Forum Discussion
First computer you bought?
What was the first computer you ever bought?
Though my former in-laws got my ex and I a computer for Christmas 1997, which was a Pentium 166MHz clone computer sold by a small computer store in the area, the first computer I ever bought was an eMachines eTower 366i in late 1999. I got it from Staples or OfficeMax. I can't remember which it was, though I remember where it was and I think it was the former.
At that time, MSN was offering a $400 instant rebate for those who signed up for three years of their dialup service, which I needed anyway, so the computer only cost $399, and this was back in 1999! I can't remember how much the monitor was, but it was a steal. $400 off a computer for signing up for a service I needed anyway, and it wasn't any more per month than it would have been had I signed up in the normal way. So, it was basically $400 for nothing. I used insurance money that was supposed to go toward fixing my bumper on my car to pay for what the instant rebate didn't. LOL. I was rear ended a year later, so I ended up getting the car fixed, nonetheless.
I used the 366i for two years, at which time I got a Dell, and I gave the 366i to my folks. They had it for a couple of years, at which time I bought them a Gateway and then sold the 366i on eBay. It was a great computer, built when eMachines had a very good reputation.
A 366MHz Celeron and dialup. How times have changed.
I had a Commodore , and then some Apple/Mac thing, and then the one I remember the most, an iBM that needed a giant floppy disk to run. EDIT: All of these were betweeen 1982-ish and 1990.
The Web didn't exist then. Things have changed indeed, and it's been awesome.
When I was a kid we got a Commodore VIC-20, then a Commodore 64 a few years later. Why we got the second I really don't know, as we barely used the first. Probably my incessant begging. LOL.
I didn't really know how to use one properly. I tried a few of the short programming examples in the manuals, like one that made it make a sound that progressively went from a low note to a high one. There was one in the back of the manual to program a game. I tried it three or four times, with each time taking at least three hours to enter everything, and it didn't work. I didn't have tape storage, so I would have to redo it the next time. A kid down the road came up one time and connected his tape recorder to it, which fascinated me that you could save programs on a cassette tape, but I didn't really understand the significance, nor how to do it myself. I had a tape recorder, but not the cables needed to connect it. And again, I wouldn't have known what to do anyway.
The neighbors had an Apple IIc, which was even more alien to me. :p
I don't remember much at all about the computers I had before the IBM. I remember that one because I could play games on it. I do remember MS-DOS and that everything was command line. :)
Buncha NOOBS! (LOL)
My first computer was a TRS-80 Model 2 in the fall of 1980 (TRS-80 stood for Tandy-Radio Shack 1980... Great imaginations, eh?)
No Windows then, nor MS-DOS. Everything was done in BASIC.
My parents said that was the future so I needed to learn it.
LOL!
I bet you didn't experience any buffering in those days, old timer! ;)
Ah....good old Radio Shack! I used to love that place; they had great stuff.
Rumblshack wrote:Buncha NOOBS! (LOL)
My first computer was a TRS-80 Model 2 in the fall of 1980 (TRS-80 stood for Tandy-Radio Shack 1980... Great imaginations, eh?)
No Windows then, nor MS-DOS. Everything was done in BASIC.
My parents said that was the future so I needed to learn it.
Not a computer, but the best thing RadioShack ever made: DX-160. So sorry I gave mine away. Classic radio.
