Monday, March 06, 2006

home computers in your future

Some friends of mine were having a garage sale and they gave me some magazines from 1982. Check out these ads:


I had an Atari and Activision.


I never owned a real computer until 1998. In college I used a word processor.


Check out the Rubik's Cube on the desk.

12 comments:

Michael K. Althouse said...

I got my first computer in 1983. It was a Commodore 64 and it had an add-on single-sided, single density 5 1/4 inch, 540 Kb floppy drive (about a $250.00 option if memory serves). I added a Vicmodem 1200 baud modem and was intriqued about how I could connect to "bullitin boards" (this was just as Prodigy and Comperserve were getting started - no world wide web at all) and main frames such as the Digital Equipment Corp.VAX at SDSU.

I remember all those historic breakthroughs so clearly and my kids treat computers and the Internet as if its always been there. It kind of makes me realized the generation gaps of the past with technology such as color TV/TV, transistors, radio, telephone, hell - even electricity. It really wasn't that long ago!

Ah yes, memories!

~Mike

Michelle said...

Yep the old Commodore 64 was huge down under!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Yeah, Word processor and telefax in olden days (Green words and black background). Now, Laptop and Internet (Mulit Color), technology really changes fast.

Rubik's Cube was something I used to play too! I still can't get it right even now. What a looser!

Thank God for creativity and technology, if not, I won't be able to leave notes like this.

Abba Father, you are a STAR!

Nerdine said...

oh yes - I remember the Commodore 64. And believe it or not it came with a kasette player. I stored small programmes and games on kasettes. Took forever to load but OH boy how much fun! I even learned how to make a game myself by writing codes. I never had the patience for it though, and I only loaned it for a short while.

Cool photos!

Saur♥Kraut said...

How kewl! Great finds, huh???

I think my dad had that IBM. I hadn't thought of 'floppy disks' in ages! Remember those???

Muley said...

These are so cool!

The deleted comment was probably from someone who still owns a Commodore 64 and took umbrage at your insinuations, then thought better of it. He's still using cassette tape drives, too.

Seeker said...

R.I.P. Commodore 64.

We left ours in Brazil, many years ago. I wonder what became of it. They don't throw anything away down there.

Karin said...

My first computer was an IBM ps2 and it had the original windows on it. I too used prodigy to connect to I don't know what and I also had friends that had bulliten boards and I completley didn't understand how they did that. My dad had the orignal Tandy laptop prior to windows and my brother had old faithful the comodore. Man when you think about it all coming around in our lifetime I start to feel really old.

Mise en Place said...

WOW, those sure bring you back...how funny. We had Atari too....it was GREAT!

Whistle Britches said...

My stepdad was the original nerd from the 60's. he and his nerd friends would pile in an old car and drive 50 miles to the Univ. of Tulsa just to use punch cards or something. It paid off when he and a friend opened their own computer store here in the 80's and made a huge amount of money when they sold it 5 or 6 years ago.

Jenn said...

In college I had to take a computer class and we used those IBMs with black screens and orange words, and did some stuff with Macs also. I really felt like I had no use for a computer in my life until they became more user-friendly.

You guys all sound like you have more of a computer history than I do. In the early days I guess I was what you'd call computerphobic. Now I don't know what I'd do without it, and it amazes me that I still know people who do not have a computer, or have one but never check their email, or never shop online.