My first computer was very similar to the one in Joe's image. It was a TRS-80 which had a 9" CRT [Monochrome, of course!] and used a Cassette tape [typical Audio Cassette] driven on an external player for loading Basic Interpteter and the OS [What our modern machines do at bootup]. Also, Applications could be saved to and read from the tape drive.

It was a nice little machine! Display and Core [the actual Corn-Puter] were in a common case, and the keyboard plugged into it via a DIN-5 setup. Tape deck used 3/16" Phone plug / jack.
The machine was [I believe] Z-80 CPU based and had a whopping 4K memory!

One of the first things I did on it [besides playing the included games] was to hack up a simple For-To-Next loop
10 P AT 80:[some rude text usually [Linked Image]]
20 GOTO 10
run

Then I got into some basic BASIC [Linked Image], and altered a few of the App's included with the machine.

My second machine was another TRS-80, but this was a Model II [2]. It was Z-80 CPU based, with a "HUGE" DRAM of 64K!. Also sported a Low Density 8" Floppy Disk Drive [A:], with ability to connect an external Floppy Disk Drive via SCSI port. Had a 12 or 13" Monochrome CRT and QWERTY keyboard built in to the common case.
Also had a Daisy Wheel Tractor Feed Impact Printer.

All work had to be written in BASIC code, then saved to a floppy. Booting required [of course] the bootable floppy disk - which contained the interperter and the operating system [TRS DOS]. Needless to say, if that bootdisk became corrupted or lost, the machine refused to do anything after POST [AKA IRQ 80h - non system diskette. reboot system, or the even older "Cannot load Cassette BASIC, Restart"].

What a giant leap it was to go from the Model II, to a PC! My first was an 80386SX based machine with a 14" color EGA display and a Hard Drive!!! 1 MB of DRAM [30 pin 100 ns type].
That machine got upgraded as time went on and $$$ became available. I still have it and will never get rid of it, because it was my hands on self teaching tool. Very sentimental to me.

Used an 80286 based PC in conjunction with the 386, then moved up to an 80486DX2 for about 2 months prior to buying my first Pentium based machine, which was a P5-166 Mhz, purchased in late May of 1996.

Wow, my life story again! [Linked Image]

Scott S.E.T.

Scott " 35 " Thompson
Just Say NO To Green Eggs And Ham!