Post by @MrOtingocni@lemmy.world

2026-11-04 19:16 UTC

I was there, Gandalf. My first computer was Tandy. 8088 chip, I think. Orange monochrome monitor. No hard drive, 2x 5.25 floppers. Folks’ co-worker asked if anyone wanted it before tossing it out. I’m not quite that old, though, there were the Apple IIs in the school lab. I learned my first bit of programming right then, figuring out batch files. Everything had to be saved on disc immediately. Man I was living the high life because this Tandy had a 2400 baud modem and I was soon acquainted with the wild world of BBSs. I didn’t care that it was in monochrome because playing Usurper or Trade Wars with strangers on someone’s computer half a state away was way way cooler than the Nintendo, ha ha. Man those were such good times.

Replies (3)

@TerdFerguson@lemmy.ca 2026-11-04 19:50

RadioShack Tandy 1000-TX was our first desktop… Technically, I think we had a VIC20 for a couple weeks that was hooked up to our TV but it got returned and damn am I glad we got that IBM-compatible, CGA graphics, loud-ass behemoth. I can still hear the sound of the floppy drives intializing on bootup. A: was 3.5" and B: was 5.25" and the way they sounded made my 6-year old self so happy. I used to make the noises myself as it came online. Years later, when I write this post, I will think… why did I ever doubt my autism diagnosis?

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@MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 2026-11-04 23:11

My first computer was Tandy. 8088 chip, I think. Orange monochrome monitor. No hard drive, 2x 5.25 floppers. That sounds just like my first PC! I bought it secondhand in 1983 or 84. It was fancy because most monitors were green, and the two floppies meant you didn’t have to remove the program disk to save a file. I remember laboriously typing out the code for Eliza, the first chatbot. I had a daisy wheel printer too - the paper was fan-fold and had sprocket holes down the sides.

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@PodPerson@lemmy.zip 2026-11-05 02:40

That’s when computing was fun and interesting.

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