What was your first computer system?

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2002-11-21 02:24am

Sokar wrote:Alex Moon ! Dude Red Storm Rising and F-19 were the fucking BOMB!!!! I still have my old Packard-Bell 286 that I play them on !!!!!As well as my old copy of F15 Strike Eagle and M-1 Tank Platoon, the original one ! Holy Shit! , your the first person I've heard ever mention Red Storm in like a decade........

My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 with 640k and no hard disk , every time I turned it on I had to boot from a DOS 3.1 , 5.25" disk....It was such a joke , but it worked so well , and still keeps on trucking onward today. It occupies a corner of my computer room and I still play my old games on it , much to my wifes consternation.....

I loved RSR, and used to play it whenever I was over at my grandparents house. I remember the days of DOS as my OS and a pile of boot disks on the corner of the desk

Best computer memories I ever had were when we upgraded to a 486, and on Christmas morning when I found the CD-Rom installed. *sigh* Those were the days...

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2002-11-21 02:25am

Darth Wong wrote:
Sokar wrote:Alex Moon ! Dude Red Storm Rising and F-19 were the fucking BOMB!!!!
I remember playing Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter on my old 286. Nothing like a fighter that can get hit by a half-dozen missiles before it goes down, eh? I remember that with a full load of missiles and guns, a good operator could take down a dozen enemy planes easy. I guess it wasn't the most realistic game

Nope, but it was damn cool. I used to switch on no crash and easy landing modes, and then lower my landing gear and drive around on the ground shooting up tanks with my cannons

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2002-11-21 02:26am

TrailerParkJawa wrote:One time I was playing Red Storm Rising all damn day. I finally snuck up on a Soviet carrier ( dont remember wether it was the Kiev or not ) but just as I was going to launch some Harpoons my mom kicked the power cord out of the wall. F*CK!

Dude, you have my deepest sympathies. That sucks big time

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2002-11-21 03:06am

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:A 286 that didn't even have Windows but it did have Wolf3D, Scorched Earth, and Wordperfect...

You can't run Windows on an 80286!

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2002-11-21 03:10am

First one... it'll have to be the Apple ][e, enhanced. Not the last of the ][e's by any means, but it didn't have the numeric keypad built into the body.

It still runs, too.

CmdrSweevo · Post by **CmdrSweevo** » 2002-11-21 05:07am

RadiO wrote:I too was introduced to the wonders of computing via the Spectrum.
The first computer game I ever saw running was Manic Miner, and the first shoot-'em-up I ever played was Harrier Attack (which was fairly topical at the time, since this was 1983).

I remember Harrier Attack. Played it on my old CPC 464. 64k ram, tape drive, Locamotive Basic, three graphics modes. Came with a box full of games and a two way, two button joystick.

Only threw it out last year.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2002-11-21 01:13pm

Crayz9000 wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:A 286 that didn't even have Windows but it did have Wolf3D, Scorched Earth, and Wordperfect...
You can't run Windows on an 80286!

You can, but not in 386 Enhanced mode

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2002-11-21 01:13pm

Darth Wong wrote:
Sokar wrote:Alex Moon ! Dude Red Storm Rising and F-19 were the fucking BOMB!!!!
I remember playing Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter on my old 286. Nothing like a fighter that can get hit by a half-dozen missiles before it goes down, eh? I remember that with a full load of missiles and guns, a good operator could take down a dozen enemy planes easy. I guess it wasn't the most realistic game

Ahh, those were the glory days of Microprose...

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2002-11-21 01:16pm

Ahh, those were the glory days of Microprose...

Dont forget Civilization and Railroad Tycoon!

I liked to give silly names to my trains whenever they broke a speed record.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2002-11-21 01:20pm

phongn wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Sokar wrote:Alex Moon ! Dude Red Storm Rising and F-19 were the fucking BOMB!!!!
I remember playing Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter on my old 286. Nothing like a fighter that can get hit by a half-dozen missiles before it goes down, eh? I remember that with a full load of missiles and guns, a good operator could take down a dozen enemy planes easy. I guess it wasn't the most realistic game
Ahh, those were the glory days of Microprose...

i started at the age of 4 (1984) on some IBM machine in the company where my father worked. i played worm and snake.

1987 - salm gets a Comodore 128

1990 or 91 - salm uses daddy´s 286. that was when 20 MB where loads of hard disk space

1992 - i got a 386 25 Mhz, with gigantic 2 MB Ram

1993 or 94 - daddy buys a 486 with 66MHz

1999 - daddy buys a pentium

2001 - salm buys Athlon

MAHOK!

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2002-11-21 01:25pm

Darth Wong wrote:
Sokar wrote:Alex Moon ! Dude Red Storm Rising and F-19 were the fucking BOMB!!!!
I remember playing Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter on my old 286. Nothing like a fighter that can get hit by a half-dozen missiles before it goes down, eh? I remember that with a full load of missiles and guns, a good operator could take down a dozen enemy planes easy. I guess it wasn't the most realistic game

Yeah, playing in the lowest difficulty setting will do that

Besides, remember these are US planes! They were more expensive than the crappy, cheap Russian ones, of course they could shrug off the pathetic commie missiles

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2002-11-21 01:29pm

I swear you people make ME feel old...

The true Classic. 1981, With a whopping 1.01 MHz and 3.5K RAM and 176 x 184 max resolution.

The only game I remember having was Berzerk.
Oh and that Popeye clone I managed to write in BASIC.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2002-11-22 11:04am

TrailerParkJawa wrote:
Ahh, those were the glory days of Microprose...
Dont forget Civilization and Railroad Tycoon!

I liked to give silly names to my trains whenever they broke a speed record.

I had Civ2, Civ3 and Railroad Tycoon I (on 5.25" floppy, no less).

Post by **Zaia** » 2002-11-22 11:30am

Errr, I guess a Speak'n'Spell doesn't count, then? ....right, I'll just be on my way, then....

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2002-11-22 11:35am

The first one I OWNED, was a combination of owning a TRS-80, and a friend giving us an Wisard.

The first one I tinkered with was the university computer at Humbolt State University when I was a child.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2002-11-22 11:38am

Well I've tinkered with a computer that looks like a damn washing machine. Plus its "RAM" is made of 9-inch floppies.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2002-11-22 05:26pm

CmdrSweevo wrote: I remember Harrier Attack. Played it on my old CPC 464. 64k ram, tape drive, Locamotive Basic, three graphics modes. Came with a box full of games and a two way, two button joystick.

Only threw it out last year.

I've been playing it again on a Spectrum emulator, and I do believe it's as accurate (if not more so) than F-19 Stealth Fighter.

Consider:

* One hit from an enemy weapon and it's game over.

* Enemy weapons have definate engagement envelopes which can be exploited by skilled manoevering.

*If you razz around with the throttle set to maximum, you run out of fuel and die. In fact, you must husband your fuel to complete the game.

* Landing on the carrier at the end is a complete bastard, and you're guaranteed to complete the game at least once only to accidently pile the jet into HMS Hermes' island.

F-19 is, in many ways, actually an easier game than this crusty shoot-em-up from near the dawn of British home computing.