Road Runner Posted December 11, 2013 Share #1 Posted December 11, 2013 Mine was a Zenith Data Systems ZP-150 in 1984. Specs: Weight: 7.7 lb Dimensions: 13"W × 11.1"D × 1.8"H Ram: 32K, expandable to 416K ROM: 224K, plus 2 sockets for software expansion CPU: Intel 80C88 Power: 12VDC or 10 AA alkaline batteries (providing 15 hours run-time w/o modem), plus internal nickel-cadmium battery for retaining memory while off, up to 8 days Ports: Parallel printer RS-232C Telephone line (300 baud modem) System bus BCR (for a bar code reader) CMT (for data cassette recorder) ACP (for acoustic coupler) Handset (of telephone) LCD display (80 characters/line with 16 lines), contrast control, volume control, and low battery indicator 75-key typewriter-style keyboard The stock 32K RAM could hold up to 10 typewritten pages. The main methods of file transfer were via the modem or the RS-232C port and a file transfer program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted December 11, 2013 Share #2 Posted December 11, 2013 First one I remember working on was an early Apple, the box with everything in it and the plug in keyboard and mouse in the 1980s First one I bought for me was built by a shop in Dallas called Lucky Computers. I used to have the scanned receipt but I lost it in a drive crash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share #3 Posted December 11, 2013 First one I bought for me was built by a shop in Dallas called Lucky Computers. I used to have the scanned receipt but I lost it in a drive crash. That doesn't sound very lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingtermite Posted December 11, 2013 Share #4 Posted December 11, 2013 I have a PDF at home of the invoice that I scanned (Years later when I found it in my strong box). It was a 286 (circa 1990 or 1991). 1MB ram (640 base RAM with 384 extended RAM) 40MB hard drive Both 5.25 and 3.5" floppy drives. 2400 Baud modem DOS 4.0 I went back about a month after I got it and bought the Math Co-Processor too. Felt like an electronic god when I installed it myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torch511 Posted December 11, 2013 Share #5 Posted December 11, 2013 First computer was a pre-production (prototype) Osborne computer. My dad was an electrical engineer for the longest time for a company that made circuit boards so we tended to be ahead of the power curve tech-wise We've had just about every computer since - Timex Sinclair 100, Tandy 1000, Commodore Vic 20, 64 and Amiga, Atari 800, IBM and then generation after generation after generation of computer after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted December 11, 2013 I remember using my little ZP-150 to get online. No internet, you just dialed up certain numbers using your 300 baud modem and you could participate in various forum discussions. I've been on forums for thirty years and I'm still dumb as a rock. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Silly Posted December 11, 2013 Share #7 Posted December 11, 2013 I had a hand held TRS-80. I used it to cheat in my statistics class. We were allowed to use calculators and since it looked like one the prof didn't care that I had it. I programmed it to display formula for some problems. For others I programmed it to prompt me for the information and print out the steps so I could show the work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingtermite Posted December 11, 2013 Share #8 Posted December 11, 2013 I remember using my little ZP-150 to get online. No internet, you just dialed up certain numbers using your 300 baud modem and you could participate in various forum discussions. I've been on forums for thirty years and I'm still dumb as a rock. I did a few bulletin boards until Prodigy came out; then I used that for a while. Within a year or two I could get internet access (what little 'internet' there was back then) via my college dial-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share #9 Posted December 11, 2013 I did a few bulletin boards until Prodigy came out; then I used that for a while. Within a year or two I could get internet access (what little 'internet' there was back then) via my college dial-up. Yep. Bulletin boards they were called. I forgot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olas Nah Posted December 11, 2013 Share #10 Posted December 11, 2013 The first one I ever owned myself was a Gateway pc with a 486 cpu. I'd learned keyboarding on a TRS-80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indy Posted December 11, 2013 Share #11 Posted December 11, 2013 Comodore VIC-20 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopped Liver Posted December 11, 2013 Share #12 Posted December 11, 2013 Trash 80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted December 11, 2013 Share #13 Posted December 11, 2013 Amstrad PCW8512 that I bought when I lived in England. The 512 part of the title was the 512K of memory. There was also a cheaper 8256 version with less memory and only one floppy drive. It ran CP/M for the OS. No hard drive. It had 3" floppy disc drives. No misprint - 3" not 3.5" discs. The A drive would only hold 170K of data on the disc. Green screen monitor. Strange 9-pin dot matrix printer. It was a very popular series of computers in the UK and a few other countries. Sears sold about 80,000 of them in the USA. I added an external 3.5" drive to mine and made quite a bit of money converting data on the 3" discs to 3.5" for people when they upgraded to PCs. I learned how to program with Mallard Basic which was named after a famous train and not a duck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted December 11, 2013 Share #14 Posted December 11, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted December 12, 2013 Share #15 Posted December 12, 2013 Comodore VIC-20 Me too! I loved the keyboard compared to the flat-thumb Atari 400, and I couldn;t afford an Atari 800. Actually I guess it was more like Kzoo's, in college - an IBM 360 I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldendesign Posted December 12, 2013 Share #16 Posted December 12, 2013 IBM PS/2 I had the printer as well. Came with Win 2.0 I also bought the 256k 70 pin RAM chip so I could play DOOM. Good times. Even had a very early version of Print shop. My father bought it for several hundreds of dollars at sears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
team scooter Posted December 12, 2013 Share #17 Posted December 12, 2013 My first computer that I didn't share, was an old Gateway laptop handed down from my wife, handed down from my son first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingtermite Posted December 12, 2013 Share #18 Posted December 12, 2013 What about your current computer, people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted December 12, 2013 Share #19 Posted December 12, 2013 What about your current computer, people? Which one? I have a Dell PC and laptop at home. Two Dells at work. Also about a dozen Sun Sparcs also at work. Plus my Droid smart phone is more powerful than the first 8 computers that I owned. Heck I think my car has 5 CPUs in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopped Liver Posted December 12, 2013 Share #20 Posted December 12, 2013 What about your current computer, people? which one? Laptop, desktop, mainframe, or the SC in the datacenter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share #21 Posted December 12, 2013 What about your current computer, people? I only have one. A four year-old HP desktop w/Windows 7. Works for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingtermite Posted December 12, 2013 Share #22 Posted December 12, 2013 I only have one. A four year-old HP desktop w/Windows 7. Works for me. My current one is a power house. I had used laptops for about the past 10 years and missed having a real power house. Even though I don't play games much, I wanted something with oomph. So about 1 - 1 1/2 years ago I built my own with pretty much top of the line everything, full 32 gigs RAM, SSD drives, etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leskovez Posted September 30, 2014 Share #23 Posted September 30, 2014 Roadrunner, Do you still have Zenith ZP-150 laptop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
az_cyclist Posted September 30, 2014 Share #24 Posted September 30, 2014 was an Apple 2e, with the 80 column card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
az_cyclist Posted September 30, 2014 Share #25 Posted September 30, 2014 my current computer is a Dell Inspiron 660. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted September 30, 2014 Author Share #26 Posted September 30, 2014 Roadrunner, Do you still have Zenith ZP-150 laptop? No. The screen went blank and that was it. Threw it out many years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentonMakes Posted September 30, 2014 Share #27 Posted September 30, 2014 I used a TRS-80 and then a VIC-20 in school, and then we got a Commodore 64 for Christmas one year. Can't count the hours I spent on that thing, playing games and writing programs in BASIC. I actually still have the C64, the tape drive, the 1541 disk drive... not sure if any of it still works. I have a C64 emulator for the PC, to play a few of the good games ("good" probably being pretty subjective). We had a game cartridge called "Jack Attack" that I couldn't get enough of. Still one of my favorite computer games ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted September 30, 2014 Share #28 Posted September 30, 2014 VIC20 had a Lunar Lander and a driving game. There was also this simple as hell skiing game that I poked in with hex numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leskovez Posted October 1, 2014 Share #29 Posted October 1, 2014 No. The screen went blank and that was it. Threw it out many years ago. Very sorry, I'd have bought it from you even in this state for the museum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted October 1, 2014 Share #30 Posted October 1, 2014 Very sorry, I'd have bought it from you even in this state for the museum. And here we figured that you were here because you had in interest in cycling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leskovez Posted October 1, 2014 Share #31 Posted October 1, 2014 And here we figured that you were here because you had in interest in cycling. Bicycles also my passion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted December 23, 2014 Share #32 Posted December 23, 2014 I miss leskovez. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share #33 Posted December 23, 2014 I think he just googled his way here because of my reference to my old Zenith laptop. He wanted to buy it. When I told him I threw it away, he dropped us like a cold potato. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted December 23, 2014 Share #34 Posted December 23, 2014 I feel so cheap now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingtermite Posted December 23, 2014 Share #35 Posted December 23, 2014 I miss leskovez. He was waaaay too cool for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted December 23, 2014 Share #36 Posted December 23, 2014 He was waaaay too cool for us. For me that applies to almost everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted December 23, 2014 Share #37 Posted December 23, 2014 Who bothers with an avatar for three whole posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted December 24, 2014 Share #38 Posted December 24, 2014 Who bothers with an avatar for three whole posts? Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted December 24, 2014 Share #39 Posted December 24, 2014 Les Les Moonves or Les Nessman? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc2000 Posted December 24, 2014 Share #40 Posted December 24, 2014 First one used - PDP 11 with 8K of magnetic core memory. It is in a museum now. Current - assembled from parts LGA2011v3 6 core with 16GB of memory and 8 drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneWolf Posted December 26, 2014 Share #41 Posted December 26, 2014 Packard Bell PB8810 Turbo XT back in 1992. Outgrew it in three months; went into debt and bought my Leading Technology PC Partner 386SX-25MHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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