008 a 07:14 pm

embarrassed as I am to admit it, my first computer was an Acorn Electron! In its defence, it did come with a copy of Chuckie Egg, still the greatest game ever made !!!

mssampson August 5th, 2008 a 07:06 pm

First âputer was BBC, followed by a BBC Master then an Amiga 1200. Decided to move to a PC in 1995 and chose a Dell XPS 1200c (120 MHz processor, 1 GB HD and massive 32 Mb of Ram) with 17" monitor - a snip at £2500 pounds. Moved on since through many home builds, but still have the Dell. 17 inch monitor long gone.

Shahbaz August 5th, 2008 a 06:19 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum +3. Unfortunately it didint have a tape drive only the floppy drive. Most of the games were on tape and only really worked on the +2 which all my friends had. I remember spending 3 days manually writing the code for Bustout from the user manual. Thankfully that game taught me the life changing skills that are essential for mastering brickbreaker on the blackberry :-)

Stunt August 5th, 2008 a 06:16 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum 16k which we upgraded to 48k it was great fun and wasted hours in front of it instead of going out smokin and drinking... aaaaahhhh what a waste!!

simonjohnson23 August 5th, 2008 a 05:58 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum 48k+. I was the envy of all the other Spectrum owners at school as the + meant I had quality plastic keys instead of the normal rubber ones!

nmcconom August 5th, 2008 a 05:49 pm

I had a Commodore 16 +4k with the amazing game that was called Mr Puniverse - basically like pacman but running about eating steroids instead!

beazer24 August 5th, 2008 a 05:47 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC464- complete with green screen monitor and tape deck, with no memory whatsoever! We used to write down the tape counter number in the cassette boxes of the games so we could see how much longer the game was going to take to load (Roland on the Ropes took 9 and a half minutes!!!)
I can remember being very excited when we got a 'modulator' which meant we could plug the computer into the TV and have a colour picture!!

rick36 August 5th, 2008 a 05:27 pm

My first computer was a Pentium 200, 256MB RAM, Voodoo 2 Graphics Card, Onboard Sound and a 15" Phillips Monitor. My auntie bought it for me and it set her back £1000.

nexquidco August 5th, 2008 a 05:16 pm

Whoops I forgot the Spec (got a bit carried away with the games!)

CPU 14.3 MHz
24-bit Colour
2 MB RAM
3.5 disk drive

Wow to think it kicked so much A$$ with those Specs?!

nexquidco August 5th, 2008 a 05:03 pm

Mine was Amiga A1200, it came package with Batman which totally kick A$$! and still does.

People in the know might also remember "Operation Stealth", now that was a good game I'm gonna have to get on E-bay tonight!

philcummins August 5th, 2008 a 04:56 pm

My first computer like many others was a Sinclair Spectrum 48k Rubber keys.
I remember christmas morning in 1982 sat waiting for the first game to load listening to the screeches and screams of the Spectrum loading process...

listuk August 5th, 2008 a 04:51 pm

First computer: A compaq presario 486 100MHz 16MB ram, 500mb hard drive.

skier1066 August 5th, 2008 a 04:42 pm

My first computer was a second hand ZX81, with a shuggly ram pack held on with an elastic band that anytime my family walked by my desk usually ended up with the screen going to black and white and me having to type back in whatever program I was working on as I never could get that darned tape machine to work.

However, my first faultering steps into computing still bring back a big smile to my face, trying to work out the Basic language and the joy of typing in lines of codes to play "Bomber". Those were the days. Now where is my elastic band ?......

kaylinblue August 5th, 2008 a 04:37 pm

My First computer was a spectrum 48k which was the bee's knees. Bring back Chukie egg and Horace goes skiing!

mzeyfert August 5th, 2008 a 04:29 pm

My first (own) computer was a Celeron 500MHz machine in 1999. I was blown away by the spec and my parents' generosity.

gamma911 August 5th, 2008 a 04:22 pm

My First computer was a IBM 386 I won it in South Africa as the junior video game champion playing Wonderboy ( Islander ) on the NES.

Took it to the computer shop to get looked at because I had no idea how to work it and the retro looking shop owner conned me in selling the CD ROM and Soundcard that came with it for wait for it £50! ( It was probably worth 10 times as much )

That was the last time I got conned out of computer hardware and since using quidco being overcharged online. So kudos guys.

Oh and Willy Beamish as a first game, not knowing that TAB opened the inventory, kept typing T.A.B on the keyboard. Classic!

csmit178 August 5th, 2008 a 04:22 pm

my first computer was a mesh tower powered by a pentium 3 chip

raveenash August 5th, 2008 a 04:12 pm

Mine was a Commodore 64, cartridges, tape drive that take 45min to load up a game, love it.

brodchester August 5th, 2008 a 04:03 pm

My first 'real' home computer was an Amstrad 512k word processor with twin drives and a totally rubbish dot-matrix printer. It somehow got me through my second degree and now resides with my betamax video recorder in the loft which my wife prefers to call the boneyard of technology.

jzecher August 5th, 2008 a 04:00 pm

My first computer was an Apple II, with a 'color' monitor (blue, white, red, were the only colors I ever saw on it), which got my mom addicted to Lode Runner.

My first PC was a Bear Systems 386 with very little of anything, although I believe it may have had 512k RAM, and I used it to play Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego again, and again, and agin...

...and my first Dell was a PIII 450mhz, 128Mb RAM, 13.6Gb HD, a Voodoo3 graphics card (I thought that was a great choice...until they stopped producing the cards...whoops). I got it for college and used it to play video games. Oh the glory days...

shayerhussain August 5th, 2008 a 03:45 pm

My first PC was a compaq presario, it had a pentium 233 with MMX technology (do you remember the guys in the shiny colourful suits!!) it cost me loads (actually my dad paid for it). It came with Windows 95, very little ram, 2gig hard drive. The really cool thing about it was that it had a slot loading cd drive.

kingchris August 5th, 2008 a 03:33 pm

My first own PC, was a 386, 4mb Ram, 100 mb ish Hard Disk.

51/4 " drive, and wait for it an amber screen!

Windows 3.1 in Orange was amazing!

Took me ages to save for a 14" colour screen,

zhee August 5th, 2008 a 03:25 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 64k. May first PC was a Olivetti 386SX, 2MB RAM, 16Mhz Processor and a 40MB hard drive!

sue56 August 5th, 2008 a 03:24 pm

The first computer that I had was a much loved âFarming Editionâ of the Dragon 32 given to Bruv & me at Christmas. The second computer that I had wasâ¦â¦â¦â¦. crunch my carrots !â¦â¦â¦a Dragon 32 after the first one went bang ! Oooarrrh !

Lamba August 5th, 2008 a 03:19 pm

My first was a Pentium 3 with 128mb of RAM and cost me £1300 at the time.

8mhigh August 5th, 2008 a 03:11 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48K. I've had worse since.

aplummer August 5th, 2008 a 03:01 pm

In 1983 I became the proud owner of an Acorn BBC B (and a large, for those days, loan!) - it had a whopping 32KB of RAM and ROM, 2 MHz 6502 processor and came with a demo tape (it interfaced with a cassette :o ). No monitor, of course - I had to fight the rest of the family for the TV, where its 16 colours took my breath away! It had a 8-bit parallel and I/O port and was a fetching beige colour and built like a Cheiftan tank; I loved it! With a price tag of £399 it was more expensive than my recent laptop buy (which has a rather higher spec, but does not provide the same excitement - or envy - factor) - wish I'd kept it for posterity {:o(

duan1975 August 5th, 2008 a 02:54 pm

My first computer was bought about 10 years ago by my parents, which is a desktop. Can not remember the exact spec. The harddisk is 10G and the operation system is Win95.

nixon1877 August 5th, 2008 a 02:43 pm

As for most folk, mine was the rubber-keyed Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k. Rubber key madness - magic for Daley Thomson's decathlon!!!

ozman August 5th, 2008 a 02:36 pm

My first computer was a Macintosh 128K. Was cool at the time, gee have they moved on.

james246 August 5th, 2008 a 02:33 pm

The first computer of my own is the laptop I have now.... 1.8ghz 512mb ram and a tendency to stop working, it has no graphics and struggles to run worms.

mjradford August 5th, 2008 a 02:29 pm

My first computer was one i made with my older brother. It was an Ohio Scientific Superboard II; It had a MOS Technology 6502 processor and it shipped with no RAM, no Video interface, and no tape I/O - you had to make those yourselves! So we upped the RAM to 8KB. We hacked the insides of an old B&W TV to convert it into a monitor and built a cassette interface with an old external cassette recorder. When we decided to increase the RAM to 16KB, his wife threw out the chips; she thought they were junk he'd brought home from work (again!). But it did at least have a keyboard on the motherboard!

All programming was in assembler; but we had great fun programming a very simple "pong" game that summer!

My first PC was a clone 286 I used mainly for AutoCAD, with a blistering 20MHz clock speed, 256 MB of RAM and a massive 20MB hard drive; and a epson dot matrix printer.

Thank the lord for Moores law; in addition to the usual laptop, home PC, office Laptop, etc - now I also have a Western Digital network attached hard drive running a Linux OS that I have hacked for fun...

Is it sad to be such a geek?

nclsteve August 5th, 2008 a 02:24 pm

I had a NEC VERSA LITE FX, a pentium 3 laptop with 500mhz of processor speed and 64mb of ram

danthake August 5th, 2008 a 02:18 pm

I had a BBC Master (my Mum was a teacher) which only ran disks and I mean the big old ones. You had to know all the commands in BBC Basic to make programs run... I miss it :(

sdennis100 August 5th, 2008 a 02:13 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. It had 64k of RAM and a fantastic cassette player to load the games on. Nothing like waiting 20 minutes for something to load and then the computer crashing!

My first PC was a Tiny - think it only had a 1GB hard drive or something but it was pretty good at the time.

jpdickson August 5th, 2008 a 02:09 pm

My first computer was Spectrum 48K which I still have at home in it's box!

First PC was IBM D2 66MHz with 8MB RAM and 420MB HDD

Iqaz August 5th, 2008 a 02:08 pm

My 1st PC was a Tatung Einstein with 128k of memory (no cache, no RAM). Basic on board graphics - no sounds except motherboard generated. We bought it from Dixons, where the sales advisor told us it was the next hot thing! Came with free screen (still working), state of the art dot matrix printer and a diskette of free software and games. Colour screen VGA Output, its own version of floppy disks, worked ok - till the OS failed (non-Windows!).

Better days, got a Laptop yesterday on Dixons for just over 200 squids, + cashback thanks to QUIDCO :-) with no help from sales advisors (hey hey!)

If you were a guy Quidco, I would propose to you! You're brill, thanks for your help during the credit squeeze.

Pounder August 5th, 2008 a 02:06 pm

I had the zx81 with 1k of ram. I also forked out on a new tape recorder to save the programs on. I suppose that could have doubled up as my media player too!

Keeley80 August 5th, 2008 a 01:55 pm

Our first computer was a Dragon 34 - we only had one game for it called Frogger, it took ages to load then would fail at the last point!! The computer also had to live in my brother's room which, as the younger sister, I wasn't allowed in because apprently girls smell!! So i would tell you more about the spec but i never really got to use it much!!

pbird August 5th, 2008 a 01:49 pm

In 1977 it was an old but 'proper' minicomputer (the term 'microcomputer' was not in widespread use, let alone 'PC').
Extended Memory: 8k words (12 bit) of ferrite core (4k standard, expandable to 32k).
Flashing Lights (very pretty) : 2 banks of lights showing (1) the memory address of the curret instruction and (2) the contents of the 'accumulator'
Switches: inclding 12 for setting the contents of memory ... To get started it was a simple case of power-on and then toggling the 12 switches 17 times in 'Read-In-Mode'. Amazing how easily I could remember the 17x12 (=204) binary numbers in the correct sequence back then but now struggle to remember a few simple paswords. This let the computer read a paper tape of the Binary Loader, and hey presto you were nearly started and ready to sit down at the teletype.
Model: DEC PDP8/e. Never really knew what the /e designation stood for ... but always presumed it was for 'economy' since the switches were so much flimsier than other models in the range.

mitac August 5th, 2008 a 01:45 pm

ist commercial computer had 10mb hdd less than most ram now

alistairstubbs August 5th, 2008 a 01:41 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum 48K

stephensj August 5th, 2008 a 01:22 pm

My first computer was a ZX81 - a hot shot gaming machine!

cjmain August 5th, 2008 a 01:21 pm

As a 6 year old I used to spend hours on my rubber key Sinclair Spectrum 48k, but the games were so expensive I used to goto the libary and get books with BASIC code listings and type them into the thing, they never used to work properly, now I am professional programmer and my code still never works properly, some things in computing never changes :)

bchubb August 5th, 2008 a 01:19 pm

Mine was an Amstrad (CPC464 i believe, but with a disc drive :) and a colour (none of that old green stuff) screen...

kirans August 5th, 2008 a 01:19 pm

My first computer was the clearly the best. A Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k. Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf, Lords of Midnight, nothing comes close to it. 25 years old next month and still running!

Toner August 5th, 2008 a 01:04 pm

My First Computer was the mighty Commodore 64.I thought I was going to be a computer programmer until it took me 3 days to write a program on the Commodore 64!!

All the program did was spell Rainbow out in different colours!!

I will always remember how unreliable it was!! Sit there for 10mins while a game loads only for it to stop just as it was about to start!!

No doubt the New Dell range will be considerably more reliable and 1000 times as quick!!

Toner August 5th, 2008 a 01:04 pm

My First Computer was the mighty Commodore 64.I thought I was going to be a computer programmer until it took me 3 days to write a program on the Commodore 64!!

All the program did was spell Rainbow out in different colours!!

I will always remember how unreliable it was!! Sit there for 10mins while a game loads only for it to stop just as it was about to start!!

No doubt the New Dell range will be considerably more reliable and 1000 times as quick!!

chetta August 5th, 2008 a 01:03 pm

ZX Spectrum 16k , also had an atari games console

yahsfa August 5th, 2008 a 12:58 pm

I waited 30 years to get a computer (not bad as I work in computing). My current PC is my first, with Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0 GHz, 160 GB hard disk and 512MB memory. I guess I need a replacement.

Clancy August 5th, 2008 a 12:41 pm

ZX Spectrum 16k , 3.54 MHz Zilog Z80A CPU - My how technology has changed!!! lol

barakm August 5th, 2008 a 12:34 pm

No-Brand apple compatible, massive 64K RAM. 5.25'' Floppy disk drive. Extensible to two floppy drives!
Had a built in Basic interpreter, so wrote my first programs on that. (Yes, I'm broken, I started programming with Basic).

katylewis August 5th, 2008 a 12:31 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum ZX - no idea of its capabilities, I just remember playing "Dizzy on a Treausre Island" on it!!

jameslkelley August 5th, 2008 a 12:30 pm

Dell 486/ 66Mhz PC. With a huge 400MB hard drive :) And a massive chunky monitor to boot. I remember thinking it was the greatest PC ever - and for something that cost over £1,000 back then it was! But then a couple of games came out on CD that were 500 MB, and took over 120MB of hard drive space to run...then it was clear that is wasnt that great at all. Sensible soccer did run a treat though, always remember scoring from the half way line!

robpiggott August 5th, 2008 a 12:27 pm

had a spectrum 16k and thought it was the bee's knees....reallly used to love the loading of games from tape...almost hypnotic on the screen...LOL

ANNHILL123 August 5th, 2008 a 11:56 am

Oh Dear,must I admit....An Intel 386 !!

indiacharlie August 5th, 2008 a 11:55 am

Mine was also the trusty Sinclair ZX 81 with a whopping 1K supplemented by a 16K RAM pack later. Ah the joys of typing on that great keyboard a large program in only to get the Ram pack wobble and lose it all!!

Followed it up by a Sinclair Spectrum 48K and the lovely rubbery keys.

Then a BBC model B with a Solidisk Sideways Ram/Rom system with an upgraded CPU and 5.25 floppy disk (double sided!).
Onto an Amiga 500 before not having one for years - just used works ones, until I took a plunge a few years back with an HP Media Centre for home.

nettynora August 5th, 2008 a 11:42 am

Couldn't begin to tell you what my first computer was! Can't remember yesterday let alone that long ago! :)

neilmusgrove August 5th, 2008 a 11:41 am

My first was a Spectrum ZX, they were the days!

akawendy August 5th, 2008 a 11:32 am

Glad to see I'm not alone in reminiscing about the Commodore VIC 20! Obviously I was impressed so much that when I eventually bought a PC several(!) years later, it was a Commodore with a lively Pentium 60 and 8mb RAM! Shortly afterwards, they went belly-up! Might have to buy from Dell next time... ;-)

anilkumar17 August 5th, 2008 a 11:11 am

My first pc was -IBM - PC XT - Model 5160 with a full-stroke keyboard with numeric keypad and function keys 84 or 101 keys with Intel 8088 processor offering processing speed of 4.77 MHz, with a socket for a 8087 math co-processor and RAM of 64k, ROM of 64 kb
with CGA graphics modes - 320 x 200 with 16 color and sound Tone Generator. It was also having single 5.25'' FDD & HDD-10Mb built in Media, with MS DOS operating system
Fantastic machine for basic & fortran 77 programming.

robeves August 5th, 2008 a 11:00 am

My first ever computer was an IBM 386, not to glamourouse you may think, however back in the day it had a "turbo" button boosting the MHz from 8 to a dizzying 20MHz, not thats power! The overclockers dream machine!

bazzafett August 5th, 2008 a 10:40 am

Another Spectrum 48k with external cassette deck. Remember waiting ages for Jet Set Willy, Manic Miner etc to load & then getting really annoyed that I could only complete a few levels before the whole thing crashed!

rvtyson August 5th, 2008 a 10:38 am

My first computer was a Commodore C16 with a whole 16 kilobytes of RAM.....it was well worth the half hour wait for the tape to load for a game.

nquidcon August 5th, 2008 a 10:35 am

First computer was a commodore64, dad had bought it for us to learn on, the only thing we learnt was how to play games! :) (after waiting half hour for it to load) :(

burnsey67 August 5th, 2008 a 10:30 am

A Sinclair ZX-81: 1K RAM, Z-80 CPU, 8K ROM. Had the 16K RAM pack that wobbled and immediately trashed the program you'd just spent ages carefully coaxing from a C15 tape.

On the plus side, it taught you to write *really* tight code!

smallclone August 5th, 2008 a 10:26 am

My first computer was a Commodore Plus 4. Oh yes, those were the days!!

Sugden August 5th, 2008 a 10:18 am

My first computer was an abacus. Iwas 6 months old at the time.

ytaya August 5th, 2008 a 10:17 am

My first computer was a black and white ZX81. I think it had a massive 1k of memory! We used to save programs on 15 minute tape cassettes.

mattmerch August 5th, 2008 a 10:16 am

COMODORE PET with built in tape deck happy days

davidrobson August 5th, 2008 a 10:14 am

I had a commodore 64 - always fun waiting ages for the tape to load only to discover it hadn't worked and you then had to wait another 20 mins while it tried again!

RICAM August 5th, 2008 a 10:14 am

My first "computer" was a 48K ZX Spectrum acquired in Dec 1982.At the time this was the top spec speccy and it was to be used to within an inch of its life (with three replacements) for many years to come.
Everyone at school used to take C60 tapes full of games in to swop.An early form of file sharing!

mckeaj August 5th, 2008 a 10:08 am

I too was the owner of a spectrum 16k

awesome power

edz August 5th, 2008 a 09:54 am

mine was a sinclair something and tbh i dont remember the specs,good job really as they are getting better by the day computers

coolweldwork August 5th, 2008 a 09:30 am

I think it was a spectrum it had 1Gb harddrive - it cost quite a lot of money at the time, my dad still won't throw it away - if only quidco existed back in those days at least we would have some cashback to show for it! ;)

redwards1953 August 5th, 2008 a 09:29 am

First computor was the fabulous Sinclair ZX 80, 16k black push-on ram pack, membrane keyboard, Black and white monitor, and Phillips Cassette deck for loading Flight Sim...magic!

daverossjnr August 5th, 2008 a 09:28 am

I was lucky enough to get a ZX81 as my mum and dad thought there may be something in computers and I should have one to use at home. Turns out he was right - now I can spend my day on Youtube watching monkeys roller skating and talking to friends on myspace who also got computers from their parents who thought that PCs might be important one day !

geoffowen23 August 5th, 2008 a 09:21 am

Spectrum 48k rubber keyboard. Brilliance. First PC was a Fujitsu PC/TV. The GUI was made to look like a kids bedroom. It broke though :(

gump103 August 5th, 2008 a 09:20 am

My first computer was the not so mighty successor to the commodore 64 the underwhelming commodore Plus/4.
I was 4 years old and my parents had gone to a computer shop and asked which was better c64 or plus/4, the man of course said the plus/4 as it had 16k more memory which housed a word processor and spreadsheet program. Thought it was great for me at the time I was always gutted that when i wanted to borrow friends games (everyone had the c64) to use I couldn't as commodore made the fatal mistake of not giving it backward compatibility.
The tape drive broke in the end and we couldn't get a replacement so the plus/4 went to the place above us .....the loft........ infact I bet its still up there, I wonder how it would look now on the tv in the lounge now. :)

hazelmears August 5th, 2008 a 08:49 am

My first computer was the good old Vic 20. We were on a camping holiday and my sister and I had been pestering my Dad to get one but they were sold out at home. When we saw one in a shop on holiday, we bugged Dad for over 2 hours before he caved and bought one! Of course we wanted to play it right away and tried to convince Mum and Dad that we should go home early - no joy!

It was a mighty beast of a machine. My Grandad bought us the memory card that you could switch between 2, 4 or 16k! Feel the power! JetPac was my favourite game although that used to take about 45 mins to load from tape! Great game.

Tictoc15 August 5th, 2008 a 08:01 am

My ist was a zx spectrum! but can remeber shortly after buying a MCP custom built 486! remember it cost the earth and you can fit more on a flash drive these days than the memory it had! LOL

bigkevk August 5th, 2008 a 07:43 am

the first computerr i used was an amstrad 256 that i bought my daughter for christmas in 1987 (i think) took me about 4 hours christmas afternoon to copy an exercise out of the manual just to draw a circle, ah the good old days

digiengland August 5th, 2008 a 07:38 am

my 1st computer was X386 32k memo and 2M harddrive

bluegnu August 5th, 2008 a 07:25 am

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 48k, my first PC was a 286 I think. It was far inferior to my mobile phone!

vmagnis August 5th, 2008 a 07:02 am

My first computer was a desktop Commodore 64 basic V2, with 64KB RAM and 20KB of ROM :)

anton1970 August 5th, 2008 a 05:30 am

My first computer was a commodore 64 with tape drive

billabongabing August 5th, 2008 a 03:56 am

I had a BBC growing up as a kid. Those were the days...

maxwell82 August 5th, 2008 a 03:53 am

My first computer is the one I am using now. E-machines 420. It serves my purposes...

legendinhistime August 5th, 2008 a 03:42 am

Commodore 64! You canna beat an old tape-drive :p

andystevens August 5th, 2008 a 03:06 am

First computer, that eventually led to my career in IT, was a ZX81. 16K ram pack and thermal printer (3rd party one that printed blue on white paper, not the black-on-silver Sinclair one). First exposure to machine code too - hours spent typing in listings of endless hex codes to be POKEd into a REM statement in the first line.

rimpey August 5th, 2008 a 02:16 am

My first computer was a Vic 20 3.5K memory, 2nd a Plus4 then started a YTS so first paided for computer amiga500

davidadamson August 5th, 2008 a 01:11 am

The first computer I used was a ZX Spectrum, with warm rubber keys. This was closely followed by a BBC Micro.

The first I owned myself was an Atari 1040 STE, which had 1MB of RAM and the most stupidly located mouse port in history. I did (and still do) also have the rare Atari robotics interface kit for the ST.

The first OS that I had any real high regard for was RISC OS on the Acorn Archimedes series of machines. It remains my opinion that the OS and integration in these machines was literally light years ahead of what anyone else had out in the real world at the time.

bendybenji August 5th, 2008 a 01:07 am

My first PC was a Toshiba MSX. This was when my mates had commodore 64s and amstrads, my mum bought it me because the blue arrow keys looked pretty! Did have some entertaining games looking back but don't think I ever completed one of them.

Artonox August 5th, 2008 a 12:55 am

my first computer was one of the first amd athlons in 1998. I don't remember the specs that much but it was in a huge beige metal case that was as heavy as the house. I think it survived on 64mb sdram on 600mhz processor. I must say, the price which I remember was collossall - £1100

brinklea August 5th, 2008 a 12:22 am

My first computer was the good old Spectrum 48K with the rubber keys but I wore them out playing Daley Thompson's decathlon so I upgraded to the Spectrum + with plastic keys and it's still to the fore. In fact it's not that long ago since I fired it up to let my daughter see how things used to be before broadband!

katcurry August 4th, 2008 a 11:43 pm

My First computer:

Commodore Vic 20

Operating system Commodore BASIC 2.0

CPU MOS Technology 6502 @ ca. 1 MHz

Memory 5 KB - 64 KB

squidcor August 4th, 2008 a 11:39 pm

My first computer at work I seem to remember was a Sirius with twin 5.25 floppy drives but I cannot remember anything else about the spec (possibly 64k memory?) but I can remember the excitement when we got an Apricot with a 10mb hard drive and the diddy (and more robust) 3.5 floppies!!! (also in all those nice colours!!)

ballyholme August 4th, 2008 a 11:29 pm

My first "computer" was a motorola D2 kit, programming in machine code n a hexidecimal keyboard. I then progressed through the various spectrums, amigas etc to my first PC based machine, an Amstrad PC. Looking back wish I had gone down the Apple route and rather than sponsor the microsoft empire.

gumber August 4th, 2008 a 11:27 pm

My first computer was an Amiga 500+ which was way better than the Amiga 500 and 600 (none of the games ever worked on the 600). First PC a 200Mhz, 16MB Packard Bell! And Now I've just bought the power horse that is the Dell XPS...

Karl9 August 4th, 2008 a 11:13 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum with a MASSIVE 48k ram pack - Jetpac, Manic Miner, Ant Attack - hours and hours of play time.

rthorne August 4th, 2008 a 11:09 pm

Now I feel old. My first was a self-built Sinclair ZX80. If only I'd have stopped then.

hobnob August 4th, 2008 a 10:47 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC - can't remember which model. What I do remember is using a 'turtle' to draw stuff and this dodgy game that I couldn't get past the first level on. Those were the days!

gilderoy August 4th, 2008 a 10:43 pm

Ahh halcyon days of retro computing, my first computer was a ZX81 which I purchased after many weeks of paper round saving (well if truth be told I borrowed a few pounds off mum n dad as well). I loved that lil thing, been a geek ever since :-) , took me a few months to pay off that dept and save up for the 16k ram pack. How many of you remember typing in those magazine listings then spending hours trying to find the spelling mistake in your hex entry ? Then upon finding it and compiling the code only to suffer the dreaded ram pack wobble and lose the lot !!!

awmoore August 4th, 2008 a 10:41 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32 - all my mates had ZX Spectrums - which I would've secretly preferred, but never would have said so at the time - a rubber bouncy keyboard, no thanks! - you need a proper full size job. Still vividly remember typing in machine code from "Your Computer" magazine it seldom worked - but remember one classic pac-man game which my dad and me spent hours typing in! FF E3 @@ 55 F6 etc! Blimey - that almost sounds like punchcards - actually, that would've been faster!

priorslee August 4th, 2008 a 10:37 pm

First computer was a Packard Bell, but so long ago, i can't remember the spec - soething like 386, 40Mb hard drive.

raiderz August 4th, 2008 a 10:37 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48k, or to put it more correctly, my first 10 computers were Sinclair Spectrum 48k's.

They kept on breaking down and WHSmith kept on giving me a new warranty everytime I took one back for replacement.

Aaron44 August 4th, 2008 a 10:22 pm

My first computer was an ancient 386. 8Mhz CPU or 16Mhz if you pressed the 'Turbo' button! Something terrible like 1Mb of RAM and a massive 20Mb hard drive. 3.5" floppy support too! How far we've come!

LBowers August 4th, 2008 a 10:12 pm

My first computer was a ZX-81, complete with the wobbly 16k RAM pack (held on with elastic bands). I remember selling it on for £40 and re-investing that money in a Commodore 16.

pobox118 August 4th, 2008 a 09:33 pm

i dont remember the exact spec of my first computer, however i do remember the first 5.5" floppy version of snake! untill today its still the best version about!

rfcowie August 4th, 2008 a 09:32 pm

My first computer was a Dell, honest!, it was a Dell 316sx desktop I bought around 1986 after being miffed at some of my work colleagues showing off at being the only ones capable of working the only computer in the office. It had a 16MHz processor, 512Kb RAM, black and white monitor and I think a 20Mb hard drive. I learned a massive amount from this PC by doing things wrong and spending hours making the machine work again, bring back DOS !!

rfcowie August 4th, 2008 a 09:32 pm

My first computer was a Dell, honest!, it was a Dell 316sx desktop I bought around 1986 after being miffed at some of my work colleagues showing off at being the only ones capable of working the only computer in the office. It had a 16MHz processor, 512Kb RAM, black and white monitor and I think a 20Mb hard drive. I learned a massive amount from this PC by doing things wrong and spending hours making the machine work again, bring back DOS !!

mcclim August 4th, 2008 a 09:31 pm

My first computer was a Commodore C64 with a massive 64K of Ram and a lovelly beige tape player for loading programs, any game took well over an hour to load, now those were the days...

Matty125 August 4th, 2008 a 09:18 pm

Hmm - first computer was the sinclair spectrum 48k, complete with games such as manic minor and jet set willy - who can remember these "classics"...?? but the first pc was a P133 8mb ram what a machine... I think its still working as a linux firewall????

samhopwood August 4th, 2008 a 08:45 pm

I was too young to know the spec of my first computer, but I think it had more dust in it than components, and a little hamster running around on a wheel inside it which powered the processor.

jbrown August 4th, 2008 a 08:38 pm

Yes I had a Sinclair Spectrum 48K with the old rubber keyboard, then upgraded it with an Opus Discovery 1 3.5" disc drive and fullsize keyboard...transformed it!

maccapete August 4th, 2008 a 08:30 pm

Amstrad CPC 464, 64kb, Green screen monitor, yeah baby, gaming at its finest (or so i thought at the time?!)

craig80 August 4th, 2008 a 08:28 pm

my first computer was something by tandy. cant remember much about it other than donkey kong. then we upgraded to the awesome commodore 64. waiting what must have been over 40 minutes for games to load up from cassettes only for them to crash just before you started the game. rewind. start again!!

mcbcfc August 4th, 2008 a 08:16 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 128K - an absolute beast

donepudi August 4th, 2008 a 07:52 pm

Mine was P1 on 16MB ram and 3gb HDD...comparatively..am a new generation guy ;)

bunneegurl August 4th, 2008 a 07:48 pm

We had an Amstrad 2086 with 64Kb of memory and an 8MHz processor. You could only save files on two floppy disks and not the hard drive as there wasn't room. It came shipped with Windows 2.0 (which was worse than hopeless) so you had to run everything in DOS.

Leumas August 4th, 2008 a 07:47 pm

Lots of 4s - 40Mhz, 4Mb RAM, 40Mb HDD, 14" screen...

garethleeds August 4th, 2008 a 07:18 pm

My first computer was the wonderful Amiga 500+. The 'plus' because it came with a whopping 1MB memory! Floppy disk drive and a nice shade of beige made this a must-have.

Telkman August 4th, 2008 a 06:59 pm

Our first was a Macintosh Plus, upgraded to a whopping 4mb of RAM! If memory serves, we somehow managed to save all our household accounts in a spreadsheet that was too large a file for the machine to ever open again, so we had to upgrade to an LCII instead!

rmcc189 August 4th, 2008 a 06:56 pm

My first computer was a BBC Model B

bevcarty August 4th, 2008 a 06:53 pm

My fist computer was a C64. Im pretty sure the flashing loading screen and the screeching noises the tapes made when loading have frazzled my brain.

epinchess August 4th, 2008 a 06:42 pm

My first computer was an Acorn Electron complete with a tape drive. Ear Plugs were sold separately :-) and I had time to make lunch whilst waiting for a program to load.

mirfieldlad August 4th, 2008 a 06:36 pm

an amstrad cpc 464 with abuilt in monitor that weighed a ton

still miss some of the games

coup de tat never found a game like it!

loopyloo August 4th, 2008 a 06:36 pm

My first was a ZX Spectrum + and I thought it was the bees knees! How times have changed!

Bohanna August 4th, 2008 a 06:27 pm

My first computer was a spectrum ZX

apples1 August 4th, 2008 a 06:02 pm

my first laptop was a dell inspiron 2200, lasted nearly 3 years and served me well tracking all my quidco transactions!

mgms47 August 4th, 2008 a 05:59 pm

My first one was a Packard Bell (yeah, I know!) with a Celeron 500MHz, 10Gb hard drive and 64 meg of ram. And ran Windows 98! Still works though, although a lot of the original bits have been upgraded over the years.

davidmercury August 4th, 2008 a 05:50 pm

my first and only computor is an Acer Aspire 5630 and it's great. I'm 65yrs so don't expect me to know anything technical about computing , but with one finger and loads of time, I now have the World in front of me.

natnat23 August 4th, 2008 a 05:48 pm

My first computer was a Packard Bell with a P2 233 cpu, 32mb ram, and a 4gb hd... wow! I was the envy of all my friends at the time! I still have it!

daveydave12345 August 4th, 2008 a 05:43 pm

My first computer was an acrorn electron! As far as I know it had 32kb of RAM. Back then it seemed perfectly justifiable to sit the for 15 minutes, waiting for a game to load from a seperate cassette player. I guess it was a small price to pay for all the hours of fun playing Repton, Arkanoid and Jet Set Willy!

jjread August 4th, 2008 a 05:39 pm

I had a commodore 64, and it looked remarkably similar to a breadbox.

eddiejamesuk August 4th, 2008 a 05:31 pm

My first computer was an Atari 600XL with 16k RAM! Classic!

contactjd August 4th, 2008 a 04:58 pm

my first computer was a ZX Spectrum +2!

denden August 4th, 2008 a 04:41 pm

My first computr was a Dragon 32 That was my first introduction to Donkey Kong. :O)
I then upgraded to one of those Amstrad ones with the pretty coloured keys to help the "dummies".

NicolaM August 4th, 2008 a 04:41 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad 6128. I remember copying lines and lines of code from an Amstrad magazine to create ridiculously basic games.

splishsplash August 4th, 2008 a 04:38 pm

I was given a Commodore 64 which, clue in the name lol, had 64k of RAM and a 1MHz processor!

113ever August 4th, 2008 a 04:32 pm

My first computer was a Mesh 500mb memory - £800 and VERY slow

copelandbc August 4th, 2008 a 04:28 pm

My first was bought in Canada: A Panasonis Exex Partner. A luugable 30lb weight with a built in thermal printer & a small plasma screen.

Cate75 August 4th, 2008 a 04:19 pm

My first computer was a Commodor 64 - I think I was about 10 years old so no idea of the specs but I remember my dad being very proud as it was top of the range at the time!

menziep August 4th, 2008 a 04:10 pm

My very first computer was a Dell, running Windows 95. Good Times!

interceptor August 4th, 2008 a 03:57 pm

My very first computer was a Commodore 64. Oh, it was so amazing. I miss it dearly!
My first PC was a 486 running Windows 3.1

mhurdman August 4th, 2008 a 03:53 pm

I have had a few, ranging from the mega-powerful C16, the Vic 20, Commodore 64, Amiga through to PCs now. What memory of loading games via tape!

tomgardner August 4th, 2008 a 03:44 pm

My first computer was a Mac Performa 630 (OS7) with a stunning 250MB hard drive. Now I have individual photoshop files bigger than that! Still, it did me well and was fine for writing up my PhD on.

paddydanw August 4th, 2008 a 03:28 pm

I was a Commadore 64 man myself. I'm guessing it was a 64 bit machine hence the name '64'. I was very sad. I spent hours programming the machine with the help of the user manual. My favourite game was Fantasy World Dizzy - a platform game with an egg as the main character. I also liked Jet Set Willy!

My first PC was a 386 sx25 with a 2MB Ram, 40 MB hard drive and 40hertz speed. It's best feature was a built in Megadrive.

vitriol01 August 4th, 2008 a 03:28 pm

Mine was a 386 SX 25mhz with 2MB RAM and an ENORMOUS 40MB HDD!! :) That 14in monitor killed my eyes too :P

fortythree August 4th, 2008 a 03:25 pm

My first PC was a Viglen 365 with 32Mhz and 14 " VGA monitor which I dropped as i wrestled it out of the box! It never quite worked properly

peterfhawkins August 4th, 2008 a 03:21 pm

Packard Bell 386 DX2 mmmm fast!

dmaher1 August 4th, 2008 a 03:19 pm

Was the Commodore 64. Seemed to be the only available one at the time.

aseaton August 4th, 2008 a 03:09 pm

I had a Amstrad CPC464 -- with a built in tape drive .

Sweet Sweet "Harrier Attack" and "OH Mummy!"

powervc August 4th, 2008 a 02:49 pm

my first PC is a 386sx 16Mhz with 1MByte RAM, 5.25" 3.5" dual floppy drive, 10MByte HDD, 14" VGA monitor from a US manufacturer called LASER - donno if they still exist... It has DOS3.1 loaded.

jonamur August 4th, 2008 a 02:43 pm

Mine was an acorn electron.
I can remember typing in lines and lines of 'code' not knowing what I was typing, so that I could play the Man, Fox, Chicken, Grain river crossing game, (can you tell that I cant remember the name of it).
It had the external tape drive so that I could load games from that as well, but they took forever, especially when you had to change tapes ; - )
Oh what happy days.

mattshawuk August 4th, 2008 a 02:35 pm

My first computer was brought home by my Dad, the only thing I remember about it was the terrible monitor sticking out of a huge body. It wasn't a black and white screen, it was more green and dark green. Barely played Prince of Persia! On the machine we had after that I used to love watching the ticker count up all 8k of RAM!

jamesg669 August 4th, 2008 a 02:23 pm

Mine was 16 bit Spectrum, and was able to load jumpin jak and bricks off tape in under 10 mins!!!

anrewwhelan August 4th, 2008 a 02:08 pm

Mine was a zx spectrum 48k. it took me a whole weekend to programme it to didplay a rotating pyramid. "syntax error please start again"
It was probably more reliable than my current laptop which went kaput last Friday. Can I have another one please Dell?

asjbaker August 4th, 2008 a 01:58 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC6128 it was the disc version of the more popular spectrum C64 but had double the memory, however the 2nd half of the memory was never used!!!

atlantisweb August 4th, 2008 a 01:55 pm

My first computer was a second hand british made ACT Aprioct XI portable computer. 9" mono CRT monitor packed up into one bag and the keyboard clipped onto the base unit and went into another bag... thankly portable computing is now less light weight lifting.

The CPU was an 8mhz 8086, with 512KB memory and a whooping 10MB hard disk drive and ran Dos 2.11, Supercalc 3 and Superwriter word processor.

Alexnikov August 4th, 2008 a 01:52 pm

The mighty Commodore 64. I have no idea about spec but it was pretty basic and just about managed to cope with us playing a wonderful game called Valhalla for endless hours on it. What I don't know about creative ways to insult Norse Gods isn't worth knowing...

Coupey August 4th, 2008 a 01:43 pm

My first computer was a 286 PC built like a tank, with 42MB Hard Drive, 1028K memory and incorporated the all-important Turbo button when you wanted to go faster.

Many a happy hour spent playing that crap QBasic game that had 2 gorillas throwing bananas at each other ensued.

stormienam August 4th, 2008 a 01:31 pm

Don't know who made it but my dad got me it from only knows where... it had 250mb hard drive and ram ha! what ram must has been 64kb ram some how we did get it on the internet... once then it died :-( bless him he did try for me! i was 16yo and the computer must have been 16yo lol!

baiano August 4th, 2008 a 01:23 pm

My first computer was a Sharp MZ80K. It was way ahead of it's time....an 'All in One' twenty plus years before the original i-Mac. Except that the screen was an 8" black and white affair, it had a built in C90 tape recorder...and all software had to be laboriously typed in from code listings printed in magazines. Entered some great games that way...AND it taught me how to program in BASIC! Ah - those were the days....?!

pjhq August 4th, 2008 a 01:19 pm

First computer was a Texas Instruments, TI99-4A, used mostly for games. Then we had a built-it-yourself XT clone from Samsung with a whopping 5MB Hard drive.

feltped August 4th, 2008 a 01:19 pm

My first PC (that i owned) had an AMD Athlon XP2400+ with 512 Ram and a 64Mb Gfx card.

My first games console was an Atari with one games cartridge, "75 games in 1" - kept me happy!

skirkpatrick August 4th, 2008 a 01:18 pm

My first meaningful PC was an Apple Mac Plus with 1Mb RAM and no hard-drive - just 2 double-density floppy drives. It managed to stay together long enough for me to do my A-Level coursework on it, plus taught me how to type.

It can't have been all bad as I'm now a full-time software engineer!

massmail666 August 4th, 2008 a 01:17 pm

my first computer was a hp desktop, it had a 20gb hard drive, 64mb RAM and 800mhz processor!

tksaunders August 4th, 2008 a 01:10 pm

My first computer was a spectrum 128k

Oh how i thought id be a programmer from my experiments with Basic - why did programming have to become so much harder?! :P

okosanto August 4th, 2008 a 12:57 pm

First PC bought was an AMD K6 with 32meg of Ram and a 4 gig hard drive.

Cost me a grand...who says we miss the good old days!

Mike2007 August 4th, 2008 a 12:52 pm

First computer i used was a ZX80...but the first computer of my own was the Amstrad CPC464 complete with Green screen and cassette player....

Oh the hours I spent typing, line by line, the codes published in Amstrad Action.. ;)

This then lead onto the CPC6128 with 3" FDD and COLOUR Screen!

Those were the days.

normanchesterton August 4th, 2008 a 12:50 pm

My first computer was a Sinclar ZX82 can't remember the spec

craigsmith6 August 4th, 2008 a 12:44 pm

My first computer was a Commodore Vic20 (Remember those big cartridges!), it was all in the gameplay. First PC was a 486DX266 with 4MB ram and 70MB harddrive, who would have thought you would have used all that hardrive space!

August 4th, 2008 a 12:42 pm

My first was the awesome Commodore 64. It got plugged in to a portable TV and had this bizarre lozenge-shaped tape player for loading software. During the loading process it made all these bizarre bleeps and high-pitched Chewbacca-like sounds - we had dogs fighting in the street, expecting to be fed.
It was a fantastic games machine and I've still got hundreds on tape, but sadly my C64 gave up the ghost. If anyone has one of these gathering dust in the attic I'd love to take it off your hands?

pedro69b August 4th, 2008 a 12:37 pm

First Computer was a Texas Instruments TI99/4A. Completely basic. First PC was an old second hand IBM PC AT desktop (pre-ps2), took up a full desk and needed 2 people to safely move it. It had two 5and1/4" Floppy drives and the monitor was a green LCD type (Ideal for learning DOS). Unfortunately monitor went up in smoke within a couple of months use. Thankfully running a slightly higher spec machine nowadays.

mrehman74 August 4th, 2008 a 12:33 pm

My first was an unbranded Intel Pentium 386, with 20 MB hard drive and 512K RAM (both of which were 'way too higher than our requirement'), with windows 3.0. WE were very proud of it, that is until the market as flooded with 486's & later 586's.

swainsam August 4th, 2008 a 12:30 pm

My first computer was and still is the Dell Vostro 200. It is brilliant, we haven't had any problems and it arrived super fast!! Unfortunately I didn't know about quidco at the time so didn't earn cashback, Oh well maybe next time!! :-)

johnmcclarkin August 4th, 2008 a 12:16 pm

My first computer was a 333Mhz Intel Pentium windows 98 version. Surprising how far computers have come in just 10 years.

MarkFinlay August 4th, 2008 a 12:10 pm

My fist computer was a ZX80 - it had 48k - yes 48k memory, but my Dad and I went to a computer fair in London Earls Court, and we bought an upgrade to 128k + a Dekotronic (thing that how you spell it) hard keyboard, to prolong it life, as the original keyboard had naff rubber keys. I'll never forget my Dad upgrading this computer - he said that he had to be totally static free, so he sat there, one Sunday morning in just his nylon underpants, carefully removing all the screws and upgrading successfully. What a memory!!! Mine & the 128k.....

malamay August 4th, 2008 a 12:06 pm

My first computer was a Tandy 1000, it lasted us years! I miss Windows 3.1.

rknight20772 August 4th, 2008 a 12:00 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32. Had 32K of ram, based on the Motorola 6809 running at just under 1Mhz!!! You had to load the games from tape, which took ages.

leighh August 4th, 2008 a 11:43 am

Specs of my first desktop are:
450 Mhz Pentium 3
HD256mb RAM
80 GB Segate
4 mb s3 trio 3d onboard graphix
Onboard Sound
LG CD-ROM drive
3.5" Floppy Drive

Banbert August 4th, 2008 a 11:43 am

Commodore Vic 20 with a huge 5Kb of ram and 1mhz clock speed :-)

Used to really enjoy sitting watching it load a tape, until it crashed out with a few mins to go.

Think we still have the machine in my parents loft.

SteveP August 4th, 2008 a 11:36 am

First computer was a ZX81 with 1KB of memory, later upgraded with the famously wobbly 16k ram pack.

Oldrichie August 4th, 2008 a 11:32 am

Bekky the Speccy, 48K, eventually rehoused in a datek keyboard + had microdrives etc (still all boxed in my loft

jnettleton August 4th, 2008 a 11:16 am

My first proper computer was an Atari 800XL in 1983.

It had a whopping 64k of RAM as well as Antic, GTIA, Pokey and PIA VLSI Chips. It had a cartridge port at the top of the keyboard too.

It plugged into my our TV and cassette player in the living room and we would spend hours of run waiting for games to load, praying that it wouldn't stall 15 minutes into a load.

paulcca August 4th, 2008 a 11:11 am

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 128k. Listening to the tape load noise for 5 minutes only for the program to crash. oh what fun!!!

seansalisbury August 4th, 2008 a 11:08 am

First computer was an atari 130XE with 128KB of memory and cartridge interface.

chanders August 4th, 2008 a 10:50 am

My first computer was a commodore V20 (I think that is what it was called). It was a tape deck machine. All my cousins used to come to my yard to play as it was the coolest thing in town. My first game was bat and ball, which was essential like table tennis on a computer. Great fun!!!

bugsonic August 4th, 2008 a 10:38 am

My first machine was the mighty Sinclair ZX80. The first sub £100 computer. I had an upgrade chip that converted it to a ZX81. Unfortunately I accidentally broke one of the pins off the upgrade chip, but with a little bit of schoolboy ingenuity, I used a small piece of a staple to wedge it in the slot and touch the broken pin!

cjhrenegade August 4th, 2008 a 10:37 am

First "computer" I remember having was a Commodore 64, when I was about 12. Hmmm... remember those "entertaining" 20 minute loading screens while you waited for the tape to load the game. First PC was 10 years ago and was top-gaming spec then (lasted about 2 years!!).

Kallisti August 4th, 2008 a 10:32 am

Good 'ol ZX81 - seems to be a lot of them here. 3.25Mhz, 1k ram (that'd be 1/1000000th and 1/2000000th of my current specs, give or take.)

Coupled with a 10" b&w TV, it was a mean gaming machine. So long as by gaming you mean moving a block around the screen hoping it doesn't hit another block.

mahorton August 4th, 2008 a 10:32 am

Mine was the ZX specturm, pretty sure it was the 16k version.

TRoesler August 4th, 2008 a 10:32 am

My first PC was a 386SX with a mind-altering 8MB RAM, 420 MB Hard Drive and 2x Speed CD Drive.

It kept me entertained for 3 years. :)

jonyee August 4th, 2008 a 10:31 am

My frist PC was an Escom 486... I thought it was the bees-knees with with a full 25Mhz clock speed. Sadly, it didn't turn out to be so speed!

worldwheeler August 4th, 2008 a 10:30 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. It had a massive 1KB of RAM. Didn't really do much, but back then it was not unlike the black obelisk from Kubrick's "2001 A Space Odyssey"

Karoyan August 4th, 2008 a 10:28 am

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 16k , 3.54 MHz Zilog Z80A CPU

stucktrying August 4th, 2008 a 10:26 am

First Computer had to be an Amstrad Word processor with that Green mean Monitor.
Memory under 1mb with 1 Floppy disk drive. Forget the make number.

Horsechestnut August 4th, 2008 a 10:20 am

This is my first computer!!! It is a DELL E520.
Before retirement I always had access to one at work (along with wonderful technicians), so it really is a steep learning curve for me.

Wortle August 4th, 2008 a 10:18 am

An Acorn Electron, tapes and howling to do nothing at all...or could that table tennis game count as a computer, if so it was that

CutGlass August 4th, 2008 a 10:09 am

My first computer, as with so many here, was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k+. CPU running at 3.5 MHz and 48k of RAM. Screen resolution was apparently 256 x 192. The keys were hard plastic, and took quite a pounding over games such as Daley Thomson's Decathlon, though I later added a Kempston joystick.

I eventually moved on to a SAM Coupé. Anyone remember them? It didn't last long...

dbidas August 4th, 2008 a 10:09 am

I had a good old BBC B with 5 1/4 floppy drive and CUB monitor, those were the good old days! Still kicking around in the loft somewhere........

aneale August 4th, 2008 a 10:04 am

The first computer I had was an acorn archimedes a3000. First PC was an Evesham Micros pentium P60, that came with 4mb of ram, but I got a rubbish job and earned enough money to upgrade to 8MB, wowwee!

shedhead August 4th, 2008 a 10:02 am

Being a girl my parents didnt think I should have a computer. My brother was bought a dragon32 as a birthday present. Amazing games and hours of frustration typing in code from the magazines! I would sneak into his room when he was out to play. I inherited it when he got a commodore 64. I finally did a course a built my own 486 this started many years of messing.

sandy104 August 4th, 2008 a 09:40 am

My first computer is a Toshiba laptop, which I am using now, it is about 5 years old, but I dont know what type of model it is.

jon zero August 4th, 2008 a 09:33 am

I had an acorn electron which I think had a 32kb of ram memory. BBC basic anyone? Oooh the memory of loading Elite from cassette tape. Play, rewind, play, rewind, swear, play, rewind, smash the screen......

Whiteve August 4th, 2008 a 09:14 am

mine was spectrum zx 64, fab for learning how to program ;)

amartinuk August 4th, 2008 a 08:32 am

My first computer was a Lynx 128KB which I wired up to my parents TV. My first PC (with a dedicated monitor!), was a 386DX, can't remember the other specs though.

danasentra August 4th, 2008 a 07:17 am

my first computer is dell inspiron. 512mb ram with 60gb memory. Really loves it as it is easy to use. High quality and never have any problem using it till now (already use it for three years). Highly recommend dell product..

adrian2000 August 4th, 2008 a 06:39 am

My First Computer was a Spectrum 48K with 3.5 MHz CPU.

Was good at the time.

Adrian

phill555 August 4th, 2008 a 05:54 am

My first computer was the old Sinclair Spectrum ZX128k. Those tape drives were annoying when they were loading - strange sounds! Great games though - Outrun, Splat etc...fun times

dimpler August 4th, 2008 a 01:57 am

My first computer was a speccy 48k, I used to love playing Manic Miner & Automania on it! Many happy hours ... Except sometimes when you were trying to load a game with the cassettes ... It would be loading for about 20 mins then crashed!!!

My first PC had, iirc, was loaded with Windows 95 and had 1GB HDD & a 14k modem. It had a HUGE monitor with a tiny screen that used to burn your eyes. Ouch!

8mhigh August 4th, 2008 a 01:11 am

A maddening Bush Internet TV device with about half a teaspoon of RAM and no hard drive. Which crashed whenever it encountered flash!

Still, it got us started, and using it, we won a proper PC.

lobon August 4th, 2008 a 12:36 am

mine was a sinclair spectrum 48k , mean machine . i even re bought one ast year so i can relive those day.

i remember typing in the programmes printed in mags for hours on end and playing footie manager to the small hours!

Daveo178 August 4th, 2008 a 12:16 am

Vic 20, played Blitz for hours, one thing I would say is 'Never go back' - -you realise how weak these early games were and nostalgia withers into a sad melancholy

1st PC was a Cyrix 676 with 256mb ram and a 150mb hdd. Eventually put a 3DFX card and increased the ram to play Carmageddon, awesome !

sunlinesam August 4th, 2008 a 12:02 am

My first computer was a Vic 20, it was for myself and my Dad.

It had a memory of 5kb but 1.5 of those was used by the system itself so we had 3.5kb of RAM to play with!

It was amazing though, i remember the box said something about a computer with arcade game excitement and back then it WAS exciting!

I remember the cartridges you could get to expand its memory and other things. I also believe it was supposed to be called Vixen but that didnt suit the german market due to pronunciation and 'meaning' of their similar sounding word.

When my parents died we had to clear the house, we found the Vic 20 in the loft (along with my old original TV game - you know the one with two lines and a blip on the screen that you played tennis with!), amazingly that and the Vic 20 both still worked perfectly...

...Took me back to my heady days sitting with my dad writing endless BASIC programmes on our Vic 220 and being absolutely enthralled and amazed by it and our own capability at writing pc programmes that produced fab things like a moving line along across the screen!

The Vic 20 now resides with a nephew who collects old pc and gaming consoles, its nice to know it has gone to a good home, my dad would be pleased!

mitumanish August 3rd, 2008 a 11:56 pm

I am going back in the memory lane, back in 1998.
My first computer, and my familyâs first ever computer was the Compaq Laptop with 1GB Hard disk and 512 RAM..A spec nothing much by todays standards.

TheAllenFamily August 3rd, 2008 a 11:55 pm

ZX81 with wobbly 64K (?) extension pack and audio cassette to record your code.

Aaargh, the memories....

cookiefaerie August 3rd, 2008 a 11:32 pm

The first computer was an Amstrad word processor. It had a word processing program on it, beautiful black and white and you had to use the arrow keys and Enter for navigation. There was a sort of game on there, you basically programmed a 'dot to dot' like feature - inputting coordinates and the line followed the coordinates and zig zagged all over the place. It was bought 1992-1992. It was either a PcW9256 or PcW9512, came complete with a sexy printer. It was functional eh.

The PcW9512+ (1991) was a rework of the older PCW9512, with a 3.5" floppy instead of 3". As a deriative of the 9512, it retained the parallel port. It was offered with the choice of the PCW9512 daisywheel or Canon Bubblejet printer.
The PcW10 (1993) was a 9256 with 512 kB RAM and a parallel port.




Our first proper family computer was a state of the art IBM with Intel. Windows 95 had just been released and it opened up the world of include Solitaire, Freecell, Pinball and....... MINESWEEPER! It was used for schoolwork and whatnot and my dad used to play Quake and attempted Lara Croft on it, but mainly I used it for those Windows games.

It was a processor under 1Ghz, something crazy slugish - maybe 700Mhz? Pretty decent for the time eh. There was minimal RAM, 128MB or 256MB. Hard drive was small, I'm sure it was in MB!

First console? The NES. Still have it. Will love it forever.

seano64 August 3rd, 2008 a 11:25 pm

My first computer was a mesh AMD athlon 2ghz with 1.5gb of ram. Nice Computer and fast

darobinson August 3rd, 2008 a 11:22 pm

My first computer was a Commdore 64 with tape recorder and a printer that held the paper which was no more than three inches wide.

mackey001 August 3rd, 2008 a 10:57 pm

my first real pc was a pentum 75MHz a hole 64Mb of ram can`t remember how much harddrive space it had but it wasn`t much, it cost my nan £2500 and about a week after i got it i was upgrading it and had totaly rebuilt it after about 2 months to a 233 mmx (awesome at the time) a matrox mysteque and 128Mb of ram and shortly after got my self a 3dfx voodoo 1 (one of the first proper 3d card add-ons there was another about at the time but can`t remember the name of it) but now my phone could kick it's butt

as for other computers i`ve had most of them from a vic 20 to com 64 amiga 500 and 2000 and most of the consoles from the megadrive and game gear atari jaguar and lynx all 3 playstations and both xbox's .

hantongwei August 3rd, 2008 a 10:03 pm

My first computer was an IBM PS/2.

damianiw August 3rd, 2008 a 10:00 pm

My first computer was a 48k spectrum with a rubber keyboard and tape player!

How I was so jelous of anyone with a BBC and a disk drive !

unsaltedrhino August 3rd, 2008 a 09:59 pm

Mac LC 4MB RAM, 40MB HD

hargreaves August 3rd, 2008 a 09:51 pm

My first was a compaq. it had a 4gb hdd and it was hot (at the time) my mates were sooooo jealous

rogermilton August 3rd, 2008 a 09:45 pm

My first computer was an IBM PS/2 that my dad got second hand from work - we had Commodore Pets at school, remember we were really impressed with the way we could write our very own Basic programs to print "I ⤠NICK" (Heyward! My friends choice not mine, honest) in an infinite loop.

jquinn August 3rd, 2008 a 09:19 pm

my first comouter was amstra cpc 464, rubbish spec and had green screen, had a tape player to load games, remeber the one where you were a newspaper boy and had to cycle and deliver papers great!!!
it did take ages to load the games though, its hard to imagine the way computers have come on in the last 20yrs or so

philjames666 August 3rd, 2008 a 09:17 pm

ZX Spectrum 48k with rubber keys.
then after I broke the first one...
ZX Spectrum +2A - The black one with integrated tape drive, and a light gun for shooting the tv with, how cool were these games, bullseye etc

I remember the "R Tape loading error" very well.

My first ever programming skills came from this computer too,

10 print "I'M A COOL PROGRAMMER"
20 goto 10

WOW, to think this was the start of my future career.

Kabz August 3rd, 2008 a 09:15 pm

My first personal computer was a generic hand built one with all the latest must-haves of that time. A 100mhz processor Pentium 2, 64mb ram, 4 X read CD rom, 1.5GB memory. I tricked around with the setting to enable all the processor power and cd speed to display a 24 fps VCD (video CD). Amazing at the time!

splodger August 3rd, 2008 a 08:58 pm

Back in the mists of time... my first computer was an Atari 800XL.
Great machine, with a huge 64K RAM and a 6502 cpu.
And good games.

306maxi August 3rd, 2008 a 08:50 pm

Our first computer was an IBM PS/2. Was an awesome beast with 2mb of RAM and a new fangled 3.5" floppy drive. Memories.....

owen2000 August 3rd, 2008 a 08:42 pm

My first computer was a Amstrad not sure of the spec.s, but way behind the technology today.

msolanka August 3rd, 2008 a 08:35 pm

Ohhhhh, first one was ZX Spectrum - around 2 Mhz and 64k memory, software loaded from tape recorder and I still remember all those hours spent loading and loading of programs and old-school games when I was 6 years old!

j50yab August 3rd, 2008 a 08:31 pm

Well, my first PC wasn't one I bought myself, but a well loved family computer - the Acorn Electron. have many fond memories of playing Granny Bashers (how un-pc that sounds now!!) and a wonderful text adventure game (pick up bottle, get bottle, throw bottle, look at bottle...... aaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!)

Aneurin1980 August 3rd, 2008 a 08:17 pm

Wow where to start... well I have owned a fair few computers in my time... and still have them in the garage. These include: ZX80, ZX81, Commadore Vic 20, BBC Micro, Atari ST 520 FM... After reading these post it seems that the Sinclair ZX series was pretty 'popular'... so I'll describe my first computer as my first custom built machine when I moved into the PC era. I missed out on the 386 and 486 intel series and jumped straight in at Pentium:

My first PC was custom built by a local company in Birmingham... it had the coolest sticker on the chasis!!!! Anyway, the specs were:

Pentium 90
32 MB Ram
512MB Hard Drive
17" CRT monitor... gee that thing was massive
Sound Blaster Pro
PCI card Modem
Speakers with built in Subwoofer... NICE
Windows 95

The worst thing was that back in the early 90s that bundle cost £1500... can you believe it???

After that my PC habits continued... When my first PC couldn't run Hitman: Codename 47 I decided to go out and buy a nice Compaq laptop for another £1500... scary how much it all used to cost... then I went back to desktop with a DELL Dimension. As that didn't have an AGP port soldered on the motherboard I had to opt for a PCI graphics card the Nvidia Geforec 5200! I finally got rid of that for another custom built PC (this time I did it by myself... this is how things have improved:

Dual Core AMD X2 6200
4 GB Ram
250GB Hard Drive
Nvidia 76000 GT (SLI)

All for 1/5 of the original cost of my first PC...

Now if only QUIDCO had been around in those early days... image the cash back!!!!!

rikketti August 3rd, 2008 a 08:15 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16k.

davidnbirch August 3rd, 2008 a 07:46 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Research ZX80 with a wobbly 16k RAM pack and a door hinge bolted to its heat-sink. It had a 3.25Mhz Z80 processor & 4k of ROM (later upgraded to the 8k ZX-81 version naturally).

It was the future in white plastic form.

coxiegirl August 3rd, 2008 a 07:37 pm

Ha ha, it's great to read all these, takes me back! We had a ZX-81, I remember having to keep rewinding the tape to try to load games - unrecognisable from what my 6 year old does now on a pc, she wouldn't believe it! My friend at school had a BBC B I think it was, I was very jealous until my brother got a Spectrum - I loved the raised keys!

fitzmum August 3rd, 2008 a 07:27 pm

Hey, my first computer was a Commodore 64. I'll never forget the excitement Christmas morning when it revealed. It was plugged into an old black and white portable telly and it was lunchtime on Christmas day when my brother and I happened to play with the volume and we realised that the computer also made sounds!!

Imagine our delight a few weeks later when my dad plugged the computer into our main telly in the lounge and we realised it was also in colour!! Yippeee!!!

smoki1969 August 3rd, 2008 a 07:08 pm

First computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128k as I remember without the dodgy keyboard.
Nice !

Crossbow August 3rd, 2008 a 07:02 pm

First computer was a secondhand custom-built computer purchased in 2002 with the following specs:

· 600Mhz Intel Celeron CPU
· QDI motherboard
· 384Mb PC100 SD-RAM
· 40Gb 5400rpm Maxtor hard drive
· 32Mb nVidia M64 TNT2 graphics
· Samsung 8x8x32 CD-rewriter
· Generic CD-Rom drive
· Windows 98se
· Desktop case with 250w PSU

BlueDanGroup August 3rd, 2008 a 06:41 pm

First computers were a Spectrum 128k with a 'proper' keyboard, and an Amstrad CPC646. My first IBM compatable was an old Compaq with a 386 and 2mb of ram. Took ages to boot windows 3.1 :)

philcooper0 August 3rd, 2008 a 06:41 pm

My first computer was a Compaq Deskpro 386 - seemed reaaly cool (and expensive) at the time. Would love a Dell Inspiron 1525!!!!

cheney August 3rd, 2008 a 06:37 pm

Like many before me...Sinclair ZX81...1K...single pixel 'dot' monochrome graphic moving by itself around the screen ( monitor ?? ) was...simply fascinating !!!!

GBear August 3rd, 2008 a 06:27 pm

heh, I had the vic 20, same as uczmeg - enjoyed playing cops 'n' robbers on it though :D

CatMog August 3rd, 2008 a 06:20 pm

First computer was a lowly 486... life was hard

matthunter August 3rd, 2008 a 06:14 pm

First computer was a BBC B - the king of home computing!

gorskar August 3rd, 2008 a 06:08 pm

First computer was a second hand Microbee "Computer in a book", blessed with 128k (I think) of RAM, a 3.5" floppy drive, monocrome screen & a Z80a processor. Its still in my Mum's loft I think, probably one of the few on this side of the channel (It was designed and built in Australia) http://www.thepcmuseum.com/appliedtechnology/computerinabook/default.htm

romeroj August 3rd, 2008 a 05:52 pm

Commodore 64... aaah those were the days!

jlov August 3rd, 2008 a 05:42 pm

ZX Spectrum 48k here too, replete with tape deck and loading times measured in days rather than seconds. Ah, the rubber keys, and the joys of Horace Goes Skiing, Jet Set Willy, and Manic Miner, and the frustration of games crashing, necessitating another extended wait for the reload.

Tino68 August 3rd, 2008 a 05:39 pm

My taste of the pc revolution was the zx 81 with a massive 1kb of ram

aquarium August 3rd, 2008 a 05:38 pm

my first pc was a comodore 64. I did not know how to do anything on it except play my favourite game, which happened to be the boss. A great football manager game which kept you staring at a near blank screen waiting for your team to score. Still it was better than watching vision on.

mikiescott August 3rd, 2008 a 05:22 pm

Had a commodore 64.

sutclimj August 3rd, 2008 a 05:02 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 with a wopping 1k memory! It had a memory pack the size of a house brick which increased it to 16k and I seem to remember there being a magazine that contained programmes that I used to sit for hours typing in, in order to play a game that would crash after 2 minutes!! My older brother had a Spectrum and I was really jealous!

alexwlkr August 3rd, 2008 a 04:25 pm

Proud to say my first computer was a ZX80. I can still remember having to sellotape the tape recorder leads to the desk to make sure they didnt move in the very dodgy socket at the back.

Plopster August 3rd, 2008 a 04:05 pm

A ZX81 was my first foray into computing, It came with a whole 1KB of RAM though I was fortunate to have a 16KB RAM pack stuck on the back... oh happy days.

Next up was a C64 which really got me in to gaming, the hours I wasted on Paradroid, Elite, Summer/Winter/California/World Games etc. is quite depressing looking back (says he who spent over 200 hours recently on Oblivion!)

johnharding August 3rd, 2008 a 03:49 pm

My first computer was an Atari STFM 512( thats 512KB of memory!). I saved up and had it upgraded to the full 1MB a year later.

I was ten when I first learnt to program (STOS BASIC was well funky!) and had the PC for a few months. I am now saving up to get my little one (will be 4) an ASUS eeePC for Christmas so he can grow up with computers in the same way I did. I am now an IT Analyst!!!! ;-)

I don't think anyone ever thought computing would be so prevalent in less than 20 years!

jemo2k August 3rd, 2008 a 03:49 pm

My first computer was a c64, mainly used for gaming, although my first "proper" pc was a packard bell club , 4.3 gb hard drive 128mb ram processor was around the 300mhz mark, cant imagine how it could run anything nowdays,lol

paulneill August 3rd, 2008 a 03:47 pm

The first computer in our house was a Commodore Vic 20 before moving onto an Atari XE. Gone are the days when you spent hours typing code from a magazine for a game, only to find out it didn't work:)

dazbec August 3rd, 2008 a 03:31 pm

My first PC was a Sinclair ZX81 - I had seen one at my Flute Teacher's house and raved on and on about it to my Parents!! Finally, that Xmas I got my computer - then spent rest of Xmas hols trying to programme it by either using a cassette tape or typing in pages and pages of computer language from a magazine. Then when you hit run you were lucky if something happened or it just crashed! Still hours of fun and taught me patience. Still using computers in my job, but think the best thing ever created was online shopping!!

pinkcher August 3rd, 2008 a 03:30 pm

My first computer was a c64

searcherali August 3rd, 2008 a 02:31 pm

My first computer was a pentium 60 with 8MB Ram and 512MB harddrive running windows 3.11

Escargo August 3rd, 2008 a 02:23 pm

My first computer was a Tandy Model 1 with 8k of memory and a tape cassette for saving/loading programs. This led me into a career in computing and 30+ years later I have absolutely no regrets. My 1st PC was infact a Dell - affectionately known as "Dell-Boy" and was a very early 286. Several Dells later (desktop and laptop), I am looking to replace my lattitude C840 which is a bit pedestrian with Vista on it!

Mcdogs August 3rd, 2008 a 02:00 pm

My first every PC was a Mattel Aquarius computer, it was white with blue rubber keys and took great big game cartridges - Dungeons and Dragons kept me amused for hours.

waddie August 3rd, 2008 a 01:51 pm

My first pc was a shop made pc (company called MBC which went out fo business (1998). It had Windows 98 on it and 128 MB of RAM, with a 12 Gigabyte hard drive. I was told it was the most up to date, (it was not). First, it had a major error and had to be returned for a new one and then the 12 GB drive was outdated within weeks as 40 GB was more standard and it was a short way from an 80 GB as standard minimum you should have these days for a desktop pc with the things most people want to do.

I didn't dare go on the internet until May 1999! Now, I am never off it!

It gets worse for this pc though.

Over time, I had to reformat and reformat; from every 6 months, to 3 months, 1 month, till I ended up doing it monthly and with a Pay as you go dialup connection (for reinstalling updates)! I also bought Windows Millenium thinking this would help the problem. It didn't. And I couldn't even open large pictures, imagine trying to game online, even with a newer broadband connection. Virtually useless.

It had Windows and I nearly through out of the window a few times, lol. Eventually I bought a newer pc which is still going exactly four years later. The first pc is is used for spare parts but will never be used again.

musicals August 3rd, 2008 a 01:34 pm

Fabulous competition, Quidco and Dell, many thanks!
My first computer, like many here, was a Sinclair 48k ZXSpectrum. We have a lot to thank Sir Clive for⦠and Iâd love to know how he survived having the middle name âMarlesâ!
But the Spectrum - oh, the rubber keys, the fact it got very hot after about 30 mins and had to be left to cool down for double that. But what made the Spectrum fabulous was not the games, the price, or the knighted bearded redhead who invented it, but the loading noise. The fun my friends and I had sampling this noise a few years later into tracks on our Atari STs! (Now whatever happened to themâ¦!).

jojo1364 August 3rd, 2008 a 01:32 pm

I bought my first pc about 4 years ago, it was a Packard Bell desktop with 256 RAM and 80GB hard drive. It's still works now, but I have a much better one as my main pc!

musicals August 3rd, 2008 a 01:32 pm

Fabulous competition, Quidco and Dell, many thanks!
My first computer, like many here, was a Sinclair 48k ZXSpectrum. We have a lot to thank Sir Clive for... and I'd love to know how he survived having the middle name "Marles"!
But the Spectrum - oh, the rubber keys, the fact it got very hot after about 30 mins and had to be left to cool down for double that. But what made the Spectrum fabulous was not the games, the price, or the bearded redhead who invited it, but the loading noise. The fun my friends and I had sampling this noise a few years later into tracks on our Atari STs! (Now whatever happened to them...!).

placey August 3rd, 2008 a 01:26 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16K ... or rather I should say first computers, first one failed to boot, the second blow up within a few days and the third I still have. Needless to say it nolonger works - should have and got a BBC instead.

My first PC was a Dell Dimension 25Mhz, 4MB RAM with a 20Mb HD.
Like the Spectrum I still have it, although its been upgraded a bit and now runs SUSE Linux. Unlike the Spectrum however it still works albeit not used very often.

shaahs August 3rd, 2008 a 12:57 pm

My very first computer was a Commodore 64 (seems like a popular choice). My first PC was a 486 with a then very impressive 66MHz processor, 8MB RAM and 650MB HD. We've come a long way...

atlanticflyer August 3rd, 2008 a 12:53 pm

My first computer was also a Sinclair Spectrum 16k

ASHowell August 3rd, 2008 a 12:52 pm

My 1st computer was a Packard Bell with an 850kb hard drive and a tiny memory.....but I loved it!
When it finally died on me I transplanted the memory into a friend's PC so that it would live on a while longer:-)
My Grand-daughter needs a laptop so I thought I'd try my luck!

mistry55 August 3rd, 2008 a 12:37 pm

My first computer was Commodore 64, which I had brought it from a friend with epson printer, at that time my computer knowledge was basic that I hardly understood the specifications, so can't remember the spec what it was.

tarnstar August 3rd, 2008 a 12:27 pm

A good old Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Manic Miner and Chuckie Egg! Classics, both. Also - Attic Attac! and Gauntlet. My dad also bought the printer that burnt text onto thermal paper, which cost a fortune, and a "wafadrive" which was a tape-player substitute.

I think my first PC, an XT with 5 1/4inch drive and green screen was a step down.

ajb203 August 3rd, 2008 a 12:09 pm

Mine was a Spectrum 48k! Great for games like Manic Miner and Chuckie Egg.

Mokhov August 3rd, 2008 a 12:04 pm

Ha-ha! Mine had 16k RAM and 48k video memory which was often used instead of the main ;-D CPU worked at 2.5MHz... That was Intel 8080 chip as far as I remember.
What an amazing gap in technology from my today machine!

scottkeir August 3rd, 2008 a 12:01 pm

Awww... Well, my first computer was the Commodore 64. With its 6510 MOS Processor, VIC II graphics chip, a whole 64 KB of memory (there's probably more than that in my watch now), the amazing SID sound chip (which was the best available at the time and meant I could spend hours playing on a drum emulator) and that all important Commodore 64 Basic V2, which greeted you when you switched it on. I had a cassette tape deck and was given a thing that plugged in the extension port for extra sound abilities.

I now have a Commodore emulator on my own computer. I still like playing with it!

smithj9000 August 3rd, 2008 a 11:55 am

My first PC was a comodore 64, it was a marvel of modern technology! I also had a massive 5.25 disc drive and a dot matrix printer. Things have certainly moved on since then.

Jamesacus August 3rd, 2008 a 11:49 am

My first PC was an IBM 286. It was the mid 90s and it had a 200MB hard drive. It was a thing of bueaty, unfortunately it had a corrupt harddrive and I had to get it changed after a couple of months.

It had Windows '95 on it and I mostly used it for playing Command & Conquer.

denisecoffey August 3rd, 2008 a 11:44 am

My first computer was a toshiba msx. I used to sit up for hours playing the pengiuin game,and then got a piano keyboard to link up with it...much to everyones(un)delight!!

denisecoffey August 3rd, 2008 a 11:44 am

My first computer was a toshiba msx. I used to sit up for hours playing the pengiuin game,and then got a piano keyboard to link up with it...much to everyones(un)delight!!

davidn1569 August 3rd, 2008 a 11:25 am

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16k. It use to take hours of programming time to set up something very simple. Sometime following the instructions through the book only to find an error at the end. Again hours of screeching loadding games to find they crashed.
Good old days!

mfardoe August 3rd, 2008 a 10:50 am

My first computer was a C64. That thing was great, unless you'd been waiting 7 minutes for a game to load and it reached the end of the tape with nothing happening...slightly frustrating!

My first PC I think had a 10MB hard drive and was a 286 processor, don't remember any of the other specs but it was very quickly outdated and you couldn't play many games on it. It didn't even have a colour screen. I'm glad things have advanced from there. It's still at home under a pile of junk I think.

djj05 August 3rd, 2008 a 10:48 am

1st computer - VIC 20, cassette drive, 16kB memory
1st PC - Packard Bell 386SX16, 3.5 and 5.25 floppies, 1MB memory, 40MB hard drive

yarab00ty2 August 3rd, 2008 a 10:46 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, 16k I think, attach it to a tape recorder to load games and listen to the tones of the screeching to see if sounded right (not sure how we knew or why we tried), before playing some rubbish like Boris goes skiing!!

Linbe August 3rd, 2008 a 10:39 am

My first personal computer was a ZX81. I studied CSE computer studies in the early years. We had to visit the local council offices to get access to a computer. The computer hardware filled a room and discs were the size of tyres!

stevie82 August 3rd, 2008 a 10:34 am

My first computer was a Amiga 600 with a 7.09 MHz processor and 1MB RAM

AMitchell August 3rd, 2008 a 10:27 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This thing at the time was the greatest. with its 16kb memory massive 3.5Mhz cpu, and the ever dominating Sinclair BASIC OS. These things were set to take over the world :-) . And the best bit is.......... Somewhere in my parents attic i will find it covered in dust....... :-)

Krzrgrl August 3rd, 2008 a 10:23 am

This has brought back memories! My Dad came home one day with a Commodore 64 for me and my brothers and sister "to do school work on". He also bought in one of those pub table Space Invaders machines. We eventually got caught out when he heard us fighting over "the computer" because none of us knew how to get the Commodore started let alone use it, and yet amazingly enough we all had brilliant scores on the gaming machine. Aah, those were the days!

tonyz August 3rd, 2008 a 10:14 am

I had a Commodore 64. Spent ages once writing out the code for a program which didn't work. Used to have the cartridges which beat using tapes! Flimbos quest!

w.harper7 August 3rd, 2008 a 10:07 am

first computer was the commodore vic 20 but first pc was compaq presario with a massive 4gb hd and direct 3d graphics

tailorsdummy August 3rd, 2008 a 09:57 am

I had a Commodore 64 on which we could play games (after a 10 minute load from cassette tape) or write small Basic programs. As a mother, with a small baby at the time, it was a new form of leisure for stop-at-home mums!

idgam August 3rd, 2008 a 09:36 am

My dad bought me a BBC model B. I used to write my own programs using Basic language. I thought it was cool to make coloured lines appear on the screen. Oh and loading the games by tape that took 25 mins only to find it did not work and you had to start again. Classic. Why did he not wait for the BBC model B Plus

idgam August 3rd, 2008 a 09:36 am

My dad bought me a BBC model B. I used to write my own programs using Basic language. I thought it was cool to make coloured lines appear on the screen. Oh and loading the games by tape that took 25 mins only to find it did not work and you had to start again. Classic. Why did he not wait for the BBC model B Plus

gcohen August 3rd, 2008 a 09:36 am

Mine was a 386 with windows 3.1 dont know the other spec but could you imagine using one of those in this day and age?

bencase August 3rd, 2008 a 09:30 am

Ours was a Time PC with an old AMD processor (don't know the spec) and only 64MB RAM. Yes, it had a floppy drive and all. Those were the days!

DSW August 3rd, 2008 a 08:15 am

A Sinclair ZX81 1k of ram and no storage!

Midknight August 3rd, 2008 a 07:41 am

My first omputer at home was also a C64 - We had one of the first disk drives, for the old 5 1/4" Disks. They held a grand total of 320KB, and loaded in minutes. Mega fast compared to the old tape drive. The disk drive itself was larger than about 3 laptops stacked on top of each other though!!

cwaters August 3rd, 2008 a 07:36 am

my first computer was an Amstrad running MS-DOS with 2 floppy disk drive. Think it was 64 MB RAM

tenos August 3rd, 2008 a 06:40 am

My first PC (still working) is now 10 years old. A MESH 233MHz Win98 PC costing £1400.

mccafferty August 3rd, 2008 a 04:43 am

Oooh forgot to say my Tiny computer also has 80GB hard drive which to this day is still not filled. I've tried, I've failled, and well.....

mccafferty August 3rd, 2008 a 04:41 am

My first "computer" which I still have is a Tiny computer. It's running Windows XP, 512MB SD RAM and 1.6mhz amd athlon processor. Great computer, very reliable to this day and certainly didn't live up to the bad press they had at the time. I think it must be about 7 or 8 now.

It was a replacement for a borrowed PC from a friend which was running windows 3.1.1, can't remember the brand or exact spec, but it was so so slow, but did the job for word processing my college work. Oh memories, and there is no way it was capable of connecting to the internet! I don't count this PC as it wasn't officially mine unlike the Tiny one.

matthamer August 3rd, 2008 a 03:28 am

I bought a 386DX with a gigantic 4MB RAM and a 21MB hard disk, at the age of approximately... 9? I think!

4MB of RAM!! AMAZING! :D

repoman88 August 3rd, 2008 a 03:09 am

My first Pc was actually a Dell about 3 years ago.

It is a Dell Dimension 3000 -Celeron D 2.4GHz, 256MB RAM, 72GB HDD, XP.

Shes still with me now, takes a while to warm up on those cold winters mornings, well not really but you know what i mean! Shes not as fast as she used to be but shes still chugging along...gawd bless her!

wigles August 3rd, 2008 a 02:38 am

My first PC was an MS-DOS, back in 1995. It had hardly any ram, a very tiny HDD and a MASSIVE 15" monitor!

cwhite4 August 3rd, 2008 a 02:12 am

My first computer was an Apple II in the days when you'd load programmes from audio cassettes. I still remember how excited I was getting the floppy disk drive a year later.

roobarb45 August 3rd, 2008 a 01:13 am

Like so many other people, my first computer was a BBC Acorn Electron. I spent hours and hours of my childhood playing Wizzy, and I remember my friends all being really envious when we got it. Tapes seem jurassic now, but I loved them at the time

lucci123 August 3rd, 2008 a 01:06 am

My first computer was a BBC Acorn Electron. I earnt a badge a Brownies in computer programming from writing a basic calculator programme! Loved the tapes; though it was so much cooler than the ones we had at school that took the large floppy discs.

martin35 August 3rd, 2008 a 12:51 am

my 1st PC was a packard bell pulsar 233 mhz, desktop PC. It would probably be picked on at school if it was a school child.

dtether August 3rd, 2008 a 12:36 am

My first computer was a Video Genie EG3003. Had 16KB of memory and only UPPER case display output (monochrome of course) with no disk of any sort but instead an inbuilt cassette recorder for data storage/retrieval. I've just checked it up, and its CPU was 1.7MHz - and it cost me 'only' £300 as I drove to one of the few retail outlets discounting it from the £330 list price (which was nearly a week's salary saved in those days). And of course you tell that to people nowadays and they just don't believe you... :)

staceygriggs August 3rd, 2008 a 12:02 am

My very first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1k ram, I was 10 years old and even saved up for about 6 months to by the 16k ram pack - it never did turn up :(
I used to program the school's Spectrum & tach the infant classes on the BBC B, I got a Merit certificate for Advances in Computer Studies, not bad for a 10 year old back in 1982

moredead August 3rd, 2008 a 12:02 am

My first computer was a ZX81 and i had such fun with the 16Kb Ram pack which was slightly wobbly and reset the thing. Then I moved to the Amstrad 1640 and never looked back!

grantforrest August 2nd, 2008 a 11:38 pm

My first computer was bought for me by my mum who scrimped and scraped for me to get it as my dad had recently died. That was back in 1981 and it was a Dragon 32 - complete with a stunning 32K of memory, colour pallette of thousands (well tens) and 4 channel sound (well beeps). First game I played was Cuthbert Goes Skiing - cutting edge at the time after it eventually loaded on my tape deck after about the 10th try.

I must have loved this so much that I always wanted to get the Dragon 64 - never happened to this day!

nemo700 August 2nd, 2008 a 11:30 pm

My parents bought me a Sharp MZ700... a machine so awful that you had to load BASIC off of a tape before you could even hope to start using it. Unsurprisingly, I traded it in for something far better (BBC model B) after less than a year!

bychoice August 2nd, 2008 a 11:29 pm

16k ZX Spectrum with tape drive...couldn't wait to get home from school to kick the thing into life

gavllew August 2nd, 2008 a 11:24 pm

My first computer was a 16MHz 386 with a whopping 8MB of memory. I used to try to play Doom on it, but it was too slow, so I had to stick with games like Wolfenstein 3D and Monkey Island.

Bargainbooty7 August 2nd, 2008 a 11:20 pm

My first PC is what I am using now a Time Laptop AMD Athlon 2000XP with upgraded Ram to 1gb, 40GB hardrive and a DVD Rom drive. I would so much like to have that DELL laptop being upto date.

sniffer August 2nd, 2008 a 11:01 pm

A 16K ZX Spectrum. I thought it was great.

shammonds August 2nd, 2008 a 10:57 pm

My first was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 with built in tape deck.... hit and miss loading of games... Brilliant...

del1279 August 2nd, 2008 a 10:53 pm

my first computer was a commodore c64, the one with the cassetts you use to load, they use to take so long that by the time the game was loaded, you had found something else to do. thank the lord for technology, we are all so very gratfull, lol

scm8jet August 2nd, 2008 a 10:52 pm

Ah, my very first computer like most was the ZX Spectrum 48k sleek and black in design. I can still remember the playful noise as each game loaded up - brrrrrrr ding, brrrrrrr ding (to red/blue lines), chiggy chiggy chiggy chiggy .. (to blue/yellow) - waiting for five minutes for the game to load, and then the devastation when you found the cassette was damaged right at the end! Still what good memories, matchday 2, commando and some football mangement game that I would trade one of cousins for - not the nice ones, the one who nicks JCB's!

toffitomek August 2nd, 2008 a 10:50 pm

My first one was Commodore 64 with tape reader :D

then 486DX 100Mhz till 2001 !

Tahlil August 2nd, 2008 a 10:31 pm

A supercomputer of epic proportions with a whopping 350 mhz PII and 6.4 gb for all my storage needs. 32mb RAM to run the latest games, and I was happy with it. It always handled everthing i threw at it, until it blew up. The printer I bought to come with it costs the same as a computer these days.

bchoi August 2nd, 2008 a 10:15 pm

My first was the Commodore VIC-20 and playing the cartridge based "Duck Shoot" game was the best thing ever for a young lad!

Here's a bit of VIC20 trivia:

An anecdotal bit of evidence to support Commodore's statement that the VIC-20 could be used not only for games but also as a serious introduction to computing, can be said to originate from the fact that a young Linus Torvalds was given a VIC-20 as his first computer. Torvalds later upgraded to a Sinclair QL, then to a 386 PC. Torvalds later went on to write the kernel used in the GNU/Linux operating system.

ianhogg August 2nd, 2008 a 10:06 pm

Like many others, I had a ZX Spectrum 48k (with the good old "dead flesh" keyboard). Oh, the hours of fun we had waggling our joysticks...

woodser123456 August 2nd, 2008 a 09:50 pm

Old faithful zx spectrum 48k. First one didn't work second did....sort of. Horace goes ski-ing rules!

JonnyWina August 2nd, 2008 a 09:44 pm

Well my first computer was bought in a local shop. It was bought in '97. It had 15" monitor, celeron 400 processor, win 98, 4gb hdd, standard keyboard and mouse. Best of all I wiped the system three times and had to take it back to get it fixed. That cost me around £150 back then. A lot has changed in computers over the years and lesson learned!

torby August 2nd, 2008 a 09:42 pm

Spectrum 128k but quickly upgraded it using a "real" case with "proper" keys felt like I was doing open heart surgery at the time...but now I just keep taking pcs apart and adding new bits...old habits die hard...

DarthSweeties August 2nd, 2008 a 09:41 pm

Apart from an old texas instruments calculator I think my first machine was an old toshiba thing with a tape loader. Fantastic psychedelic colours when you loaded games.

andyloveless August 2nd, 2008 a 09:40 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32 for my brother and I christmas '81. The main thing I remember about it was the loading of games......
They took so long loaded from a tape then it would still fail just before the end and we would have to start over again.....argh!!!

Ayrcomm August 2nd, 2008 a 09:26 pm

I had a spectrum as well with the old tape loader. Happy days!!!

sabian August 2nd, 2008 a 09:20 pm

My first computer was a Tandy 2000 which boasted a blistering 8 MHz Intel 80186 CPU that ran hooked up to my television and the storage media was old school cassette tapes. Then, several years later, I got a 486DX2/66mhz Packard Bell. It had a 420mb HDD, 4mb of memory, and a 2400bps modem and came with a 15" monitor. That computer with an extra 4mb of memory ($240), a Canon BubbleJet ($200), and a 14.4bps modem ($99) cost me just south of $3000 ($ signs because this was before I smartened up and moved to the UK)... It still does my head in to this day to think that I spent that much money on equipment that couldn't shine a light to my mobile phone's power.

ibullen9 August 2nd, 2008 a 08:43 pm

MY first computer was from Dixons and had a woooping 733Mhz P3 with 128Mb of RAM and 15Gb of hard disc space and a price tag of £1,300 :-o

weichan August 2nd, 2008 a 08:28 pm

My first home computer was a pentium 75Mhz and it was very expensive!

zenabob2105 August 2nd, 2008 a 08:14 pm

My first was an Acorn electron, it had a tape drive for loading games and it took absolutely ages. I tried creating my own games from a book of programs but kept making typo's so gave up

samcbird August 2nd, 2008 a 07:34 pm

My first PC was as rare as they come... a Mega PC. It was a Sega Megadrive and, if I remember correctly, an Amstrad in one. You simply slid a cover at the front across to choose which one you wanted to use!

Fantastic!

gingerfuzzball August 2nd, 2008 a 07:16 pm

My first computer was the classic Commodore 64, with not only 64kb RAM and a cassette drive, but also (to the amazement of all my friends) a floppy disk drive! I think they still took about 10 minutes to load, although that was still faster than cassettes, and they were enormous! I also had a joystick, which was pretty snazzy at the time. If you pressed CTRL and some combination of keys like F1 and F3, it played 'Land of Hope and Glory' in a very robotic way. It was best for everything apart from drawing, which you really needed a Spectrum with its rubbery keys with BASIC written on them!

Dihi August 2nd, 2008 a 07:02 pm

My first PC was a Gateway 2000. It had an impressive 8MB of RAM, joined with a 486DX2 CPU and 512MB HDD. Astoundingly for its day, it had 2MB of video memory. It still lives in its original box in my mum's living room.

It provided me with my first opportunity to get in touch with my computer-nerd side when at the age of about 10 I managed to "break" Windows 3.11 and spent over 4 hours talking to tech support trying to fix it before dad came home!

larsltd August 2nd, 2008 a 06:57 pm

My first PC was a TIME computer which I got through an advert in a magazine and I got TIME to honour the advert even though they denied ever placing it!.

It was a P3 600Mhz with a 19" monitor! it cost me a whopping £1400 and how I wish Quidco was around back then.

It actually lasted me until last year when I had to upgrade to stay sane.

So I suppose £1400 over 9 years is actually not too bad.....

Loada August 2nd, 2008 a 06:51 pm

ZX Spectrum 48k+...ah the endless fiddling with the tape head screw to get the "perfect" load. Great days.

lisamarie20 August 2nd, 2008 a 06:35 pm

My first computer was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16k.

postmangav August 2nd, 2008 a 06:27 pm

My first ever computer was an Acorn Electron, however all it got used for was playing Wizzy's Mansion! My first "PC" was a Packard Bell 486 dx2 66mhz with a whopping 4mb of RAM!

Gordo August 2nd, 2008 a 06:27 pm

My first compueter was a green screen monitor'ed Amstrad CPC464! Old School! Not sure of the specs.............64k RAM I think, with an integrated cassette deck to load programmes.....

Heitzu August 2nd, 2008 a 05:58 pm

Well my first computer was a birthday present when I was moving into comprehensive school to "help with doing homework"... of course it was used more for games but what the heck!

It had a Pentium 2 processor with about 32mb of ram and a 4GB hard drive. It was lovely although rather slow. This would be about 10 years ago.

nickholway August 2nd, 2008 a 05:44 pm

My first computer was a BBC model B with a 6502 CPU running at 4MHz and 32KB of RAM.

sharanrk August 2nd, 2008 a 05:21 pm

My first computel was a bit more recent although i woudnt say it was a good buy. It was a Very awful Sony Vaio laptop PCG K315M. Have never heard a laptop sound more awful...cant wait to get rid of it

gordondocherty August 2nd, 2008 a 05:04 pm

Like some others I had a Commodore Vic 20 - 3.5k with optional 16k expansion pack! Amazing colours and sound - strets ahead of the ZX81!!

litkid August 2nd, 2008 a 05:03 pm

Commodore c64. I remember the excitment as I awaited Pacman to load on that tape reader!

andybrown7 August 2nd, 2008 a 05:01 pm

amiga 500, spec unknown, I was under 10!

jeff67 August 2nd, 2008 a 04:49 pm

First computer I used was a ZX80 at school, then I bought a ZX81 with the falley-offey-ram-pack!
After that I got a Commodore 64, then an Amiga 500. Moved to PCs after that and currently have a Dell Dimension 5000.

robluxton August 2nd, 2008 a 04:40 pm

IBM T20 with 128mb ram and CDRW

karlhindle August 2nd, 2008 a 04:36 pm

My first computer was an awesome Acorn Electron. It featured a rip-roaring 32Kb of RAM, the formidable 6502 CPU as used in the BBC micro and a great big bushy beard!

I miss it :(

bluwkd August 2nd, 2008 a 04:28 pm

like many others our 1st computer was a Commodore 64. It had 64Kb RAM and you took and age to loadup the software using the cassette player. my kids dont know they're born with their laptops and other gizmos and gadgets! :-)

rjfoster1987 August 2nd, 2008 a 04:26 pm

my first computer was one from my dad, it had a 300 Mhz Pentium 2 with 64 Mb of ram and a Voodoo 3 graphics card. shocking.

sharetips August 2nd, 2008 a 04:05 pm

Like many people, my computing life started with a ZX81, remember those awful plastic keys?! I think it had 1K of RAM, a Z80 processor and of course no luxury of a disc drive! I remember 'upgrading' it with a 16K rampack. For comparison, the Dell I've just ordered through Quidco has 2GB as standard, a whopping 2 million times as much as my first computer.

jhurst August 2nd, 2008 a 04:04 pm

I recall one Christmas I got a Sinclair ZX81 which was about the size of a small box of chocolates. It had 1K of memory and no hard drive, and it plugged into the television. When it was turned on, all you got was a blank screen with a flashing square at the bottom left hand corner with a K in it I think for you to type commands into it. Software was loaded in using a standard cassette recorder, and even the smallest programme took ages and was never guaranteed to work - it depended how worn the cassette tape was. There was no sound, and I recall my excitement when I saved up my pocket money to buy a 16K RAM pack which came with a velcro strip so that you could securely attach it to the back of the computer once you had plugged it in - if you didn't use the velcro it had a tendency to wobble and you'd lose everything. Happy days!

voodoo10 August 2nd, 2008 a 04:03 pm

My first computer was a "Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128k" With built in data corder. I just loved the screeching loading screens :)

salmabegum August 2nd, 2008 a 04:03 pm

MY 1ST PC

THIS MUST BE THE BEST PRICED LAPTOP IN THE UK

GUESS HOW MUCH I BROUGHT IT FROM DELL?

Item
Description

Base
AMD® Sempron Mobile Technology 3600+

Memory
2048 MB 667MHz Dual-Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 1024 MB)

Keyboard
Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Video Card
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory (integrated)

Hard Drive
80GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

Microsoft Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English

Modem
56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK

Optical Devices
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software

Wireless Networking
Dell⢠Wireless 1395 Mini-Card (802.11 b/g)

Shipping Documents
English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord

Gedis Bundle Reference
N0610001

Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English

Standard Warranty
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day

Enhanced Service Packs
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Onsite - No Upgrade Selected

CompleteCare
Declined CompleteCare

Protect your new PC
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection

Power Supply
65W AC Adapter

Bluetooth
No Bluetooth® Card included

Order Information
Vostro Laptop Order - UK

Primary Battery
6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)

Carrying Cases
No Carry Case

Dell System Media Kit
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)

Promotions Hidden Option Class
Free memory upgrade from 1024MB to 2048MB

LCD
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

amizaki August 2nd, 2008 a 03:58 pm

My first Computer was a non brand desktop PC. I bought that just before i went to university in 2000. At that time, that was a average PC. Configuration was Intel Pentium 3, 566 Mhz, 256 MB RAM, 40GB HDD, 64 MB Graphics, CD RW, Windows Me, etc. i used that computer for almost 4 years. From then i already used many PC, Laptop both in home & office, but still My 1st PC was best... lolz.. u know, 1st one always special

aparker August 2nd, 2008 a 03:30 pm

My first computer is the one i am using now, it's by iQon, with 256mb RAM lol

snuffleupagus August 2nd, 2008 a 03:16 pm

I've only had the luxury of a computer of my own for two years or so. My first computer was a Dell Latitude laptop, 256mb RAM...fairly respectable. I do remember playing old Atari games on an ancient computer in my early childhood, but unfortunately my 4 year old self didn't ask what the spec was...

gillman August 2nd, 2008 a 02:52 pm

my first pc was one i bought 3 years ago, quite high spec but only 3 of the original parts are still included, i have had fun upgrading it,

shenglong August 2nd, 2008 a 02:40 pm

My first pc was an 80386. No HD, I think only 128mb memory. It had to be booted using the 5.25" disk. that only stored 720kb.

bscorer August 2nd, 2008 a 02:23 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64 WITH the 512k expansion pack!

robski90 August 2nd, 2008 a 02:22 pm

My first computer was a commadore 64 which was great until I put the power supply in wrong and set it on fire. Dad was well chuffed being told that a 6 in the morning. Did any one play the kung foo game (exploding fist I think) with the cheat that made the fighters drop their trousers. Brilliant when you're 12.

Shinkansen August 2nd, 2008 a 01:42 pm

My first computer was an old 386 Desk Top. I can`t really remember much else about it.

Dellemanr August 2nd, 2008 a 01:37 pm

ZX Spectrum 16k spectrum - updated to 48k

rugray August 2nd, 2008 a 01:27 pm

First one was a amstrad cpc6128 at home and a Dell 386SX25 at work. Fantastic at the time.

zyzzyx August 2nd, 2008 a 01:06 pm

My first real computer was an old intel 8088 desktop. It ran at 8MHz. No hard drive and had the luxury of two 5 1/4 floppy drives and an additional Maths co-processor I salvaged from a scrap machine.

jcoles August 2nd, 2008 a 01:03 pm

We had a Commodore 64 that plugged into the TV so that my sister could practice for her computer studies 'O' level - but we mainly used it for Donkey Kong.....

ruthw1 August 2nd, 2008 a 12:53 pm

Mine was a Spectrum, not sure of the spec, I was only about 8!
But my Dad bought me a Daley Thompson Olympic game for Christmas, which was a cassette, took about half an hour to load. and was truely terrible!!

JohnMcElwaine August 2nd, 2008 a 12:50 pm

my first computer was a ZX80......

awful keys that were impossible to use

CarlBurdett August 2nd, 2008 a 12:29 pm

My first computer was an Amiga 500 , my first PC was a Pentium 133 with 16mb of RAM, a huge 2GB hard drive, 33.3kb/s modem and 4mb graphics card. Very expensive at the time and two weeks later Pentium MMX technology came out.

dgrtechsupport August 2nd, 2008 a 12:14 pm

Mine was a zx spectrum 48k, I even had the added bits that you get. the micro reader and the joypads the joystick config thingy.

My first proper computer was a dx2 66mhz 4mb ram 540mb hdd 14" monitor and windows 3.1.1 yes I had the network version of windows. £922.45 for this!! Things have moved on since then

rjwtaylor August 2nd, 2008 a 12:03 pm

Mine was a rubber-keyed 48k Spectrum - still got it as well. If I had the box, it would probably go as a collector's item on Ebay!

Wonder if it still works? Have a hankering for Horace Goes Skiing...

KathO August 2nd, 2008 a 12:02 pm

My first computer was a zx spectrum which was bought accidently from a auction when buying a chair there was a box of junk in the lot and at the bottom was a computer along with games, it lasted years and we still have a disc simulator full of speccy games for the pc!

dyl281 August 2nd, 2008 a 12:00 pm

My first computer (well looking back I just think it was a box with mice in it) was an Aquarius (?!). I was saving for a ZX Spectrum which at the time was £130. As the norm when you are younger you just can't wait for anything. I saw this excuse for a computer but it was only £70 and I had that much so I bought it there and then. It came with 1 game (Tron) and it was a while before I could afford another game. On returning to the shop I discoverd that they didn't sell them any more and the nearest stocks were in Canada!!! Oh well, lesson learnt!!

sapnarana August 2nd, 2008 a 11:57 am

my first computer was a ibm pc 386 at a full 33mhz of madness, i think my dad paid for the upgrade to 4 mb of ram which nearly bankrupted him!

nen05 August 2nd, 2008 a 11:53 am

I can't remember the specifics of the first computer I owned (it was basic but worked;-))but I remember with great fondness the BBC computer we had at school and Granny's Garden, the game where you have to answer riddles and play little games to get to Granny! I still love fantasy games now and although they have come along way (e.g. Zelda) I can see how it all started from the basics!

HOLYS August 2nd, 2008 a 11:42 am

ZX81 with 1k of ram

monkeyspanner August 2nd, 2008 a 11:27 am

First computer was a Swansea University built unit based on an Intel4004 4 bit mircoprocessor. It had a bootstrap loader built out of individual diodes(no non-volatile memory in those days). The bootstrap loader allowed you to load punch tape programs from a papertape reader written in 8 bit assembly code. I can,t remember exactly how much memory but it was based on state of the art memory chips with 256bits on each chip so probably about 2k Ram in total. This was prior to the first generation home computers Amstrad, Acorn, Dragon, Oric, Camputers. Went on to design similar units for fruit machines, whole programs in less than 2k of PROM and built BBC B units for Acorn. Also used DEC PDP8, PDP11 which were huge racks of gear with toggle switches banks of lights, ferrite core RAM and magnetic tape for data storage. Happy days.

naveenj August 2nd, 2008 a 11:12 am

My first computer was a HP vectra with 10G hard disk and 256M of RAM!

norbie August 2nd, 2008 a 11:02 am

My first computer was a 486 processor with 8MB ram LOL!

Thankfully my current one is a bit faster than that :)

TahitiStu August 2nd, 2008 a 11:00 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX 81 - came with 1 kb RAM - but I splashed out and bought the extra 16 Kb add-on RAM pack. Cassette tape storage - not included - took ages just to save or laod a very basic game - the main one I can remember was a moon lander type affair.

markarrow August 2nd, 2008 a 10:56 am

My first ever computer was a Spectrum 48k, wow you could just feel the power throbbing on the telly in front of you!! A good hour of loading a tape, with all the screeching and buzzing only to get to the end and find an error.. another hours wait after rewinding the tape!! Best game for me was "Super Chopper", zooming around a screen in a helicopter firing missiles that were bigger than the chopper itself (well, it was a Super Chopper after alll!) at all sorts of random nasties, like flying fish and a computer chip!
All good fun, butlots of waiting around, in them days you had an excuse for being on the computer for hours!!
Sadly I don't remember to much about the spec, other than it was a 48k interface, and I had a Joystick interface add on,a tape deck, obviously(!), and several books with which to enter code in, which never ever seemed to work right!!!

Thowky August 2nd, 2008 a 10:51 am

First computer was a ZX Spectrum and I loved it. First PC though was a 286 that didn't even have enough memory to run windows, it ran Monkey Island though which was the important thing :) Must admit, I'm impressed people can remember the exact specs of their first computer, I'm not even sure I know them for my current PC.

phead August 2nd, 2008 a 10:48 am

zx81 of course, sat typing out programs from magazines, only to touch the memory pack and the whole thing crashes!

kaykar2003 August 2nd, 2008 a 10:38 am

I had a good old Commodore 64c too! Spent months leading up to Christmas trying to convince my Mum and Dad that getting me one was a great idea!

Then spent all my time playing 'Paperboy'. Classic!!

Check out the spec!!
Processor
6510 CPU
1.02 Mhz(NTSC).985(PAL)
Memory
64 Kb RAM
20 Kb ROM
Display
Text Mode 40 x 25, 16 colors
Graphics Mode 320 x 200
Sound
16 Sound generator: 3 voice, 9 octaves
Ports
Composite Graphics Output
RF
Cartridge Slot
"User" Connector
2 Joystick ports
Serial Port
C2N cassette Interface

CLASSIC!!

Karen x

joecarter August 2nd, 2008 a 10:26 am

My first was a homemade computer using an Intel 8080 which runs at a speedy 2 MHz. I still have it somewhere in the loft.

greenmrthrifty August 2nd, 2008 a 10:25 am

A Sinclair ZX81 that was assembled from a kit by a good friend. I used it to right some basic programs and play a graphic intensive game of Space Invaders, or not!!

nickheung August 2nd, 2008 a 10:10 am

A Packard Bell computer... 100mhz processor, 8mb of memory, Windows 95...

Ashapala August 2nd, 2008 a 09:53 am

Advent 5480DVD.

128mb of ram, 16mb graphics and 800 mhz of pure old tech processing all for just £1200!

DynoDaz August 2nd, 2008 a 09:48 am

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum.

It had an ultra fast 3.54MHz Zilog Z80A CPU with a massive 16K of memory. ;)

The graphics were epic.... Resolution: 256x192 with an amazing choice of 8 colours. :)

jnm21 August 2nd, 2008 a 09:42 am

My first computer was a 486sx33 (the dx2-66 was just too dear) - 420Mb HDD, some shocking amount of memory looking back (~8Mb 30pin parity) and a *TWO* times CD-ROM. That cost well over a grand in 1992 - can probably buy a similar spec, much more streamlined version, for sub 100 now - called a pda/sat nav/mobile/etc.!

stormryder August 2nd, 2008 a 09:36 am

My first computer was an Acorn Electron. It had a whopping 32k of Ram and mind blowing 1mhz speed CPU.

ItShMe August 2nd, 2008 a 09:34 am

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 48K, those were the days with rubber keyboards and external tape drive.

ProggerPete August 2nd, 2008 a 09:32 am

My first computer was a commodore 64. Ah fond memories of Green Beret and Astro Panic...

tdotol August 2nd, 2008 a 09:21 am

My first computer was an Apple IIe, which I got it when I was about 7 years old. 2 colour screen, no hard disk, and hardly any games, so I had to make my own!

andrew2 August 2nd, 2008 a 09:20 am

My first Computer was a Spectrum 16k, and very good it was to,Oh to be able to program a P.C. as easly as a spectrum!

g8ina August 2nd, 2008 a 09:12 am

My first computer was a home built Nascom One. Z80 cpu, 1k RAM, and just a video out to my TV - mono video at that, but it did play PACMAN if I remember rightly. 1978 vintage that was, with over 2000 solder joints - and I soldered every one myself !

freevents August 2nd, 2008 a 09:11 am

my first computer was a sinclair zx81

ewert123 August 2nd, 2008 a 09:03 am

Our first computer was the (in)famous Commodore Vic20

Our 3-yaer old son soon learned to type LOAD and RUN (all in capitals, of course) and play the ganes. We were anxious at that time as to what his teacher might think when he eventaully started infant school, and discovered lower-case letters !

We must have done it about right, hovever, as he now has a Bsc in Computer Studies, and earns a good living as a programmer and web site designer !

elr August 2nd, 2008 a 09:02 am

Our first pc was from Tiny. We got a "special" deal - it cost us about £1300 and was fine until you connected the internet, then it became steam driven!

essercm August 2nd, 2008 a 08:58 am

My first was a ZX81. Terrible keyboard. Unstable ram pack.

yamin17 August 2nd, 2008 a 08:55 am

my first computer was a zx spectrum, first pc i cant even remember what it was called just remember it was slow and had hardly any memory!

seadeep August 2nd, 2008 a 08:51 am

My first computer wss a dragon32, it's in the loft with a box full of cassette tapes

mlz1962 August 2nd, 2008 a 08:41 am

My first computer was a Welsh built Dragon 32, a lifetime ago, Quickly followed by a Commodore 64. First proper pc was a Mitac dx4 100 with 8mb ram and a 540mb hard disk!

Ness2000 August 2nd, 2008 a 08:05 am

My first computer was a........???? i have no idea what it was called I seem to remember it was made by Texas instruments?? and had a cartridge loaded at the side of the keyboard!

Played space invaders for hours, was the eveny of all my friends and spent hours typing in code just so you could changethe colour of the screen and border!! those were the days!, now my kids go crackers if the net doesn't open in 0.004 secs! they don't know they were born!

drewston August 2nd, 2008 a 07:29 am

My first computer was a Commodore 64, I think we had more patience back then when it took 10 minutes to load a game. Having said that being able to buy a game for £1.99 from Mastertronic was pocket money well spent.

fezzer1 August 2nd, 2008 a 04:54 am

My 1st computer was a Commodore 64. It had 64Kb RAM and you loaded the software using a cassette player.

Fantastic piece of kit, you would load a game with the cassette and when it was nearly loaded it would cause an error and you would have to rewind the tape and start again. Kids nowadays would sling it through the window the first time it crashed. :)

Pepperwen August 2nd, 2008 a 03:30 am

My first computer was my brain, it started out okay and was very fast at processing information. It soon became overloaded with useless trivia and alas as the years have gone by has slowed and struggles to store new data, it also seems to be losing some that was already there. It could never be replaced but at least everything can now be backed up to a bigger memory, if only I could remember the password.

Vinny101 August 2nd, 2008 a 02:29 am

Same as Truepalacefan. My first computer was also an Amstrad CPC464. My dad bought it for me for Christmas. I never completed Manic Miner......couldn't get past the screen where the toilets were chasing him.....lol.

Truepalacefan August 2nd, 2008 a 12:59 am

My 1st home computer was an Amstrad cpc 464 and it was great! tape loading games and it took forever!, but when i got home from school used to put fruit machine on and my freinds used to belive the money came out the monitor if we won the jackpot! Good Times !

johnmo August 2nd, 2008 a 12:19 am

First computer was a BBC Model B with 32K RAM and 32K ROM. Expansion board. Two 5.25 floppy disk drives. Wouldn't be able to do much with that sort of memory nowadays. Used it mainly for word processing.

sidtrix August 1st, 2008 a 11:12 pm

ZX spectrum with a tape drive... dont even remember the exact specs, was too young!

mumto7 August 1st, 2008 a 10:44 pm

a commodore 64 wih a masive noisy 5 & quarter inch flop disc drive

mne2 August 1st, 2008 a 10:30 pm

First computer was a 48k Spectrum which was awesome machine. Still remember when games were £1.99 too :(

Managed to kill many a keyboard membrane due to hypersports!

lydavies August 1st, 2008 a 10:28 pm

My first computer was an Acorn 3010. I thought it was great! I was particularly addicted to a game called "Gyranus" or similar, although I remember one where you were a bird and had to fly along carrying things too.

benrowlands August 1st, 2008 a 10:27 pm

A 16 Mhz Commdore 386SX Laptop with Mono Screen. With only a 20MB Hard Disk I remember being unable to install Windows 3.1. Chucked it years ago [and miss it now!!!].

sipart August 1st, 2008 a 10:24 pm

When the Brits where the manufacturers of 'home' computers - my very first computer was a ZX81, 16k RAM pack (whoooooo). Didn't we have fun with FOR / NEXT loops - !!!HELLO WORLD!!!

Next a Oric1 - colour - fantastic computer.

Long gap for many years and then I suppose my first real (as it resembles modern computers) PC was a Ambra SX33 with 1mb RAM (Ambra's were IBM's failed fight back against the beige box IBM clone builders).

Cheers

paperclip August 1st, 2008 a 10:17 pm

Oh forgot to say, it was a Compaq...

paperclip August 1st, 2008 a 10:17 pm

My first computer:
256mb RAM
700MHZ processor
32MB dedicated graphics
8x DVD rom drive
20GB hard drive
(In 2000 - when i was 10 :D )

Thanks quidco, could use a new laptop for uni!

DIJORDAN August 1st, 2008 a 10:09 pm

ZX81 1k of ram

Jimbo236 August 1st, 2008 a 10:07 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad with a dot matrix printer. At the time we thought it was SO cool. I seem to remember its code was 852, but can't remember what that referred to. Green screen, and so slow. All good fun though.

robhuson August 1st, 2008 a 10:07 pm

My first was a bbc micro, used to play chuckie egg and frogger a lot! Ands lets not forget to big floppy disks!

vjvjvj August 1st, 2008 a 09:58 pm

My first computer was a Vic 20. Complete with matching tape deck thingy, both in a whitey beige colour that one might call "ivory". And no rubber keyboard in sight. It had loads of memeory (5K?) and loads of great tips on programing. Very soon I became a master programer and was able to learn really impressive things like how to fill a screen with the word RUN.... like this...

RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN
RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN
RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN
RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN
RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN

Yeah. knew you'd be impressed!

murtuzasuk August 1st, 2008 a 09:55 pm

i bought my first computer in 2002 Dell Dimension 2350 with 2.4Ghz 512mb ram and 110 GB HD. I am still using it and still happy with performance.

marktwittey August 1st, 2008 a 09:50 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum+. It had 48K of memory and as it was a 'plus' it had plastic rather than rubber keyboard! I remember it came with a game called Horace Goes Skiing!

hypnoticstate August 1st, 2008 a 09:49 pm

From what i remember of my first computer, it had 16MB RAM, a 550MB HDD, onboard graphics card, 1.44" floppy drive and a fan loud enough to keep away the dinosaurs which i believe were still around when computers were like this.

hothostie August 1st, 2008 a 09:46 pm

my first computer was a commadore 64
i have no idea about the specs as i am a girl - and my brother always took over.
i remember playing bubble bobble on it - my favourite. i played so much that my fingers locked in a double jointed fashion!
oh the memories!

Heathery August 1st, 2008 a 09:42 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum - 16k. We had it on a portable black and white tv, we had to be really careful with the volume control because if it was too loud the programmes wouldn't load. We wore out a joystick in one weekend playing "Daley Thompson's Decathalon". We broke the z and x keys playing "Cookie". My Dad bought some extra memory and made it into a 48k spectrum and he fitted a new keboard to it aswell. Our favourite games were Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. Happy days!!

broxy August 1st, 2008 a 09:31 pm

Chromer, I had an Memotech MTX500 at around the same time as you 84/85, my Dad got it for me for christmas because he used to make the aluminium cases for them and had a massive 32k ram

caroroach August 1st, 2008 a 09:30 pm

My first computer was so slow it was unbelievable. I would log on and clean the house while waiting for the page to change.

rawy August 1st, 2008 a 09:24 pm

My first computer was Cyrix P150+ with 16Mb RAM, 1.2Gb HDD, CDROM, 1.44Mb Floppy Drive, Sound Card, Onboard Graphics & Windows 95 Release A. It cost over £1200!!

My phone has a faster processor & more ram now!

chomer August 1st, 2008 a 09:14 pm

My first computer was a Memotech MTX 512 in around 1985. My dad thought it would it would be the next big seller. In the end, the nly other person he knew who ever bought one too was my uncle!!

xdowns August 1st, 2008 a 09:12 pm

I m using my first computer now. AMD athlon 1.7gh cpu. 1

quidcoshaz August 1st, 2008 a 09:10 pm

My very first computer was a Philips G7000 back in the early 80s. All I remember about that one is its membrane keyboard and cartridge loading system (I think)! Don't think I had it for very long....

neildo August 1st, 2008 a 09:05 pm

My 1st computer (still have it) was a Sinclair ZX81, in 1981. A MASSIVE 1K of ram. Had to buy the 16K ram pack to play 3D Monster maze, which was so scary...

stormy August 1st, 2008 a 09:04 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum 48k with the 'deluxe' rubber keyboard. ;) R TAPE LOADING ERROR!!!!!!!!!! ;)

madmitch August 1st, 2008 a 08:49 pm

my first computer was a commodore 64. Loading games from cassette. Daley Thomson's decathlon - fantastic!!!

baysidepd August 1st, 2008 a 08:42 pm

An Amiga 500 was my first computer. It came with a dot mtrix printer that would make the house shake whenever it was in use ;-)

lukeskinner August 1st, 2008 a 08:36 pm

BBC Micro, with 32kb RAM and an external 5 1/4" floppy drive.

jillul August 1st, 2008 a 08:13 pm

it was a atari that i connected to tv to use. Keyboard had inbuilt hard disk

jillul August 1st, 2008 a 08:11 pm

my first was a pentium P60 dell computer.

gdabhi August 1st, 2008 a 08:11 pm

MY FIRST COMPUTER WAS A ACORN ELECTRon which was high tech at the time.

red13 August 1st, 2008 a 08:08 pm

mine was an atari 800XL and it had 64 KB with an external disc drive an cassette

richardlower August 1st, 2008 a 07:58 pm

ZX Spectrum with a rubber keyboard. loaded data with a tape cassette which only worked when it felt like it. Nothing changes does it?

jpallsop August 1st, 2008 a 07:55 pm

My first computer was a Commodore Plus4. The Commodore 16 Ultra, it has 64K of Memory and even a built in word processor and spreadsheet. Everything was tapes then but it was ultra reliable.

Had many happy hours on it.

vmp99 August 1st, 2008 a 07:49 pm

My first laptop was... of course DELL.

It was DELL Inspiron 4100 with 256 MB Ram, 40GB HD costed me 2400.00 Euros in 2002.

It was proud to be owner of DELL.

5207355k August 1st, 2008 a 07:43 pm

My first computer was a....

ZX81 with 16k of memory. Black and white display on a TV. I even had a thermal printer, great to print stuff off (about 4 inchs wide) until you touched the paper and the heat from your hands left marks all over! I had 1k chess and whenever I was winning it would crash....

taraloveslewis August 1st, 2008 a 07:36 pm

My first laptop was a dell latitude c600 i think. Cost me £200 and if i remember righly, 20gb hard drive, mem 256mb and Intel Pentium III 750 mHz.

Claudio August 1st, 2008 a 07:12 pm

So long ago back in the early '90's. Just remember that there was 64K ram....

PeteWilliams August 1st, 2008 a 07:09 pm

486-sx25! I dread to think how much it cost!!

niblickthe3rd August 1st, 2008 a 07:09 pm

My first computer was had an amazing 64 Kb of power, being the mighty Commodore c64 with the ultra fast tape loading system, I would sit for hours watching the flashes and hearing the squeals as it loaded, then play the game for a minute lose, and have to reload the game all over again, Infact I feel inspired I may dig it out of the loft.

tstockford August 1st, 2008 a 07:09 pm

We had a ZX Spectrum 48K - the little flat one with rubber keys. We used a portable cassette player to load games, but I also remember typing in code from magazines and then recording it on to cassette.

MartynUK August 1st, 2008 a 07:07 pm

Amstrad CPC464 :)

lm0503 August 1st, 2008 a 07:05 pm

I had an Amstrad 6128 with a green screen and i think 64kb of memory, maybe 128k... ahhh fond memories of chuckie egg!

ChiaPet August 1st, 2008 a 07:00 pm

My first computer is the one I still use and am typing from now - a Macintosh Powerbook G3 (Pismo, firewire, 400mhz) laptop. It dates from the year 2000 and is still in excellent working condition! ...except that I did have to replace the screen because we had a lamb in the house one time and it knocked the laptop off the couch, shattering the stuff inside the screen. Do not mix sheep and computers.

choice August 1st, 2008 a 06:54 pm

I'm a late starter so my first ,and only,computer is my Dell Dimension 2400. I've had it for 4 years and it's been great. I'd love a shiny red laptop - maybe one day. When I started work in 1971 the computer was more like a wall of built in wardrobes. Thank heavens for progress.

woodyandgunner August 1st, 2008 a 06:52 pm

My parents bought me a Commodore 64 on Christmas, along with Jupiter Lander cartridge - which was ace because you didn't have to wait hours for a tape game to load. It must have been the quietest Christmas ever for my folks 'cause me and my sister were glued to it for weeks! I've still got the computer and it still works - happy days! :0)

ad414 August 1st, 2008 a 06:48 pm

dells used at work - good value for money!

mattdunger August 1st, 2008 a 06:47 pm

Mine was and Amstrad cpc6128 with built-in floppy disk drive and 128KB of memory. Sadly, some git stole this in a burglary when I was a child, so we got it replaced with the 6128 plus version.

bluemeany1982 August 1st, 2008 a 06:40 pm

I don't know about the first computer I ever had at home but the first one I owned myself is the one I am using now...a Dell Inspiron 2200.

KellysRaven August 1st, 2008 a 06:29 pm

I had a Amstrad 464 too, 64k and cassette tape drive. Wicked tinny sound on it!!!!

pendine50 August 1st, 2008 a 06:19 pm

Mine was made for me by a nerdy friend, everything mismatched, minimum specs. which I can't quite remember though 8 and RAM seem to go together. I LOVED it!!!!

pendine50 August 1st, 2008 a 06:19 pm

Mine was made for me by a nerdy friend, everything mismatched, minimum specs. which I can't quite remember though 8 and RAM seem to go together. I LOVED it!!!!

pendine50 August 1st, 2008 a 06:19 pm

Mine was made for me by a nerdy friend, everything mismatched, minimum specs. which I can't quite remember though 8 and RAM seem to go together. I LOVED it!!!!

ry8000 August 1st, 2008 a 06:10 pm

Mine was an AMSTRAD CPC 464, with a green screen monitor... later upgraded to colour!!!

drewvalentino August 1st, 2008 a 06:08 pm

My first Pc was a top of the range cutting edge Spectrum 128k with tape casette :) This thing rocked!!

mwong August 1st, 2008 a 06:07 pm

It was an Amstrad CPC 464!

poochies August 1st, 2008 a 06:01 pm

I can not remember my first computer,maybe a Packard Belll?, but all I do remember is feeling chuffed when I turned in computer processed reports at school, with fancy graphics (that I had my dad do at work!!!) while all of the other kids turned in reports on crappy dot print-outs from the huge 80s school computers. Also remember our packard bell computer taking a year to download 1 song on dial-up connection in the 90s.

bezzoh August 1st, 2008 a 05:54 pm

I too had a Commodore Vic20 for my first computer, although it actually had 5kb RAM, with 1.5kb being utilised by the system for video, kernal, etc... leaving 3.5kb BASIC program memory, although this was expandable!

This thing was the dogs ******* with attached tape drive, and rip-off atari joystick for a bit of Alien Attack or Grand Prix. Loved it.

Perlunka August 1st, 2008 a 05:53 pm

First computer - Sinclair Spectrum ZX 128K+2

First PC - AST 100, 8mb ram, 850mb HDD, QUAD SPEED CD, Floppy. Cracking.

carbssimon August 1st, 2008 a 05:53 pm

Carbssimon: my first one is a Dell Latitude 400, nice shape, light, surely one of the best/lightest on the market years back. Loved it, but time goes on, have to get new ones every two years to keep up.

BoostII August 1st, 2008 a 05:44 pm

Sinclair Spectrum Plus - there was a rumour that if you turned it upside down the keys fell off. Luckily that never happened despite all the hours playing JetPac and Manic Minor.

bt51 August 1st, 2008 a 05:42 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum on whiich I spent hours perfecting my skills at "Chucky Egg".

Muzz August 1st, 2008 a 05:40 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 128K :o )

Ah them were the days :o )

planetdannii August 1st, 2008 a 05:38 pm

My first ever computer was back in the 80's and was called 'My First Talking Computer' I think it was by IQ builders. I loved it the American accent made me laugh as a 5year old.

Actually I'm only on my second computer now, it doesn't talk though :(

Tobysmum August 1st, 2008 a 05:24 pm

my first computer was the Commodore 64 with the tape drive, those were the days! I remember games like Boulder Dash, Impossible Mission, Winter/Summer Olympics.

olangfield August 1st, 2008 a 05:23 pm

my first computer was a brown amstrad cpc , it had a great bruce lee game on it

Leggie August 1st, 2008 a 05:16 pm

I can't be sure of what computer I first used, but I do remember running an Amstrad PCW9512 word processor, which used its own specialised floppy disk format and a daisy wheel printer - I think! After that used an old (new at the time) Viglen computer which ran Windows 95 on an Intel processor. That saw good service; we upgraded the RAM and it kept going for a long time.

silentphoenix August 1st, 2008 a 05:15 pm

My first computer was an Amiga 500 Batman pack! A true classic... came with Dulux Paint 2 ( paint/rawing package), Interceptor (flight sim/fighter game) Newzealan Story (platform game involving rescuing kiwis!). It was the envy of all my friends :D

johncwalker August 1st, 2008 a 05:12 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 128K

monsterschwanz August 1st, 2008 a 05:07 pm

My first computer was a 'Time Machine' pentium 2, I would never have got through Uni without it.

pwoodhead August 1st, 2008 a 04:51 pm

1st computer not quite as ghetto as others on here... a massive 486 100, 16 mb ram with something like a 100mb hard drive. Those were the days! cost a small fortune too... well a small fortune for a student!

Angie August 1st, 2008 a 04:47 pm

Ohh bring back the memories why don't you. The Vic 20. It must have cost my parents a fortune.
The excitement of plugging it in to the little portable telly and seeing that you could change the background colours and the text colours. Then spending all day Sunday typing in a Basic program that would flash your name on and off the creen in different coulours. Though if you had a long name it didn't fit on the screen.

The games were great as well. Either a great big cartridge that cost a fortune. All the birthday money in on one game. Then getting to play a game where you had to type in turn left, kill chiggers, turn right, climb ladder, only to have the dragon eat you. It was great for the imagination as there were no graphics. So evry kid who played it had their own picture of the dragon in their head.

Even better was loading a game from the tape recorded. Listening for half an hour while it squeeled and beeped in a fax type language. It was a good way to develop patience as often after what seemed like hours of waiting. (Ib gown up language 30 minutes!) A "SYNTAX ERROR!" message would appear on the screen. I remember being really impressed with the backgammon game I was given as it had the board and counters and dice and everything! It did mean you could go and make a cup of tea while it thought about the move it was going to make, but it was great.

Ahh the memories. It was all so innocent and exciting. Big business and the home computer were two different worlds, they were all green screens, numbers, and accountants, we were all excited bout bips bops and swapping basic programs. Look how far we have come!

chpamp August 1st, 2008 a 04:46 pm

Being a bit of a 'dinosaur' when it comes to technology and as I have never owned a computer (I use my husband's), I would hope to say that my first computer is a Dell Inspiron 1525!

jonrr28 August 1st, 2008 a 04:44 pm

First computer was a Gateway 2000 pc with 1gb memory - it was so exciting!!!

jpurchase August 1st, 2008 a 04:43 pm

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K,Manic Miner, Jetpak and Monty Mole - what more could a 14 year old boy want out of life!

andydavis August 1st, 2008 a 04:42 pm

The ZX Spectrum, what a computer the games were out of this world!
And by the way i still have mine and it still works.

antquo August 1st, 2008 a 04:35 pm

My first computer was a Spectrum 48k. Splashed out on a 'thermal printer' for it and learnt Sinclair Basic. Trouble was the print tended to fade after a few months.

macaroni August 1st, 2008 a 04:33 pm

sinclair ZX81 - OMG I so dont pine for those days :D

chapster35 August 1st, 2008 a 04:32 pm

Mine was an IBM 286, I still have it in the loft as I can't bear to part with it...I mean it's got to become an antique at some point right?...right?!

pa2539 August 1st, 2008 a 04:27 pm

My first computer was a ZX spectrum. I thought it was great. Where have all those fun games gone? e.g. manic miner, paperboy, monty mole, the list is endless :)

RB1080 August 1st, 2008 a 04:24 pm

My first computer that I could truly call my own was one I built myself actually.
AMD Duron 850MHz, 128MB RAM, terrible Matsonic M8308E Motherboard with integrated graphics. 10GB 5400RPM hard drive and a 15.4" (13" visible) CRT Monitor :)

richmondmike August 1st, 2008 a 04:20 pm

Commodore 64, 64k RAM, 1 Mhz CPU, 16 colours at 160X100 resolution... yet still the best machine I have owned!

laurenzo99 August 1st, 2008 a 04:10 pm

i still have my first computer- really would love a new laptop to help me with my studies at uni though! Its a dell and although i updated graphics card is still pretty poor compared to what you get today and then theres the monitor which isn't even flat screen!

Emmanouil77 August 1st, 2008 a 04:08 pm

My first copmuter was a laptop Compaq Armada 1700 - PII 266 MHz
very fast for that time! very happy then. but after all this years still works!

Babbertb August 1st, 2008 a 04:07 pm

I had a commodore 64 and loved playing paperboy. It took an age to load a game and if you were really unlucky you'd wait 20 minutes and the game wouldn't work anyway! Those were the days!

chunwong August 1st, 2008 a 04:04 pm

First computer I ever used was a 6502 sbc with a hex display and telephone keypad, next was a ZX80 that I spent hours on at WH Smiths, followed by a ZX81. My own very first machine was a BBC Model A, which was upgraded to a B by Watford Electronics.

atkrhome August 1st, 2008 a 03:59 pm

My first comp was a Sinclair Spectrum 16k. I loved it !!

ciskclar August 1st, 2008 a 03:58 pm

sinclair ZX81, a glorified calculator! I got it for christmas and sat up all day writing a program from a magazine which never worked.

joncheng4 August 1st, 2008 a 03:58 pm

My First Computer was built by myself with a Intel motherboard with a Duron 800mhz processor, with a Massive! lol 128mb of ram. Top Stuff it was. hehe.

johnwinter August 1st, 2008 a 03:56 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32, after having played with my Dad's school's Research Machines 380Z. Some 28 years on I am still able to remember quirks of the Dragon, such as the infamous POKE 65495,0 command that made some Dragon 32s run at double speed and made the rest crash.

I even found an error in one of the scripts supplied in the Dragon User's manual and my letter was published in the first edition of 'Dragon User' magazine. But I was only 10 years old, then, and these things were easy. Now I am older I wouldn't understand all this programming stuff ;-)

dazleech August 1st, 2008 a 03:40 pm

My first computer was a Commadore 64, and it was a hand down from my dad. At the time, what a fantastic bit of kit. and how amazing were those cartridges with instant loading! lol.

mintfresh August 1st, 2008 a 03:27 pm

First computer was a Spectrum 128K +2

128K RAM
1Mhz proccesor
and the storage capacity was whatever you could fit on a tape

emileb August 1st, 2008 a 03:25 pm

My first computer was a BBC Micro, it was mostly used for electronics projects, and taught me to program...which Im still doing 15 years later!

maxtweenie August 1st, 2008 a 03:15 pm

I used to go to school in Bracknell, where the Met Office was based. In the early 1970's, they had a new weather forecasting computer delivered in about 20 wooden crates. the computer filled the whole of one floor of their building. Of course, nowadays, you'd get about the same amount of processing memory in a DS Lite lol.

janiebubble August 1st, 2008 a 03:11 pm

i had a zx81, my dad bought it second hand and I thought i was so cool. Then an acorn electron (but the cat chewed through the wire!)

gogirl708 August 1st, 2008 a 03:08 pm

Had computers such as Commodore 64, BBC etc in the house years ago but left unused by me until attended computer course & 'brave' enough to use PC so not outdone by own children!! Now couldn't do without computer for work & home especially for emails & internet. So I would really like my own laptop!!

kt72 August 1st, 2008 a 03:08 pm

The first computer i got to use was a Spectrum ZX81, it was my brothers tho and he wouldn't let me use it much!! It turned out to be a very long time till I would get my very own computer and it is my Dell Inspiron 1501 which i am using now and I love it!!

alevans August 1st, 2008 a 03:07 pm

My first Computer was a Research Machines Z80. I don't remember too much about the Processor or it's spec other than to say it had a punched paper tape drive for storage! It was then upgraded to use 8" floppy disks. It also had a key to operate it!

shepsteve August 1st, 2008 a 02:58 pm

My first computer was the ruuber keyed ZX Spectrum, it had 16k , 3.54 MHz Zilog Z80A CPU. How we miss those keys!

bobbyheath August 1st, 2008 a 02:55 pm

Amstrad CPC 464 with the GT65 Green Display. Tape Drive to load 'Games' and 'Applications' eventually purchased the external floppy disk drive that was as big as a plate and as deep as 2 house bricks and weighed about the same. Had a whole 64k of RAM and classic games such as Dynamite Dan and Dizzy Egg

Ravscashback August 1st, 2008 a 02:52 pm

My first computer was a white coloured Sinclair ZX80, circa 1979/1980 which I had to build myself (you could buy them mail order as a kit for about £100). It had 1K of memory & the screen would go blank when it was calculating anything - so no moving graphics whatsoever!

dylan August 1st, 2008 a 02:45 pm

Sinclair Spectrum ZX+2.. wait for it... WITH disc drive!
Complete with a lightning fast Z80A CPU running at 3.5 MHz and a massive 6 KB ROM and 48 KB of RAM!

I'm sure I even have a single file on my current computer that is under the amount of ram of ram in that machine, but i did love it. Programming Hangman and playing Saboteur.. oh the memories. Funny, that computer had a colour screen, while my first IBM style 2x86 PC was a backward step in that department, with a greyscale monitor.

Eastland August 1st, 2008 a 02:35 pm

My first computer was a Commodor 64 and I got so fed up with the tapes crashing that I saved up for ages to buy the first 5 1/2" disk drive for it - total waste of time as they crashed just as much!!

jaredashe August 1st, 2008 a 02:32 pm

My first actual PC was a 286 badboy. I think it had Windows 3.1 although that may have come later. Apart from that we're talking green-screen Amstrads. Ah, happy days. I do actually think Win 3.1 is far, far better than Vista - it actually did what you wanted it to do!

L2wis August 1st, 2008 a 02:29 pm

My first computer was a 800mhz pentium III, IBM thinkpad t21! I had to save up 5 months to get it! If only quidco was around back then! Spec entailed

800mhz p3,
25mg ram,
20gig HDD
14.1 inch screeen

^_^ Best of luck everyone!!!

jamster128 August 1st, 2008 a 02:25 pm

I bought a 386DX running Win 3.11 while I was at uni and it's sole purpose was so I could play Championship Manager 1 on it. That was about 13 years ago.

takhak August 1st, 2008 a 02:23 pm

my first computer was that game where the colours of the UFO changed colour and you had to press them quickly - what's it called again?

hodge1979 August 1st, 2008 a 02:16 pm

I had a vic20 with an external cassette drive. I used to type in the Poke commands into the program creater for days and days and days, once i'd finished typing in all the code it used to make the sound of a gun firing!....Goodtimes.

macbrains August 1st, 2008 a 02:03 pm

I'm another person who had a Sinclair ZX81 - what a machine....

niamh August 1st, 2008 a 02:00 pm

My friend bought an ex-networked 386 (IBM I think) from her work, which ran windows 3.1 and had a TINY amount of disk space. I used it to type coursework on and play Freecell til it died on me.

Stephen7372 August 1st, 2008 a 01:55 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 48k apparently it had a Z80 processor running @ 3.5 MHz. Oh the excitement of playing Breakout and Horrace Goes Skiing. Manic Miner and the like :)

damienlaidler August 1st, 2008 a 01:48 pm

A BBC 32k basic with a tape drive. At least it didn't make the dreaded noise during loading. The frustration of waiting 10 minutes for a game to load, only for it to fail right at the end...

Mainly used to play Revs (F1 style car game) and chuckie egg (which through curiosity I have, unfortunately, just found to play on the internet).

It's all still in the loft somewhere.

gkirk1234 August 1st, 2008 a 01:45 pm

My first computer was a BBC model B. I was the king on Chuckie Egg !!

twinklyspecialk August 1st, 2008 a 01:43 pm

Its the Dell laptop inspiron 1300 im using at the moment:-)

pdz August 1st, 2008 a 01:39 pm

yet another amstrad cpc464 here, with green screen monitor!

drucey August 1st, 2008 a 01:39 pm

I remember it well!

a 486 bought by my mum as i had an interest in the school's 2 (!) computers..

DX-2 66mhz, 8mb ram, 400mb hard drive, and a 16 colour graphics card.

I broke Windows 95, so had to use DOS for 6 months.. and got quite good on it.

Also remember saving all my pocket money for 3 months so i could afford a 256 colour graphics card.. i was the happiest boy in the world!!

rewarren August 1st, 2008 a 01:38 pm

Like many people of a certain age, my first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, with 48KB RAM and a3.5MHz Z80 processor. Fantastic! Oh, and I've still got it!

thedaftpunk August 1st, 2008 a 01:35 pm

My was the ZX Spectrum +2, 128k with the built in tape recorder! :)

Waiting several minutes for games to load whilst listening to those crazy noises seems to have shaped my musical taste no end as well.

babychick August 1st, 2008 a 01:35 pm

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464, on which I loved playing Dizzy - ah the memories!!

francisg1 August 1st, 2008 a 01:31 pm

The first computer in our family was an Atari ST - basically just a keyboard with a computer in it. As a kid at the time I very much enjoyed the Thundercats game and got addicted to the second ever Championship Manager game. Happy days!

paulw0t August 1st, 2008 a 01:20 pm

My First PC if you call it that was the ZX spectrum, with its amazing tape input you could load a game up in about 7 - 10 minutes and made some crazy noises.

jngothi August 1st, 2008 a 01:17 pm

The first one I had, I used to call it Bobby (reminded me on an Asian Movie - VERY SLOW too) lol. Also, it didnt have windows good version, but had to be booted by disks from DOS... God! I cant believe I even used it & not blew it away. The funniest part is: Someone actually bought it from me... Haa Haa

tarbuck August 1st, 2008 a 01:14 pm

My first PC was a 486 dx4 100 with 64mb ram and a 2mb graphics card!!!! I even installed windows xp on it (with a few hacks) when it came out!!

gkbeckmann August 1st, 2008 a 01:13 pm

My first "computer" was a KIM1. 1k RAM, hex keypad and a 6 digit 7 segment display. It was a great introduction to real programming and you could actually buy adventure games for it!

berolboy August 1st, 2008 a 01:06 pm

My first was an Amstrad CPC 464 with a monochrome monitor and 64K of RAM. Chucky Egg and Days of Thunder rocked!

tjww500 August 1st, 2008 a 01:04 pm

My first computer that I had use of was at the University that my Dad worked at. Centipede, asteriods and solitaire were the high- tech games availble on this new system in a fancy lab! I used to love showing up there!

pfiddler August 1st, 2008 a 01:04 pm

I had a commodore 64 which i loved (although i think it was powered by a hamster) and it had a whole 64k of memory

the amount of hours I spent typing in programmes from magazines, only to spend twice as long trying to debug them and then realising that the game was utter garbage anyway

i used to spend hours waiting for games to load via it's bespoke cassette deck and then wasted even more hours playing elite and leaderboard golf

they don't make 'em like that any more ... thankfully ;)

paulchillout August 1st, 2008 a 01:03 pm

I'm feeling old - my first computer was an amstrad cpc464 with a tape player that used to make beepnig noises as you loaded up a game. It was excellent at the time but wow how computers have improved. I've now got a Dell one!

dblore123 August 1st, 2008 a 01:02 pm

My First Computer was a P3 450MHz, 4GB HD & 256MB RAM. 14 inch monitor. That time it was the fastest available.

leeevansuk August 1st, 2008 a 12:48 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 16;

Memory:- A total of 16Kbytes RAM with 12Kbytes available for user programs and 32Kbytes of ROM includes OS and BASIC interpreter

Storage:- Built in dual 5.25" floppy disk drives

OS:- Commodore BASIC V3.5 - in ROM

Clock Speed:- 0.89-1.76MHz

CPU:- MOS Technology 7501

had it for Crimbo when i was a lad!

untidydan August 1st, 2008 a 12:47 pm

first comp was a toshiba laptop with an intel x286 processor, no idea how much ram it had, only did 2 colours blue and white, and nothing but lotus123 and wordperfect on it.

ooslum August 1st, 2008 a 12:47 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1k ram and a 16k expansion module.

It cost almost as much as the Dell 1525 with the required TV, but the thrill of the moon landing simulator consisting of two numbers on a screen refreshed every 5 seconds left people speachless!

andymcuk August 1st, 2008 a 12:46 pm

My First computer was a Dragon32

Processor Motorola MC6809EP 0.9 Mhz
Ram 32K RAM
Graphics max res: 256 x 192 - 8 Colors
Sound: 1 voice, 5 octaves with the Basic/4 voices, 7 octaves with machine code
Storage: Tape drive 5pin din
Media: C15 cassette tape.

piccottsend August 1st, 2008 a 12:41 pm

My first computer was a Sharp MZ80K with 48k RAM bought in 1980.

STEVECDVD August 1st, 2008 a 12:25 pm

My first computer was also a sinclair zx81 (1k ram) - later updated with a 16k ram pack add on. Oh the joys of spending 2 hours typing in a program then suffering the infamous ram pack wobble and crashing the computer.!

scottytrotter August 1st, 2008 a 12:22 pm

my brother had a ZX81, and I remember it very well, how exciting it was. In particular I remember the smell of it! It had 1K, and like NorthScot, we later got the 16k expansion pack, which seemed amazing at the time.

NorthScot August 1st, 2008 a 12:19 pm

I had (& still have!) a ZX81 - 1k ram, but with a 16k expansion pack! Oh, the joys of fine-tuning the volume on the cassette player all the time to get programs to load!!

kiyonebabe August 1st, 2008 a 12:07 pm

My first computer was a Nintendo SNES with the Starwing game. Ok so not really a PC but more fun than you can shake a stick at! My first proper PC was an Atari I think, I've no idea what the specs were as I was about 8 at the time, mainly I remember that it had a Simpsons game on it.

praevalens August 1st, 2008 a 11:56 am

my first computer was a Pentium 120 with 256mb Ram and a 1.2 gig hard drive and it was amazing :)

kaz33 August 1st, 2008 a 11:54 am

Mine was a ZX81 with the plug in memory which brought it up to 48K - happy days hoping that it wouldn't crash just after you had spent twenty minutes typing in BASIC code for some inane game that you had found in computer magazine.

Followed by the Spectrum - Jet Set Willy is the best game in the universe, do you remember the killer toilets??

Then we got the Spectrum QL which was a bit ODD.

kaz33 August 1st, 2008 a 11:54 am

Mine was a ZX81 with the plug in memory which brought it up to 48K - happy days hoping that it wouldn't crash just after you had spent twenty minutes typing in BASIC code for some inane game that you had found in computer magazine.

Followed by the Spectrum - Jet Set Willy is the best game in the universe, do you remember the killer toilets??

Then we got the Spectrum QL which was a bit ODD.

LINDAD2604 August 1st, 2008 a 11:52 am

i had a my baby laptop lol

lorraine123 August 1st, 2008 a 11:52 am

My first PC was a ZX Specturm 128k +2

droflum August 1st, 2008 a 11:51 am

Commordore 64 Baby!!!!! Old school FTW.... remeber sitting there listening to the screeching of the tape player, loading the games, only for it to stop and the game not loaded...AAGGHHH...

Also back in that day games were £1.99.... ahhh the old days..

flyingflea August 1st, 2008 a 11:48 am

My first computer was a 286 with an 8Mhz processor, 4MB RAM and 20MB HDD. Woop woop!

Crawley August 1st, 2008 a 11:38 am

My first computer was a ZX81 - 1kb of RAM, and a text only screen - 32 characters by 24! Wow, those were the days.............(but that keyboard - urgh!)

daddison August 1st, 2008 a 11:32 am

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 48K with that wonderful rubber keyboard. Remember waiting ages for Clive Sinclair to deliver it though! Soon upgraded to a BBC Model B though which is where I learnt all my programming skills; CS practicals at University were a doddle having hacked so much 6502 assembly. And I'm still hacking assembly code even now!

theshabster August 1st, 2008 a 11:31 am

My first computer was an Atari ST - Step over Mr Gates, & take a bow !

roachygray August 1st, 2008 a 11:23 am

Mine was an Atari STE. Remember those joysticks that only olympic weight lifters could use? Spec was...er,low.

xhosa9 August 1st, 2008 a 11:20 am

My first computer was an Amiga 2000, used to use it for doing my GCSE coursework and playing games - ahhh happy memories.

|Ric| August 1st, 2008 a 11:15 am

First computer was an Acorn A3020, something like 2MB ram and 10GB HDD I think.

nillerrune August 1st, 2008 a 11:12 am

I was a late bloomer and got my first PC in 1996 it was an AT&T which could run win95. If I remember correct it had 200Mb HD and 166 mhz processor, CD-Rom and Floppy drive.

baldude August 1st, 2008 a 11:01 am

My First computer was an assembled peace. it had a processor of Pentium II 466MHz with a Hard drive of 8.2GB and 64MB Ram. It also had a CD player with a floppy drive. Although i whine about its size now, it was not a problem to handle its size then. Now my mobile phone has a 8GB memory in it. And now present mobile handles all the functionality of my then first computer.

fiorellino August 1st, 2008 a 10:56 am

My firts computer was the Commodore 64 MS/DOS... sorry but I cannot remember the specs, but I can tell you the monitor was small and heavy horrible graphic but was fun....;)

SimonClegg August 1st, 2008 a 10:53 am

Amstrad CPC 6128, 3" Double Sided floppy discs, Oh the joys.

tarbuck August 1st, 2008 a 10:53 am

My first computer was the much beloved Atari 2600............. oh the days i wasted endless amounts of time playing the much adored PACMAN!! and Space Invaders. I loved the fact that i plugged in my cartridge and there it was my game... It was the best!!!!! lol havn't we come along way!!

davemyers77 August 1st, 2008 a 10:53 am

My first computer was the good old C64 with a tape drive, mouse and eventually a 5 1/4 floppy drive. The mouse and disk drive weren't actually that useful but they looked great in adverts!!

My first PC was a Pentium II 266 with 64MB RAM, a 3.2GB HDD, a soundblaster AWE64 sound card and an ATI Rage Pro graphics card.

stinton August 1st, 2008 a 10:51 am

A commodore 16 plus 4, first PC was a 386 with 5 megs of Ram and a 120 meg HD. Phones have more now!

gadge August 1st, 2008 a 10:50 am

First computer was a christmas present for my son, good old commy 64. Keyboard worn out well before Xmas as i got the bug big time....anyone remember Blues Brothers? 1st complete game I ever finished in under an hour!!! Happy daze....

liudun98 August 1st, 2008 a 10:46 am

I self-assembled my first PC about nine years ago with AMD Duron 1.6GHz, 128M SDRAM, 20GB harddrive and MSI morther board. It had been running nicely for 5 years, without any problem. :)

exclusivezia21 August 1st, 2008 a 10:44 am

My 1st computer was a dell laptop. Specs of my laptop are 512mb ram, 60 gig hard drive, dvd player, 15' inches screen, wireless internet. this one was a good laptop during those days. planning to buy a new one in coming days. hope i win this laptop so i dont have to buy new laptop ;-) . pray for best.....

benjo132 August 1st, 2008 a 10:41 am

My first computer was an Amiga 500. It didnt even come with 1Mb of RAM so we had to purchase an upgrade to 1Mb after a while. I just looked at a laptop on Dell with 4096Mb!

garethmcclean August 1st, 2008 a 10:40 am

commodore 64 for me too!! 10 min later and the games still hadn't loaded. those were the days!

flashash333 August 1st, 2008 a 10:34 am

Played on my dads zx spectrum 48k with funky rubber keys.
My first was a BBC 'B'- hours of fun listening to screeching to play 2 mins of a game before it crashed.

justinlaur79 August 1st, 2008 a 10:29 am

My first computer was a commodore 64...great bit of kit and I used to sit there for hours copying code from the manual, just to make a white dot bounce around the screen....I was only about 7 at the time though!!

MAR August 1st, 2008 a 10:28 am

My fisrt PC was a home made built one i purchased for £500, it was Windows 98 NT4, 366mhz processor, it was very poor, it took a lifetime to load up and another lifetime to open any applications it died after 6 months.

KINGSRANSOM August 1st, 2008 a 10:25 am

I had a cheap BBC Acorn Electron whgich took a cartridge as its operating system and 3.4 in diskettes - I still have the computer and the add-on 3.5" drive plus tape recorder and all the leads and monitor I used for it.

sonalguy August 1st, 2008 a 10:22 am

My first computer was a BBC Acorn - I'll never forget the hours I spent loading up games from a tape recorder!

walesalex August 1st, 2008 a 10:16 am

Windows 98, 6gb HDD, 32mb RAM, 166mhz processor, CD-Rom and Floppy Drive. I don't remember anything else about it sorry. :(

gwendes August 1st, 2008 a 10:09 am

First computer was a BBC Model B - 1Mhz! First PC was an overclocked 60Mhz Pentium running at 90Mhz! 8MB RAM and a 500MB hard drive :)

thereheis August 1st, 2008 a 10:09 am

My first computer was a Spectrum+ which had been upgraded from the rubber keys. My first PC was a self built 486DX266, double speed CD-ROM, 8mb of RAM and a 340MB hard drive. It was the first PC anyone had that could run Doom in maximum graphics setting at 30+fps!

2lap August 1st, 2008 a 10:08 am

My first computer was a Dragon 32! The programs loaded with tapes, but I remember this taking hours and being a bit dodgy. Some programmes would take three or four attempts to get working.

Legend!

raldon August 1st, 2008 a 10:07 am

My first PC was a Commodore Vic 20, back around 1981! Beautiful piece of equipment - state of the art with its 16 colours, 176 X 184 screen resolution (lower than many mobile phones these days!), and 5k of RAM. I was four, and my dad plonked me in front of it and let me tinker away with those blocky TV graphics and the screaming cassette player. Must have done me good, those early years - turned me into a right geek, and twenty-seven years later I'm working as a programmer! Thanks dad! ;o)

Anyone remember Bomber?

wilson August 1st, 2008 a 10:06 am

bbc b - with tape deck :(

avengerpenguins August 1st, 2008 a 10:05 am

My first computer was a Spectrum 48K - the one in the glamorous case with spave to house the cassette player!

Did anyone ever complete the Lord of the Rings game I wonder

Griflock August 1st, 2008 a 10:04 am

My first computer was a Dragon 32!!

32k of raw Welsh computing power, mined directly from the hills above Port Talbot (the Afan Valley never really did challenge Silicone Valley for world domination).

With this bad-boy I learnt the joys of meticulously typing out programmes letter by letter only to realise after 3 days of typing that a hyphen and under-score are two different keys! I just thought they werenât lined up correctly in the book.

One of the few games I did type in correctly was a horse racing game, very simple game and it literally provided minutes of fun for all the family once my toiling on the keyboard was complete. I was even, very briefly, allowed to plug my Dragon into the familyâs âbig tellyâ so we could enjoy the action in glorious technicolour, as opposed to the dial tuned B&W portable TV I was generally relegated to.

Happy days!!

splang August 1st, 2008 a 10:03 am

My first computer was a Spectrum 16k of memory and a tape drive! Lol! Remember waiting ages for games to load neehh naaah neeeh brrrttt neeegg haagg then, typically after 20 minutes.. ERROR!

Lol! Then the heady days of the Rubber keys 48k then vic 20 commodore 64k then the supreme amiga!!

Wow, a real retro journey this morning- thanks QUIDCO!

mhairistott August 1st, 2008 a 10:02 am

My first computer was a zx spectrum 48k. I loved that computer! we used to create programs on it - ah the fun me and my brother had!

jakaraka August 1st, 2008 a 10:02 am

My first pc was back in 1995! It was an Amstrad 386 with a Sega Megadrive... wait for it... BUILT IN!!!

25mhz 386 processor
1mb of RAM
40mb hard disk
Ad-lib sound
SVGA graphics
Windows 3.11 as standard... I remember fiddling with MS Dos aged 11!!!

soniad August 1st, 2008 a 10:00 am

My fisrt - ahh i remember it well - it was a Commodore 64.

mbull August 1st, 2008 a 10:00 am

My First Computer was a DRAGON 32 Home Computer.

My mum worked and saved up for it so we could have it for XMAS, i am guessing it worked, as i work in IT now, and im 34 Yrs Old. Back in the 80's this was.

Processor - Motorola 6809
Speed - .9 MHz
RAM - 32K
Storage - Cassette Tape
Expansion - Cartridge Slot
Video Several resolutions to 256x192
I/O Parallel, Serial
OS - Options Flex and OS-9 (Level I) as well as Forth as an OS and language

I wish i still had it now, be worth a few bob.. Chucky Egg here we come lol

ironmongem August 1st, 2008 a 09:59 am

Mine was a ZX81, wonderful graphics!

nickgf August 1st, 2008 a 09:58 am

My first proper Windows computer was a Pentium 200mhz machine with MMX costing around 2000 pounds.
I believe it had a 2MB graphics card and 4 gigabyte hard drive with CD-ROM.
Happy times!

7norfolk August 1st, 2008 a 09:57 am

IBM XT, 4.77Mhz, 640MB RAM and a 40MB (yes MB!!) hard disk!!!

MKennard August 1st, 2008 a 09:56 am

My first computer was a BBC Model B, I remember spending hours with my Dad typing in lines and lines of code copied out of a computer magazines to create our own games. Then you would find you had missed or screwed up one character, and it wouldn't run!

Happy days.

savage443 August 1st, 2008 a 09:49 am

The first computer we had was an Amiga 500+ with the Bart Simpson game. Could not get past the first hurdle in that game. Captain Planet was good though and we did manage to progress in that one.
I paid £20 for an extra 1mg of memory! Compare that to todays prices!!

LaChavvy August 1st, 2008 a 09:46 am

My first own PC was one that I built just recently, the first one I ever used I can't remember.

Soooo... it was:

amd 64 3700+
1 GB ram
6800 GT

Clearly one of the younger members of quidco by looking at the other posts :O

Devilish6 August 1st, 2008 a 09:46 am

My first one was the Apple Macintosh Model: M0001. It was the all in one with the tiny screen and floppy drive (the only memory you had!). I seem to remember someone selling these when they became obsolete as goldfish bowls!

zmm01 August 1st, 2008 a 09:45 am

The first computer we had at home was my dad's Dragon 32 (Processor Motorola 6809, Speed .9 MHz, RAM 32K).
Unfortunately one night I was playing it in bed (donkey kong - ace game) and it over heated and died on the duvet. Don't think my dad has ever forgiven me.

purpedelly August 1st, 2008 a 09:44 am

Oh wow - the memories. My first computer was the "all new colour" Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I loved that computer; the screeching of the tape machine as it loaded games and programmes, the funky weeeny rubber keyboard where you had to press function and ctrl keys to get all the commands to work. It was my first go at programming and I made my own Ceefax pages for my family! I also made a clock with a mouse that ran up and down. But the best game ever (which I still search for 25 years on) is the Hobbit game. That game had none of the fancy graphics and cool moves of the Wii games but it was so fantastically clever and I loved it! 16 kb of memory and 3.5mhz speed - imagine that!! It didn't do Word Processing that's for sure!
I'm quite sure that computer is what fired my enthusiasm for all things computing (I'm a Head of ICT now!!).
Loving this blog - what a great idea!

Matt0649 August 1st, 2008 a 09:44 am

First computer was a good old c64, aint tapes great? After that it was an amiga 600, first "real" computer was a escom p100 with 8mb of ram.. bought a few days before they went bust too! doh.

Slimboyfat August 1st, 2008 a 09:42 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16KB - with a nice tape player to load the software...those were the days! Then went on to have a ZX Spectrum 128, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga 500, Commodore Amiga 600, Commodore Amiga 1200, then on to the 486 PC's...feels like a very long time ago!

od207 August 1st, 2008 a 09:41 am

My first computer was Spectrum 100 with 64k of Ram - it was installed in my school computer class

lfsp August 1st, 2008 a 09:40 am

Sinclair 16K + cassete conected to a b&w tv!

Good old times! ;-)

eaglesrest August 1st, 2008 a 09:33 am

Sinclair zx80 with ram pack. It came with the exclusive ram pack 'wobble' ;)

jezcooke August 1st, 2008 a 09:30 am

First computer was Acorn Electron - ahh 'happy' memories of waiting ages for the game to load before the fateful 'rewind tape' error message (rewinding the tape never actually helped!).

First PC was a Pentium 75MHz, 4Mb of RAM and 1Gb Harddisk - cost over a thousand pounds and took an entire summer holidays working in a cafe at 2 pound something an hour to save up for the thing!

mjheseltine August 1st, 2008 a 09:27 am

We supported Alan Sugar with an Amstrad with funny little floppy discs.

sambam August 1st, 2008 a 09:24 am

My first desktop computer package was a Packard Bell 300 mhz celeron processor with 48mb Ram... sooo slow... It had/has Windows 98 first edition and I'm still using it now so thats why I'm here I NEED A NEW ONE! :)

Frostygills August 1st, 2008 a 09:21 am

A ZX81, did they even have spec's back then?

BeeUL August 1st, 2008 a 09:20 am

Mine was a huge thing my mum brought me home from work, it had 5 1/4 inch floppy bays and you could play prince of persia on it....in 16 colours!!!!!
DOn't know the exact spec...it was that old I think it was steam powered!

denash August 1st, 2008 a 09:19 am

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. My mobile has 10x as much power than that now.

thevchip August 1st, 2008 a 09:18 am

Ah.... memories. My first (well my dad's first which I used more) was very very basic. I can't remember what it was called but it was just a box with 2 dials each of which controlled a paddle to play pong with. Hours of black and white ball bouncing fun!!

milo12 August 1st, 2008 a 09:14 am

My first computer was a Commodore 64 - we used to use the BBC computers at primary school

cookie666 August 1st, 2008 a 09:09 am

My first home computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 16k it kept on breaking so they changed it for the 48k for free and I think we bought it from Boots!

First desktop PC was a 486DX40 them were the days.

sw3286 August 1st, 2008 a 09:07 am

BBC Model B. So long ago now I can't remember how much RAM, probably 8K. Ahhh...loading from tape...those were the days.

I still have it in a cupboard...couldn't bear to chuck away such an important part of my childhood!...not only that but perhaps I wouldn't have got a career in IT/Telecoms if it weren't for my Dad buying me that machine at the age of 10.

I wonder if the National Museum of Computing would be interested :-)

Regards
Steve

blueaston August 1st, 2008 a 09:00 am

My first computer was a Vic 20 (made between 1980 and 1984). It was an 8-bit computer and one of the first available to home users. Clock speed was 1.022MHz - compare that with today's offerings! It came with 3.5KB of available RAM but we also had an 8MB expansion card - woohoo! There was no floppy drive so software had to be loaded on cassettes or cartridges. It also two joystick ports, composite video output and serial bus connector for a printer or other peripherals.

I learned BASIC code on this and was able to program some simple games and other programs but it was so frustrating. Just a single semicolon or bracket in the wrong place would cause the whole program to fail, so you had to really pay attention to every detail. As well as these common 'syntax errors', another error that it used to throw up frequently, and which crashed and ruined your whole program by freezing the machine, was the dreaded âOut of Memoryâ error! Drove me nuts did that one!

jimbowyer August 1st, 2008 a 08:56 am

My first computer was a Spectrum ZX81- nothing by today's standards but I had hours of fun with it- loading games by tape! Those were the days!

Rankin66 August 1st, 2008 a 08:45 am

Yes it was a ZX Spectrum 16k 3.54 MHz Zilog , Would like to say I am still using it but alas had at least 6 since then or is it 7?

Rankin66 August 1st, 2008 a 08:45 am

Yes it was a ZX Spectrum 16k 3.54 MHz Zilog , Would like to say I am still using it but alas had at least 6 since then or is it 7?

stevehems August 1st, 2008 a 08:38 am

My first computer was an Oric 16. I then upgraded to an Oric Atmos which had 64K of memory.

My first PC was an Elonex XT which had a clock speed of 4.77 MHz but had a turbo button that would double the speed to a whopping 10Mhz. It had a 40mb MFM hard drive and, luxury of luxury, a colour VGA monitor.

I used to turn it on and then go and make a leisurely cup of tea and it would be just about finished booting up once I had got back to my room.
I got it on a student deal and it cost just over £1000. I couldn't afford the extra to get the 286 machine that was just released.

What's really amazing is that it was only 1991, my how things have progressed.

asidhu August 1st, 2008 a 08:35 am

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. You connected it to your tv, saved programs/loaded them from a cassette via a cassette player!

bennett739 August 1st, 2008 a 08:30 am

my 1st computer was a zx81 with 4 k ram . the 1st pc I had was a 286 with 8mb memory and used sipps . and a 20mb harddrive . Some times i miss dos , then i wake up

Waxlion August 1st, 2008 a 08:27 am

My first computer was a BBC micro that you connected up to the tv and you had to load programs using a dodgy cassette player.

andrew63 August 1st, 2008 a 08:27 am

My first own personal pc was a hp that seems great at the time oh how things change it was so slow in comparison

goxlade August 1st, 2008 a 08:20 am

My first computer was a Spectrum ZX 16k with tape purchased from Dixons I think it was!

Chong August 1st, 2008 a 08:14 am

My first computer was a Commodore Pet.

millysales August 1st, 2008 a 08:08 am

first computer zx81 - thought it was the coolest thing i had ever seen! 1kb or so...!

onesexylady August 1st, 2008 a 08:00 am

My first computer was bought in 1982 a Spectrum ZX81. If I remember correctly I think it cost something like £186.00, either that or just the £86.00, I just remember that figure.

Specs were:
CPU Zilog Z80A 3.5 MHz
16 KB ROM
16 KB RAM

I remember spending hours typing in crappy programs from computer magazines that ended up not even working! One of my favorite games played on this was 'Manic Minor' if anyone can remember that :) OMG I feel so old.

This was really the beginning of the computer boom, it was exiting but who could have guessed what it would be like now 25 years on! It's kind of scary in a way

olibill August 1st, 2008 a 07:59 am

My first computer was an Amstrad, running at a massive 8Mhz, with a 30 Mb hard disk!

footix2 August 1st, 2008 a 07:56 am

First computer I had was a Spectrum 128k +2. 128k of RAM seemed so much back in those days.

ddavis August 1st, 2008 a 07:56 am

First PC I had was an Amstrad. Used to love playing robocop on that :)

dhh August 1st, 2008 a 07:30 am

The first computer my family had was a Commodore64. Don't know what the specs were, just remembered it had a tape player to load the games. As long as I could play 'Bards Tale' (a role playing game), I was happy.

The first PC that I owned myself was one that my boyfriend built from left over bits from his old computer. It had a Pentium 120Mhz processor - woo! Fast as lightening - erm, no actually... ;)

lulu61 August 1st, 2008 a 07:16 am

Our first computer was a Packard Bell 9029, it cost a massive £999 in Dec 1997. It had very poor memory space, and needed extra memory and video card in order to play games.

jumapech August 1st, 2008 a 07:13 am

My first computer I had or rather the one that I first bought-(the children had to first learn how to use it and then show me!) was a BBC Acorn. I never really ever got to grips with it!
I am still on a big leaning curve with the one i've got now.

jaynpatel August 1st, 2008 a 05:49 am

The first computer I had was a Sinclair ZX81. I used it to play chess. My dad found out banned from using it as I said I was using it to help me with my homework. Many years later I found out that my sister had told him!. C'est la vie.

Hulligan August 1st, 2008 a 05:25 am

The first computer i had was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

3.5 Mhz CPU
16KB ROM
16 KB RAM

abc456 August 1st, 2008 a 04:00 am

My first comp was a Commodore 64! I have no idea what the specs were, but it's amazing how computers caught on!

cdavies9 August 1st, 2008 a 03:57 am

Mine was an acorn electron, with a tape player!!
first pc was:
700mhz athlon
128mb sd ram
64mb tnt2 agp graphics card
ecs mainboard
soundblaster 16 pci

dee2211 August 1st, 2008 a 03:53 am

My first ever computer would have been the Spectrum +3. 128k B-)

Then I moved on to a 286 with an 8Mhz processor, 1MB RAM, 40MB HDD and wait for it, a colour graphics card! Apparently, it cost my a small fortune though, (£1800 if i remember correctly!). I still have it somewhere I think, somewhere in my electronics graveyard.

Eventually upgraded that to a 386, with a 32Mhz processor, 8MB RAM, and windows 3.11. Next upgrade was to a 486, and then one of those 150Mhz 486 based upgrade chips you could get, that were about £200. Ahhhh, that was the first machine I used to play around with MP3's.

Next upgrade was to a Pentium 90Mhz, which I overclocked to get some extra juice. Was running Windows 95 by this point. At the time I remember thinking PC's must have pretty much become as good as they could possibly be, without becoming the self-aware holographic things you seen in the Sci-Fi films.

Next major upgrade was to a Pentium 3 500Mhz. Which also had a DVD drive, which was a major thing at that time.

Since then, I've moved up to an Athlon XP 2100. Upgraded various other components in the computer, and that's where I am at the moment. Too afraid to try vista yet though, I'm starting to resist change in my old age! (Well, mid-twenties).

My next foray into the computer world is going to be one of those fancy Dell Inspiron 1525 laptops... (Think positive, eh?)

Paul9803773 August 1st, 2008 a 03:06 am

MY first computer was technically a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 - although it was really just for games. I had to wait a further 12 years for an IBM compatible machine. It was a Pentium II 400 Daewoo with a staggering 64MB ram and a 3DFX Voodoo 2 graphics card running Windows 95 OSR2.

calred2 August 1st, 2008 a 02:32 am

My first pc was a Sinclair ZX-81 which I hasten to add was dire. This was quickly superseded by the Sincair Spectrum which really set us all on the road to where we are today with home pc's. I can remember spending lots of money on a micro drive for the Spectrum but it just never took off so it was money wasted, having said that I think the micro drive is up my loft somewhere so maybe be able to recoup some of my cash on Ebay one day.
Just lucky the Sinclair C5 bike did not take off or who knows what we might have been driving about in, having said that I guess his foresight for electric/battery drive was years ahead of anyone else, again if developed properly we might not be having to pay horrendous fuel prices like we are these days!!!!

MrSoft August 1st, 2008 a 02:20 am

When I was a kid my dad got an Amstrad CPC 464 with a monochrome monitor and 64K of RAM. Happy times trying to load Space Harrier, Gauntlet and Joe Blade, "read error b", those were the days!

jerrymartin August 1st, 2008 a 12:53 am

In the mid eighties only a young lad, I sold my toys and saved up for my first computer/games console the Spectrum 48K with the rubber keys and a cassette player to load games. They were the days!!!!!!!!!!

tissir1 August 1st, 2008 a 12:49 am

lol dear members..
mine was a laptop Dell Latitude C400 and now with another 2 months old Dell XPS M1330.

DG2359 August 1st, 2008 a 12:37 am

Ohhh...so nostalgic!
My first computer was a BBC Micro that cost £429.99 on 12 months interest free credit! - a small fortune then. The cassette loading took ages and regularly failed ( some of you will remember that..)

We're in a "different place" now though..

badangel August 1st, 2008 a 12:22 am

my first computer was an Acer Aspire Pentium 133MHz with 16mb of ram and 1gb hard drive by seagate.
it had a cd rom and a 28k modem too. integrated sound and floppy. it ran windows 95.

and to think that now i am addicted to my 6gb of ram :P

antonis

Butchertom August 1st, 2008 a 12:17 am

Long time ago but it has got to be the very colourful Amstrad 64k version with the tape machine sitting in the keyboard. Alan Sugar - you're a genius!

greenfrog August 1st, 2008 a 12:11 am

My first computer was an Amiga 1200, then I had to downgrade to a Windows Pentium 45 PC 1Gb disk, 256 Mb RAM

soopdragon14 August 1st, 2008 a 12:02 am

My first computer was a Time machine! In the first week the hard drive went :-( It was the worse purchase I have ever made but I have learnt my lesson and now have a Dell Vostro 1000 laptop which I love!

tsukasai July 31st, 2008 a 11:58 pm

My first computer was intel 266mhz (if I'm right) with 16mb of ram, ran windows 95 struggling with start-up programs. I remember playing Doom and how amazed I was with their graphic.

jleang July 31st, 2008 a 11:56 pm

TI-99/4 ... no idea what the specs were...

then first PC was an IBM XT... cant remember the specs...

GORDY1 July 31st, 2008 a 11:54 pm

My first computer was the gray thing in my skull.
Its old and tired now and needs an upgrade.

asterix2000 July 31st, 2008 a 11:54 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64 with a cassette recorder!

monkey2939 July 31st, 2008 a 11:52 pm

My first PC was from asda, thats about all i can remember about it.

bigjimlad July 31st, 2008 a 11:51 pm

**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****
64K RAM SYSTEM 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

A classic. Plugged into the back of a wooden TV the size of Belgium, with a Quickshot II joystick.

Hours of fun (and many's a bruise) to be had watching my older brother wait for it to load. Then as soon as he'd started his first game, reset it and sprint.

vsabanathan July 31st, 2008 a 11:49 pm

My first computer was IBM Aptiva, a machine I adored for a long time until it was made useless by virus attack.
Novice 21

khorrumqkhan July 31st, 2008 a 11:48 pm

I had a commodore 64. Had to wait ages for the games to load and most of the time the bit where you had to press the spacebar never appeared on screen and the tape would end with no game to play.

indyjo July 31st, 2008 a 11:43 pm

Heck, the first one I ever used was my Dad's, a Sinclair ZX81. I was the the most popular kid in the playground for a while as I had access to 'cool' games that didn't evolve using a pen & paper or setting up the Cascade!

I actually still have my 'own' first one, it's lying unloved in it's original box under the bed!

It was the first comp I bought with my own hard saved money & was an Amstrad NC100!
£111 it cost fromTandy, back in the very early '90s I believe.

64k of RAM, it says here on the box! It was a great starter notebook & made me feel like a high powered business woman when I was writing & printing stuff off... even though I was anything but at the time.. or now actually *redface* :D

thebutty July 31st, 2008 a 11:41 pm

mine was a packard bell, 850 celeron processor, 128mb ram, 20gb hd, it probably had the worst o/s ever in millenium edition, what were they thinking! Alot of my friends used to have spectrums back in the day, for some reason they never impressed me one bit probably because they did'nt know what to do with them other than turn them on. So, they had spectrums, i had a football!

everest54321 July 31st, 2008 a 11:29 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 16K

simbak2k July 31st, 2008 a 11:28 pm

My first proper pc was a 486, a tiny hard drive, ran windows 3.1 as 95 wouldn't run, but a fairly decent hard drive for the time.

iwantmorecash1 July 31st, 2008 a 11:27 pm

Sinclare spectrum 48k rubber key thing with a cassete recorder :)

slimfoxxxy July 31st, 2008 a 11:20 pm

******MY FIRST COMPUTER*****

gosh she was oh so pretty in blue and white
i did nay care that she was second hand
you never forget your first love
mine was a power macintosh G3!!

heres the deal... i've promised my son his own laptop as a reward for an outstanding school report. his name is luke, he is 9 years old. he really wants a PC because a lot of the kids games do not run on macs. the Inspiron 1525 would be JUST PERFECT. it would make a little boy very happy indeed!

muchios gracious
obrigado
good onya mate

gcthompson July 31st, 2008 a 11:10 pm

My first computer was a Amstrad Word Processor PCW512 with 512Kb of RAM. It ran basic wordprocessing software and logo.

Rock'n'roll :)

zanderman1985 July 31st, 2008 a 11:00 pm

My first computer, was bought 2 years ago because I was doing a Computing degree and I needed it for my course. Nothing special, bought it for £700, its actually a 14.1 inch notebook, but I love it and still use it today to play PS1 games on it, The final fantasy series rocks! and I also learned my programming skills on it, like the guys above me.

I have a HP dv2224ea with a 1.67gh core duo 1 CPU, with 1 gig of RAM (updated to 2), a western 120gig HDD, nVidia GeForce Go 7200 with 32mb dedicated memory and thats about it.

I love it for testing games that are way outside its specs, thats how I found out that Devil May Cry 3 works fantastic on it, really weird...but brilliant. Fantastic little workhorse.

Filscat July 31st, 2008 a 10:58 pm

First Computer I bought was an Amiga 500+
I've still got it
Then I bought an Amiga 1200 with a huge 20mB hard Drive, by the time I bought a Pentium PC the Amiga had 2 external hard drives and 2 CD Rom drives connected to it !

unterwasser July 31st, 2008 a 10:53 pm

My first computer was bought in 2001, 40gb hd, 1.2ghz amd processor, 5.1 soundcard, 17" crt monitor and heavens to betsy a dvd rom. Cost me best part of a grand. Still in regular use, though it has been tweaked and added to in the seven years since getting it.

merryali July 31st, 2008 a 10:39 pm

You lot don't know you were born!

I saved up for months to get £70 for my first computer:
It was Sinclair ZX81, complete with a 1kbyte of memory, no disks (used audio tape), no screen (used the TV for B/W picture). Later upgrade to a massive 3.5kbyte with the dreaded wobbly RAMpack. Certainly made these modern laptops look big!

Still taught me everything I know about programming!

Heseltine July 31st, 2008 a 10:34 pm

Just like my first mobile phone, my first computer had a green screen! It was an Amstrad PCW8256 with 256 kilobytes of RAM, running at 4MHz with no hard disk but a fancy 3-inch single-sided floppy drive. Taught myself BASIC programming on it!!

adamfernie July 31st, 2008 a 10:29 pm

Binatone TV Master Mk6 from around 1977. It had a few sports game that were actually all the same thing. Pong Style basketball, tennis etc etc. Hours and Hours of fun with crazy, extremely hard to control joysticks. Wish I'd kept it :(

troytea July 31st, 2008 a 10:28 pm

Commodore 64, I thought the games were brilliant. I remember the Winter Olympics game and trying to get my speed skater to go faster, them were the days

saggerson July 31st, 2008 a 10:27 pm

ahhh....a 386 with a 20GB HD, 1MB RAM, DOS 5 and the mighty Gorillas game running on Qbasic. Runing memmaker to load TSR's into high memory...good old doskey and scandisk witha bit of defrag thrown in...how we amused ourselves before t'interweb...

MelkorTheMorgoth July 31st, 2008 a 10:26 pm

ZX Spectrum 48K!

spigy1 July 31st, 2008 a 10:25 pm

my first computer was a spectrum 48k+ and the first ever game i played on it was duck hunt ... it should of been horace goes skiing but it wouldn't load !!!! great fun though as i would go and make a cup of tea while games were loading

zootle July 31st, 2008 a 10:23 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 48k. I've still got it in the loft!

mikeiow July 31st, 2008 a 10:20 pm

Sinclair ZX80 with the go-faster stripes and wobbly 16KB RAM pack. Press and hold about 5 membrane "keys" in order to type "GOTO": fabulous !!
led to a career in IT.....

njsb14 July 31st, 2008 a 10:12 pm

Mine was a ZX81, you could buy it ready made or in kit form, we didn't have much money so dad bought it for christmas in kit form, soldered all the pieces together and it didn't work. Had option to send it off to get it fixed. The cost of build your own, then send off to get fixed was dearer than buying ready made ZX81, so dad was deflated. But received a new ready made one back with refund of fix fee as they admitted the original components were faulty, so dad ended up happy.

IndieSinger July 31st, 2008 a 10:10 pm

Coincidentally, it was Dell which got me into Quidco. We spent £500 on a brand new Inspiron⦠and THEN someone told me we could have got it through Quidco and got cashback. Curses!

The first computer I owned was an Amstrad CPC464 64K - with a GREEN SCREEN! 64K is nothing, these days. The other day I bought a 2 gigabyte MicroSD card for £3!

Days passed as I wrote my own laborious programmes, including the classic:

10 CLS
20 PRINT, "Ben is cool"
30 GOTO 10

Games I remember include Jet Set Willy, Chuckie Egg, Roland on the Ropes, Paper Boy and Harrier Attack (all on cassettes). In fact, I remember trying for - quite literally - YEARS to complete Jet Set Willy and I never did. Iâve since learned that it was actually impossible to complete due to a bug in the software⦠truly a waste of my childhood years!

Or was it? We can mock these games for their basic, blocky graphics, extraordinarily low memory, dubious plots and agonising loading times but what was one of the first things I did when I got my brand new Dell Inspiron with 3GB of RAM, Core2 Duo 2.20GHz processor and 250GB of storage? Why, I downloaded an Amstrad emulator and Jet Set Willy, of course!

mogs690 July 31st, 2008 a 10:08 pm

My first ever pc was a shitty second hand Commodore VIC-20, which played games through a tape player, it was the best thing i ever saw when i was 7 h aha

hectork July 31st, 2008 a 10:06 pm

My first was a Commodore VIC-20 but I couldn't afford the tape recorder until six months after buying the computer so I had spend ages typing in programmes from listings in magazines if I wanted to play anygames on it (other than the space invaders cartridge that came with the machine).

Specs were 3.5kb of memory, 16 colour display, Commodore BASIC language built into the ROM

Woody1979 July 31st, 2008 a 10:01 pm

Amstrad...very slow!

mac71 July 31st, 2008 a 09:56 pm

My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20

CPU: MOS 6502, 1MHz
RAM: 5K (3.5K for the user)
Display: 22 X 23 text, 176 X 184, 16 colors max
Ports: composite video, joystick, cartridge, user port, serial peripheral port
Peripherals: cassette recorder, printer, modem, external floppy drive
OS: ROM BASIC

marshy July 31st, 2008 a 09:51 pm

My first computer was an Atari 65XE, 1.79MHz CPU, 64K RAM and a trusty old cassette drive!

I basically taught myself how to program and spent HOURS saving my creations to tape, not always with success - but I never gave up and I now have a very enjoyable career in IT!

GaryDalby July 31st, 2008 a 09:49 pm

The first game console I can remember having was one of those Binatone Pong games. Black and white, 2 paddles, one sqaure dot bouncing across the screen and hours of fun.
My first introduction to a computer was at college around 1980/81 when I used a Commodore Pet and about the same time a friend showed me his NASCOM2 that he had part built himself. I think that's when I got the computing bug as it was the same time as the ZX80 shortly followed by the ZX81 came out for general sale. They weren't enough for me so I bought a Tandy TRS-80 with an upgrade to 16K. For 1980 this was an amazing machine as it was designed for business users. I learn't a lot with that machine but sold it a few years later to invest in a Commodore 64 ........... and many more machines have followed.
First computer virus was on an Amiga 500 (very nice machine).
First windows based PC was a 486 DX2/66 with a whopping great big 250Mb (yes Mb) hard drive. I also remember the CD-ROM cost an extra £245 eek!

neilsmithies July 31st, 2008 a 09:47 pm

Original rubber keyed ZX Spectrum, running a 3.5 Mhz Zilog Z80A CPU and 16 kilobytes of memory.

10 CLS
20 Print "Hello"
30 Goto 20

Those were the days!

fred1234 July 31st, 2008 a 09:45 pm

my first computer was a 486! cant really remember the specifications but i remember it being very slow!

asterion July 31st, 2008 a 09:43 pm

First PC was a 486DX at the amazing clock speed of 75MHz!

chrischadwick July 31st, 2008 a 09:41 pm

First PC was a Packard Bell in about 95/96. Very slow and not much memory but it did come with 'Swiv 3D' pre-loaded on it. To this day it is still my favourite PC game of all time. Unfortunately it won't work in XP.

themuffin July 31st, 2008 a 09:40 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64 too. Argh, the frustration of waiting for the tape to load the games!

nuttywoman22 July 31st, 2008 a 09:36 pm

My first computer was a Commordore 64 and thought it was the `bees knees ` i used to type away on it - really slowly lol, but did`nt have a printer so could`nt save anything, don`t think so anyway cos i never learnt that much about it.Must have been a bit frightened of it.
I remember playing games on it as well.
Ahh! happy days !

mattslack July 31st, 2008 a 09:33 pm

Ahh. This take me back. All my friends were making music on ATARI ST's or doing odd things with turtles on the BBC micro. I, on the other hand, had the 2nd best computer ever made wales: the Dragon 32 (the best being the Dragon 64).
There was no beginning to the things I could do with that computer....

johncrowther July 31st, 2008 a 09:31 pm

Not counting the BBC Master that my dad brought home from school in the holidays (as it wasn't mine - I just wished it was)...
My first owned by the family was a Pentium 486DX, 33Mhz, 4MB RAM with a whopping 300MB HDD. How anyone could ever need that much storage I don't know. Windows 3.11. Wow.

We got it from that large high street PC retailer for an extortionate price - a 12 year old trying to convince parents that it too expensive and that a free BubbleJet printer doesn't make up for it - doesn't always work.

I even wrote a frustrated poem about it on my bedroom wall because my mum wouldn't let us set it up out of the box for about 10days - "it was hers" - my teenage computer needs were being stopped. I soon got Doom on there and got my time's worth though!

RebeccaHamilton July 31st, 2008 a 09:28 pm

Heh! I had a BBC B and each month I would painstakingly type out one of the game programmes that were in the computer magazine we got (my parents were too cheap to pay the pennies for the tape of said games). Each month the game would not work. But I never learned...

DesKeegan July 31st, 2008 a 09:27 pm

zx spectrum the one with rubber keys..

andrewawolfe July 31st, 2008 a 09:25 pm

First I used was the Commodore Pet that my dad brought home from work.
First we owned was a BBCB (I guess that was my dad's as well)
First I bought was an unbranded 286 that my brother and I went halfs on from a small place in Southall

crazyniz July 31st, 2008 a 09:25 pm

It was a zx spectrum 128k. When we used to load up games there was the black screen in the middle with horizontal lines that ran around it. I still remember that when the lines went red/black to much there would be a problem loading and we would have to start again ! Blue /yellow was the best combination. Memories . . . . .

Rosco212 July 31st, 2008 a 09:25 pm

First computer was a ZX 81........10 Print "Hello!!! " 20 Goto 10 Run

heathcardwell July 31st, 2008 a 09:24 pm

Only bought my first computer about 5 years ago from tiny and still got it. Was very high spec at the time and is still running fine.

Windows XP
pentium 4 CPU 300.GHz
1GB RAM
2x200 GB internal harddrives
dvd writer drive
Dvd rom drive

teckyiau July 31st, 2008 a 09:23 pm

My first pc was an Amstrad CPC 664 which takes a 3inch Amsoft disk.
It is suppose to have 64KB RAM as far as I can remember.
It has a colour monitor and a keyboard.

cat1999 July 31st, 2008 a 09:22 pm

My first PC was an ACORN BBC, I was quite young I couldn't care for programming in basic I just played Frogger - does anyone remember good old Frogger?!

jcoventry July 31st, 2008 a 09:21 pm

Hey my first computer was a Commodore 64! It was fantastic, and made horrid noises and horrible lines on screen when a game was loading. That's a true computer!

twocom July 31st, 2008 a 09:17 pm

It was a packard bell 286, those were the days.

hugosp July 31st, 2008 a 09:13 pm

The first computer I ever used was a ZX81 with 512bytes of memory lent to me by my next door neigbour in around 1981.

My school then got in some commodor pets and 64s. For the first time we had a computer room. At this time it was around 1982.

It was only in 1989 or thereabouts at the age of 22 or so that I owned my first computer. It was an Amstrad 2086 with 20mb hard drive and 14 inch SVGA monitor. This sported a 086 processor as well as a 3.5 double density (not HD) floppy drive and an external 5.25 inch floppy drive.

It ran DOS and Windows 2!

This seemed to have a small base unit IIRC. It cost me around £600. I also had a Citizen 24 dot matrix printer.

I then upgraded to a Compaq Deskpro 386 that my dad's company was getting rid of. This took me to the dizzy heights of Windows 3.1

I sold the 2086 to a student for around £70.

A few years later I got a Gateway Pentium 120 via a work assisted purchase scheme. I was now running Windows 95!

The 386 sold to a daughter of a colleague of mine for £70.

This paid for a modem for the Pentium and I went on the Internet!

Later this gave way to a Pentium II in the shape of a Compaq, plus a decent inkjet printer and scanner. I was now making strides with Windows 98. The older pentium became the children's games machine.

In 2002 I had an impulse buy and acquired a very reasonably priced 20GB HD Pentium 4 with a flat screen monitor running windows XP. Pentium II became the games machine and Pentium 1 went into the loft.

In 2004 we bought our first laptop. An Advent 7039 AMD Athalon also running XP, which lasted 3 years before PC world tried to fix it under their extended warranty - the rest is history.

In 2006 we acquired a Compaq Laptop also running XP that is used for the business.

In 2007 we managed to get one HP Pavilion that I am now using, and the Acer aspire both running vista with AMD Turion 64x2 processors.

igvod1886 July 31st, 2008 a 09:12 pm

Mine was one my Dad's old company was getting rid of... it was running Windows 3.11 and had about 8mb ram and a few hundred meg hd.... lastest me ages until i decided i wanted to know how a computer worked.... you guessed, i broke it! was gutted, learnt a valuable lesson tho.... when taking something to bits, note where the screws came from so you don't get left with a few 'spares' upon reassembly!

cricks July 31st, 2008 a 09:08 pm

My first computer was a sinclair zx spectrum, the sound of the games loading drove my mum mad !! We had a plastic cover for it which made the key pad bigger.

Cab00se July 31st, 2008 a 09:01 pm

First computer I used was a ZX81, that was my brothers - remember how we used to program in games that were written in the magazines. A stunning 1k ram, but we had the awesome 16k RAM pack. :)

First computer that was mine was an Amstrad CPC464.

My first PC was a P133, 16Mb Ram, 1Gb HDD, 2Mb Graphics. Cost something like £1300 :o

p101chap July 31st, 2008 a 08:57 pm

First console Atari 2600, First Computer (ish) Spectrum 128k, First Decent Computer (ish) Amiga 500, then the 1200! First PC 486dx2 66mhz! As I was a kid from a single dad family, I sold each unit, to fund and save up to purchase the next, So My current Dell 5150 & Inspiron 1501 have "recycled" karma from ancient technology!. (so there's still a little Atari,Amiga,Speccy in my house!)

sylvester July 31st, 2008 a 08:56 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum +3. With a £10 secondhand TV, a daisywheel printer with a serial interface, CP/M and a word processing program, it served me well for countless essays and a thesis.

ampm July 31st, 2008 a 08:55 pm

Not being that old, my first computer was HP Omnibook XE2. I bought from a retail shop on Tottenham Court Road - looking at around October 2000
Specs as follows:

PIII 600 MHz - 14.1" TFT
Processor Data bus speed 100 MHz Cache Memory
256 KB RAM
Width 12.2"
Depth 9.8"
Height 1.6"
Weight 6.8 lbs

By the way, I still have this machine with its hard drive partitioned to boot linux or windows.

zoe33 July 31st, 2008 a 08:54 pm

i can't remember what make it was but it was very basic with a small screen and you could only type about 10 lines of text. also the games came on a tape like a cassette player and took absolutely ages to load.

EMcG July 31st, 2008 a 08:48 pm

mine was a zx81 with a litter cute printer filled with silver paper. I was the envy of all my friends - until a mate got a ZX Spectrum and, once more, I was a nobody.

mabelthemini July 31st, 2008 a 08:46 pm

it was a spectrum or zx81 ypr thing ( i was 8 i cant quite remember! i do remeber , putting in the tape to laod-you could go out to play, come back in,have tea and the thing would still be making daft noises and loading. i was pretty good at chuckie egg though!

birdyboy July 31st, 2008 a 08:43 pm

First PC for me was Acorn computer - Chuckie Egg was the best!

johnwp July 31st, 2008 a 08:42 pm

Mine was the mighty Commodore VIC 20 which only got discarded when the power pack melted. I still have my commodore 64 and it is in it's original box, the plastic went a weird colour in ths sun though. I miss the joys of waiting ages for the tape to load and it failing just before the end so having to tweak the tape deck with a tiny screwdriver and try again.
JP

Dayus1986 July 31st, 2008 a 08:41 pm

I had a Tiny home pc, I remember it was 64 and 6.4 and i thought that it was wonderful when we had it in 1997. It was a good spec at the time as it had a DVD in it and they had only just come out.

angie2405 July 31st, 2008 a 08:41 pm

First computer was an Amiga 500 - bought for my children to play games on - oh how I loved playing Lemmings !!

Our first 'real' home pc was a Packard Bell [yuk!] bought from PC World about 1996 - it was a top of the range PC and was advertised as having a "MASSIVE" 1gb hard drive - for 'ONLY' £2k !!

July 31st, 2008 a 08:38 pm

I had an amstrad cpc 464 lol


TYPE Home Computer
ORIGIN United Kingdom
YEAR 1984
END OF PRODUCTION 1990
BUILT IN LANGUAGE Locomotive Basic
KEYBOARD QWERTY mechanical keyboard
Numeric keypad and edit block with arrow keys
CPU Zilog Z80
SPEED 4 MHz
RAM 64 kb (42kb left for user)
VRAM 16 kb
ROM 32 kb
TEXT MODES 20 x 25 with 16 colors
40 x 25 with 4 colors
80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES 160 x 200 with 16 colors
320 x 200 with 4 colors
640 x 200 with 2 colors
COLORS 27
SOUND 3 channels, 8 octaves
+1 noise channel
I/O PORTS Printer port
Bus port
1 Joystick plug (Atari standard)
Floppy Disc Port
DIN plug for Amstrad monitor
Headphone / Sound stereo jack output
BUILT IN MEDIA Tape Recorder (1000 or 2000 bauds)
OS AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY 5v DC (powered by an Amstrad monitor)

cardiffsheep July 31st, 2008 a 08:30 pm

It was an Oric 1.

And when you typed PING

it went

"PING!"

renminbi July 31st, 2008 a 08:28 pm

A ZX81 :-) . Added a 16k RAM pack (yes, 16K!) and got coding those few pages that would let me play a game. Put me off computers for years......

paul1664 July 31st, 2008 a 08:27 pm

Mine was a Sinclair ZX80 with 1Kb RAM. The screen used to blackout whenever it did any processing. Nice. Before that I used a Tandy TRS80 but never owned it. Also once owned 8 inch floppies - remember?

denali July 31st, 2008 a 08:26 pm

Packard bell with a built in monitor! not even a CD writer!!! 64meg RAM, cool>>>>>>

bridge1 July 31st, 2008 a 08:24 pm

My first computer was a cutting edge Sinclair ZX80 with a massive 1 kb of ram.

tiamai23 July 31st, 2008 a 08:17 pm

M first was a Packard Bell that my now darling husband bought me for my 21st birthday. Spec... uhm.... 64mb Ram and tiny hardrive, but it played sims 2 and that was all that mattered to me! I loved it. This one I have now is pants, and the DVD drive won't open and clicks non stop so I have to go get it fixed for when I start college.

MWhitefoot July 31st, 2008 a 08:16 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64, great waiting for the tapes to load up!!

Deanna1020 July 31st, 2008 a 08:07 pm

My first computer was a Commodore VIC 20
These were the specs
CPU: 6502A, 1.01 MHz
Memory: 3.5K RAM, 16K ROM; expandable to 64K RAM via cartridge port
Operating System: ROM BASIC
Input/Output: Cartridge Port; two joystick ports; composite video output; serial bus connector for floppy disk drive, printer, or other peripherals
Resolution: 76x184 max, 16 colors

akhmid July 31st, 2008 a 08:06 pm

commodore C16 (16K!) duplicate post cos i did 2 then 1 - duh!
(1) visit Dell through the Quidco link and then (2) write a comment below letting us know the specs of your first computer :)

chrisw680 July 31st, 2008 a 08:05 pm

My Frist PC with an Acer my dad Brought in or around 1998. It had a Pentium 2 Processor probley 200Mhz about 64MB Ram and about 4GB Harddrive. ofcource it had windows 95 and it was experience think it set my dad back and good £900.

akhmid July 31st, 2008 a 08:01 pm

commodore C16 (16K!)

LuSiVe July 31st, 2008 a 08:01 pm

My first computer was a ZX80 - thought my uncle was the bees knees when he got a ZX Spectrum and I could play 'Horace goes skiing'. First PC was a 486 with a 540Mb hard drive - it's still here under the desk 13 years later ...

Leishman July 31st, 2008 a 07:59 pm

my first PC was an Amstrad PC 1512. No hard drive - everything was stored on 5.25â³ floppy disks, every thing was painfully slow. Had to wait an endless amount of time for programs to load. these were the days!!!!!! NOT

whitebj July 31st, 2008 a 07:56 pm

I had a Sinclair ZX81 and thought I was a bit flash when I got the extra memory pack! (I hated 'saving' the programs to audio tape - my cassette recorder wasn't that great). Later on, with the Spectrum and its microdrive I thought that this was the best thing since sliced bread.

msamuel July 31st, 2008 a 07:55 pm

first computer...vic 20. the first colour home computer i think. except the colour didn't work on ours.

PapaLazarou July 31st, 2008 a 07:55 pm

My first PC (not counting specs and c64) had a powerful 8MHz . It had a 10Mb hard drive and I could either fit windows 3.01 or lemmings (not both), which was a lot of work to play solitaire. Most of my time was spent in DOS.

I was so excited the day I got my maths co-processor, it didn't make any difference but it was a massive card.

Kids have it too easy these days, GUI, pah!!

zoonyx July 31st, 2008 a 07:55 pm

My first PC was a Cyrix 133 (Pentium 166 equiv - yeah right), with 16meg of ram.


My first computer was an Atari ST 520

jujuandnicky July 31st, 2008 a 07:55 pm

We didn't have a computer at home so the first time I used one was at work. It was a huge thing called a TC500, took up most of the room and the tapes were yards and yards of coloured paper with holes punched in which we had to feed through the machine and then wind up on a device that looked like a pencil sharpener. It was linked to the main computer centre by a special phone line and one April 1st we had a phone call on this internal phone to say the computer was overheating and could we fan it with a newspaper - guess who stood there for half an hour and then remembered it was her turn to change the date on the calendar - the penny dropped and so did the newspaper!

pwarner4 July 31st, 2008 a 07:54 pm

ZX81 was my first 'computer' and I have never been so excited in all my life. This feeling soon passed when I had to wait 15 minutes to load a game!

Rlawson July 31st, 2008 a 07:53 pm

Around 1990, my first PC was an Amstrad PC 1512. No hard drive - everything was on 5.25â³ floppies - these were the days before quidco computers have come a long way since the good old days.

ryanjjones July 31st, 2008 a 07:52 pm

My father brought home a BBC Micro for work - no idea what. I got onto it and learned the basics before him! My reward was a Spectrum 48k and eventually with a floppy disk drive (Radofin). Learned to hack by having to break game security to get them from tape onto disk! (Remember LenseLok and pages of code sheets!)

Then I had an Amstrad 1640 as my first PC at Uni, and then worked in IT as IT manager till a few weeks ago when I was unexpectedly made redundant.

Weren't the spectrum games GREAT at the time? And now looking back - how bad were the graphics! lol!

androgum July 31st, 2008 a 07:50 pm

Showing my age here - like a few others it seems. My first was a Sinclair ZX81 - 1k of RAM. I was chuffed to bits when I got a 16k RAM pack for my birthday.
Ah those were days, waiting 10 minutes for a game to load up on cassette tape. Most of the time I seem to remember it crashing just as it was finishing loading!!

askjim July 31st, 2008 a 07:46 pm

spectrum 48k

robantwood July 31st, 2008 a 07:45 pm

first computer of sorts was our c64 with the light fantastic pack, thought it was the best thing ever, first pc was a original pentium 133, 1gig hard drive and 32mb memory was in heavy use for college and after many years. only replaced it due to a power surge making it go bang !

Catw0man July 31st, 2008 a 07:42 pm

My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20, with 3.5k RAM, we plugged it into the TV and it was in colour, the computer took cartriges with games into the back of the keyboard and also had a tape cassette drive, the games were simple, at the time they were great, I loved that computer!

Cuz191 July 31st, 2008 a 07:40 pm

Mine was a Texas Instruments TI99, with a whopping 3.3Mhz. Bought as a Christmas present for my brother and me from our Dad. He bought it for education really. I loved it, played space invaders till the space bar could take no more!

stuleg July 31st, 2008 a 07:39 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with a massive 48k memory and rubber keys. Jet Set Willy anyone?

insentive July 31st, 2008 a 07:38 pm

First proper computer was a 700Mhz pent 3 processor, with 128MB RAM, NVidia GeForce 256 with a crazy 32MB onboard ram, 19" Trinitron Monitor, Creative Soundcard and DVD drive. Little bugger cost over 2 grand!!!!!

kaha22 July 31st, 2008 a 07:32 pm

was a second hand Amstrad computer....i think 128k, colour screen had a hybrid 3.5"/tape drive mechanism and had really cool games...but i think my parents bought it for me to study

nwoodward July 31st, 2008 a 07:28 pm

Comodor 64, bought for my 7th birthday. I remember playing Daly Thomsons olypics on it - when the tape would load up!

louisefinlay July 31st, 2008 a 07:27 pm

i dont have my own computer but am currently using my work laptop which is a fujitsu siemens c series lifebook. dont know the specs but i would truely welcome the opportunity to have my own computer.

Mowbli July 31st, 2008 a 07:26 pm

A gateway computer with a 466mhz celeron, 8Gb HDD and 64mb ram! It was very slow and ran windows 98! Problem was that we kept running out of space for general programs!

billybobbob July 31st, 2008 a 07:25 pm

Sinclair ZX Spectrum all the games loaded through a tape deck used to take forever.

teddie July 31st, 2008 a 07:20 pm

My first pc was the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A which included several (at the time!!) minblowing features: 256 bit colour display,32kb exp card, cpu at an impressive 3 mhz and.........16kb ram.

sgould July 31st, 2008 a 07:19 pm

Does anyone remember those little orange boxes with a slide lever that you could select between a few games like ping pong, tenis, soccer, well they were actually all the same game, but know one cared as it seemed so high tech. It was my first games system.

marlovian July 31st, 2008 a 07:18 pm

I built my first computer from a kit. It was a Nascom 2 based on a Z80 microprocessor. Used a domestic cassette tape recorder for data storage and video output into a TV. Still got it in the loft somewhere.

mpeach July 31st, 2008 a 07:18 pm

Sinclair ZX81 with 1k of memory and had to be put together from a kit.

quidcotown July 31st, 2008 a 07:17 pm

I guess it was a Texas Instruments programmable calculator. It cost us £200 (when £200 was alot of money) and it was very difficult to understand !

kinnth July 31st, 2008 a 07:16 pm

Well my first computer was a 486! Can't even remeber the make back then but I have a feeling it was a gateway, the one with the cows! Now I think I would like a Dell XPS 420 with all the trimmings, eg an 8800GTX or higher. ummm nice.

maplemadison July 31st, 2008 a 07:12 pm

Ahh I remember it well....a packard bell 386 with windows 3.1 and dos. Basically a very large paperweight that my mum got conned into buying when i was 15! It ended up being passed onto my younger brother asap!!

arepeejee July 31st, 2008 a 07:11 pm

My first computer was a BBC Micro B. Oh I loved it. Classic 'tapes' I remember are Repton (and later Repton II with digital voice exerpts) and Ollie Octopus.

I remember the wow factor of the massive 5 inch floppy discs too.

jarardin July 31st, 2008 a 07:11 pm

My first computer was an IBM, and there was no permanent RAM - you had to use a floppy disk for everything. Oh yes, and you had to type all the instructions in as DOS codes. A friend of mine had a Macintosh (today's Apple) and you could do everything with little pictures, clicking and dragging. I can't think why we didn't get one of those at the time!

mollart81 July 31st, 2008 a 07:08 pm

my first computer was balck and white i used to play that game with two lines on either side of the screen and a square ball would bounce at different angles and you had to hit it back it was an amstrad

mkaikon July 31st, 2008 a 07:07 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum with 48K of Ram. It was the model with rubber keys :)

andrewpjones July 31st, 2008 a 07:05 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48K, as was the second, third, and fourth (reliability wasn't too good back then!)

pompeysteve July 31st, 2008 a 06:56 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 128K +2, followed by an Atari 520STFM (single-sided floppy drive FTW), an Amiga 500 (Bat Pack), Amiga 500+, Amiga 1200 and then sold my sould and got a PC...

scott1eh July 31st, 2008 a 06:51 pm

Mt very 1st computer was a Sinclair ZX81, later traded up to a Sinclair Spectrum 16K, then 48K, moving on up to a Spectrum + (and I can actually do the downloading sound that was heard when loading a programme), and my first "PC" was an Amstrad which had 2 x 51/4" floppy disc drives. Amazing. After many years of no computer, my first real PC was a 386, with full SVGA monitor with a whopping colour HP printer. Oh those were the days..... now we moan about waiting 1/100th of a millisecond for a web-page to open....

AMC1 July 31st, 2008 a 06:47 pm

First computer was ZX Spectrum, 48K I think, no screen (use TV), no storage device (use cassette recorder), did eventually get a printer after endless delays and in the end it was rubbish, but the actual computer was great for its day.

dili123in July 31st, 2008 a 06:46 pm

My first computer was an emachines 2210 celeron proceesor one.it had 128 ram and 40 hdd
cd drive and intel onboard graphics card.

B4tm4n July 31st, 2008 a 06:42 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32 with 32K RAM. Its was made in Wales copied from an American Tandy computer thats was out at the time.

curt1spar1s July 31st, 2008 a 06:40 pm

My first was a 64kb RAM Commodore 64, it came with a booklet that let you write your own programs to make sounds such as a beep which I thought was pretty amazing! Just think what we'll make of today's pc's in another 20 years time!!

newtshell July 31st, 2008 a 06:39 pm

First computer was an armstrad CPC 464, built in tape and colour monitor - Good times !!

kel64 July 31st, 2008 a 06:39 pm

First PC wasn't as old as many, a P2 350, 256mb, 8GB HDD with onboard graphics. Playing games at the time was difficult.

Warrender July 31st, 2008 a 06:38 pm

My first computer was a Compaq presario (cant remember te model number
AMD K6 2 350mhz
64 mb ram
10 or 20 gb hdd
integrated graphics
cd drive
Windows 98 (oh, the joys of the blue screen of death!)
From what I remember I got this one year for Christmas from my parents.

ianonline July 31st, 2008 a 06:37 pm

I too contributed to Sir Clive Sinclair's millions (or at least my parents did) by becoming a ZX Spectrum owner in the 80's.
Mine was the super-duper (really!) 48k model with the rubber keys. It's still up in the attic as far as I'm aware, and I think they're quite collectible now - I might just dig it out and put it on eBay !!!!

karlcliff July 31st, 2008 a 06:35 pm

My first PC had an AMD Athlon 1GHz processor, 512MB SD-RAM, 40GB HD with a massive table filling 17" CRT Monitor running Win98.

angustav July 31st, 2008 a 06:32 pm

spectrum 48k was true first computer ... then amiga 500

first PC was a gateway 486-dx2/50 ... ah i remember being amazed the first time i played doom multiplayer

vijayrana July 31st, 2008 a 06:32 pm

my first was a comodore 64 with the extra 64k ram cart ..... and Ive still got it! even though I have a 3ghz overclocked quadcore, the c64 is still much more fun!

grdesign July 31st, 2008 a 06:31 pm

A 486 DX4-133. Had a turbo button on the front and also a LED speed indicator! Woohoo, geek central!

stephen600 July 31st, 2008 a 06:28 pm

Mine was an Amstrad CPC464.

simonjames30 July 31st, 2008 a 06:28 pm

My first computer was a pentium 1GHz with 20 meg of ram and a 4 gig HD running win 95... thats pretty much all i can remember.

paulburrows July 31st, 2008 a 06:26 pm

cant remember the make, but I am pretty sure it had a 386 processor, with 1MB RAM and a 40MB hard disk - how things have moved on!

PR31520 July 31st, 2008 a 06:25 pm

My first computer was,like many others above,the Sinclair Spectrum.I was only able to afford the 16k model. I remember saving for ages to get the memory upgrade to get up to 48k.
Unfortunatley the upgrade failed to work so I stayed with the 16k. The games at the time seemed incredible and better than on most other "proper" computers like the Vic20 and BBC.

nickys32 July 31st, 2008 a 06:25 pm

My first computer was a Commador 16 Starter Pack. We though we were so cool because not many people had them and I remember spending hours typing in letters that the computer would then play back to you as a tune - Early programming!!! It was brilliant

billywear1 July 31st, 2008 a 06:21 pm

my first computor was a amiga 600

gazz902 July 31st, 2008 a 06:19 pm

My first computer had these specs:

200MHz processor
4MB RAM
4GB HDD

That is all I can remember. lol

gpmartin July 31st, 2008 a 06:12 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum + with 48k of RAM and a separate tape recorder. My first PC was a 486 DX2, with a 50MHz clock speed, 8Mb of RAM, 250Mb hard disk and MS-DOS 6 and Windows 3.11.

Somehow each now seems just as antiquated as the other, even though they were 15 to 20 years apart...

xpander July 31st, 2008 a 06:08 pm

My first computer was the Sinclair Spectrum 128K and I thought I it was the bees-knees! Oh the anticipation of waiting 10 minutes to load a game for the first time and to watch the damn thing crash twenty seconds later... Joy!

Believer July 31st, 2008 a 06:06 pm

My first Computer was Mattel Aquarius CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 3.5 MHz
RAM: 4K RAM, 20K max
Display: Built-in TV modulator
40 X 24 text
80 X 72 graphics, 16 colors
Expansion: expansion connector
Ports: TV modulator
Cartridge/expansion
printer, tape recorder
Storage: cassette recorder
OS: Microsoft-Aquarius BASIC 1.0

smelli July 31st, 2008 a 06:06 pm

My first computer was sinclair spectrum 16k with nice rubber keys that fell out after playing daley thompsons decathalon for weeks on end also destroying many joysticks too.
I have been hooked on computers ever since buying my first dell pc 2 years ago with superduper graphics card etc. next i'd like a shiny new laptop for travel.

rogera00 July 31st, 2008 a 06:05 pm

My first computer was a BBC B (and still have it but boxed)

andymccarthy July 31st, 2008 a 05:59 pm

My first one was an Amstrad 1512 with dual 5.25" 360K disk drives! We were blown away by the CGA 4-colour display!

gteatomic July 31st, 2008 a 05:57 pm

The first computer I could afford to own was a Spectrum +3, 128k, before that all I'd used was a series of BBC micro's!

xsquareduk July 31st, 2008 a 05:56 pm

My first computer was my trusty ZX Spectrum+ - yes, the mighty plus model with the 'proper' keyboard, a whopping 48k of RAM, and the good old Kempston joystick interface. We couldn't really afford things like that, but my dad managed to buy it second-hand from someone at work and it was the best Christmas ever. Even though it broke down a few times and needed repairs, and it crashed frequently when it got warm, it still let me get started with programming and led me into my current career - thanks dad! :)

LAX July 31st, 2008 a 05:49 pm

My first PC was a Gateway 433dx back in 1991 - Nicked named SUPERCOW by my dad!!! We used it for 12 years mainly for accounts - The last operating system installed on it was windows 2000 server for 5 years!!!!! - did the job :-)

richwild July 31st, 2008 a 05:40 pm

mine was a top of the range 286 laptop! Oooh, swish!

It had an orange monochrome screen (no green or black and white here!) and could *only just* about load up Prince of Persia (original version)

Me, I thought it was the future, despite me having to put in and take out about 40 floppies just to load up Star Office!

lewpylew July 31st, 2008 a 05:37 pm

The 1st computer we had at home was an MSX. I remember waiting for what seem like hours loading the games on cassette tapes having to listening to screeching and whining noises, then the games not working : (

madmackem July 31st, 2008 a 05:36 pm

My first Pc was a Dell, believe it or not, bought second hand for £550, 486sx25, 4mb ram, 120MB hd,no cdrom or sound. Only bought it too play Doom!. After 6 months of saving added sound and cdrom, that set me back another £220!! for a 2x cdrom and 8 bit sound.
Had nowt but trouble and vowed id never have another Dell, and here I am sitting on a Dimension E520 lol

clairebooty July 31st, 2008 a 05:34 pm

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum. Did they even have spec then? It used tapes to play games. Each game would take about 15 mins to load - although as a kid it felt like hours. I used to have dinner while it was loading. Oh and to top it off, while it was loading you had listen to an awful screechy sound. Oh and I couldn't push a key while it's loading or I'd have to start all over again.

My most advanced game on it was X-wing, which was a rip off of Star Wars. In total I collected over 150 games for the computer (geek, eh?) and I've still got it somewhere in the loft.

stevepert July 31st, 2008 a 05:32 pm

First was a Speccy which was ace. My first 'real' pooter was a 286 which I've still got in my loft :)

hrs2004 July 31st, 2008 a 05:31 pm

The first computer that I bought, with my own money was something from Mesh, with Windows 98. Seems ages ago now, and have since moved on via two Dell laptops to an iMac. Enjoying trying out both worlds. Can't remember the spec of the first one, but the kids now have it to play games. Not a huge amount of use for anything else now...

bigguy201 July 31st, 2008 a 05:28 pm

Amstrad awful thing, 100mhz, 64mb ram, 1.9gb hard drive, I broke it within weeks. I see now why Sir Alan Sugars computer business faded so fast LOL.

rustyu July 31st, 2008 a 05:28 pm

First one was a 386 SX 25Mhz with 4Mb RAM, had a beautify 5¼ FDD as well. Loved it!

noggin July 31st, 2008 a 05:26 pm

My first was an Alan Sugar 'Special' - Cannot remember the spec, probably about 4k! Really dodgy green monitor, no graphics, and a printer that had a large ribbon and looked about 9 DPI!

jamesots July 31st, 2008 a 05:25 pm

The first computer I owned was, I think, a Research Machines 380Z, with a 4MHz Z80 processor, 64Kb of RAM and a 5 1/4" floppy drive. Then I got a load more of them (the school was throwing them out), and combined things together until I had 256Kb of RAM and two 5 1/4" drives. Wow!

IndieSinger July 31st, 2008 a 05:23 pm

Coincidentally, it was Dell which got me into Quidco. We spent £500 on a brand new Inspiron... and THEN someone told me we could have got it through Quidco and got cashback. Curses!

The first computer I owned was an Amstrad CPC464 64K - with a GREEN SCREEN! 64K is nothing, these days. The other day I bought a 2 gigabyte Micro SD card for £3!

Games I remember include Jet Set Willy, Roland on the Ropes and Harrier Attack. In fact, I remember trying for - quite literally - YEARS to complete Jet Set Willy and I never did. I've since learned that it was actually impossible to complete due to a bug in the software... truly a waste of several years..!

Or was it? We can mock these games for their basic, blocky graphics, extraordinarily low memory, dubious plots and agonising loading times but what was one of the first things I did when I got my brand new Dell Inspiron with 3GB of RAM, Core2 Duo 2.20GHz processor and 250GB of storage? Why, I downloaded an Amstrad emulator and Jet Set Willy, of course!

atpug July 31st, 2008 a 05:23 pm

Mine was a Amstrad 64!! 64MB RAm and a green screen monitor! Dont forget it took tapes for load the games and save programmes!!

CarlyFrost July 31st, 2008 a 05:22 pm

Hmmm... I'm guessing mine was a Commodore 64 ?? I can hardly remember now though :-(

domparikh July 31st, 2008 a 05:22 pm

Windows XP Laptop with a 2Ghz P4 Processor and 60 GB hard drive. £1500.
Wow, how late I was to this whole computing malarkey, eh?

But I love 'em now!

NickCraggs July 31st, 2008 a 05:18 pm

I also started out n a spectrum. Spec - erm, not sure as I think I was about 7 or 8 at the time but I am there - Manic Miner was just fabulous!

paulorrick1 July 31st, 2008 a 05:01 pm

my first computer.....spectrum 48k, who can forget manic miner, jet set willy, etc.........

IanBradbury July 31st, 2008 a 05:01 pm

First computer was a Dell P4, 3GHz with 512MB of RAM. Always been a late starter!!

sazzylou1981 July 31st, 2008 a 04:59 pm

My first computer.... I don't even know the name but the screen was all black, there was a white line down the centre and two litte white lines which were mean to be bats. A white dot used to bounce around the screen and daa-daa that was tennis for you :-)

ecaps1 July 31st, 2008 a 04:58 pm

My first PC was a 386, I was sooo in love with the DOS interface and the crappy blocky Windows 3.1

sittard July 31st, 2008 a 04:57 pm

The first unit I had was the BBC B with the tape recorder for the programs. I remember getting a 5 1/2 inc disk drive so that it was quicker to load and save programs. I still have some of the disks. Then onto an Amiga 600 with an internal hard drive. What a "speed" i got out of it!! The BBC was used to get weather sat pic down of of the sat direct, very poor pics, but the Amiga gave very clear pics until I went for a PC and that showed the difference one could get from a fast machine.

sittard July 31st, 2008 a 04:57 pm

The first unit I had was the BBC B with the tape recorder for the programs. I remember getting a 5 1/2 inc disk drive so that it was quicker to load and save programs. I still have some of the disks. Then onto an Amiga 600 with an internal hard drive. What a "speed" i got out of it!! The BBC was used to get weather sat pic down of of the sat direct, very poor pics, but the Amiga gave very clear pics until I went for a PC and that showed the difference one could get from a fast machine.

beyne July 31st, 2008 a 04:56 pm

mine was a IBM 486sx 33Mhx with 170MB hard disk and 8MB of RAM. Back in 1992

edame July 31st, 2008 a 04:56 pm

My first computer was a Commodore 64 with a tape deck. You could set a game loading, go off for dinner and come back and it might be nearly loaded! My first PC was a 486 DX/66 with a CD-ROM drive.

mickeydpg July 31st, 2008 a 04:55 pm

like a few others my first was the zx81 then a commodore 16 not long after seems along time ago now.

pisaia83 July 31st, 2008 a 04:53 pm

Mine was a PB. Pentium 166, 16MB RAM and 2GB Hard Disk. I thought it was the bomb.

leeannethorniley July 31st, 2008 a 04:52 pm

1st computer???? I have one at work so use that as my own but have never had one at home. I'm thinking about starting an open uni course though so will have to delve into the very confusing world of personal computing soon...

kevinheb July 31st, 2008 a 04:51 pm

Amstrad CPC464 with Colour monitor as a Xmas present!!!! Saved up to buy the mouse with the art package as well as a 3" disc drive. The monitor weighed a ton but was very sturdy, carried on using it for my Amiga 500, I think it still works now.

puma22 July 31st, 2008 a 04:47 pm

mine - if you could call it a computer - was an Amstrad word processor. I had to put those small floppy disks in to load the operating system and then to save files. Very slow and laborious!

duggie1982 July 31st, 2008 a 04:47 pm

I too had a spectrum as my first computer. Loved the fax machine sounding tape deck to load the game. roke it by taking it apart to see how it worked! Only young at the time so did not know how to put it back together. And yes my Mum was mad!!!

dmcguinn9 July 31st, 2008 a 04:46 pm

I was desperate for a ZX Spectrum (rubber keys) but I had to wait and eventually got a Spectrum + (48k). Still in the loft at my mum's (in working order) might be worth a couple of quid one day ;-)

Many happy days playing Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Saboteur - all the classics. I think I need to get back in that loft!!

amarpall July 31st, 2008 a 04:45 pm

Mine was an Amiga 500 with a huge 512kb RAM in the good old days it cost £399 from Dixon's! What a machine. Those were the days.

My first PC was a AMD 1.3ghz which we still ahev today somewhere in bits!

jelliuk July 31st, 2008 a 04:44 pm

First computer i had was a Commodore 64, first PC i had contained a Intel Pentium 1 with a massive (back then) 133MHz. Beast of a machine ;)

vancat July 31st, 2008 a 04:42 pm

Xmas 1985
I wanted a Tri Colour Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppyâ¦â¦
My 8 year old Daughter had told me that Daddy had got me something that I really really wanted for Xmasâ¦it was Black and White, made noises, and would come in a big box. It was being kept at my friendâs house until after Xmas Lunch.
Christmas Day cameâ¦.and I waitedâ¦and waitedâ¦.and the box was deliveredâ¦..and in it wasâ¦â¦A Commodore Plus 4. with a portable TV to play the games on!!!!
Daughter and Daddy sat upstairs all day playing B***dy âFire Antâ and âTreasure Islandâ !!
And I sulked!
On Boxing Day, I got my Tri Colour Cavalier King Charles Spanielâ¦Holly.
VC

seiko July 31st, 2008 a 04:40 pm

Way back when, a Commodore 64 with a powerhouse 8 bit microprocessor and 64 kilobytes of RAM. 16 colours. Sound too!

mikepercival July 31st, 2008 a 04:39 pm

I remember the family having a Commodore 64 which had one of those great tape loaders for games. Stick the game in, wait 20 mins and you're ready to go. Awesome.
The first 'real' PC thought was a Packard Bell P60 (Pentium I 60MHz) with a huge 8MB of RAM. Think it only had a couple of hundred MB of disk space too, so all in all, a super powerful computer built to last for generation. Well, a couple of years anyway... :-)

gillianruth July 31st, 2008 a 04:38 pm

my first computer was a BBC micro, massive 16 kb memory!! acorn operating system

first gaming machine, sinclair zx spectrum with the spooky game loading noises!!

ijhawkins July 31st, 2008 a 04:37 pm

My first ever computer was back in 1985(i think) it was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16k with a lovely rubber keyboard, you had to load games and programs in from a cassette player. I used to get the magazine too with programs to type in - but there was always a typo and you had to wait for the next issue to get the correction!

I then added a 48k ram pak and the thermal printer that used to print on Fax paper. those where the days!

soco1 July 31st, 2008 a 04:37 pm

Got my first pc in Jan 98. Opus tecnology with Windows 95.

Can't remember the spec but remember switching it on the going away for a good 5 mins while it booted up!
Don't think it even had as much as 1 Gig of memory!

ami1975 July 31st, 2008 a 04:36 pm

My first computer was an atari 2600 ..then we upgraded to an amiga ;)

rhyslewis13 July 31st, 2008 a 04:36 pm

my first was 3.2gb hard drive, 300mhz processor, 32mb of ram, and I was told when I bought it that it was sufficient to run NASA! ha!

beefcarrot July 31st, 2008 a 04:35 pm

My first computer was a Dragon 32. Gasp at the 32K of memory! Gape at the cassette loading games! Stare in wonder at the 16 colours! And then play Lunar Rover - jump over craters, leap ant hills and shoot alien ships turning them into what looked like fried eggs!

I loved that computer.

a97am July 31st, 2008 a 04:32 pm

Mine was shared with my brother... It was an Acorn Electron, and I was never allowed a go on it!!

stbsteve July 31st, 2008 a 04:32 pm

Ahh for the happy days with my Spectrum 48k - the only computer I have ever owned that had rubber parts to it.

frogbottler July 31st, 2008 a 04:31 pm

My first computer was a slide-rule lol. Kids today don't know they're born rofl.

My first proper 'computer' was the Sinclair ZX80 1kb, upgraded it to the ZX81 before spending all my shekels on the 48k Spectrum. Massive capability and huge fun. They are still in working order which is more than can be said for some of my old desktops.

lexa34 July 31st, 2008 a 04:30 pm

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. Wow. Long time ago!! Things are still evolving at a massive rate!!

pollysg July 31st, 2008 a 04:30 pm

I had a Sinclair spectrum too, then my first real computer was a 386 from Evesham Micros, when they were only Evesham and nowhere else!!

jschidley1972 July 31st, 2008 a 04:30 pm

My 1st computer was The Texas Instruments TI99/4AProcessor: 16-bit TMS 9900 running at 3.3Mhz. Sound: 3 sound channels, 1 noise channel and 5 octaves.
RAM: 16K (52K max). ROM: 26K (command modules can give up to 34K extra).
All I remember is tyoing in gw basic for hours just to see the colour blue on screen!!!

Andydreamtheater July 31st, 2008 a 04:29 pm

My first one was a Commodore C16.The first one i ever actually used was a BBC B at Killingworth skill centre in '83 or '84.Spent an hour typing in the code for a program that was meant to be a submarine/depth charge game,but nothing came up at the end.Set the pattern for most of my programming efforts ever since :)

Andydreamtheater July 31st, 2008 a 04:29 pm

My first one was a Commodore C16.The first one i ever actually used was a BBC B at Killingworth skill centre in '83 or '84.Spent an hour typing in the code for a program that was meant to be a submarine/depth charge game,but nothing came up at the end.Set the pattern for most of my programming efforst ever since :)