What's your spec (old-school version)?

What's your spec (old-school version)?

Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 12:03am
satchmo
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Posted 2005-06-29 12:03am
satchmo
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Inspired by MoneyShot's "What's this" thread, I want to know whether you can remember the specs of your first PC.

For me, it goes back to 1986, when hairs were big and ties were thin (and Michael Jackson was a well-respected pop superstar).

It was a 80286, an IBM clone. I can't even remember the speed, but it could be 8 MHz. I think it had a huge 128k of RAM, and an enormous HDD (6 MB). I ran programs at a stunning resolution of 640x480, with 16 colors! I was so thrilled that it could display colors like cyan and magenta. Come on, it's magenta we're talking about.

I was going to keep it forever, but it stopped booting up ten years later. Now it's probably sitting around at a Chinese landfill in Shanghai, cold and hungry.

Hold on, I need a break....I can't continue anymore.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Spartan on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 12:14am
Spartan
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Posted 2005-06-29 12:14am
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My first comp was a 200mhz Packard Bell with I think around 32mb of ram. This was in 1996.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Foxpup on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 12:23am
Foxpup
380 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 12:23am
Foxpup
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1994

Intel 486DX2 (66 MHz - is that fast, or what?)
Local Bus VESA (640x480x8 - that's a whopping 256 colours)
32Mb XMS (a lot of RAM back in those days)
1Gb Hard Disc (yes, a whole gigabyte)
1.44Mb 3.5" Floppy Disk (cool, right?)
4x CD-ROM (an amazing four times the speed of a normal CD player)
Creative Labs AWE 32-bit Stereo Sound (yes, 32 bit)
Roland Sound Canvas GM-GS Capital Tones MPU-401 (neat, eh?)

The last two items comprise a sound system that's fairly advanced even by today's standards (and it cost a helluvalotta money, btw)

I still use this machine for playing old DOS classics.
Better to be in denial than to be human.

Bill Gates understands binary: his company is number one, and his customers are all zeros.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 12:41am
satchmo
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Posted 2005-06-29 12:41am
satchmo
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Man, Foxpup, that was an uber machine back in 1994. You musta ownd all your neighborhood.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by wil5on on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 1:11am
wil5on
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Posted 2005-06-29 1:11am
wil5on
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My first computer, that actually belonged to me, was a compaq 486/66. It wouldve been 1996 or 97... it was an evil machine that rejected anything not-compaq you put in it. I bought a sound card and cdrom for it, the sound card only worked when you turned the computer on, exited win 3.1 then started it again. The cdrom never worked. Not long after I got that computer, I got given a 386, and so the collection began. My next computer was a 686/100, it could play the half-life demo (well, you could run through the first map, but when you went through a level change it crashed :sad: ). Then in early 2001, a 1ghz duron. It was so cool that I suddenly had 10x the cpu speed.

I still have all of these computers, plus a few 486s, ranging from separate parts to built machines.
"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
  • My yr11 Economics teacher
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 1:26am
satchmo
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Posted 2005-06-29 1:26am
satchmo
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2077 posts 1809 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 24th 2004 Occupation: pediatrician Location: Los Angeles, U.S.
I never kept any of my old computers. I usually gut them, taking out whatever I can salvage, and dump them. Sounds cruel, but I don't have a lot of storage space to spare.

My last computer is still at my parents' place. It can run Half-Life 2, but not well. It cannot run Far Cry. It was a Celeron 1.1 GHz with 512 MB of PC330 and Radeon 9200.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Forceflow on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 8:31am
Forceflow
2420 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 8:31am
2420 posts 451 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 6th 2003 Occupation: Engineering Student (CS) Location: Belgium
1994

386 SX

2 mb RAM

MS-Dos
:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by NameWithHeld on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 8:46am
NameWithHeld
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Posted 2005-06-29 8:46am
51 posts 5 snarkmarks Registered: Oct 26th 2004 Occupation: Super Secret Special Forces Location: Out the back of woop woop, Aus
my first computer is still my current computer.

i am so poor, what am i to do?
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by pepper on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 9:40am
pepper
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Posted 2005-06-29 9:40am
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Commedore 64, cant recall the year.
RUST Gamedesign
pepper design

The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Andrei on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 10:56am
Andrei
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Posted 2005-06-29 10:56am
Andrei
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2455 posts 1248 snarkmarks Registered: Sep 15th 2003 Location: Bucharest, Romania
My first computer was a
pentium 90 with 4mb/ram, a 8mb video card (a virge i think)and a 760 mb
HDD .I used to play 3d blocks on my dad's spectrum before getting this
machine though.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by ReNo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 12:52pm
ReNo
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Posted 2005-06-29 12:52pm
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My first was also a Commodore 64, and as I don't recall life before it,
I figure I had it since I was really young. I then went on to an
Amiga 500+, which lasted me a long long time and I loved to bits. After
getting a Playstation I took a bit of a break from "computers", until I
got my first proper PC just a few months before HL1 came out. It was a
Pentium2 400mhz, with 64mb (I think) or RAM, a 4Gb hard drive, an ATI
xpert@play graphics card with 8mb of VRAM, some yamaha sound card, and
a 17" monitor that has served me well to this day :smile:
[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Dred_furst on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 1:42pm
Dred_furst
455 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 1:42pm
455 posts 135 snarkmarks Registered: Sep 3rd 2003 Location: UK
My first pc was in 1992 and that was a bbc micro model B
I need a new sig
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by gimpinthesink on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 3:19pm
gimpinthesink
662 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 3:19pm
662 posts 176 snarkmarks Registered: Apr 21st 2002 Occupation: student Location: Forest Town, Notts
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 128K and it was the model that had the built in tape drive it came out in around 1986/7 and I still had it untill the other year when my mum threw it out just cos it wouldnt load any games but I could program in basic on it.

Here's its specs

an after that I had a Acorn Archimedes A3010 or A3020 I carnt remember which one it was now I think it was the A3010 cos I think it had green F keys. I got that in about 1992/3/4 it was one of those years
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Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by rs6 on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 4:27pm
rs6
640 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 4:27pm
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My first computer was a 286 and thats all I remeber. I had when it was VERY outdated. I always got hand-me downs from my dad.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by habboi on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 4:36pm
habboi
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Posted 2005-06-29 4:36pm
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Pentium 3, broken sound card so games crashed...

2mb ram, crappy Gateway make.

TBH it was rubbish and now this new Dell with Radeon 9800, 3MB Ram, 2.5ghz processor is great.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by rs6 on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 4:39pm
rs6
640 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 4:39pm
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Pentium 3, broken sound card so games crashed...

2mb ram, crappy Gateway make.

TBH it was rubbish and now this new Dell with Radeon 9800, 3MB Ram, 2.5ghz processor is great.
2mb of RAM and 3mb of RAM.....are you sure?
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 4:44pm
satchmo
2077 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 4:44pm
satchmo
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2077 posts 1809 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 24th 2004 Occupation: pediatrician Location: Los Angeles, U.S.
I can't believe my parents spent over $2000 for my first PC. It was that 286 I mentioned earlier. I've never spent so much on a computer ever since.

And that's not even with inflation figured in. It was probably more like $3000, considering it was 1986.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Crono on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 6:05pm
Crono
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Posted 2005-06-29 6:05pm
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First computer ever, was around 1985, wasn't mine until 1990 or so. Machintosh Plus. Oh yeah, that's right, 32Mhz ... 1 whole meg of ram, upgradable to 4. No HDD, No color, fun ass games, and a printer that never left a repair shop. (Same with our first VCR, seems my parents weren't very smart when it came to fixing stuff, since it'd be cheaper to buy a new whatever then to take it to sleezebag electronics repair men) The Mac was $1500. Jaw drops

Then, we had a 286 something or other, IBM monitor, if I remember properly. I remember, I bought a Micro Star release of Duke Nukem 2, which I could never play, ever, because the FDD was low density and the disc was high density.

After that (many years later) got a 486 and used Windows for the first time, probably around 1996 or so. Had some sort of other computer I can't remember at the same time.

Then, I got the first non-hand-me-down (this is about three years before the Mac blows the video, lasted a good 12 years though) it was a 233 Mhz Pentium, stocked up to about 300Mb of ram (1998 or so) and I think I finally got a 3D card: VooDoo Banshee, which still works fine (Had a Diamond Stealth lying around, sadly, by the time I got an AGP port it was severly out dated)

Then I had another computer, I built, didn't choose the parts though, 533Mhz Celeron, FIC motherboard (disgusting), 512 Mb ram PC133, and I finally got a GeForce 2 (MX440 :sad: ), all it needs now is a fan and it'd work.

Then, I made a HUGE upgrade some years later to a XP 1700+ and 512Mb PC2700, 60 GB IBM HDD, something else ... oh GeForce 4 Ti4200. And one more minor upgrade a couple years later to 512Mb PC3200, blah blah blah.

I say it's time for another upgrade, but I don't have money.

But pretty much all the computers that have ever been in my house have been custom made. It's just half the time, my dad jacked some of the parts from work and we had a pain in the ass time using them because he got some obscure board that had some weird socket that we couldn't find for a decent price. He brought home the Diamond card in like 1997 too, the year it came out. Would have been sweet to use at the time.
Blame it on Microsoft, God does.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 10:03pm
satchmo
2077 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 10:03pm
satchmo
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2077 posts 1809 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 24th 2004 Occupation: pediatrician Location: Los Angeles, U.S.
Have any of you used Windows 2.0? I remember the first time I saw it, and I was just blown away. The GUI looked amazing compared to any DOS program.

Just think...Windows blowing me away with its graphics.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Andrei on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 10:10pm
Andrei
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Posted 2005-06-29 10:10pm
Andrei
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I have. After an entire life of using something that resembled norton
commander via dos, it was enchanted by how user-friendly this mystical
OS was.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by satchmo on Wed Jun 29th 2005 at 10:55pm
satchmo
2077 posts
Posted 2005-06-29 10:55pm
satchmo
member
2077 posts 1809 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 24th 2004 Occupation: pediatrician Location: Los Angeles, U.S.
Yeah, I remember the days of PCTools and small utilities to park your HDD's heads.

How many here at the Pit can still edit a CONFIG.SYS file?
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Rof on Thu Jun 30th 2005 at 2:25am
Rof
210 posts
Posted 2005-06-30 2:25am
Rof
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1983. A ZX Spectrum 48K, with a 3.5 MHz Z80 CPU.

In the words of MJ Hibbert, "It made a generation / who can code".

Would you believe I still use a vintage 1984 IBM PC/AT every day? It's
the only machine we have that's compatible with some old lab equipment.
VMEX, Pakrat & Entspy
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by fraggard on Thu Jun 30th 2005 at 3:26am
fraggard
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Posted 2005-06-30 3:26am
fraggard
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A commodore vic 20 is the oldest and earliest machine I have ever used.

First machine I could use regularly was (probably) an Intel 386 running
at 32Mhz, and then I think we were already eyeing the 486.

By the time I could afford one at home it was already the Pentium 2
generation. I used that one till about 2003 before it became throughly
obsolete and nothing would run on it anymore. HL used to play
brilliantly though.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by SaintGreg on Thu Jun 30th 2005 at 3:45am
SaintGreg
212 posts
Posted 2005-06-30 3:45am
212 posts 51 snarkmarks Registered: Dec 3rd 2004
Mac plus also! I don't remember any of the games we had, but I
remember that as a kid (I was like 5 at the time) it was fun as hell.
To get something to work, sometimes you just have to beat your head against the wall longer; the skin grows back, but the brick doesn't.

Source hates soup!
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by G.Ballblue on Thu Jun 30th 2005 at 7:47pm
G.Ballblue
1511 posts
Posted 2005-06-30 7:47pm
1511 posts 211 snarkmarks Registered: May 16th 2004 Occupation: Student Location: A secret Nuclear Bunker on Mars
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Forceflow</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
MS-Dos
</DIV></DIV>

The ultimate operating system. Or whatever it was.
Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Fri Jul 1st 2005 at 5:38am
Posted 2005-07-01 5:38am
3012 posts 529 snarkmarks Registered: Feb 15th 2005
I have no idea what the specs were, but the first computer my family
owned was this old macintosh that i could play "maniac mansion" on in
black and white after installing with those huge floppy disks...
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by LAzerMANiac on Sat Jul 2nd 2005 at 3:13am
LAzerMANiac
204 posts
Posted 2005-07-02 3:13am
204 posts 100 snarkmarks Registered: Sep 30th 2003 Occupation: A student/mapper for Xen Rebels Location: Fremont, CA
Huh, let's see... Back in Russia, we had two computers, a 386 with a
hand-made 28-K modem courtesy of mu genius gramps, and another one that
was advanced enough to run Quake I. I beleive that was way back in
1996. FidoNet was way more popular back then and it took half an hour
to load up the Furby homepage (I was 7 back then). snif those were
the days... MY first PC in the US of A was an AMD-K6 with 64MB of ram
and a whole 3.17 GB of HDD space. It even had a 16x CDROM... The
soundcard for that thing I found in the garbage one time, but it serves
me even today. In my family computers never trully die at once, they
get slowly dissolved, with the worst parts being passed down to the
younger person as newer parts get installed, so most of what I
mentioned above is either at my youngest brother's disposal, or
undergoing disposal. I actually made the K6 CPU into a keychain...
The Plane, my ongoing HL2 comic.
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Myrk- on Sat Jul 2nd 2005 at 12:29pm
Myrk-
2299 posts
Posted 2005-07-02 12:29pm
Myrk-
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Had an Amiga, used to play all those old sk00l games with Lep, both of us would cram around its insanely large keyboard. Then we had a 286, and so on.
-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Senshi on Sat Jul 2nd 2005 at 12:43pm
Senshi
51 posts
Posted 2005-07-02 12:43pm
Senshi
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51 posts 15 snarkmarks Registered: Dec 14th 2004 Occupation: Barman Location: UK
Oooh this takes me back, must have been 1992 or something, Mesh 486
with a stonking 16mB RAM. Got upgraded to a P133 as soon as they came
out whenever that was. Wow, played some great DOS games on that baby I
tell ya :smile:
www.senshiserve.tk
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Fjorn on Sat Jul 2nd 2005 at 1:28pm
Fjorn
250 posts
Posted 2005-07-02 1:28pm
Fjorn
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250 posts 25 snarkmarks Registered: Jun 5th 2004 Occupation: Student/Amateur Writer Location: California - USA
My first comp?

Some DOS box with a green screen, no sound

spent lots of hours playing(and cursing) Zork :razz:
Signature? What signature!?
Re: What's your spec (old-school version)? Posted by Forceflow on Mon Jul 4th 2005 at 3:57pm
Forceflow
2420 posts
Posted 2005-07-04 3:57pm
2420 posts 451 snarkmarks Registered: Nov 6th 2003 Occupation: Engineering Student (CS) Location: Belgium
Yeah, I remember the days of PCTools and small utilities to park
your HDD's heads. How many here at the Pit can still edit a CONFIG.SYS
file?
/me !
:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer