1980s / early 90s kids - what computer did you have?

Commodore 64 when I was 6 :) Amazing I had the patience to wait for the tape to load. Daft thing is I get annoyed when a game takes more than 20-30 seconds to load these days :o

First conventional PC was a 486 with 4mb RAM (which my Mum upgraded to an amazing at the time 12mb :eek: :D) and 250mb hard drive.

It's impressive to think how far things have come since then.
 
Atari 2600 first (I know it is a console), though I have vague recollections of having something older before that.

I then got a ZX Spectrum with the squidgy keys which I still have and is fully operational to this day, or it was last time I cranked it up a couple of years ago.

I also still have a fully functional Amstrad CPC 464 with the full colour monitor. :cool: Oh Mummy anyone? :D

*edit*

I also has a modem with the 464 and remember being amazed at Prestel.
 
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ZX80
ZX81
Tandy TRS80
Dragon32 (really wanted a VIC20)
Dragon64
Atari STE
IBM PS/2 - 286, 80MB HDD... weighed a tonne!

then a new PC everycouple of years till now
 
First a Spectrum 128K, then an amiga 600 thern an amiga 1200 that was modded to fit a 3.5" HDD and had a SCSI CD drive with a squirrel interface thingy.
 
semi-pro waster said:
With Violet Berlin and Chris Packham? Not too sure of the guys surname but I remember that programme too.

From what I recall it and Gamesmaster were both more focused towards the consoles of the day rather than the home computer market though.
Click to expand...

Andy Crane, not Chris Packham :)

I think it might be that Bad Influence did the cheats code thing first then Gamesmaster did it nearer the end of its run. Might be wrong though.
 
Games master definitely had the 'blast' thing at the end.

Who remembers Bits? God awful program, but my God there are many unspeakable acts I would do to Bouff.
 
We had a BBC B with a tape deck, joysticks, wordwise rom and a really great high density 5.25" floppy drive (Opus Challenger III (I think) which also had a build in 256kb? RAM disk which was very useful when copying things from disk to disk).

Eventually my Dad did get a home PC from work which we used to do all sorts of things too ...

IBM XT 286 (a curious hybrid where they put 286 motherboards into XT cases instead of AT ones ... our had a prototype motherboard in it with handsoldered wires added to get around early problems)
6MHz 286 + 287
640KB RAM
~28MB of additional RAM via expansion cards with many, many memory slots on them and dip switches to configure them (was a right pain)
256KB EGA Graphics (full length card with full length memory daughterboard)
20MB Harddisk (5.25", full-height)
1.2MB 5.25" FD
1.44MB 3,5" FD (required BIOS patch to work)

As it was an IBM system from that era it was over engineered to the point it could have probably taken a direct nuclear strike without any issues.
 
We had an Amiga 500 (technically it was my dad's, but I am certain I used it more), and I had a Master System II. I'm pretty sure we got the Amiga after the Master System, as I don't remember having them both at the same time.

One thing that I don't miss is swapping disks. I remember the brutal frustration of playing hours of Beneath a Steel Sky when it prompted for disk 15 and I realized that I'd lost it, and couldn't go on. I had to abandon Flight of the Amazon Queen (11 disks) for the same reason. There was a puzzle game, of which the name now escapes me, which had you swapping disks almost every time you changed scene - which you had to do a lot.

In 1994/95 we got an Amiga 1200 with a hard drive (I think it was 20mb). That was a joyous day, because it finally meant no more disk swapping. People these days say how amazing SSDs are compared to hard drives, but the improvement pales in comparison to the jump from floppies to hard drives. Fortunately for me I never had to deal with tapes, as they were no longer being used when I started gaming. I remember my cousins having a ZX Spectrum +2 which somebody had broken off the play button; they used a fork to jam it down.

I feel all wistful over the old days now. Ain't nostalgia a bitch?
 
Commodore 64, tapes baby. Looking back I wish I had accidentally bought an Atari 2600 by mistake. You had no idea about anything back then or at least I did.

Playing on my friends ZX got me into gaming.
 
Actually I had a phone call from my mum the other day, the call went something like this

`Steve, what do you want to do with all the computer stuff in the loft becuase we have been clearing out the loft and could do with getting rid of it`.

I was like I will come and collect it at some point please dont throw it away.

She goes on to tell me I have about 3000 blue floppy disks that are in boxes that are currently taking up most of the gable end of the house, it was then that I remmeber I purchased an old public domain library that came with the disks.

I got my mum to send me a list of the stuff she has unearthed from the loft.

2 spectrum 48k rubber keyones
1 spectrum 48k+ with the plastic keys
2 interface ones and 4 microdrives with 2 boxes of cartridges.
2 multiface ones and various other addons
a big stero boxes full of game tapes.
Amiga A500
Amiga A600
Amiga A1200
Amiga A2000

A few other boxes of various addons and stuff and a few boxes of disks and empty boxes of games ( I am assuming all the game disks are in the disk boxes)

I was actually wondering what something like the above is worth now. It will all be in fairly good condition and I know it all worked when I used it. I even think one or two of the spectrums are still in the boxes having never even been used. It would mean a trip down to plymouth to collect it all and it would take some sorting out but if anyone know anywhere I could perhaps sell some or all of it?
 
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