Your first memories of each system you owned?

What are some of the first memories of the computer systems and consoles you have owned over the years?

I thought of this topic after remembering when I got my Atari ST.

I had been reading up and looking at the 16-bit games and system with great interest for ages, whilst still using my 8-bit CPC. I'd followed the ST's development in magazines and seen them running in local computer shops and really wanted one. But during saving for one in 1986 the Amiga was starting to look much better, and seeing the two running the same games, and comparisons between screenshots, it was clear that the Amiga was the much more powerful system.

However at the end of 1986 the A500 was £100 more than the 520STFM and I just couldn't afford one (even with the money my parents gave me towards a new computer that Christmas). So it had to be the ST or nothing. And at the time I remember viewing the Amiga as a higher up system that was beyond my reach.

Anyway... My parents ordered my 520STFM for me over the phone using a credit card and I was very say to find out that the software bundle advertised in the magazine was no longer available, so I had to have the basic 520 package that just came with a welcome disk. :( At least they did knock some money off the price.

But this was made worse because a school friend of mine was also getting an ST that Christmas, but he was spoilt and didn't need to save for his own. His parents just bought him one for Christmas. And when I went round to his house they had got him the expensive package from Silica (remember them?) which came with a huge bundle of games and productivity software. You can imagine how jealous I was of that.

In contrast my ST came with the standard ST welcome disk that contained some GEM demos to show off some aspects of the ST. They included a non interactive demo showing spreadsheets with graphs being drawn, graphics being drawn in an art package and a few games being played. And what did I have to play on my new ST? Ranarama! Not the greatest game in the world but I still played it and enjoyed it because it was my ONLY game.

As for my first memory of my ST. Before this point I hadn't actually used an ST myself. I had seen them running demos in shops and read lots about them in magazines, but I hadn't actually used one. This was mainly because it was 1986 and everyone I knew were all saving to get one that Christmas. So we would all discover it together.

I had however been using the Acorn Archimedes at school as had been using a WIMP environment, and had used an Apple Mac briefly. However most of my computing experience was on 8-bit systems using commandline only interfaces. Especially the BBC Micro and CPC464, with a bit of Speccy thrown in.

Therefore when I connected my ST up for the first time I didn't quite know what to expect, so the GEM desktop was quite new and exciting to me. I remember taking everything out of the box and connecting it up to the big TV in the living room. Starting it up and being presented by the GEM desktop. I instantly started to explore it with the mouse and thinking it looked quite cool, but not actually being able to do much. So I stuck the welcome disk in the drive and had a look at what was on it. I clearly remember a program on the disk being for mouse skills. You can to do basic skills like dragging a ball into a hole, and double clicking on things. I then loaded up Ranarama and played that for a bit, connecting the Cheetah joystick up I already had from my CPC. I enjoyed the game and played it until I had to go to school (the ST had arrived at 7am that morning).

I also remember being a bit confused. I had been so used to the commandline interfaces of 8-bit systems and being able to program some basic commands and programs out of the box. With the ST I was left wondering where the commandline interface was, and how I was meant to program on it. Imagine my shock when i discovered I had to buy additional software in order to do this. Madness!

So that is my first memory of the ST. I will post some first memories of my other systems later.

Are you kidding ;) :lol: that would be too long to tell.

If i hear Lionel Ritchies Hello it brings back memories of playing my Atari console playing either Spiderman, Superman or Empire Strike Back. Before you comment on my taste in music it was because that was always being played on the radio at the time. Other good memories are simulating Gforces onProject: Stealth Fighter on my C64 and also the opening music on Wizball on the C64 and the first time i heard "Ah! Another visitor. Stay awhile, stay forever!!!!!".

First memories on Spectrum 48k:
playing space invaders in christmas back in 84.
I receive my Spectrum with that game an i remember playing it in my grandmother's house in a black and white tv.
It was in a time that in Portugal most of the people had black and white tvs and nobody had any kind of computers.
I remember some time after to spend hours and hours playing Formula 1 that one that you choose the team, the drivers, the sponcers,
where you had to buy the engine and you could change the tires, but you didnt drive, it was only strategy, and you only see the cars passing from right to left.
So good !!!

I remeber when i first saw the Atari St, it was in... i think in 1989, and i saw Captain Blood with the intro music of Jean Michelle Jarre ....
it was very hard to deal with that,
in that time, the best thing i had seing so far was the Spectrum (didnt knew the C64), and then,
sudently, captain blood in the Atary st ..... it was a awesome!

Some Months after i receive the A500 as birthsday present, i remember, the first 3 games : SpeedBall, wings of Fury and Outrun.
I was a superb!!

Captain Blood was an amazing game for me too. The ST used very good samples and it was some great Jarre music. And the whole game was interesting due to its unique and quirky nature. I remember feeling a great achievement completing it on my ST. :) It was sad that the Amiga version was badly ported because if it had been done correctly that would have been even better.

You'll like this. My first memory of my A1200 was "it doesn't work!!". I hadn't had a computer before, knew I was supposed to see the animated disk on startup, but nothing appeared on any of the 99 TV channels I went through. It turns out it would display a blank screen for 30 seconds before displaying the animated disk, so I'd turn it on and would pass channel 21 before the screen appeared. 2 days later I looked up the answer in CU Amiga, and tried again to success. It was 7pm on a Sunday night and I loaded up Monkey Island 2 which I'd bought for £38 with some money from my Grandad, and I spent the next 2 hours before bed playing it.

My first memory of my first PC was "it doesn't work!!". It was a 450MHz PIII which I'd bought new for £500 out of MicroMart in 1999, made by some Greek lady in a London shopping centre. I tried installing Win98 but it would crash partway through the install. I had very little knowledge of PCs, but eventually tracked it down to the fact that the UTTER MUPPETS had set the processor speed in the BIOS to 500MHz, and the thing couldn't cope. I set it back to normal, and the thing worked. Well, it would still crash every half hour, but that was Windows.