The first PC. Was it really that long ago?

[dugimodo]

I spent $1000 on a second hand 32Mb hard drive for my Atari ST and it was large enough to use as a monitor stand.
The rate of change in technology during our lifetimes has been amazing.

My first PC was a commodore 64 (also 2nd hand) and I went through 2 of them. I had the original model that died and got the newer shaped one after that. I had dual external floppy drives, a cassete drive, and a cartridge based bit copier for duplicating disks.
Although I'd probably find it laughable to use today it seemed amazing back in the day.

It always surprised me that PC compatibles took over the market, in the days of Atari & Commodore they were much better home PCs out of the box than a DOS machine IMHO. When you still had Autoexec.bat and config.sys to deal with and managing base memory caused you headaches Atari and Commodore had a mouse based GUI, colour screens, and stereo sound, without the need for add in cards.

[Kame]

$1,900? Was that barebones? you were looking at nearly double just for the monitor if it didn't connect to your TV. Not to mention all the add on cards you needed as well. I recall around the $6k mark too, maybe a bit lower if you went for the hobbyist ones more aimed at the home market.

Do you remember NZ making computers? I don't know what happened but we seemed to have given up on these industries and it seems like there's no going back.

[Tony]

$1,900? Was that barebones? you were looking at nearly double just for the monitor if it didn't connect to your TV. Not to mention all the add on cards you needed as well. I recall around the $6k mark too, maybe a bit lower if you went for the hobbyist ones more aimed at the home market.

Do you remember NZ making computers? I don't know what happened but we seemed to have given up on these industries and it seems like there's no going back.

Now I'm confused again. I've always remembered it as $6000, but Piroska's comment made me wonder. Unfortunately I no longer have any of the documentation, financial or otherwise.

[Kame]

I recall the C64 and the ZX dropping hugely until they became non-existent but it was always expensive when you started adding more on. Woolworths use to sell them, now thats saying something.

DSE brought out a hobbyist computer, was tempting too but I think I paid near the $10k mark for an actual IBM and many add on cards, drives and monitor.

The Sanyo being around $6k makes sense as it was one of the first IBM compatibles to drop below IBMs price.

It was however the OS that did it for them, coming in at a cost of only 10% of the other OS available, that huge undercut cemented IBM/MS to where they are now.

[ManUFan]

Vic 20 with cartridge port - old valve B&W tv. Remember the excitement when I got a tape drive, I could SAVE and LOAD stuff. Then upgraded to an AMSTRAD! WOW! Also remember old X86 based machines at work (NZ Post Office or P&T if you prefer), adding memory (full sized card with 128MB - yes MB! to an IBM PC, 10 (or 20 - can't remember) MB HDD...... Glory Days! Playing / getting stuff to work with IRQs, Autoexec.bat, Config.sys..... DOS, WIN3.X,95,98,ME,NT........

[kgbme]

The first PC. Was it really that long ago?

Wait, when was yours?! What was it, have I missed it in the thread? o.0

After some, crummy, 80286 in, like, 1992 - must've been an IBM, as well, right - we had bought a used Gateway 2000 computer, from mom's work colleague... It cost an arm and a leg, maybe -probably - over $2000. Which, ok, we're getting back to those prices -again- today, with nVidia's graphics cards - and the prices of DDR4 and whatnot, meh.

[..] the first programmable computer was built?.

Jesus H. Christ, don't know about you (guys), but I'm SO old that I remember our computer teacher telling us about a card-programed machine which he used to work with, back in the States. He was young, as well, so couldn't have been much older... The year had been, dunno, maybe 1993-1994 (not our senior year, class of 1995 hear. :))

then I stopped buying them and started building/upgrading my own.

Ofc!! It's the only way, right!?

P.S.

I got my first computer in about 1984. A Sanyo 555 with a green screen [..]

Just the other day, I'd been wondering where have all those (old!) brands gone, including "Sanyo". Were they a Western invention, for example in Hong Kong (while it had been British); how about all the Japanese ones. Missing seeing all the brand names shine around the living room (you know, it's all either in my hand - like, on a Android device - or, it's on the computer). No more hand-helds, either - same case, maybe in a virtual machine, on the PC, heh. :-s

[kgbme]

Ah, lolz... Found this, concerning getting name-brands - and, the above mentioned, Gateway 2000:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnKm66pYK-Q

... It's, still, somewhat true, right?! In all devices, especially big brand names - like Android, too - where they will include this-and-that feature and, then, ON PURPOSE exclude something, anything, so that they'll catch more customers with the next model; that "new and improved" one, gah! :-/

[Tony]

kgbme, I see you have made 11 posts. I hope the quality will improve with time.

[CliveM]

kgbme, I see you have made 11 posts. I hope the quality will improve with time.

Probably about the same time as they pay those garment makers $20 per hr instead of peanuts

[Kame]

Sanyo was partly acquired by Panasonic before they took them over fully.

Panasonic maybe struggling or still figuring out how to reorganise themselves, they stopped producing TVs.

Most brands get bought by the competition, especially when the advantage arises with them performing poorly.

As for lacking features, most definitely but the worse thing is patents. Basically you can seal ideas without needing a prototype. So imagine you sealed your very future by patenting your intended future for a device. An ipod to play mp3s, later add photos, later add videos, wifi, etc. Because you patented the future and the only way to not infringe is to improve on the patent but you can't because those improvements were patented. Patents monopolise and destroy advancements. Good for the holder, bad for others.