By Steve Ranger, 22 April 2008 12:57
COMMENT
Here at silicon.com we recently, rather unexpectedly, unleashed a tidal wave of tech nostalgia by asking the deceptively simple question: what was your first home computer?
This question formed the basis of our latest reader poll - which saw the ZX Spectrum voted as the most popular of the 10 pieces of antique hardware we listed.
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That meant beating other classics such as the Apple II, BBC Micro, my own personal favourite the Amstrad CPC464, and others including the Commodore 64 and Dragon 32.
For some younger members of the team we had to explain that in the golden age of home computers the idea was you could actually use these - at the time very expensive - pieces of hardware to create your own programs.
Magazines dedicated pages and pages to hundreds of lines of code that enthusiasts could use to program their own games and other applications.
In fact, even now I can remember the hot flush of rage I felt when I couldn't get a game to work after spending hours every night for a week inputting a program. Even now I'm convinced the mistake was in the code, not my typing. I also nursed a bitter envy of C64 owners, which I still harbour until this day.
But that kind of frustration aside, these home computers launched the careers of many UK tech entrepreneurs - and are still warmly remembered by many others, whether they ended up with careers in IT or not.
I'm not sure whether the games consoles that followed will lead to the same flowing of innovation or fond remembrances in 20 or 30 years' time.
And the poll wasn't the end of the story. While many approved of the ZX Spectrum being crowned king - including one reader who keeps his machine in a display case - we also received comments from antique computer fans up in arms that their beloved hardware of yesteryear wasn't included in the poll.
Where was the ZX81? Where was the Commodore PET? What about the NewBrain, Nascom or Tandy TRS-80?
All I can say is that the next time we look at the history of computing - and frankly it's a compelling issue so I'm sure we'll be revisiting soon - we'll make sure we get as many of these old favourites involved as possible.
And just in case home computing nostalgia isn't enough for you, I propose a new question that should keep armchair historians arguing for some time. What was your first business computer?
Post your comments below and if we get enough suggestions we might even run a poll on that too.
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Find out what the priorities of your CIO are this year, have a look at the latest CIO Jury discussing the insider security threat, and read Seb Janacek on why he loves his Mac.
Comments
There are 20 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ollie Clark
First business computer was an Acorn Archimedes, I guess. At least that's the first computer I did some work on that I was paid for. First computer I used at work was a genuine IBM PC with OS/2 on it.
2. Ian Chapman
First buiness computer was the Hewlett-Packard 2000, which had 16k of magnetic core memory, and the OS on a tape that reqired the manual input of 30-plus octal commands before it would load.
3. anonymous
CP/M on a Data General terminal with a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive. It booted the OS and WordStar from the same floppy and saved all the data there as well.
4. misceng
My earliest experience of computing was with ASR35 terminals connected to a time-share mainframe by phone at 10 characters per second.
The first computer I used for work was a CASU 8bit CP/M computer to which was attached an HP 10MB hard disk - about 14 inch diameter - to manage a database of inspections for about 600 lifting appliances.
My first personal computer was a Commodore Pet. A friend with a Pet could burn EEPROMs so we inserted 6502 code into gaps in the PROMS in the Pet. Since the PROMS were in sockets they were easy to replace. So we had superior performance in using the 32kB of available RAM.
5. anonymous
The BBC Model B was my 4th computer so I didn't answer...
Before that we'd had a Sinclair MK14, an Acorn System 1 - both with LEDs/hex key pad - a ZX80 and a ZX81.
My first proper business computer was probably a VAX, although there were PC XTs and ATs around and I'd used Macs and Unix workstations at university.
6. BillK
The Atari 800XL was popular in the years before the ST model was developed.
The famous Star Raiders game was a big seller.
7. George
The ZX Spectrum was probably the first computer to demonstrate that it was software availability and price that sells computers - and not necessarily a high spec.
8. Roy Corneloues
My first proper job was as an operator for Britsh Gas in 1987. If I remember correctly, the hardware was a number of ICL mainframes running VMS.
My fondest memory of this short six-month career was watching the brand-new card reader being installed in early 1988.
The first business computer that I used properly followed immediately after this when I joined a software company called Nantucket on the technical support desk supporting Clipper.
It was a proper IBM PC running MS-DOS - Windows didn't exist, of course. It sported 640kB RAM and a massive 20MB hard drive.
I remember hours of fun playing with the autoexec.bat and config.sys tryign to reclaim memory absorbed by drivers during the boot process.
Anyone remember QEMM?
9. Andrew Robb
I would like to see a logarithmic graph showing the log number of units of each type against year.
Units should include:
National Semiconductor SC/MP
Commodore PET
Ohio Superboard/Compukit UK101
Osborne 1
Atari 400/800/800XL/130XE
10. Andrew Ware
Although I wrote many programs on the ZX81, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC464 and various other home computers, my first business application was written on the Tatung Einstein. This was followed shortly afterwards by my first PC clone, a Bondwell-18.
11. Richard
First real computing: Leasco Basic via a dial-up time-sharing terminal.
First love: A DEC PDP8i with 4k + 8k 12-bit core memory - at least we'd bought the "high-speed" paper tape system. Programmed in assembler and octal; wrecked my decimal maths skills. Cost about the same as the Jensen Interceptor sports car, which I lusted after.
Uni I: ICL 470 Algol W - about as useful as ancient Greek - programmed via punch cards, operated by easily upset "gods" in white coats.
DECs, VAXs & DEC Alphas; some up close, some remote.
Even worked on and with huge analogue computers which contained mechanical multipliers and electronic valves (ie. tubes).
First dedicated work PC: HP controller running Assembler, Basic and Pascal.
Interesting work PC (~1985): Early experimental Acorn workstation prototype; Based on an NS32016 CPU; 2MB? RAM; Great fun.
Uni 2: IBM DOS clone luggable, running Psion Exchange Suite. Tiny screen.
First serious home PC: Acorn Archimedes, later with ARM3 CPU. No viruses, no fuss, nice to use, lovely software. Still in the loft.
12. anonymous
I had an Atari 800 and had the original spreadsheet for it. Very user unfriendly but worked. Also had a word processor which, as long as you knew the Esc codes for the printer, did everything.
13. anonymous
I broke three Atari joysticks playing this game - and on an 8k cartridge.
14. Richard Sarson
British Tabulating Machine Company HEC 4, 1958,
launched ICL 1905 in 1965
First micro, Commodore PET, 1981
ICL One per Desk 1985
Apple Mac 1991 and stayed with Mac ever since
15. Ian Sargent
IBM XT in 1986. DOS 2.0; 20MB hard disk; single 5¼inch floppy drive; 640kB RAM and EGA graphics.
Shared between three of us - but as it sat on the manager's desk the rest of us only got to use it when he was at lunch or on holiday.
Later used at home and finally went for recycling about six months ago.
16. Pat Mason
Our first business computers were Epson PC/HD machines, 8088 processor, 512kB RAM, DOS 2.11 and 20MB hard drive with an Epson dot matrix printer, WordStar 2000, Lotus 123, and Dbase 3+ - which became my favourite application for years. No built in clock either, you had to reset the date and time whenever you switched on.
17. anonymous
First business machine was an Apple IIe. I used Basic and assembler to collect data from a two-channel digitiser attached to patients having neurological examinations and plot the results on an analogue HP xy plotter. It was state of the art - people from other departments in the hospital used to come and marvel at it. It was so much more friendly than the PDP11 it replaced.
18. Iain Hepburn
My first job was for a Commodore dealer who were still supporting Pets although PCs were in full flow.
On my first day I had to unpack a Commodore PC10-III, with its twin floppies and 10MB hard drive and install MSDOS 3 something - 3.30? - and MS Word for DOS something like v2.0c, I think, in preparation to deliver to a customer.
19. Darrin Salt
Oh easy - North Star Horizon, running CP/M on hard-sectored 5.25" floppies. A Z80 based wonder that used to make so much noise from it's clunking floppy drives.
20. Simon Birch
Out of all the old computers mentioned, the only one still in existence is Apple. And going from strength to strength.