Printable View
Hi Folks,
For those of us who are enjoying XP as Mr. Gates' "latest and greatest operating system", it may be a worthwhile experience to have a look back at the beginning of Windows. You can click on the pictures on the right to enlarge them. Enjoy! :D
Happy Computing!
Limerick
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
Very interesting.....not seen all of that b4.
Mind you I once had a ZX Spectrum,
and I still sequence midi on my Atari 1040STe!
:)
Kinda makes you wonder what the future holds and what we'll be using that will make XP look primitive when we reminisce. ;)
*Sniff!* Brings a tear to my eye....Ahhhh...the good ole days! :)
Did you look at the Radio Shack ad with Mr. Bill? Only $2999 for a Tandy 2000!
:D :D I saw that and remembered when I agonized over taking out a signature loan to get a Tandy. (No...I didn't do it...)Sheeeeeeesh! Just think what kind of system you could build today with 3 grand...
Hi Lmereck
Not so long back you were building a XP mod machine ,with a video card purchased from a boot sale,can we have the specs of this machine,as you did quote,will get back and let you know how it goes,or ive missed a thread if it was posted,nothing ventured nothing gained as the saying goes.Thanks for holding a back seat on some of the previous threads posted lately,so far this site of yours makes good reading,leaves the others standing why ??
Lots of luck with your new Mod..:)
limerick, i bought my first computer in '88, a compac 486, WOW! i could have sworn it came with xp.. looking at those screen shots brought back a lot of memorys, mostly bad.:)
That reminds me - Time to clean the heads on the cassette recorder that came with the Radio Shack TRS-80. One of these days I'll actually get that rocket ship to fly off the top of the screen.
Yes, it is indeed a lot of fun to look back at those days, and to think of your computing endeavors, both during, and since that time.
Believeitornot, yes I did build a new machine recently, and I am really loving it! I got an MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU mainboard, coupling it up to an AMD XP 2000+ chip. Added lots of RAM, big hard drives, and that Xtasy 5564 Everything video card that gives me such a great display! Being able to watch football as I compute gives me even more bang for the buck! :) I wonder if Mr. Gates ever dreamed that someday there would be these powerful machines like this, running his operating systems?
jman1980, my first computer was a Commodore 64 that I bought for Christmas of '82. (Got it as an "educational resource" for the kids.) Yeah, right! I fell in love with it, quickly learned how to program, and have had a burning desire to learn all I can about computing and computers ever since! Indeed we've come a long way since the $3000 Tandy machine that is mentioned at that link that this thread started with.
Limerick
The Commodore and Weather war rules!:D
Actually my first computer was a Leading Edge Model D. At the time an IBM with 512 KB memory and one floppy drive cost $3,100.00 or $2,100.00, can't remember which but I think it was the higher price. The Leading Edge had 640 KB memory, extended graphics, and two floppies for $1,495.00 monitor was separate.
Hey Limerick, I flew over your nameshake last Sunday. Limerick Ireland. Couldn't see much though because of the clouds.
cheers, mac :cool:
Mine too in 1985.Quote:
Originally posted by Limerick
my first computer was a Commodore 64
Remember having to wait 20+ minutes for games to load from casette !!
Excellent.
I came across a site a couple of years back that had C64 Emulation and various games.
Just seeing the names of the games took me back down memory lane.
I eventually bought the 5 1/4 inch floppy drive - I think it cost me more than the C64 itself.
Luckily I bought a portable colour TV instead of a monitor and it's still going strong. The C64 is holed up in my parent's attic somewhere I think.
There are better early Windows screenshots at http://toastytech.com/guis/. Enjoy . . .
Speaking of cost, my first hard drive was a 20 MB hard card for as I remember it $420.00. No way I could ever fill that up. Yeah right. I now have a 120 GB and a 60 GB drive and may eventually have to get another one. Graphics and sound sure eat the space pretty quick.
In the late 70's I purchased one of the first 10 IBM desktop computer systems. IBM 5100 . RAM was 64K. It had dual tape drives.
and a centronics printer. Neat feature was a 4in. built in monitor.
It also had a modem. Price without external monitor $27,500.00
Ha!
First computer, 8080 on a breadboard.
2nd. TRS-80 Model 1
3rd. TRS-80 CoCo.
4th. Tandy 1000 386
5th. Upgraded that 386 with 486 adaptor and added a hard drive.
Took a bit to do that, apparently they used a weird IDE interface and any old HD wouldn't work, but they didn't sell them drives anymore.
Finally found a IDE interface card for $46 bucks, from the same company that provided them to RS who sold them for $89! Go figure.
6th. Comodore 128, I kid you not.
7th. Gateway 486DX2x66, still in use as a workstation on my network.
8th. Home rolled k6-2, 256mb, 40gHD, current home.
9th. Proteva, now the main machine at work.
10th. Packard Bell 386, in use as automation controller.
11th. Unknown P1 66mhz, browse only machine at work.
12th. VAX terminal, was fun, but very incompatible.
13th. Franklin 8088, with 20mb hardcard, currently shelfed.
14th. Unknown 486DX2x66, 500mb/3.5g HD, in use for audio production work.
15th. Dell P2, unsure make model, used as fax machine and print server.
16th. PS2, shelved due to lack of proper microchannel parts.
Mmmm, forgetting where exactly the 2 Mac's go in this list, as well as the 3 Timex Sinclair's.
Also, can I count the 8 motherboards I have?
I started on the Commodore 64 too in '83, I learnt Basic then 6502 assembler code on it, those were the days. Like Nix, I paid more for the floppy drive than the 'puter - I never in my wildest imaginings thought that you'd eventually be able to buy a floppy drive for less than £10! And the disks themselves used to cost me about £2 - they were about 25p each last time I bought some.
I used to spend hours reading all the computer magazines and wondering if I'd ever be able to afford a PC - 640K of RAM and two floppy drives - incredible :D And mine for a mere £3000.
Hey Nix, have you got the URL of that emulation site, I'd love to play the Hobbit again.
Thanks, Limerick, you've brought back a lot of happy memories.
Why wasnt that POS Millenium in the list?
Boy, things sure were a lot easier back then! My first in 85 was the Tandy 1000. I added memory to boost it to 640k... I truly lost count on how many systems I have went thru and how much I paid. I presently have a printer graveyard...
I first got addicted to BBS's and the first computer game I was addicted to was Colossal Cave. It was on our system at work... go figure. I would go to work on Saturdays just to get a couple of hours in playing.
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/
remember infocom games?? :cool:
http://www.c64.com/ as a starting point, but if you search in any search engine for C64 +emulator you're sure to get a decent number of hits.Quote:
Originally posted by SuperSparks
Hey Nix, have you got the URL of that emulation site, I'd love to play the Hobbit again.
Thank you my friend :)
Hi ,it was an IBM 360 /or370 so long ago(1968). I was still at Uni and worked for the G'vmt in Brisbane. Social Services, we used binary cards, thing cost a fortune. I think it had a staggering 256kb memory. Had it's own air conditioned room and most of the other staff thought we were from another planet.
Dino Wars for the TRS-80 is what brings back memories for me :p
I also remember having a cartridge for the commodore 64 which was supposed to speed up loading times. What a bunch of crock! When it takes 20 minutes to load, whats 2 minutes difference gonna make? What most impressed me about commodore 64 was a certain game that actually had music WHILE loading! I only saw one game like that, and I was amazed! Don't remember the name, but it had something to do with medieval times.
Oregon Trail for the Apple II. Good times... My first actual computer at home was a Mac SE, a "luggable" computer weighing in at 20-30 lbs depending on all the stuff it had. Back in the days when your computer required a boot floppy to run. But, hey, it had TWO built in floppies. Beat that!
There were quite a few like that.Quote:
Originally posted by usil
What most impressed me about commodore 64 was a certain game that actually had music WHILE loading! I only saw one game like that, and I was amazed! Don't remember the name, but it had something to do with medieval times.
- Rambo II
- Yie Ar Kung Fu
- Bruce Lee
to name a few
At least with the music playing you didn't have to just stare at the blue screen.
:D
But the sound of the drive loading wasn't music to your ears?
Watching a tape drive wasn't the most exciting.
SOUND, not SIGHT
Ooh yeah the squeaking og the spindles - beautiful.Quote:
Originally posted by Spooky Man G
SOUND, not SIGHT
Limerick
Just a few words that can not be forgotten,you managed a good site here,many learned from your experience,and you always managed to accept a good joke,or take it in your stride.There never seemed to be any resentment to some bad threads,and you never pulled a thread unless it became very intensive,and then it was locked with a reason,if It got that far,so we could all see,thats my verdict and I will stick by it..Lots of luck for the future and your family..:cool:
I sure would have like to look at the screen shots-but, I'm getting the "page not found" message when I click the link in the opening thread. Any ideas?
The first computer I started playing around with was my grandfathers PC Jr. You had to boot off of a floppy and many of the programs you had to load with a cassette. I started out by learning BASIC/BASICA on that machine. The screen could display 16 colors! The Keyboard had the ability to be used unplugged (Wireless)!!!
My first computer was the Amstrad CPC 464 64k.
Amazin:):)
I wasnt quite old and clever enough to no the language it used, although i did read a bit of the manual. When i managed to learn how to change the backgroud colour from the ugly green to the ugly yellow, i was jumping around with full of joy:D
The best thing was that you could not do anything whilst you was loading a game, until the tape finished, then it would want you to start side 2 of the tape.
Ahhh those where fun dayz:rolleyes:
radio shack tsr-80 for me
and for my gaming needs a maganovox oddesey