your first PeeCee, memories

[PatmanQC]

First PC was probably 1992 and was a 486 if I'm not mistaken. I got a job at a computer store as their primary technician in 1995 thanks to the employee discount I was able to upgrade rather quickly.

But, The only reason I got a PC in the first place was so I could easily download files for my super wildcard super Nintendo "attachment" :-)

[Weasel Fierce]

It was circa 97 or 98 and was a massive piece of crap I still enjoyed it because it let me play Quake, Civilization 2 and Battle Isle 2.

[ImmortalA1000]

To answer the thread title....

"WTF is this ZX81 style bullshit inferior to the VIC-20 user interface/screen editor" when using DOS for the first time in 1986

[Bruce Abbott]

My first PC was an IBM JX, which was being dumped for NZ$999. I bought it for the specific purpose of learning about about PC architecture (which I had previously avoided because why would you want to when you have an Amiga?). I also got the technical reference manual which was very useful and taught me a lot about PCs.

The base machine was a bit too 'basic' for me. I got the BIOS upgrade which allowed the floppy disks to do 720k. The machine came with 128k RAM. I bought a 128k RAM expansion board and then hacked it to 256k by piggybacking DRAMs over the existing chips and adding a few TTL logic gates. Finally I bought a 'Genuis' serial mouse for it, then had to hack the driver because the 'geniuses' who wrote it hit the hardware instead of using the BIOS to set the baud rate (which doesn't work on the JX because it has a different clock frequency).

The JX is based on the PC Jr and shares most its architecture with it, including an enhanced 16 color 320x200 graphics mode. I got the crazy idea of writing a paint program for it similar to Deluxe Paint, using a combination of BASIC and machine code. This actually worked surprisingly well despite the very slow processor (the JX - like the PC Jr - is even slower than a 4.77MHz PC due to sharing RAM with the video display).

For a while I spent more time playing with the JX than the Amiga. This changed as I got more into programming the Amiga. I sold the JX sometime in the 90's. Sadly I didn't keep the technical reference manual or any of the programs I wrote for it. Only 40,000 JX's were manufactured, and they were only sold in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Now they are quite rare.

Technically the JX was underwhelming, but it had a nice compact case and the build quality was superb. Most PCs and XTs - including the genuine IBM 5150 and 5160 - were heaps of junk in comparison.

[ImmortalA1000]

I had to have a PC for University. My options were limited in 1992, a real PC or some sort of Bridgeboard for my Amiga 2000. I chose to buy a PC because I think 386SX was the best bridgeboard at the time so at the end of Summer 1992 I got a 25mhz 486 with 4mb ram and hard disk of ????mb. It was not a fun machine, in fact it was an utter piece of shit to use (DOS, Windows) and the games were a bit Atari ST at best if I am honest...with 1982 ZX Spectrum type crap noises. Gaming + PC in 1992 = you were a loser.

[sokolovic]

Around 2007... After the Amiga (I bought my last one in 1996), I've decided to switch to the Mac. It was an Imac but I can't remember what year. Probably around 2000.

[Megalomaniac]

I guess going from a floppy-based A500 to a 386 PC would be a bit like going from (even disk based) C64 to ST - more processing 'grunt', bigger and faster storage, and better graphical 'numbers' in terms of palette and resolution, so better for sims / strategy / adventure etc, but inferior sound (music especially) and a lack of specialised hardware for action games - if that was what you upgraded for, you were in for a disappointment. I'm struggling to think of any 2D action games on a 386 that outperform an A500, aside from number of colours.

[luncheon]

1998, from an a500 + ks 3.1 + 400mb hd + 8mb fast to a w95 p166mmx, 2gb hdd and 32mb ram

it didn't feel as such a big jump as one may think, except for games of course (sc2000, quake 1/2, grand prix 2, nfs 1/2 come to mind).

acually continued using the a500 for a few years, since ega/vga 2d games were no better to what i had available on amiga at the time.

productivity wise word/excel 97 wasnt that much better than final writer / maxiplan?, but dad needed autocad so there

[tygre]

Hi all

It was in 2000, I had just worked a year and earned my first salary... I bought a Dell Inspiron 4000! I used it for many years for work and leisure, then it served the Web page of my research group... Until 2009-10, when I decommissioned it

I still have it and, besides the battery, it still works! Running Windows 2000 since back then

WinUAE too

[Marce]

the list of my pcs around the time

2001 : pcchips M810LMR + duron 750 mhz

2004: asrock k7s41gx + athlonxp 2400

2009: Asus P5KPL-AM + core 2 duo E7500

2013 : intel DH67BL + core i5 3470

2019: MSI Z390-A PRO + core i5 9600KF (current )

[xc8]

First PC was a custom 286, early 1990, came with only 2x FDD - major crap I know, remember HDDs that time were friggin expensive- was PITA to run apps using two FDD, Hercules card and only beeper for sound, not for games, mainly programming stuff as I had an Amiga 500 + 1040STFM for games.

So as it was PITA I decided to buy a HDD - 20MB MFM, Conner IIRC, best I could afford, alas the HDD came un-formatted and I totally screwed it up the time I mis-typed a number (interleave) for the low-level via 'debug' !! epic days heh.

[oscar_ates]

My first PC was P2 400MHz with GeForce 256 around 2000. Now I have a Ryzen 5800, 32gb ram and rtx 3070ti

[Hedeon]

My first PC (P90) I bought I think in 1996 due to Master of Orion. Had a GUS and I think a video card which sucked at SVGA. I think I soon switched to Riva TNT. Actively used my Amiga to 2001 at which I sold almost everything, Only to buy it back I guess in 2012,

[lmimmfn]

I bought my first PC in 2002, it was an awful Dell with POS Nvidia 5200 gfx card. I managed to overstock it later which was needed when Battlefield 2(one of the absolute best multiplayer games ever!!, new ones are junk) came along.
It had a nice 17" or 19" monitor though.
I changed the gfx card to a Radeon x850 in 2006, but soon my OC upgrade madness began, leaving out gfx cards I built my first PC in 2006, another at the end of 2008, then another in 2009. I stopped for ages, upgrading CPU in 2015 but built a new PC in 2017 and using the same since.

I've built several PCs for other people(friends/family) in that time also, thankless job, unpaid, sourcing best and cheapest components to suit requirements and their existing cases/components. Building it, often with junk cramped cases. I avoid building for others at all costs now, but I love building my own PC lol.

I used my Amiga 1200 up until 2002 and with getting older, life/family, moving and buying a house I o lying took my A1200 out of retirement in 2015. I started getting bored with OC gaming and wanted to look back again.

I threw out my 14" multisync monitor in 2012 which is still pissing me off, grrr, it was big though lol.

[van_dammesque]

Finally bought a PC in 2001 - AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 Ghz, with a Geforce 3. 19 inch monitor.

Wow was I impressed! It had Win XP, what a MS OS to start off with as a home user. I bought some excellent games too: Deus EX, Star Wars Jedi something and slightly later Medal of Honour Allied Assault.

What was funny was the constant upgrade cycle of PCs, a learning curve of sorts, I'd bought the best for the time but now in magazines what were these new Athlon XP+ CPU's and why did nVidia release a Geforce 3 200, 400 and 600Ti?

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Ohh dear Lord !

We got this Piece of SChit 1986 (a "PC10" with Monochrome Monitor)

; and replaced it 1987 with the AMIGA. Best decision ever

I love the Amiga to this day; always will

[Daedalus]

My Dad had a 386 with Windows 3.1 around the same time as I had my A1200 (early-mid '90s). It was a horrible machine, but it had Word on it, which was the only thing he needed it for. Personally, my first PC was in the late '90s, I think it was a P120 with Windows 95 and then Windows 98, and again it was an awful machine to use, but again it had some software I needed and couldn't run on my Amiga. That was used for some last-mile stuff with documents that were otherwise prepared on the Amiga, while the Amiga was still the main machine for internet, graphics, gaming (along with consoles), music, CD burning and so on. The Pentium wasn't a great experience either, and the PC for me only started to become more useful for everyday stuff when I upgraded to a PII-350, and then from there to an AMD XP2000+ around 2005, which was the first PC I actually used for playing games and serious graphics work.

[pubzombie]

got my first PC for uni xmas 1997. My Amiga was stolen whilst I was in a lecture. I cant remember what processor it was other than a pentium (i think?). I remember getting a 3DFX voodoo card sometime after and playing loads of the wwi flight sim Flying Corps - was such a jump from playing Knights of the Sky. But I do remember missing Wings and other 2d amiga games. A lot of the early 3d games felt quite souless compared with the 2d experience of the amiga.
I got the building bug after that and me and friend got jobs working as balloon sellers to earn extra money for building and overclocking PCs. Happy days - if you didnt upgrade every 18 months you were doing something wrong. Ahh the smell of burning components in the morning smelt like throwing your money down the drain chasing one extra benchmark. I remember having to reinstall bloody windows everytime a new GFX driver came out because of stupid legacy issues in registry. Windows would poop itself all the time. Times sure have changed - I'm just getting ready to build a new PC - think its been 7 years since my last build.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by pubzombie

A lot of the early 3d games felt quite souless compared with the 2d experience of the amiga.

Yeah. Not the greatest two years in gaming. On the PC too though. You have to see a company like Monolith going from the stunning Captain Claw and Blood to... Blood 2. I mean it was the step up to Alien VS Predator 2 which redeemed everything, but still. Blood 2. Soulless.

[pubzombie]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Yeah. Not the greatest two years in gaming. On the PC too though. You have to see a company like Monolith going from the stunning Captain Claw and Blood to... Blood 2. I mean it was the step up to Alien VS Predator 2 which redeemed everything, but still. Blood 2. Soulless.

i remember when my kid brother got the first playstation -they were really into teken and 3d racing games. I couldnt get into them. to me they seemed uncanny. 3d still lacks the aesthetic appeal of 2d stuff like alien breed does for me. perhaps im just old