TL;DR It was an old Wang system, 286 processor(I think, anyway), with no hard drive, a 5.25" floppy drive, and a lovely green monochrome monitor. I didn’t have it long enough to reach the point where I could have identified the actual hardware/specs.
Back in 1993, I was 10, and the internet really wasn’t a thing yet(yeah, yeah, I know. But for most of us, the internet didn’t exist until the mid-late 90’s). You’d probably have difficulty even finding someone in the neighborhood who could tell you what a computer was, nevermind having used one. I was out running around the city, as you used to be able to do at 10 years old, when I passed by some local business/office/who knows I was 10. Big pile of trash out front, waiting to be picked up. When you’re a kid, and you’re poor, you go picking. Trash picking, I mean. You can get all sorts of cool shit, especially from the wealthier neighborhoods. Maybe it’s different nowadays, but back in the day, people would toss out perfectly good toys, bikes, electronics, furniture, and as they became more commom, videogames, computers, etc. A ton of the shit I owned as a kid is stuff I picked straight out of the trash. Even after that, I picked trash for years. Resold a metric FUCKTON of stuff that other(presumably wealthier) people deemed to be garbage.
Back to this business/office/free stuff location, I obviously start eyeing what’s in the big pile out front of this place. Among the stuff, I see a big, beige, metal box, a weird looking TV, and something with a big coiled wire hanging off of it. Now, it’s not like there weren’t computers in movies/TV at that point, and I had just read Jurassic park the same year, so I did recognize, vaguely, what it was. So I start looking at it, poking around, It had a name on it. “Wang”. Don’t know what that means, but I’m 10; that’s hilarious. I decide I’m taking it. Tried to pick it up, and yeah, that shit is heavy. Nevermind the TV thing, and the keyboard. So as you do, I look around for a stary shopping cart, and sure enough, there’s never one far away. Grab the cart and start lifting my haul into it, when someone comes out of the business/office/treasure-hoard, and yells “HEY!” Thought I was about to be in trouble, but instead, this guys walks over to me and says “you’re gonna need this.” Handed me a bundle of wires, and a square envelope, and just went back inside. So I toss that in the cart, and start pushing. And push I did. A shopping cart full of early 90’s computer hardware, pushed by a 10 year-old, down the street, on and off of curb, up and down hills, from the other end of the city, is hard work. But eventually, I got home with it. Not to worry though, I only lived on the 3rd floor of a three-story building.
So I get home, and I start unloading my haul, one piece at a time, and start dragging it up the stairs. Thankfully no one was home, so I could bring everything into my room without anyone complaing about what I’m doing. That was also one of the only times I actually had a bedroom, so that worked out. Once I get it in there, I put the big metal box on the floor in the corner of my room, I take my monitor and decide that I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to sit on top, so I put that there. The keyboard was next. After I untagled that cursed coiled cable, I obviously checked the back of the monitor, looking for where I need to plug the keyboard in. Figured out that no, it gets plugged into the big metal box. What next? Oh, right, that bundle of wires the guy gave me. It tuned out to be a couple of power cables, and a (what I now would assume) was a VGA cable. So I get to work plugging all of that in, and when it comes to the VGA cable, that’s when I realize that oh, everything plugs into the metal box, that seems important. That must be the part that is a “computer.” So what the hell is the TV thing? Took a minute, but I eventually remembered my NES, and realized that oh yeah, the box is where everything happens, and the screen is just where you see it. Again, I was 10, and all of this technology was still new to the average person. Give me a break here.
And last up was that square envelope. Would you believe it had a black plastic thing inside? It’s really floppy. Weird. What the fuck is this thing? It has a white sticker on it, and some illegible scribbles. Nintendo to the rescue again. This black plastic thing sure does look like it would fit into the slot on the front of the metal box. Oh shit, it did! Now I just have to turn this thing on. How the fuck do you turn this thing on? Spent a while on that one, flipping the obvious big red power switch in the back. Took a while before I figured out there was a second power button on the front. TWO power switches?! What is this nonsense? Whatever. It’s on now.
I sat and watched as bright green text started popping up on the screen. Various numbers, and phrases that I’d never heard in my life. Clearly, this stuff could only be understood some secret government agent, or that one kid I read about Jurassic Park, who was obviously like, a genius hacker or something. The slot where I shoved that floppy plastic square sure is noisy. What the hell is it doing, anyway? It loads in just like my Nintendo games, maybe it’s a game?! Maybe a game is about to start. It sure was, friends. Maybe the greatest game ever made. We called it… DOS.
Man, did I love that game, DOS. I spent the several hours, typing random shit on the keyboard, as the command prompt did absolutely nothing of interest, since I had no idea what I was doing. But after those couple of hours of typing swears and random nonsense, I finally started to get bored, what with all of the nothing that was happening. And for whatever reason, I thought maybe someone could help me. Or, why not the computer itself? Maybe it will help me. So I typed the work “help”, I hit the enter key, and sure enough, something finally happened. Holy shit, it’s doing something. It’s telling me how to DO stuff.
And so, before this novel goes on even longer, yeah. I found the help menu, and spent many more hours needlessly using very basic commands to create, copy, move, rename, and delete empty files and folders. Truly, I was now an elite haxxor man.
Over the next couple of years, I pulled many systems and parts out of various trash piles, and cobbled together different systems. Many, many different 386 and 486 systems. Until finally, when I was 15, I managed to get my hands on an obscenely slow, but absolute magic at the time, dialup modem, and a pile of “free hours” of AOL.
And they all lived happily ever after… Until social media was invented. The end.
If people like/want to read/discuss such poorly written nonsense, maybe I’ll write up some nonsense about other technology-based shenanigans from over the years. And if people would rather make fun of my poor writing skills; fair.
My first computer was a brand new Commodore Amiga 600 that I got for Christmas in 1992. I was 10. It was glorious. It had 1MB of RAM with a built-in floppy drive (and no hard drive) and was paired with a lovely 14" CRT monitor at a time when most non-PC home computers were connected to TVs with RF modulators. The difference in image quality was immediately apparent when I went to my friends’ houses and played on their Amigas.
My parents were convinced because you could do educational-type stuff on it, but really it was a games machine with a keyboard for me - we never had dedicated games consoles. I played the hell out of it for a few years until we got our first Windows 95 PC around 1996.
Amigas were the shit. In my late teens, I paid for an already ancient Amiga 1000 over installments because there was, bizarrely, an Amiga dealer in the Indiana town where I grew up, just so I could write music with OctaMED. I have lost all of the music I wrote. This is probably for the best.
Bloomington, or was there another Indiana town with an improbably-located Amiga dealer? I remember checking out one there that I was shocked to find. (I was in town to visit a woman studying at IU.)
It was indeed Bloomington! Digital Arts on the square. The owners were a couple named Chris and Jeff. My friend and I used to hang out there all the time. I wonder what those two are doing these days?
That sounds about right. It was over 25 years ago, so I’m not entirely certain of the details, but a trip down memory lane, to be sure! Anyway, it looks like they’re still at it as a NewTek re-seller.
My friends all had A500s and I was the only one with a PC, I envied them so much. Next Christmas my parents had a surprise for me in my father’s home office, and behold, a 386, soundblaster and a colour VGA monitor. Thanks to the hard drive now I was the one envied :).
But up to this day, even though I never owned one myself the Amiga has forever a special place in my heart! Great memories with good friends!
First computer of my own was a Macbook air (2013 I think) when I was in middle school. Before you ask my age, I’ve already graduated college with a bachelor’s and could be any of your coworkers.
Tldr; daily reminder that y’all are old now
Macbook air
What?!?
y’all are old now
Oh. Yeah. Well I suppose it makes sense when you put it like that.
So… wait… there are adults. Living adults right now. Who were in middle school in 2013?
And this is legal?
Damn…
I’m well aware, my body reminds me in new ways every day.
Same year for me, but I built a PC with an i7-4790k and a 760. I had just started high school. I also have a bachelor’s and could be any of your coworkers.
Man the 4790k must have been the most popular processor of the time, I kept mine for as long as possible
After upgrading I built a system with it that my mom was using until 6 months ago. I ended up getting a 5800X3D and built her a system with my R5 3600. It was starting to show its age but was doing damn well for a decade old CPU.
Yeah I only upgraded as VR titles had a much higher cpu demand. Got a Ryzen 3800. The X3D should be sick.
First one I remember was the Commodore 64.
We used to type programs into it from my Dad’s books just so we’d have more games to play on it. When it didn’t run, my brother and I would have to check the code again line-by-line.
Also, we didn’t know how to write to disk, so if someone powered it off that game was gone.
I guess this was technically my first system too but all I remember was it took actual cassette tapes and I played dig dug in it.
We did have the tape storage, but only one or two games that ran off of that. I do remember the tapes were painfully slow to load though.
I think tapes were more common in the UK while floppies were more prevalent in the US.
Oh that actually makes sense. I was a kid in Suffolk UK when we had it. That’s a cool random fact you just taught me about my childhood.
I believe the tape drive just predated the floppy drive.
I had to write to normal cassette tape.
Amiga 500. Best entertainment ever.
What an amazing first computer to have. Loved my Amiga so much.
They really were great. And Workbench was ahead of its time. I’m kind of sad we don’t have a modern Amiga as a legitimate competitor.
Workbench was an absolutely incredible piece of kit. Just so far ahead of its time.
My Amiga story is that I tried to read through the enormous manuals that came in the box one summer because I thought I’d be able to code if I did. I think I was about 11 or 12. Needless to say that didn’t work out.
Life before the internet really had huge drawbacks.
I still used to fire it up at 18 or so for late nights playing civ. Loved that computer so much.
Commodore 64, probably around '86 or so. It had a tape drive and games would take like 20 minutes to load. Crazy to think about now.
Later on (probably around 1989 or 1990) I got an Amstrad 8086 PC. IIRC it had maybe 1mb ram (pretty large for the time) and a massive 20mb hard drive. I remember playing games like bubble Bobble, the Sierra adventure games and so on. A few years later I got a 386 DX PC and played a lot of wing Commander and privateer, dune 2, LucasArts games and so on.
Ahhh, memories!
Speak and spell. Learned to speak and spell.
I saw one in an antique mall yesterday and tried to explain it to my daughter and was disappointed when there weren’t fresh batteries in it.
By the way, if you’ve never seen Albert Brooks’ Speak-n-Spell routine, you need to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6uFHC9lfzk
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=p6uFHC9lfzk
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I took mine apart, hooked it up to pieces of a bike, and some other stuff in the woods and used it to uber a ride home.
ET PHONE HOME.
It was an old Wang system
Don’t make the obvious joke. Don’t make the obvious joke. Don’t make the obvious joke.
Also, Apple IIGS. Learned C and 6502 assembly. Now I am a menace.
Hey! This is no time for jokes.
OP has many cherished memories of the time they spent cleaning and then playing with a stranger’s Wang. I can just picture the look of joy on OP’s face when they found the unloved Wang just out there on the street, ignored by everyone else.
I bet OP will never forget the joy that a stranger’s Wang brought them 😊
Sinclair ZX80, built from a kit.
ZX81, couldn’t afford games so learned to program, wrote little graphical adventures using a text map.
TI-99
Mine was a Leading Edge Model D, an 8088 PC with 512k of RAM. It was the more expensive model that had a little metal switch on the back that could turn on EGA graphics. My family got it 3rd hand when I was 8 or 9. I mostly used it for making greeting cards and banners (on the tractor feed dot matrix printer) and copying basic programs out of Byte magazine.
Commodore 128, I was ~10 when we got it
I assume my dad got it at a computer store.
I used it to play games and check my math homework. I thought it was cool af.
Commodore 64 with the datassette cassette tape drive.
Went through the 64 instruction manual, got to basic, typed in
10 PRINT “HELLO”
RUN
Totally thought the damn thing was alive and taking to me.
That ended up kicking off a lifetime of coding and a career is development that in the last few years transitioned into DevOps.
But back then, even before I got my 64, I knew a dude who had one with a 1541 disc drive and with tons of games, so that got me hooked on the system. I spent so much time there before I got mine, playing GI Joe, Jumpman, Transformers, Agent USA, HERO, Montezuma Revenge, IKARI Warriors, etc.
Random memories of back then are fun…
RUN magazine, Byte magazine, Computer Shopper, Video game and computer entertainment… waiting for games to load lol
I think computers were a lot more interesting when they weren’t all just windows pcs. Different architectures, different operating systems, interesting emerging technology that was actually exciting and not just higher capacity of this you already have. Local user groups. BBSes.
When I need to binge that nostalgia my goto is https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCVKDG2vK2FHmg4xYrsqnW2Q
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://m.piped.video/channel/UCVKDG2vK2FHmg4xYrsqnW2Q
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Apple 2e I got from my next door neighbor at a garage sale. I spent every moment on the thing until I saved up enough to build myself a 486. After that I was the computer kid so people would give me their old stuff, had a 286 and a 386 that put together from a box of discarded office computer parts. Spent hours sorting through and testing individual RAM chips but was able get it working, I still remember typing up school papers on it and the horrible racket the daisy wheel printer made as it printed my assignments on green and white office paper.
Man I was maybe 3, and my dad brought home lots of weird equipment because of his job. Those big ole beige HPs with the phat CRT monitors.
I don’t remember specifically what computer I got first because there were several. Some of them down the line were pieced together by disassembling other systems, with and without help from pops.
I used it for lots and lots of unsupervised, unrestricted internet browsing. 2000s tor was a wild place. Saw a ton of shit I had no business seeing, talked to people I had no business talking to, did shit I had no business doing. Amassed a bunch of bitcoin very early on, got rid of the pc. KillMeNow.jpg.
I fully built my own customer with all new parts for the first time when I was like 11. Been on customs ever since then.
Mine was a Tandy TRS 80 in the early 80s, which had both a cartridge slot and an audio cassette drive. Most all the programs I had were bootleg tapes though I don’t know where they came from, I’m guessing my father through work.
I can remember a few of the arcade clones, Zaxxon, Pac Man, Donkey Kong with a terrible 8 bit version of in the hall of the mountain king.
The two that stand out were a painting program I learned to glitch by fluttering the reset button while it was doing fills, and an ascii adventure game call Nahga or something similar that felt like the biggest world ever.
One day home sick I was using it and vomited an entire strawberry milk shake on it, it was an all in one unit w built in keyboard, and I messed it up good.
Taking apart and cleaning it was my first experience working on hardware and certianly left an impression in me.
I had a radio shack “trash” 80. But this was in 78-79.
I played pong and space invaders on it.
It also came with a manual that had the computer’s commands on it in basic language.
I got it to play happy birthday to you when you turned it on; alas, without breaks between the notes.
At that time, the word ‘programming’ was not in my vocabulary.