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@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Post #320566

2026-02-07 00:17 UTC

#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into a given class of retrocomputer today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost! This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994. Minicomputer poll: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/116026497511100991 32-bit home/personal computer poll: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/116026605156645610

Replies (24)

  • @stilvoid@retro.pizza 2026-02-07 00:19

    @fluidlogic I had access to 8 and 16 bit computers when I was growing up but now I’m enjoying getting to know the 8/16 bit computers that I didn’t have access to and have no nostalgia for so… kind of both?

    Open ##1057649

  • @Foritus@toot.dusepo.co.uk 2026-02-07 00:21

    @fluidlogic alas my first computer as a kid was 32 bit and supported protected mode, how opulent :)

    Open ##1057650

  • @fluidlogic The first microcomputer I had access to was an Altair 8800 that my high school computer club put together the year before I got there. The year after that my parents bought a Commodore Pet and things were never the same. I still have the pet but it doesn't work any more, sigh...

    Open ##1057651

  • @quinn@social.circl.lu 2026-02-07 01:08

    @fluidlogic you got a lot of masto olds here 😂

    Open ##1057652

  • @howtophil@oldbytes.space 2026-02-07 01:45

    @fluidlogic I was mostly a roadside-find and garage/yard sale bits type

    Open ##1057653

  • @fluidlogic You will take my TRS-80 Model III from my cold dead hands

    Open ##1057656

  • @wollman@mastodon.social 2026-02-07 02:24

    @fluidlogic My mother worked for IBM so of course rather than a normal computer we had to get a 5150 (version 2 system board, so it could hold up to 256K RAM), which she paid for through payroll deduction. A few summers later I went to a "computer camp" where I was the only kid with a PC in a sea of TRS-80s and C-64s and Apple IIs. It was upgraded over time; the second floppy drive broke and was replaced with a 20M hard drive, and we got a better (non-Epson) printer and a color monitor.

    Open ##1057657

  • @fluidlogic My school had a Polymorphics 8813.

    Open ##1057658

  • @fluidlogic I had a personal 8-bit computer (an Apple IIc) when I was young, _but_ it was well after their heyday. The family computer was a Windows 95 machine.

    Open ##1057659

  • @mausmalone@mastodon.social 2026-02-07 02:53

    @fluidlogic we were able to afford an Apple IIe when my mom's co-worker threw one out. This was WELL into the 386 era.

    Open ##1057660

  • @fluidlogic random thoughts bc of this post: my high school really tried to give us a good education. we were also in a major transition phase.... my class was: -- the last class at that high school to take Latin -- the last class to take Typing (yup, on typewriters) -- the 1st class to 'learn' the Pascal programming language

    Open ##1057661

  • @fluidlogic IBM PC XT.

    Open ##1057662

  • @gcvsa@mstdn.plus 2026-02-07 03:25

    @fluidlogic I got an Atari 800 with 48K RAM and 410 tape deck, plus the Star Raiders and Atari BASIC program cartridges for Christmas 1981 or 1982, can't remember, but I was 13 or 14 years old. My next computer was an Apple Macintosh IIsi around 1992 or 1993? I went to Carnegie-Mellon in 1986, so I didn't need my own computer during those years.

    Open ##1057663

  • @MHowell@kolektiva.social 2026-02-07 03:30

    @fluidlogic I'm "parallel printer port" years old

    Open ##1057664

  • @genericperson@hachyderm.io 2026-02-07 03:48

    @fluidlogic Vic 20, C64, C128, PC 8088/8086, Atari 1040ST Apple IIe if you count the computers at school.

    Open ##1057665

  • @fluidlogic I don't think you could buy any 8- or 16-bit computers in 1994. That was well into the 32-bit era. The beginning of the end of the 16-bit era was 1986. That's when the 386 came out. It was obsolete in 1989, so that's when I'd say the 32-bit era had begun in earnest.

    Open ##1057666

  • @rogerparkinson@mastodon.nz 2026-02-07 04:24

    @fluidlogic I worked on PDP 11s from the mid 70s to 1981 then onto Vax gear. So 16bits then 32 bits. It meant I got into 32 bits early and I wasn't interested in the PC machines. I did dabble in Windows towards the end of the 80s because a client wanted it and... only 16 bits? Are you kidding me?

    Open ##1057667

  • @Su_G@aus.social 2026-02-07 04:29

    @fluidlogic I am in those who did not have access & now, seeing the results of this poll I feel deprived. ☹️

    Open ##1057668

  • @revk@toot.me.uk 2026-02-07 08:06

    @fluidlogic I could only dream of 16 bit processors :-)

    Open ##1057669

  • @hunterking@heads.social 2026-02-12 05:38

    @fluidlogic First computer was a 386 SX. When Doom came around I was still having a blast at like 8fps.

    Open ##1057670

  • @UpLateGeek@bitbang.social 2026-02-13 00:38

    @fluidlogic the first computer I remember we had was an Apple II, but I don’t remember using it much since I was very young. The next computer we had was an IBM JX, which I definitely used quite a lot. It was the Japanese version of the PCjr, basically a low-end 16-bit machine.

    Open ##1057671

  • @fluidlogic My father used to bring home a Toshiba T3100 that had an 80287 FPU from his workplace, but I was very young then. I didn't really get to use that machine proper until maybe 1990 or '91. By which time, 386 and 486 PCs were all the rage: technically 32-bit machines running a 16-bit OS (MS-DOS/Windows 3.1).

    Open ##1266226

  • @fluidlogic@oldbytes.space 2026-02-07 19:19

    @scuttlebutt thanks - I wasn't aware.

    Open ##1266265

  • @scuttlebutt@farticle.cloud 2026-02-07 19:13

    @fluidlogic Editing a post with a poll resets any votes already cast on that poll. (it's the way Mastodon works) Everyone who voted before will have to do so again if they want.

    Open ##1716623