40 replies to this topic

[SquareSphere]

I had a 386 back in the day as the first computer that i could actually know how to run. Running Windows 3.1, of course all the games were run through the DOS prompt

As for the comp I used to have my mech experience it would be my tricked out Intel Pentium 120MHz ACER PC which my parents got for me from the local Incredible Universe (I think they were brought by Frys later).

[Korbyn McColl]

TRS-80 with 16 kb of awesome computing power and a cassette recorder for saving the games I had to write myself. =)

[Type ZERO]

First machine I could call my own was a 286 IBM clone.

[Paul Inouye]

The nightmares are now coming back... Byte magazine and entering game code for the Commodore 64 and entering machine code via DATA statements... go to run the game... hmm... ONE of those 813048134 numbers I just typed in is wrong.

[bert bargo]

Oh I miss mine.. It was a beast in 1999. I was so jealous of my friends that my parents got me a computer, bout 1000$ at the time. It worked really well. It wasnt name-brand but it was custom built so upgrading was simple.

666hz p3
128mb ram
10gb hd
128mb radeon-something



First upgrade I ever gave it was doubling the ram. I miss that thing. It ran MW3 like it was nothing.

Edited by bert bargo, 30 November 2011 - 04:17 PM.

[Fiachdubh]

First family PC:
8086 XT 4mhz
640K
16 colour EGA monitor
Two 5.25 inch floppy drives.
Later added 20mb hard drive.
No mouse.

First owned: Umm.. can't actually remember despite only replacing it 4 years ago. Around 1.2ghz anyway.

Edited by Fiachdubh, 30 November 2011 - 05:59 PM.

[Mason Grimm]

My first "machine" was a Commodore 128 although I had been using the 64 and tape drives for a couple of years.

My first "PC" was an 8088 XT. You know, the one with the whopping 4.77mhz speed and the 20mb hard drive? That bad boy!!!!!

Crescent Hawks Inception was def in my game drawer and I even upgraded from CGA to EGA when the first Mechwarrior came out!

[Drake67]

Radio shack tandy cm4 dont remember the processor but only had 4 bytes of memory no hard drive, trs 80 with 640kb of memory a 20 meg hard drive a 286 processor, built my next computer, a 486 dx 2 with 4 megs memory and 80 meg hd a ati video card sound blaster sound card.

[Gunman5000]

First computer I got to use was my Dad's Packard Bell (386 or 486 don't remember which), shortly after I got the pleasure of 286 and one of the original Apple computers with the external 5 1/2" drive at school. My first own personal computer though was an old P90 (90MHz, which ended up getting over-clocked to 100MHz) with ATI Rage 3D Pro (if I recall correctly) and nearly dead hard drive that had to be partioned into two parts due to bad sectors in the middle of the disk. It played MechWarrior 2 and Earthsiege 2 quite nicely, and eventually managed to handle Battlezone (despite being under the system specs) though it couldn't handle Starsiege without an upgrade from what I remember.

[Adridos]

Paul Inouye, on 30 November 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

The nightmares are now coming back... Byte magazine and entering game code for the Commodore 64 and entering machine code via DATA statements... go to run the game... hmm... ONE of those 813048134 numbers I just typed in is wrong.

Well, I should be really happy I was born when programming (the job of my choice) isnt complicated that way. There are still complications now because of all the effects, 3D, etc., but it is still better than coding something in binary.

[Cyber Carns]

S3dition, on 29 November 2011 - 11:59 PM, said:

Started with the C64, at first had tape drive then got the floppy drive like above. Never had monitor but used a 13" tv.(in the 80s)
Then in the mid 90s build several computers, 386, 486s, then Amd K6 and then K6,Started with Win 3.1(all those darn floppies to load it) then Win95 and Win98. Cant rem the amount of ram. I have 2 250 meg hard drives that cost $250, and a Vooddo video card and was using a MadCatz Panther XL (one of best joysticks that was ever made):

Edited by Cyber Carns, 01 December 2011 - 04:49 AM.

[frostfly]

Vic-20. first usable machine was a leading edge 8088 640 KB, duel floppy with hercules monchrome graphics. was as good as you could get for the day. I used it for many years. I was annoyed when I had to upgrade to a machine that could run EGA for ultima 4.

[Tannhauser Gate]

First one I used was a friends TRS-80 Model 1 with 4k of RAM. We loaded the programs from a regular cassette tape player with the cpu plugged into the earphone jack. We'd press play to start loading the program and we had time to ride our bikes to 7-11, get junk food, and come back. We played SpaceWar (ascii graphics but great fun) Battle of Midway (text only) between making obscene crank phone calls to girls we knew in school. Good times

Jump ahead to 1990 after 4 years in the Navy.

First PC I "owned" were actually 3 old hybrid pc / terminals disposed of from my dad's work. 8088, 40M hdd, and I used those parts to finish a 286 that I used for BBSing. Met a few girls that way. Turned the 286 into my own BBS. Instead of offering files or chat, I kept a "big" directory of files that other BBSes had so you could go to my BBS and scan lists of programs from 40 other BBSes rather than visiting each other. I made a little money off it. It was called North Texas File Hunter.

Started gaming when I put together my first 386. Wolfenstein, Falcon flight sim, arcade stuff. Got 8 old HP Vectra Pentium 1 machines that were being scrapped from my work and started playing MW2 and Heavy Gear1. Build several PCs since then to play MW3, Undying, then another to play MW4, another to play SL. Now looking to build another for MWO.. yeah baby.

[HIemfire]

Comadore 64, oh the days of floppy swapping. No hard drive, all disc and firmware run. Wow things have come a long ways.

[Tweaks]

My parents had a 486, but my own personal computer was a Pentium I @ 75Mhz with 512Mb of RAM and Windows 98SE.

[BattleOfLuthien]

Tweaks, on 01 December 2011 - 11:12 AM, said:

My parents had a 486, but my own personal computer was a Pentium I @ 75Mhz with 512Mb of RAM and Windows 98SE.

That's an ungodly amount of memory at that time
My first harddrive around that time was 800 megs :/

[Quinn Allard]

I was like 10 and helped my dad build a computer to play some games, don't remember all the specs. I do remember MS DOS, Pentium 133MMX, and brand new SVGA cards.

[VoodooLou Kerensky]

Paul Inouye, on 30 November 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

The nightmares are now coming back... Byte magazine and entering game code for the Commodore 64 and entering machine code via DATA statements... go to run the game... hmm... ONE of those 813048134 numbers I just typed in is wrong.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! Compute! Magazine NightMares!! Damn You Paul Inouye!!

[Tweaks]

BattleOfLuthien, on 01 December 2011 - 11:30 AM, said:

That's an ungodly amount of memory at that time
My first harddrive around that time was 800 megs :/

It might have been 256, but I know I upgraded to 512 eventually though... but yeah, I remember I had a lot of RAM for the time. I was studying Desktop Publishing and Photoshop/Illustrator took a lot.

Edited by Tweaks, 01 December 2011 - 04:02 PM.

[CG Anastasius Focht]

My first computer was a hewlett packard series 3000 mainframe.
Apples, comodores and atari's were only just taking off.
I remember the first PC's in the office, you had a choice of screen colour, green amber or white.
The fanciest thing about microsoft software was the O was a little spinning globe.
The mouse came much later
I still have original boxed versions of PC dos and MS Dos 3.3

Ahhh nostaligia...... its not what it used to be