First Computers - A Nostalgic Look Back From Boston Tech Leaders

After the computer envy from using a TRS-80 at computer camp and a Commodore PET in elementary school, I finally got my parents to buy a Commodore 64 for the home, which I used for programming and games. I suppose it’s not surprising I later went to major in computer science (one of the coolest workstations in our computer lab was the NeXT), worked as a software engineer for 7 years, then ended up at 5 Boston-based software-powered
startups in web/mobile. I should credit that first computer with pretty much my whole career.

My first computer was an Amiga 1000, which was way ahead of its time. I used it to write code in BASIC, play video game and do whatever it was that people did on computers before the Internet came along.

When I was 8 years old, my first computer was a Radio Shack TRS80 Model Two. I used it for games, programming, and word processing.

My first computer was a Timex-Sinclair 2000. It came with 2K of RAM and expanded to 16K with the attached pack you see in the back of the picture. It connected to a TV screen and had a membrane keyboard. The screen would fully refresh every time you'd touch a key which was painfully slow when programming. I used it to learn BASIC. We then graduated to a Commodore VIC-20, which was mainly used for games.

My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. I used it to create Dungeon & Dragon style games and logic puzzles. The medium for saving programs back then was on cassette tapes.

My first computer was an Apple IIe. I used it to write 100-word essays on various scientific topics that interested me, such as why leaves turn colors, or how the digestive system works.

My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20, where I taught myself BASIC and wrote games. One game, Cupid, I sold for $25K! My second computer was a Commodore 64 which I used to write bulletin board software, and my third computer was an Apple ][ + with 48k ram.

At first, I used a Commodore PET computer, owned by my elementary school that I was allowed to take home on weekends and holidays. I then bought myself an Apple II+ with my paper route money. I played games like Space Invaders...duh duh duh duh....duh duh duh duh...crash!!

I had an Apple IIe that I used to run a single-line BBS off a 300 (then 1200) baud modem. I had a 10MB “Sider” external hard drive that was larger than a loaf of bread, and would make a sound like a jump jet taking off when it spun up, so I knew whenever someone was connecting. I obsessively wrote, rewrote, modified, upgraded, and rewrote the messaging system and the combat system. How anyone got any fun out of completely asynchronous text-based combat I have no idea, but it had a lot of members back in the mid-80’s. I also somehow got my hands on a thrift store logo turtle robot, and kept trying to get it to do something more enjoyable than being a fancy Spirograph, but that’s as far as I got.

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI/99-4A. I definitely played a lot of games with it. In addition to playing the games, I would also buy books with programs that were pre-written and transcribe them in, which was fun. I also saved up to buy an early voice recognition attachment that was made by Milton Bradley.

A Commodore 64 with a good old tape drive! I used it for lots of gaming and a decent amount of BASIC programming too. I also spent a decent amount time on my friend’s Sinclair 128 too. Good times.