If I skip my first computer, an Atari 800XL with 256k bank select memory and toggle switched EEPROMs with AtariDOS, SpartaDOS, and a decompiler, along with a phone coupled modem, and go directly to my first IBM DOS machine, my first software packages were WordPerfect for DOS, VisiCalc, and Netscape.
A lot of water under the bridge since then but it was fun reminiscing.
What did you folks start with?
Certifiable member of the gun toting, septuagenarian, bucket list workin', crazed retiree, bald is beautiful club! USN (RET), COTEP #192
October 02, 2018, 02:26 PM
Chowser
WordPerfect for my Atari 1040ST.
My first computer was an Atari 800. Then the 800XL, then a 1200XL. I skipped the XEs and went to the 1040ST, then a 4160STe that I bought from the guys at Double Click software then to a Packard Bell 486 and I don’t remember the bunch of computers after that.
Not minority enough!
October 02, 2018, 02:51 PM
DanPatWork
We had an original pong, tandy color computer, trs80, and then a swan IBM clone that was a precurse to Dell or gateway.
My parents were semi earlier adopters. Mom convinced dad we needed the color computer. I would have been better off with a new pellet gun but it was fun
ETA should have included the important info.. first software was probably the modem dialer for CompuServe, where I would download game code, and then it was wordperfect. Anything else and I had to type it in from a printout or magazine.This message has been edited. Last edited by: DanPatWork,
October 02, 2018, 03:15 PM
redstone
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I learned to write some BASIC on it and load programs from our cassette player. I had some game where you did actions and moves in two word sets. Like get book, go north, etc. It was some kind of adventure raiders of the lost ark type game. We played for hours exploring the different environments and rooms and challenges. So much fun. I formally learned BASIC on a tandy TRS80 as well, but that was in school. But my first real computer that was all mine was a Commodore 64. I cant list all the programs I had for it. It was my first modem as well, and I would dial into some BBS in Atlanta.
I still have them all on a shelf in my office.
This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it. -Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Joshua Painter Played by Senator Fred Thompson
October 02, 2018, 03:23 PM
Kevmo
My first computer was a Mac SE complete with 2 floppy drives....Forget all your useful software like Mac Write, Mac Paint, etc...I had Mac Playmate, complete with a "panic button" that would launch a spreadsheet!
October 02, 2018, 03:27 PM
RichardC
Descriptions Now! and Policies Now! by Knowledgepoint.
PkZip by PKware.
____________________
October 02, 2018, 03:35 PM
craglawnmanor
I had a Commodore VIC 20. I think it was hooked to a small black & white TV. It had a cassette player for data storage. Datasette?? I really don't remember much about software for it. This was early to mid 1980's....
_______________________________________ Flammable, Inflammable, or Nonflammable....... Hell, either it Flams or it doesn't!! (George Carlin)
October 02, 2018, 03:38 PM
xl_target
quote:
Originally posted by redstone: My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I learned to write some BASIC on it and load programs from our cassette player. I had some game where you did actions and moves in two word sets. Like get book, go north, etc. It was some kind of adventure raiders of the lost ark type game. We played for hours exploring the different environments and rooms and challenges. So much fun. I formally learned BASIC on a tandy TRS80 as well, but that was in school. But my first real computer that was all mine was a Commodore 64. I cant list all the programs I had for it. It was my first modem as well, and I would dial into some BBS in Atlanta.
I still have them all on a shelf in my office.
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair too. I learned BASIC on it. After that I used a TimeShare connection, with an acoustic coupler and a teletype machine (no Monitor). If you screwed up, you had to start all over again. Trash 80 after that.
My first useful PC was an IBM PC with a 4.77 MHz 8088 processor, running DOS 3.0 (or 3.3?). It had a 10Meg hard drive (that cost something like $800 - real money in 1987).
After that it was a 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, etc. Never got into Apple or the Mac.
October 02, 2018, 03:38 PM
JALLEN
There was a data base manager I paid $100 for to run on my 16k Apple ][, before Visicalc, et al.
I no longer remember the name, and do not believe I ever got it to run succesfully. It was exceeded in it uselessness only by its complexity.
For decades thereafter, I refused to buy software unless I could get a pirated copy, see it run in my system and satisfy myself that it was what it was represented to be. Then, and only then, was I happy to pay for a legit copy.
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
October 02, 2018, 03:41 PM
BBMW
Are we counting games on an Atari 2600?
October 02, 2018, 03:45 PM
220-9er
Apple II with no hard drive and two floppy disk drives. The "software" makes DOS look advanced now. Things have come a long way but not always for the better.
IBM 1401 with 8KB of core (hard-wired BCD), had to upgrade it to 16KB before it would print a 30-year amortization table on the chain printer. Software packages? We eventually got the Fortran compiler running, but mostly we wrote in assembler (punch cards). The high school actually owned it, but it was mine!
October 02, 2018, 04:03 PM
darthfuster
My first computer was a 286 something-or-other. I think I bought a starwars game on 5.25 floppies. Lol
You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
October 02, 2018, 04:05 PM
YooperSigs
I cant recall.... but do remember floppy discs.
End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
October 02, 2018, 04:05 PM
Pipe Smoker
A FORTH assembler (MacForth). For my fat (512K) Mac. FORTH is an interesting threaded programming language. Produces very compact code.
Serious about crackers
October 02, 2018, 04:12 PM
slyguy
Zowsa - It has to be the Commodore 64 at the house. Staying up way too late on school nights entering lines of code from the latest COMPUTE magazine to make a little sprite dance on the screen. Only if, you were able to effectively debug the code.
Prior to that we did have Pong. Lucky kids~
October 02, 2018, 04:12 PM
4x5
My first computer was a TRS-80 with 4k RAM. My second computer was a Commodore 64, and the first 'real' application I used was the Panther Assembler, so I could write machine language (assembly) code games.
Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice - pull down your pants and slide on the ice. ʘ ͜ʖ ʘ
October 02, 2018, 04:47 PM
ScreamingCockatoo
Writing BASIC code for TRS 80s.
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
October 02, 2018, 04:50 PM
dsiets
quote:
Originally posted by 220-9er: Apple II with no hard drive and two floppy disk drives. The "software" makes DOS look advanced now. Things have come a long way but not always for the better.
Me too. And the software instructions encouraged you to make a copy for regular use and store the original.
