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First Computer I'd used

Started by Rorshach, March 10, 2009, 04:33:00 PM

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Rorshach

Waaaaay back in 1980 I was in the 5th grade and my school got their first computer, a PET 4000 series, think was 4032 with black old datasette. I remember the school was soon to get a 2nd and maybe a disk drive. Was 4 years later before I had my first computer and many more since then. But never had a PET/CBM machine. A couple of friends, brothers often had Commodore PET's or 64's at home as their dad was a school principal so he could borrow one on weekends or summers. I spent many hours with them playing dungeon starwars weather war star trek and others. I also had some exposure to BASIC there and Wordpro (blech fart!).

Paul

It was my first as well.  Prior to the PET, I wanted to get an Atari computer, but then my school got PETs.  I never got enough time using them, so I ended up getting a Commodore Vic 20, reasoning that I could write programs on the VIC that I could later run on the PET.  Programming looked so much easier than it was back then...
"Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken. Take heed, do not squander your life." - Dogen Zenji

Rorshach

When I finally got my own computer some 4 years later I'd gone to a Woolco or Woolworths in Scarborough at Agincourt mall at Kennedy & Sheppard.  I hadn't decided weather to get either Atari 600XL / 800XL or Commodore 64. It was April '84 and those were the 2 types I wanted of what was available then. As they were out of the Atari systems I got the 64 as I didn't want to wait any longer. It also helped that I could only afford $400 plus the sales tax and the 64 had been reduced to $350 and the datasette was $50 so I could get both and actually save & load. Any disk drive was well over $300 then so affording that at the same time was impossible. I did already have a 10 inch or so black & white TV I could use for a monitor at home so thats what I'd used as a monitor for nearly 3 years until end of '86 I finally got a 14 inch colour TV with composite inputs on the back.  That was one of the last things I'd got after I finally had a 1541 and MPS801.