And I Thought My System Was Old...

[chopin1810]

Dammit! I thought it was real!

[cayalee]

Well if you think that is old, check out this link. I have seen this before in a magazine, but wow is it funny! This is what scientists at RAND Corporation in 1954 thought a computer would look like in 2004!! I just wonder, what did they plan on using the steering wheel for?!?! You have to read the caption with it!!

http://www.toyarchive.com/Computer1950Future.jpg

colin mcrae rally 3 of course you idiot..
geez some people..

[Weedman]

i was fooled. bugger.

thanks for the link techieMoe.

/weed

[brother_mick]

I`ve seen that picture before and thought the wheel looked like something from a submarine, but i never made the connection

As for old computers my 3rd machine on the desk here is a BBC model B (issue 7). 32k of ram. Hmm thats plenty

Hoping to get a floppy for this soon so i can play elite on it again . They have certainly come a long way since the beeb was in production. I wouldnt have imagined I would have a PC with 1024mb of ram and a 2000+ Mhz cpu when I started out. How things change eh

[johnlgalt]

to put things in perspective:

My first 'computer' was a TI 99/4-A. Specs? possibly 4K (if any) RAM and cartridge based - Oh, and I could save data to cassette tape. Yes, cassette tape.

Next came a Tandy 8088-based 1000 EX - with a single 360K 5.25 drive, 256K RAM and a second external 360K floppy - no hard card.

I then progressed to a 486 SX/25, built a 486 DX/4 80 (Cyrix) with a whopping 64 MB RAM, then came a Pentium 200 MMX, then a Compaq Celeron 366 Laptop, a Compaq 700 MHz PIII Lappy, then the current beast I built 4 years ago - P4 2.0 GHz Machine OC'd to 2.2 with 1.0 GB matched set (dual 512s) PC2100 RAM - original. case mobo and memory are the only original pieces I have though lol. I still don't have SATA, I still have only a CDRW (no DVD of any type in the machine) and I still only have a total of 220 GB of HD Space - off three drives. But, hey, i gets what I need (and want) done.

And I am only 34, or else I could have competed with you 'card punchers' :P

[Cryptofreak]

My first PC was a Commodore Vic-20! It bassically was a keyboard that plugged into a tv. It had a printer port, a serial connection and a slot for cartridges! We had the cassette tape for it that I rember having to fastforward to the right spot to load a program! My dad used to right small little programs for it. He wrote a pac-man type game that I used to play for hours. I would still have to say that the old text based rpg's that I had for it were the best! I had a couple kinda like Zork. However I did have Gorf on a cartridge as well and it was great!

[GNOME_n00b]

my first computer was the sinclair zx81. i used to do my first programming on it in BASIC. i also remember how i felt like i had almost limitless memory when my dad bought me a 16k RAM pack (which was about a quarter of the size of the computer, and it plugged into the back) for my birthday(or it may have been christmas). oh the days *dazes into the distance with a far away look in his eyes*
i remember using every single digit on my hands just to type in one keyword(the BASIC keywords were written on each key). LOL

He wrote a pac-man type game

there was a pacman cartridge for the vic called jelly monsters LOL. i remember playing that on a mates computer for hours too

[johnlgalt]

Interestingly enough, my best friend during that era of the TI had a father who puttered around (putered around?) with many before my time, and had a Sinclair and then a couple of HeathKits....

And my neighbor across the street started with a Vic20 - then went 64.

[brother_mick]

GNOME I also started on a ZX81 , I remember the hours spent typing in the programs from a magazine. Then the hours trying to find the bug. Good old days. I remember just looking at the 16k ram pack could cause it to crash, I solved this with blutac and sticky tape

[Dapper Dan]

My first computer I bought back in 1991. It was a 'SmartCaster' radio automation computer. It required two Antex soundcards, both about 3 feet long! . It was 286 Intel with an SCSI drive and a 5 1/4 floppy, all DOS based. Here's the clincher...

...that son-of-a-***** still runs today as well as it did in 1991! It was only last year we took it off line for a newer radio automation system!