Computer forerunners

[N1LAF]

The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell only a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

In 1976, Bushnell, through a Grass Valley, CA. engineering firm - Cyan Engineering, started an effort to produce a flexible video game console that was capable of playing all four of Atari's then-current games. The result was the Atari Video Computer System, or "VCS" (Later renamed the Atari 2600 when the Atari 5200 was released). - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari

A single-board computer design in a metal case, along with a full-travel QWERTY keyboard, monochrome monitor, and tape recorder for program and data storage, to produce the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). From PET's 1977 debut, Commodore would be a computer company. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International

The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because it came with color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, the Disk II. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80


Keep in mind that Apple created both computer and operating system - Microsoft only created operating systems and software applications.

[N1LAF]

Did I miss any notables?

[NQ6U]

An Altair 8800 was the first home computer I ever laid eyes on. I ignored my then girlfriend for most of a day as it's owner taught me how to program the thing using hexadecimal code. The output was via LEDs. Fun, but not exactly useful for anything.

http://basicinstructions.squarespace.com/storage/2011-09-01-respect.gif?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=13149223415 23

[N1LAF]

An Altair 8800 was the first home computer I ever laid eyes on. I ignored my then girlfriend for most of a day as it's owner taught me how to program the thing using hexadecimal code. The output was via LEDs. Fun, but not exactly useful for anything.



We had one in our computer class in high school. There was teletype machines that we entered our BASIC code, and the result in paper print out. Our programs were saved and read back by 1" paper tape.

[N1LAF]

Bring back old memories...
Altair 8800 Emulator - http://brooknet.no-ip.com/~lex/public/altair/

Altair 8800, 32 emulator - http://www.altair32.com/

[NQ6U]

We had one in our computer class in high school.

No computers in my high school, although if you were good enough they'd let you use the mainframe at the nearby community college.


There was teletype machines that we entered our BASIC code, and the result in paper print out. Our programs were saved and read back by 1" paper tape.

That's a far more advanced set-up than I used, where input was via a hex keypad. And none of this fancy BASIC stuff, it was programmed with assembly code. This would have been circa 1978 or so.

[KC2UGV]

I thought MS wrote the original Apple Basic on the II? Or, am I mistaken on this?

[W4GPL]

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/37762/Steve_Jobs_Atari_Employee_Number_40.php

Amusing little story about how Steve Jobs tried to being the Apple II to Atari..

[N1LAF]

I thought MS wrote the original Apple Basic on the II? Or, am I mistaken on this?
You are not mistaken. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applesoft_BASIC

[NQ6U]

Amusing little story about how Steve Jobs tried to being the Apple II to Atari..

About what I expected and it reenforces my opinion that while I may respect Jobs for what he did, I'd rather hang with The Woz.

[WØTKX]

The Timex Sinclair was my first "PC".

Another notable one I had was the Epson QX-10.

It ran CP/M, but also came with a wild OS/Integrated app called "Valdocs". While a bit buggy, the spell check worked well. All in all, it was a worthy stab against AppleWorks. It was written in Forth. Beating up on that OS was pretty mind bending.

[ab1ga]

The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because it came with color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, the Disk II. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80


Keep in mind that Apple created both computer and operating system - Microsoft only created operating systems and software applications.

There were actually two different families carrying the "TRS-80" label, the original monochrome system running a variant of BASIC on the Z-80 chip, and the Color Computer, announced in 1980, an architecture based upon the Motorola 6809E and providing color graphics using a color television. But what set the CoCo apart was the ability to run OS-9, a multiuser (!), multitasking operating system, and the ability to write new software to a software driver model rather than a hardware model.

[ki4itv]

The Timex Sinclair was my first "PC".


Same here, tape drive, extra RAM "cartridge", and the thermal printer. The keyboard wasn't the easiest to use.

[PA5COR]

Times Sinclair ZX - 81 with 16 kB extra memory module.
Coco Tandy color computer
First 286 machine, 1 Meg mem.
Then the rest, 386. 486, Pentium 66 etc
Yep we came a long way.