My very first PC

[Ramseth]

You just jotled my memory, remember that there was a shop that exclusively sells the Atari, Commodores sets plus all the accesories near the Majestic Cinema side, Chinatown Singapore? the side entrance where there was a cut fruits store & where the OG store was?

I bought my Atari and software at Yaohan PS. Those days it was my favorurite store. Missed it since it was gone. I bought my Sony Walkman cassettes mostly there too. Sim Lim Square wasn't even completed yet. For some fun with Apple (out of the price range that our parents would allow), me and my classmates went Sim Lim Tower after school.

Only the well off could buy their kids Fisher-Price toys, and these people frequent Tangs, Robinsons Stores, Metro..

You mean the HDB shops....the imitation FP made in HK....

Krafty bought his first computer as an adult with his first paycheque. It was a Fisher-Price battery-operated with keyboard that beeped and blinked. The type richer parents bought for their kindergarten kids to learn A to Z and 0 to 9.

 

[cass888]

What do you mean kid? Krafty bought his first computer as an adult with his first paycheque. It was a Fisher-Price battery-operated with keyboard that beeped and blinked.

Don't lidat lah. Krafty poor boy. H_o K_um H_ean made him quit his ST job after one day. HKH also made him quit his Japanese job. Or maybe his Jeepun boss no like him (he is big MNC worker wor, other people no understand MNC politics). His wife also left him, dunno HKH fault or not.

 

[halsey02]

I bought my Atari and software at Yaohan PS. Those days it was my favorurite store. Missed it since it was gone. I bought my Sony Walkman cassettes mostly there too. Sim Lim Square wasn't even completed yet. For some fun with Apple (out of the price range that our parents would allow), me and my classmates went Sim Lim Tower after school.

I was very curious about electronics at that time, but the curious part was I wasn't interested in the commodore, the Tandy, the Atari..I remember the Yaohan PS Ataris.. guess I wasn't keep on playing games on screen, and still doesn't, not that I don't & don't know how!

But it was actually the MAC that got me interested but could not afford to buy, buy did try many times....finally got the IBM compatible PC...nothing like the MAC though...

The second PC I had was the HP150 in which I bought from an office that was closing down in 1984 for S$200 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-150

The PC had a touch screen display running CP/M menu ( later found in photocopy machines), I think Cp?M was from Digital.

You guys think the touch screen was a new thing, think again, I actually used that in the 80's... the PC comes with a thermal printer at the back using the fax thermal paper.

I still have the 3.5" floppies, the start up OS ( Dos x.x), & the softwares that came with it....Lotus 123 version 2.0, Displaywriter...etc

I love DW... a simple word processor that runs on a floppy...and Lotus 123, how many of you. still remember the commands? /F ...

 

[hotbot]

aiya...you suan me huh...never mind let you win this time. The road is still long ahead, mr hansum!

I bought my Atari and software at Yaohan PS. Those days it was my favorurite store. Missed it since it was gone. I bought my Sony Walkman cassettes mostly there too. Sim Lim Square wasn't even completed yet. For some fun with Apple (out of the price range that our parents would allow), me and my classmates went Sim Lim Tower after school.



Krafty bought his first computer as an adult with his first paycheque. It was a Fisher-Price battery-operated with keyboard that beeped and blinked. The type richer parents bought for their kindergarten kids to learn A to Z and 0 to 9.

 

[cass888]

aiya...you suan me huh...never mind let you win this time. The road is still long ahead, mr hansum!

I think he'll be ok. He's nor harpming about how H_o K_um H_ean ruined his life, how he was "forced" to quit his ST job, how his Japanese boss hates him so much he had to quit (never occurred that maybe you were lousy), how his wife finally saw light and left him ...

 

[hotbot]

you just finished your blow job for lim boon heng huh???

I think he'll be ok. He's nor harpming about how H_o K_um H_ean ruined his life, how he was "forced" to quit his ST job, how his Japanese boss hates him so much he had to quit (never occurred that maybe you were lousy), how his wife finally saw light and left him ...

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

you just finished your blow job for lim boon heng huh???

Hey, primary school kid don't talk about blowjob OK.

Wait till you are physically mature first.

 

[Cestbon]

Look like many here are born in 60's and 70's. PC monitor only one color that is green. All playing with DOS. Now many don't even know how to use DOS most simple and powerful.
Remember all the trouble type drive/copy many many dot or /// or >> or ***...........
Nowday kid don't even have change to use floopy disc. All thumb drive.
Now all become simpler just click with mouse.

 

[Ramseth]

Anyone remembers Sinclair Spectrum? A classmate had it. It was small like a notepad keyboard with CPU, RAM etc. all inside. However, it had no screen attached; still had to plug it to a monitor.

 

[neddy]

My very first computer was an Atari. Can't even remember it's model name or number. Software (games and utilities) came in cartridges. Power on, it booted straight to BASIC programming mode. Sony Walkman can be used as external memory drive.

Probably an Atari 800 (cost about $2000 with disk drive).

Memory expansion (8k or 16k) through cartridges. I remember that you can fit 2 cartriages for games, but only one if you expand the memory.
The disk drive has its own power switch and takes forever to start. A lot of beeping growling sounds to entertain while the drive startup.

The first PC I use was a Commodore PET Professional Computer
I used a portable cassette tape recorder for data. Still remember the "CLOAD" DOS command.

 

[johnny333]

I had one of these in 1978. Radioshack Tandy. They were sold by OG Dept store!

I remember the 1st computer OG dept store sold was the TRS-80 also known as trash 80 . That's what a friend who owned one described it. Remember it cost something like $1,500 in those days.

Couldn't afford one but I did signed up for a computer course where I got some hands on experience.

Surprised that there's no mention of the Commodore Pet(not the Commodore 64).

 

[johnny333]

Anyone remembers Sinclair Spectrum? A classmate had it. It was small like a notepad keyboard with CPU, RAM etc. all inside. However, it had no screen attached; still had to plug it to a monitor.

In the old days the TV doubled up as a monitor. Dedicated computer monitors was expensive & a luxury.

 

[halsey02]

Holding the iPad next to any of these....look like they are from the 'caveman' era...and that was..20 yrs or more?

 

[singveld]

I did not know you are so old

 

[johnny333]

Holding the iPad next to any of these....look like they are from the 'caveman' era...and that was..20 yrs or more?

Those days caveman had to pay $700 for a HP calculator Same price as the Ipad.

Computers were a luxury & not a necessity. There was no internet, no online porn, no email,...

However good food in Spore was very cheap

 

[Ramseth]

Those days caveman had to pay $700 for a HP calculator Same price as the Ipad.

Computers were a luxury & not a necessity. There was no internet, no online porn, no email,...

However good food in Spore was very cheap

Yeah, my Atari then cost about S$2,000. I used it for games and BASIC programming hobby only. It came with a monitor but there wasn't even a printer. We didn't even buy the upgrade package with external DD, since I knew how to use Sony Walkman as a DD. My dad agreed to to buy because there was a financial program available, sort of a primitive version of half Lotus 1-2-3 half Quicken. He used that for his illegal bookmaking biz.

Fortunately, we weren't raided by the police. Later, I even joined the police.

I owed most of my kindergarten computer and BASIC education the old MPH Stamford during Pr. Sch. days. At the top floor that time, it was a showroom for Imagination Machine, something between Atari and Apple. The salesman was very friendly and allowed me to hog on a machine all day for free. However, IM didn't survive for long as it was more expensive than Atari and the software support was scant.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

I had a Sinclair that did not even use flppy disk but a cassette tape

Remember the Apple I. II. III...Later came all the imitations brands like Orange, Pineapple, Cubic99 (creative's predecessor)

 

[aurvandil]

This is the first PC I owned. Not the original but a cloned version from People's Park which was then the de facto computer center of Singapore.

The two disk drive configuration was a critical must have since it allowed you to use programs like Disk Muncher to make copies of your favourite games.

Any first generation hackers here who used things like CIA?

 

[Muachee]

anyone remember "logo"? try to draw without a mouse..

 

[neddy]

Probably an Atari 800 (cost about $2000 with disk drive).