What did your first computer look like? The book Core Memory takes a look at that, by offering " A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers • Featuring Machines from the Computer History Museum." The few pictures we've seen (some of which are after the jump) are beautiful, artistic, and intriguing.
"...Photos capture these historically important machines—including the Eniac, Crays 1–3, Apple I and II—while authoritative text profiles each, telling the stories of their innovations and peculiarities." Core Memory, published by Chronicle books, retails for $35.
These pictures and related information are from the excerpts from the book site.
Name: MINITEL
Year Created: 1981 (THIS MODEL)
Creator: FRANCE TELECOM/ALCATEL
Price:
FREE TO FRENCH CITIZENS
(Emphasis ours, because we couldn't believe it was offered free...anyone know more or experience this computer/freebie?)
Name: COMPAQ PORTABLE
Year Created: 1983
Creator: COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION
Cost: $3,950
Memory: 128KB RAM
Processor: INTEL 8088
Operating System: MS-DOS
(A slightly newer version was our first portable computer, and the first computer we had our in bedroom, a huge step toward feeling like an independent preteen.)
Name: NEAC 2203
Year Created: 1960
Creator: NIPPON ELECTRIC COMPANY (NEC)
Cost: ¥27,643,000
Memory: DRUM 2,040 BITS
One of my buddies had the Compaq "portable" as his primary machine. I can remember many a night playing The Bard's Tale on it's "stunning" amber screen. Ahhh, those were the days...
As for my first computer, we had a TRS-80 Model III at home (Yes, a "Trash 80"). We also had the Model III's at school and I can remember playing Oregon Trail in first grade and wanting to play it at home. So I printed out the entire BASIC code, taking up something like 100 pages of that wonderful dot matrix paper, took it home and typed the whole thing into my editor. I ran it expecting to start shooting deer and dying of dysentery and instead I got an error and it wouldn't run. I was too young to know how to go back and debug it, so I had to settle for playing at school.
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I taught myself machine code using a Heathkit H8. The computers I used at work at the time had several cards of real "core" memory of a staggering 256K (x16) each, with a 5 MB removable/fixed 14" hard drive and a 3/4" reel-reel tape drive for off-line storage (backup). They didn't boot themselves, either. We had to hand toggle the starting address (something like 7FE3 if I remember right) and hand toggle the loading process. Oh, they also had real TTY units with paper tape I/O. I remember a guy getting fired for playing the text based Star Trek on the TTY on a Saturday...management was really anal about how their machines were used. And people think today's management is draconian.
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