A trip down memory lane and beyond at Vintage Computer Fest

[danrok]

A photo essay featuring some hardware you may remember, some you may have only heard of, and a few things that you were probably never aware existed. One thing we learned: the older a computer is, the more likely it is to be blue.

See front page:
AOA - A trip down memory lane and beyond at Vintage Computer Fest

Comments?

[chrisbard]

Hehe well for me it all started with a

BW-TV with Integrated Circuits + a Spectrum 48 ZX + taperecorder

Then it was a HC95 with 5" discs man the loading time was great rofl

then my first PC a Compaq XT (think it had a 8086 in it) and the ram and hdd are were so big I would be embarassed to post the ammount here + msdos + 5"fdd + integrated CGA display 10" or something
and after a while I managed to get a decent 14" separate cga monitor

After a while (long time) I bought a P120 8MB cant remember what hdd it had with windows 95 (omg good ol 95) + 15" color SVGA Philips and don ask me how much I payed for it cause it was brand new and the top of what you could find at that time.

Then I remember a K6 or two when I actually started OC'ing

Man I fell old for good times and MS-DOS

In the end I'd only like to say MS-DOS KICKED ASS !!!

PS The chick with the thing looks so happy

[Áedán]

I started with a ZX81 - a Z80 based machine with a built in 1K of memory. It did have a memory expansion to bring the memory up to 16K. There was a couple of ZX Spectrums involved, as well as a BBC Micro B. The BBC B was probably one of the nicer machines to program - it had a built in assembler and a well-written well-documented OS.

From there, Atari ST and Amiga (both 68000 based). The 68K is a nice beast to program too. The Amiga definitely had the more elegant OS, especially from a developer view. Then moving onto a 486DX2@25Mhz based machine. It wasn't until the advent of 486 based machines that systems like the ST and Amiga were challenged by PCs. That machine was quickly overclocked to 33Mhz, although I didn't know what overclocking was at that point in time.

Incidental that machine was running OS/2, as I had a multiline BBS running on it (three phone lines and two local consoles), and Windows simply couldn't cope with more than one modem at a time reliably. That machine was later upgraded to take a 486DX4, but the motherboard didn't technically support it - it needed some undocumented jumper settings and some soldering in order to make it work!

[Gizmo]

I started with a TI 99/4A and a tape recorder, moved on to an Atari 800XL (mowed a lot of yards to pay for both of those) with a 5 1/4 floppy (80K/side, woot!), eventually got an Atari 520 ST. That machine was HEAVILY modified (3 floppies, upgraded to 2 meg RAM by hand-soldering the chips in, overclocked to 12 mhz). Also had an Amiga 500, then got an Atari Falcon '030. Both of those machines received significant modifications as well. Eventually pieced together a 386 running Windows 3.1.

Áedán's right, the 68K in the Atari and the Amiga was a great machine to program to. To this day I maintain that the primary reason C is such a popular programming language is because assembly is such a PITA on the x86 architecture. Assembly language on the 68K is very easy, because it has a very sane layout.

[Daniel ~]

I paid $2000 for a 386... late to the party as usual...":O}

[cloasters]

Wow, cool article at Ars. Thanks for the pointer, danrok! Had a Hyundai 386 dropped into my lap. Added a 9" IBM color monitor that was in love with creamed spinach green. Late to the game, it's always something!

[Daniel ~]

Mine was called "The Terminator"...(said with a fake German accent!)

[PorPorMe]

I started with an 8086, a Compaq I think-don't remember really! MS-Dos and then Windows 3.1. I traded a 18ft boat, motor, and trailer for it. The newer machines were the 486's. I've been playing catch up ever since!

[cloasters]

No possible way for me to afford a 486, back when they were the cream of the crop! Couldn't afford a 386, the universe smiled upon me. I must remember that the world isn't always harsh!

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by PorPorMe

I started with an 8086, a Compaq I think-don't remember really! MS-Dos and then Windows 3.1. I traded a 18ft boat, motor, and trailer for it. The newer machines were the 486's. I've been playing catch up ever since!

Did ya use Norton Commander...huh did ya? ":O} How about Stacker?

[cloasters]

Norton Com.., that was a file organizer? Can't remember, I'm old now.

[Daniel ~]

Yep and Utilities... not knowing how to do much else...I defraged a lot! ":O}

[ccperf721p]

I was way late to the game I guess. My first was a used Compaq P2 with 128MB of ram. Although I had an interest in the technology of earlier units that I had used briefly in high school, they weren't any quicker than doing it in my head or by hand.

[Daniel ~]

Well you made up for lost time... a saved me a ton of work! ":O}

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by cloasters

No possible way for me to afford a 486, back when they were the cream of the crop! Couldn't afford a 386, the universe smiled upon me. I must remember that the world isn't always harsh!

The 486 was available...the money for one wasn't...Two grand bought me second best...or what I thought might be second best at the time...":O}

[chrisbard]

Ohhhh nooo , not another bad block !! Anyone remembers Loom?

[PorPorMe]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Did ya use Norton Commander...huh did ya? ":O} How about Stacker?

I have a vague memory of Norton Commander-I have a memory of trying to decide wheather to stay with the DOS gui or switch to Win 3.1.
Should Have stayed with DOS! Defrag, defrag, and defrag agian! There wasn't a lot else to do!

[Daniel ~]

Ah that was why I "needed" Stacker! Stacker compressed my data so my 250 MB drive functioned just like a 500 MB drive! As an added benefit...Defraging remained a must! ":O}

[cloasters]

Was Win95 when defragging got real squirelly? Start and restart ad nauseum? Or was that 98?

Installed a new, smaller monitor yesterday. A little wider than the Samsung 19" was, but not as tall. Tell me again, what's so great about widescreen? Oh yeah, at least I can turn off this new no-name thing. The Samsung may have had only one click left on its power button-its last.

[MUff1N]

In my earlier years [as most of you know by now] I was too busy playing guitar & seeing the U.S. to mess with a computer.
As a matter of a fact I had absolutely no desire to even turn one on & didn't know how...

So I was VERY LATE coming to the "World of Computers".

My first computer was a Gateway 500X which was very fast & modern for 2002. I still have it & it works fine still.

Pent 4-B 2.4GHz CPU, 845GRG mobo, 512Mbs Ram, dedicated Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440 graphics card, 80gb IDE Western HD, CD & DVD-RAM drive & of course the good old Floppy drive with a whopping 160w PSU to power it all!
Also with the package was a modern 15" LCD flatscreen monitor.

Grand Total price in 2002: $2230!

You can get a computer now that is 100% faster & more powerful for 1/3 the price & that is already built!

And while we are at it, lets not forget the G-15 Digital computer! (this is the compact model below)