The earliest computers and computer history

  • Thread starter Boanerges(Inactive)
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AH, the 'good old days'... a Commodore 64 and a 15.6K modem...

Still have the Commodore 64 here from 1973 and use it for some types of graphics processing. It will do things that a modern PC or MAC just cant accomplish!!
 
I had one myself but I only really used it to play games on.
 
You guys were lucky to get the 64!!!:eek:

Mine was a Commodore Vic-20. I thought it was the coolest thing...but I wanted a 64 more than anything back then! Hee hee hee.

I could actually program my own games on it. I don't remember how to write Basic today, and I wouldn't know how to squeeze a simple game into 20K Bytes Free. LOL

Pong, anyone?:eek:
 
My dad had a computer that was outdated by the commodore 64. I cannot remember what the make was. Anyway he wrote a software program to inventory my brothers entire store on. He ran it out of memory on more than one ocassion!
 
My First PC was a 486 running windows 3.1. The first time I upgraded it, I added a second MB of ram (lol) a CD drive and a 28.8 modem. I was proud.
 
In 1965 I was enrolled in a resident Technical College in Chicago. For 'extra credit', I assisted in tearing down and removing a "computer" in the science lab. It took up an entire room, roughly 60 feet by 40 feet in size. This monster was paper punch-ribbon driven and had 10,200 VACUUM TUBES* and mechanical relays as the sequencing and switching media.

This thing had it's own 80,000 BTU air conditioning unit and was so noisey when running that we had to wear hearing protectors. The "so called" memory on this thing was about the same as a modern pocket calculator!!

For those who are too young to know what vacuum tubes are, look at the link below... JUST DON'T TOUCH! They run with a surface temperature of over 225 degrees F.

Vacuum tube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P/S if anyone wants to hear a bass guitar sound as it was originally designed, just get ahold of a pre 1968 tube-type 250 watt Fender® Bassman amp and 15 inch speaker enclosure... sweet!!
 
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