The first PC. Was it really that long ago?

**R2x1** · 21-10-2018, 10:45 AM

Wow, those machines were EXPENSIVE.
IBM found a lever and a place to stand, and we were surely moved.
It is just a bit of a shame they chose to stand on a pile of sand in a spot subject to strong tidal flows.

**Roscoe** · 21-10-2018, 11:05 AM

But do you know when the first programmable computer was built? It was a valve computer, it took up ten rooms of a house in Bletchly Park near London. It was used to decode the German Enigma signals in the Second World War and was instrumental in winning the war.

**piroska** · 21-10-2018, 02:02 PM

I dunno, my first computer was $1900. So was second. So was 3rd. So was 4th....then I stopped buying them and started building/upgrading my own.

The parts got more awesome and more configurable and prettier.

**R2x1** · 21-10-2018, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Roscoe

But do you know when the first programmable computer was built? It was a valve computer, it took up ten rooms of a house in Bletchly Park near London. It was used to decode the German Enigma signals in the Second World War and was instrumental in winning the war.

Yeah, Right.

**kenj** · 21-10-2018, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by R2x1

Yeah, Right.

Known as a "Bombe"

Ken

**piroska** · 21-10-2018, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by Roscoe

first programmable computer .

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm
First programmable computer

The Z1 was created by German Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938. It is considered to be the first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer, and the first really functional modern computer.

**Tony** · 21-10-2018, 05:07 PM

I got my first computer in about 1984. A Sanyo 555 with a green screen, two floppies, no HDD and 256K of RAM. It cost me about $NZ6000 !!! I was obviously earning far too much. It seems impossible these days but I achieved a huge amount on that primitive beast and I think I had more fun with it than with any machine I've owned since.

**Kame** · 23-10-2018, 09:53 AM

Computers in the 80s were expensive right. IBM lost its own market in a world they standardised. The costs literally went down and down with IBMs trend.

**piroska** · 23-10-2018, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Tony

I got my first computer in about 1984. It cost me about $NZ6000 !!! .

Really? It was 1900 for C64, 1984 $1900 for A500 1985, $2200 for A2000, 1991 or thereabouts
Never spent more until I got into gaming PCs

**Tony** · 23-10-2018, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by piroska

Really? It was 1900 for C64, 1984 $1900 for A500 1985, $2200 for A2000, 1991 or thereabouts
Never spent more until I got into gaming PCs

You've made me think. I think you are right - it was $6000 after inflation, which would make it about $1900 at the time - still expensive though compared with today.