CPCWiki forum

I was always curious whether having one computer had an impact on what we chose later.

My first computer was actually an Atari 800XL.

After that, as they had CPC 6128s in my school, I asked for a CPC and got a 464 with green monitor  :D

I had a ZX81 first, and an Atari 2600 in between that and getting a 464

I had a range of Radio Shack (Tandy) Model 1 - 3 - 4 - 4P (Z80 Based) computers.
Was very involved over here In Australia
I still do some servicing of these beasts.

The Amstrad s came later to me after a lot of other computer brands.
But I was comfortable working on Z80 Based Machines
 
Keep Safe

Ray

My first was teletext module on 8051 to TV without teletext. But I guess that doesn't count  ;D

was not "mine" but the Thomson T07-70 of the school they left in the storage room. My mum -teacher- brought it at home

@robcfg - I forgot to add Atari XL/XE to the list.  :doh:
I can edit it, but I'm afraid it will delete the previous votes.

Don't worry! You can scroll through the answers to make a final list once the votes are in.

Cheers!

Quote from: roudoudou on 08:25, 14 April 24was not "mine" but the Thomson T07-70 of the school they left in the storage room. My mum -teacher- brought it at home

Was not "mine" but the TI-99/4A of the school has been here sometimes. My dad -teacher- brought it at home.

;D

So somehow the TI was my first computer, where I also learned Basic.

There were home computers before the 464? 😁

Anyhow if enough data points are gathered by these two polls it'd be nice to have a flow diagram.

An Oric 1 was my first. Loved it at the time and a potential Spectrum beater were it not for poor business decisions and the dominance of Sinclair in the UK at the time.

Not a computer so i polled "Other" but had one of those Binatone PONG/Light gun, one of these:
(https://assets.catawiki.com/image/cw_normal/plain/assets/catawiki/assets/2016/9/19/1/d/3/1d3eeaa4-7e54-11e6-9174-12e2ab4ae402.jpg)

Was rarely allowed use it as we only had 1 TV, aka "The good TV" and tuning it in would knock out the other TV channels, lol, was the main reason for getting a CPC 464 (over a C64) as it had its own monitor(luckily we got the colour monitor CPC).

Had a neighbor for a year or so that had an Atari computer, not sure of model, played on that some, another temporary neighbor with a ZX Speccy(rubber keyboard), dont think i played any games on that but until i got my CPC i used to enjoy regularly playing my mates C64( when he was allowed set it up at the time on the main tv).   

Oric Atmos. I have really good memories with it.

I added 3 options, so others can change vote. :)

The CPC was my first computer but a few computers had impact on me: 

I went to the computer stores to "try out" the computers they had in their show rooms. I went to the local "Siemens museum" almost every week where Siemens showed their latest line of PCs. And I could sit there and play the games students have written for it ;-) As I wanted to learn how to write such programs I could joined a BASIC introduction class in the local youth club - they used a ZX81 with 16KB of RAM. No data storage device... I wrote my BASIC programs at home on paper and then tried them out, when I was in class. I was once offered to take the ZX81 home for summer break and I was quite addicted to it although I could not play any games with it (due to the lack of a cassette drive). I think that finally convinced my parents to support my wish to get my own computer. 

The teacher of that class introduced me to the Spectrum which he owned personally but although I tried really everything and loved it, even the ZX81, I thought that the Spectrum was a piece of crap. So the only other option was the C64 here in my area... until the 6128 came out... that changed everything and that's what I got in May 1986. 

TI 59 was my ,,first contact"...

xesrjb

I had an Atari 2600 - can I count consoles? :)

Got my CPC relatively late in its life cycle - in 1991. It was my school computer, so I'd been using it since about 1988, but didn't get my own (used from a classmate) until a few years later.

Before that, I had an old IBM PC my uncle gave me. One of those huge noisy desktop things, complete with Hercules graphics card, amber screen and turbo button, that took ages to boot up, but played Space Quest II and King's Quest III in all its monchrome glory. Got a few books on MS-DOS and how to write batch files, and that's where the fascination with computers began, I guess :)

Before CPC I had a Philips Videopac G7200
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videopac#/media/Fichier:Philips_Videopac_G7200_with_integrated_monitor_(RetroGathering_2010).jpg

Was it a computer ? Not really. A game console ? Not only... Something in between.
I really loved it, and hope I can find a working one to add to my collection one day.

None, my CPC464 was my first.

Although playing around on my uncles Vic-20 earlier that summer is what really started me down that rabbit hole. :)

Quote from: The Electric Monk on 05:37, 15 April 24played Space Quest II

I'm sorry you had to play the WORST Space Quest!

I recently played them all in order and:

- Space Quest I (and the VGA remake) is great, even if some parts (watch for the things that shine to avoid a dead end!) are improvable.

- Space Quest II looks super cute and has a great setting and nice ridiculous story, but there are way too many puzzles that require hints (remember trying using every object with yourself to see what happens!).

- Space Quest III is a much more solid effort and has great music. It's mostly rational, but you better pay attention to some "holes" that you need to access in the junkyard, including how to jump inside a little spaceship: there are some diabolic "choose the right verb" moments.

- Space Quest IV is probably the best one simply because of the "tongue" and "nose" action icons (and many hilairous dialogs), but remember to type every code you see!

- Space Quest V is beautiful and plays fluidly, but it fails to make you laugh and that's a bit of a problem. It's the best Star Trek game ever.

- Space Quest 6 is... Definitely the most ugly and directionless one because Mark Crowe was not there anymore and Scott Murphy only worked on it for the initial or final (don't remember) development half. Still, the puzzles are more solvable than SQ2, but keep in mind you can't really "win" at the Street Fighter parody machine by normal means!

--------------------------------------

RANT OFF

Back to the topic, my dad had a 48k Spectrum before the CPC, where I played my first game (Cookie). I'm not really sure, but I suspect the rubber keys were there. Later, he bought... oh wait, that's another topic!

Tandy TRS-80 in Australia. It belonged to my best mate's Dad. My best mate just wanted to play Space Invaders and I just wanted to know how the keyboard could control that blinking green underscore on that crappy little TV. That eventually led to managing and consulting management of National & International computer networks. My first owned PC was the CPC6128 bought in 1986 to study a Diploma course in Data Processing. Great machine.

For one holiday I borrowed a Unipolbrit 2086, a Polish Timex 2068 clone, a ZX spectrum clone.

My first and eternal love is the 6128.

I moved my vote from "other" to "Atari 8-bit" now that the option is available  ;D

In my case it was a kind of MSX computer, called the CBS Colecovision game console.

Quote from: roudoudou on 08:25, 14 April 24was not "mine" but the Thomson T07-70 of the school they left in the storage room. My mum -teacher- brought it at home

Very cool! I find these Thomson machines (https://youtu.be/Tbve3XyCGUU?si=57h1Nt5L5O9yepbp) quite interesting. 5 models, but no compatibility among them, 500K sold in France... And a nice list of mostly French games.

The graphics look cute, did you play any games on it?

Quote from: cwpab on 19:23, 15 April 24

Quote from: roudoudou on 08:25, 14 April 24was not "mine" but the Thomson T07-70 of the school they left in the storage room. My mum -teacher- brought it at home

Very cool! I find these Thomson machines (https://youtu.be/Tbve3XyCGUU?si=57h1Nt5L5O9yepbp) quite interesting. 5 models, but no compatibility among them, 500K sold in France... And a nice list of mostly French games.

The graphics look cute, did you play any games on it?

i played Androides, a clone of Lode Runner and that's it

the TO7 user manual was even greater than Amstrad user manual to learn programmation in Basic!

there was a Logo cartridge also, very fun to play with

The first digital thing I owned (or shared with my brother and my father) was a Atari 2600.

Quote from: Deevee on 05:54, 15 April 24Before CPC I had a Philips Videopac G7200

Did you have the Basic and Z80 cartridge? There was something like this for 7400 and it was probably called 7410.
Your g7200 is a brilliant work of an engineer of that time because making a computer with a screen from a microcontroller is better than zx80/81

Quote from: McArti0 on 06:34, 16 April 24

Quote from: Deevee on 05:54, 15 April 24Before CPC I had a Philips Videopac G7200

Did you have the Basic and Z80 cartridge? There was something like this for 7400 and it was probably called 7410.

There was the "Computer Programmer" cartridge G7109, but no unfortunately i did not have that. I actually knew it existed years after. I sure would have love to have it at the time! I remember I was kind of frustrated that it was not possible to program the thing.

A 464 then a 6128, but the first computer I got to program on was my uncle's Dick Smith VZ-200 (a rebranded VTech Laser 200). The 464 was quite a step up. 

Our first computer at home, before the great cpc464 came in, was the 'portable' Osborne 1. It came with cp/m. ;)

Only 50 people reading this forum?  Come on!

It feels so lonely in the Atari 8-Bit category...  :P

Quote from: ZorrO on 08:14, 27 April 24Only 50 people reading this forum?  Come on!

There are currently 3,725 registered users on the forum, but it would be an interesting exercise for @Gryzor to analyse how many of them are currently active (i.e. have logged in within a certain period of time).

Quote from: Nich on 15:17, 27 April 24

Quote from: ZorrO on 08:14, 27 April 24Only 50 people reading this forum?  Come on!

There are currently 3,725 registered users on the forum, but it would be an interesting exercise for @Gryzor to analyse how many of them are currently active (i.e. have logged in within a certain period of time).

Yeah unfortunately the forum doesn't do that, I'm afraid. I could dig into the db of course and do manual queries, but it requires quite some looking around :(

Quote from: robcfg on 09:49, 27 April 24It feels so lonely in the Atari 8-Bit category...  :P

Always liked the 800XL, we played Mercenary a lot at a friends place before I got my CPC.  :)

Nice topic.

On my side, my father realised that computers would change a lot of things. So in 1983 we bought a YENO SEGA SC3000.
This purchase (which was very expensive for the time) took a long time to mature after reading numerous magazines and comparing machines (and there were a lot of them... Far too many!) as well as numerous weekend visits to many computer shops.
I was 10 years old, with stars in my eyes, and I remember that delightful time as it was yesterday.

Of course, with hindsight, this machine was never viable (in France) but it had some very interesting and innovative technical features for its time (hard+zoom sprites, cartridge port...) and compared to other 'heavyweights'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6MDryVo8UQ)

I discovered basic programming on this machine because the manual was particularly well written and full of examples. Also typed (and adapted, as they were often not compatible) a huge number of book and magazine listings. Joined a computer club dedicated to the machine, where my father and I would go at weekends to exchange tips. Bought peripherals (joystick, few -rare- games, a huge floppy disk drive that radically changed the situation compared with storage on k7, rs232c printer... etc).

When I started secondary school in 1984, the computer club had TO7, MO5 (a classic in France...) and an Apple IIe on which I also learnt a lot.
The CPC 464 came out that year, but few people had one, and at my level I found the machine visually horrible, with its green, blue and red keys...
I also already had a floppy disk drive for my YENO SC3000, so going back to k7 was nonsense.
The only advantage I could see was its monitor which would no longer take up a TV with a minimum of cables...

And then...
My neighbour (who had an Alice from Matra-Hachette, a tasteless machine...) finally bought a CPC 464 on which we spent whole days playing games, typing up listings, like many of us.
The maths teacher who ran the school computer club also bought a 464 and swore by it !
And so did many of my classmates and teachers...
The Amstrad software library was exploding, and so were the peripherals...
The French press had nothing but praise for this machine...
The 664 appeared, briefly... But it was when the 6128 came out, with its less 'playschool' look, that the machine finally arrived at home for Xmas, as I imagine it did for many of you.

Already a fan of computer clubs and other 'technological' weekend outings, the first (or second, can't remember...) amstrad expo in France with my father left me with delicious memories, despite the noise and the infernal crowds!
The following ones, where I went this time with friends from secondary school and over several days, were extraordinary. It was at this point that I gave up basic, copying games and started programming in z80 assembler...

What a wonderful time...

Tronic/GPA.

My parents had a Sharp PC-1245 pocket computer at that time. That could run a Basic dialect and together with this great book, I learned my first Basic skills and programs.

It had a total of 2.2 kb RAM :-) But a whopping amount of ROM 24kb.

(https://hembrow.eu/personal/100_8887.JPG)

This was the book 
mein_1_basic_programm_gross.jpg

Another great book from Rodney Zacks.