What was your first computer?

[Eric Starker]

I know folks here range everywhere from established long-term IT professional to new hobbyists - so I'm curious - what was your first computer?

Mine was an Atari 800 which my parents brought home when I was about 5 or 6. It was mostly cartridge-based, with a tape drive. I believe we shifted to 5 1/4" disks not super long after that. I was an Atari kid for a while, moving to an 800XL to an ST before getting a 386 and having PCs the rest of my life.

[#2]

@Eric Starker I believe it was 1995 when my dad brought home this sick Packard Bell Statesman laptop that I couldn't wait to use to...play solitaire and do Word processing lol. 

[#3]

@Eric Starker 

My first computer was a Sharp MZ-80K. Probably from 1980/1981.

Later I switched to Atari Mega ST.

[#4]

@Eric Starker In 1980 I bought a kit to build a CPM machine. I was able to develop a mailing list for a music studio in a warehouse and throw big events with free bands on Saturday nights using that list to send personalized invitations. I feel like I was never as productive as I was with that machine. Likewise, when I got an IBM XT in 1987 with a 20MB hard drive.  It's been downhill ever since LOL.

[#5]

First used: Apple III (attached to a dot matrix printer). First owned: DIY build Windows XP machine.

[#6]

@Eric Starker @BarnacleBill

hi, my first computer goes back a little further than most have stated so far, mine was a Memotech MTX 500 from the early 1980's. Aluminium contruction and powerful for the time but sadly I succumbed to selling it about 5 years ago when I was offered a decent amount of cash to part with it. 
I couldn't afford the improved Memotech MTX512 that increased the amount of memory available from 32KB to 64KB.

spec follows:-

Memotech MTX500
Manufacturer Memotech
Release date 1983; 39 years ago
Introductory price £275 (equivalent to £949 in 2020) (MTX 500),
£315(equivalent to £1,087 in 2020) (MTX 512),
C$1,000 (equivalent to $2,261 in 2020) (MTX 512) with C$1,700 (equivalent to $3,843 in 2020) for "New Word" software and an 80-cps printer.[1],
£399 (equivalent to £1,311 in 2020) (RS 128)[2]
Operating system CP/M[3];
BASIC, LOGO, NODDY (MTX 500, 512);[3]
MTX BASIC, NODDY, Assembler (RS 128)[2]
CPU Zilog Z80A @ 4MHz[3]
Memory 32KB (MTX 500), 64KB (MTX 512)[3] or 128KB (RS 128)[2]
Storage Cassette, 5.25" floppy disk[3]
Display Composite BNC, RF RCA
Graphics TMS9918 or 9928[3]
Sound SN76489A[3] 3.5mm phono
Controller input 2×DE-9
Connectivity RS-232 (2), Parallel (34-pin Centronics type header), edge connector (left), bus interface connector (bottom)
Dimensions 48.6 x 20.3 x 5.7 cm[3]
Mass 2.6 Kg[3]

Memotech MTX500

[#7]

When I was a kid my father had Commodore at home

@Eric Starker 

[#8]

I was into playing the theatre pipe organ, I heard an Allen Computer organ on the radio sounding almost exactly like a pipe organ and started to take an interest in Computers.
First computer was a Sinclair ZX80 followed by a Sinclair Spectrum and a Sinclair QL, the company I worked for brought in some Apple II s to see if they had any practical use, a year or two later I was working in the office on an original IBM PC computerising the production documentation.

[#9]

I saved my allowance for a year to buy an Atari 800... and then for another year to buy the disk drive for it. I was a huge Atari lover for years... but eventually migrated to the Apple //e, and finally to my first Intel 8088 PC when I was in Grade 10 or 11. I never looked back, although I did try my hand at Mac for a bit :)

[#10]

@Eric Starker 

Tandy TRS-80 Color 2. Couldn't tell you what year, just somewhere in the first half of the '80s.

A raft of better machines such as the Amstrad CPC-464 came out not long after that left me quite jealous but I made do with this until significantly upgrading to an Atari ST-1024.

The biggest headache was the relatively frequent mangling of any cassette greater than 30 minutes.

[#11]

@Eric Starker 

In school I started on this one

Ural (computer) - Wikipedia

[#12]

VIC20

[#13]

Well lets see my first computer..

The very first console I played on was an Atari, the very first computer I programmed on was a Sinclair Spectrum 48k but my very first PC was a Zenith Data systems 8086 that ran at 4mhz and had a turbo to 8mhz. It has 256kbs of RAM and no hard drive.. you booted MS-DOS off the dual floppy disk drives.. I did manage to just miss CGA screens though.. we had an EGA screen with 16 colors :)

It was high tech.. just like my Dot Matrix Printer :)