Let's hop in the time machine aviation nerds.

Rad. I was rocking a PC during those days as a young kid, so don’t know much about the Commodore 64, but that looks like a nice setup.

Gotta love the RF modulator!
 
Ravioli said:
Yah, I started at 8088.
Click to expand...

Kids. All kids. Get off my lawn.

I started with WANG programable calculator (nixie tube display, single card card reader) and then a Westinghouse 2550 connected to a Model 33 Teletype using paper tape when I was in High School. My first micro-processors were Z-80 and 6502. And then worked for a company that built In Circuit Emulators for a whole raft of 8 and 16 bit micro processors. 8080, Z-80, 6800, 6802, 8086, 80186, 80286, 68000, 68010, 68020, Z-8000 (anybody ever seen one of these babies?).

As a small startup, I got to do pretty much anything I said I could do from writing human interface code (what we called UIs n those days) though boot loaders, hardware trouble shooting-you name it. It was a _great_ education.
 
Last edited:
Bought one of those brand spankin' new when they came out. Times have changed :)

Jim
 
Have any of you seen Digital Research GEM? It was such a good Mac clone that Apple sued DR over it and got it pulled from the market. It really worked great on IBM PC/AT clone hardware.
 
Take your toys and put them away kiddies.

Cut my teeth on a pair of S/370 158s. Moved down to the original IBM PC but moved back up to OS/2 - Windows before Windows was Windows. Oh well.

The original MS FS, wasn’t that a hoot!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Started with Commodore 128. Zilog Z80 and CPM. Next was 80286 I overclocked by soldering in a 8 MHz crystal oscillator. Played a lot of MS Flight Sim on that box.
 
I still have a working Vic-20. With dial-up modem, single sided floppy AND tape deck.
I take it out once a year and run it.
Finding dial-up sites is a hoot.
 
I did data entry in college using a Sperry Univac similar to this.

tumblr_odawfaomSw1tr6gdto1_1280.png
 
Ryanb said:
I remember Windows 98, does that count?
Click to expand...

I still use Windows 98.

Actually it is on an old computer. It has a few games that are still fun and I use Word Perfect on it. But I did put a newer flat screen monitor on it so it doesn't take up the whole office area....
 
Meh. I literally had a ATC-510G in my bedroom when I was a teenager. My dad's boss gave it to me.

https://atc-510.com/

I sold it to help fund my flight training, but sometimes I wish I had kept it.
 
Ah, yes the 029:
ibm029_front.jpg

Ran two or three boxes of cards through those in my first round of college. PL1 anyone? IBM's version of the last language anybody will need to learn...
 
The 6502C was the first self contained SoC and I still admire it today. Eight bits of awesome processing power!
 
jsstevens said:
Kids. All kids. Get off my lawn.

I started with Z-80 and 6502. And then worked for a company that built In Circuit Emulators for a whole raft of 8 and 16 bit micro processors. 8080, Z-80, 6800, 6802, 8086, 80186, 80286, 68000, 68010, 68020, Z-8000 (anybody ever seen one of these babies?).

As a small startup, I got to do pretty much anything I said I could do from writing human interface code (what we called UIs n those days) though boot loaders, hardware trouble shooting-you name it. It was a _great_ education.
Click to expand...

Somewhere in my dark past I had a class on 8086 programming.

Bill Watson said:
Take your toys and put them away kiddies.

Cut my teeth on a pair of S/370 158s.
Click to expand...

And 360/370 assembly language, I actually had a lot of fun in that class. Ah, the good old days, allocating tracks and cylinders, forgetting to set DISP to KEEP on a NEW file, RACF, VM, MVS...
 
In middle school I borrowed my uncle's Timex Sinclair 1000 and programmed my own blackjack game. While I could get the dealer to properly hit, stand, and declare the winner, I could never get the cards to shuffle randomly.
 
First computer I ever used was the Commodore PET. Then a C-64. Both were at school. Didn't have a computer in the house until 90 or 91? I think that was a 286 which I'm pretty sure ran at 8Mhz. The first one *I* owned was a Compaq Pentium 90.
 
Bill Watson said:
Take your toys and put them away kiddies.

Cut my teeth on a pair of S/370 158s. Moved down to the original IBM PC but moved back up to OS/2 - Windows before Windows was Windows. Oh well.

The original MS FS, wasn’t that a hoot!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...


Yup, had original MSFS on Win 3.1. No joystick, so I put in hours and hours on that program by using the 10-key controls to fly it. Nothing like flying under the GG Bridge or making a landing on the Nimitz to hone your skills, lol.
 
Sinclair ZX-81, C64, a PC XT clone, with a 50 megabyte HDD, that inflation adjusted cost, the HDD alone was more than an iPhone XS, and the iPhone not just computes circles around the XT clone, but stores 5,000 times as much data.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Yup, had original MSFS on Win 3.1. No joystick, so I put in hours and hours on that program by using the 10-key controls to fly it. Nothing like flying under the GG Bridge or making a landing on the Nimitz to hone your skills, lol.
Click to expand...

I’m a little hazy here but the ‘original’ MSFS on the IBM PC was pre-windoze. I never touched it, but I think FS existed pre-MS and ran on the very earliest platforms.

FS never really held my attention I have to admit. The real thing, or even RC models beat it hands down.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
We wrote very short computer programs for the TRS-80 in junior high. Later, it was onto the Amiga 500, and then the Amiga 3000!
 
I loved OS2, but could never get it to run on my PC-clone.

My first "computer" was a Timex Sinclair 1000. Stored programs on a cassette tape machine!
 
Last edited:
What a bunch of geeks. Went all the way thru Engineering School with my K&E slide rule. First computer that I used was a plug in analog gizmo my Senior year.

Went to work and started with Big Blinky, an IBM 7000 series (shortly after a 360) programming in FORTRAN.

Cheers
 
That computing device you could have literally used as an anchor for a small boat, due to its size and weight.

THIS device you hold in your hand. Ahhhhh, if only I had a time machine.
 
Stingray Don said:
I did data entry in college using a Sperry Univac similar to this.
Click to expand...
In 1963 I was on a team of five junior high school students assigned to build and demonstrate a Heathkit EC-1 analog computer, like this one:

Heathkit analog computer.jpg

One of the other guys went on to become a bigshot at Texas Instruments with a bunch of patents to his name. I didn't. :oops:
 
Bill Watson said:
I’m a little hazy here but the ‘original’ MSFS on the IBM PC was pre-windoze. I never touched it, but I think FS existed pre-MS and ran on the very earliest platforms.

FS never really held my attention I have to admit. The real thing, or even RC models beat it hands down.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was using the term a bit more generally. The actual version was 3.0. My uncle installed it on my grandmother’s computer (both were also pilots) and got me hooked as a 6-7yr old.
 
jsstevens said:
Ah, yes the 029:
View attachment 72044

Ran two or three boxes of cards through those in my first round of college. PL1 anyone? IBM's version of the last language anybody will need to learn...
Click to expand...

My first job with IBM was repairing keypunches and readers, including the 024, 026, 029 and the 129 machines.
I'll bet you kept a stack of unused keypunch cards in your shirt pocket to write notes on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top