My First Computer − August, 1983
Is a predisposition to computer geekery genetic? Product of how one is raised as a child? Exposure to toxic chemicals as an infant?
Whatever the reason, I have long had a fascination with computers and technology. So much so, in fact, that when I spied a computer for sale at our local Ace Hardware store, I knew I had to have it. As a first computer, I'm not counting the Atari 2600 we had (I was the MASTER at Spider Fighter!).
Let's think about this a moment: it's 1983, in a small town, and the computer was for sale in a hardware store. Oh, and the price tag was $80. So, other than a Speak-n-Spell, what personal computer could it possibly be?
It was the awe-inspiring Timex Sinclair 1000.
After spotting this gem, I endlessly nagged my parents until they gave in and helped me buy it. I even got them to spot me for the massive 16K RAM expansion cartridge.
If you've never heard of or seen this thing, count yourself lucky. It was (in hindsight) a truly crap-tacular piece of worthless garbage. You really couldn't do anything meaningful with it, and its keyboard made PC World's list of 10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time.
Even though it didn't measure up to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (let's hear it for "Hunt the Wumpus"!) that first exposed me to computers in fifth grade, I was happy as a pig in shit. I sat on the floor for hours with this thing plugged into our little black and white TV, hacking little programs in BASIC and showing them off to the family parakeet (no one else really showed any interest after about the 50th demonstration).
I even invested in a tape recorder so I could save and load programs. Now, I am ashamed to admit this, but I even ponied up for a tape (actually produced by Sega) of Frogger. Hey, I had a computer, I needed at least one game for it.
It was spectacularly awful. The game took eight minutes to load from the tape, was black and white (the 1000 didn't support color), and had the shittiest graphics imaginable. It made the Atari 2600 look like it sported photo-realistic graphics by comparison. And honestly, there are pocket calculators that are more powerful that that thing.
As bad as it was, I used the hell out of it -- it even featured in a few presentations I had to do in school.
Two years later I discovered there was something better: my second computer...
Whatever the reason, I have long had a fascination with computers and technology. So much so, in fact, that when I spied a computer for sale at our local Ace Hardware store, I knew I had to have it. As a first computer, I'm not counting the Atari 2600 we had (I was the MASTER at Spider Fighter!).
Let's think about this a moment: it's 1983, in a small town, and the computer was for sale in a hardware store. Oh, and the price tag was $80. So, other than a Speak-n-Spell, what personal computer could it possibly be?
It was the awe-inspiring Timex Sinclair 1000.
After spotting this gem, I endlessly nagged my parents until they gave in and helped me buy it. I even got them to spot me for the massive 16K RAM expansion cartridge.
If you've never heard of or seen this thing, count yourself lucky. It was (in hindsight) a truly crap-tacular piece of worthless garbage. You really couldn't do anything meaningful with it, and its keyboard made PC World's list of 10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time.
Even though it didn't measure up to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (let's hear it for "Hunt the Wumpus"!) that first exposed me to computers in fifth grade, I was happy as a pig in shit. I sat on the floor for hours with this thing plugged into our little black and white TV, hacking little programs in BASIC and showing them off to the family parakeet (no one else really showed any interest after about the 50th demonstration).
I even invested in a tape recorder so I could save and load programs. Now, I am ashamed to admit this, but I even ponied up for a tape (actually produced by Sega) of Frogger. Hey, I had a computer, I needed at least one game for it.
It was spectacularly awful. The game took eight minutes to load from the tape, was black and white (the 1000 didn't support color), and had the shittiest graphics imaginable. It made the Atari 2600 look like it sported photo-realistic graphics by comparison. And honestly, there are pocket calculators that are more powerful that that thing.
As bad as it was, I used the hell out of it -- it even featured in a few presentations I had to do in school.
Two years later I discovered there was something better: my second computer...
