So, like I said last time, going to college changed the computer landscape for me. It was 1991, and home computers were becoming popular. I was thinking that I really needed one to get through college. But my parents were convinced that all we needed was a typewriter. So, I got a job at the Po Folks restaurant in Waco, and bought the two things I really needed to get through college: a truck (1991 Izusu pickup) and a computer. I took out a loan for $2000 and bought an IBM PS/1. The truck lasted until it blew a rod last year, but the PS/1 has been gone since 95 or so – so I guess you can see which one was a better buy 🙂

Anyway – the PS/1 was incredible. First of all, it came with Prodigy – an early Internet-like service that I loved. My parents got a little mad that the phone was always tied up, but it’s not like we got that many calls. So, yep – I’ve been on the Internet for a long time. The funny thing is, I saw the PS/1 on some list of the 10 worst home computers of all time. Most of the problems they listed didn’t affect me, though. The PS/1 had 30mb hard drive (NOT gb – mb), IBM-DOS (this was before Windoze came on the scene), and a monster mouse that didn’t always click when you hit the buttons. But it had Microsoft Works – that saved my rear in college many times.

My parents caught on to the need for computers, and now my Mom currently has a super monster computer to transfer VHS to DVD and make home DVDs.

So, the next decade of my life was spent with a variety of computer upgrades and new services. I went from IBM-DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 to Win 98 to XP. Haven’t even touched Vista yet. Don’t know if I will ever be brave enough for that.

Anyway, in college I also got my first experience with Macs. Baylor had all Mac labs, so around 1994-97, I spent a lot of time on the early WWW and the Mac version of what ever. Archive.org has a great service called the Way Back Machine, and it’s pretty interesting to look back at the old versions of websites archived there. I remember many of them. Man, has the Internet come a long way.

I tended to shy away from programming computers in college, but I quickly got back in to it after getting in to the work world. I had no aversions to programming in college – I just got too busy. Anyway, I went to a computer training when I was a Junior High teacher called “Intel Teach to the Future Training.” We all had to take tests online to see if we had the necessary skills to just jump right in the class and start. Or so we thought. The first day of the class, someone raised their hand and said “now, are you sure I won’t break this thing by pressing the ‘on’ button?” The teacher of the class (who was also another Science teacher), looked at my wife and I (we were both Science teachers and in this class), rolled his eyes, gave us the “might want to entertain yourself for a while” look, and proceeded to baby sit this teacher for an hour’s worth of basic computer training. Like, really basic.

So, I got on the Internet and learned html. Since then I have gotten into CSS, XML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Flash, and ActionScript. All of which I learned because they were needed for my job at the time (whatever it was), but no one else knew how to do it.

Also, around 2003, I started my first blog. Been addicted ever since.

In 2004, I worked at a company that was (for the most part) all Mac based. So, I used my first iMac (the G4) in a work environment. I was pretty impressed. When Apple decided to come out with Intel-based Macs, I was almost convinced that it was time to switch. Our Mac-fanatic friend Chris was the final push that convinced Katie and I to go Mac. A few months ago, our new iMac Core Due arrived, and I’ve been loving it ever since. Now, if only the price of iPhone would come down, I could get one of those, and start a whole new chapter in my history with computers….

(by the way, the links I am putting in these articles are to pictures of the computers or programs in question).

For some reason, I have been on a nostalgia trip recently. I was looking at PC World’s Top 10 worst computers of all time, and the first computer I ever bought was up there! It was a great computer! Anyway, I started to reminisce, and I was surprised to find out how many screen shots, articles, and emulators there are out there for these old systems I used to own or use. Here is my brief history with computers.

My first time to use a computer was in 4th grade, around 1983-1984. Our school had a Commodore 64. They would send all of the artsy/nerdy students to what they called “Gifted & Talented” class once a week – and the C64 was one of the activities they kept us busy with. Interesting how GT started out as a way to describe the “weird” kids. Anyway, I basically learned how to use |/\{} etc draw a rocket ship that would scroll up the screen. And to play a game or two.

I also remember back in the day when Target had a C64 on display. My brother and I would always jump at a chance to go shopping with our Mom, and then get to Target only to dash off to the electronics row. The game that they always had, that we always played, was G.I.Joe. Mom would have to drag us kicking and screaming out of that store every time.

I also remember visiting Sears a lot and playing their ColecoVision every chance we got. We loved to play the Smurf game. Yep – it was labeled the “Easiest Video Game Ever.” But we never won it. Sad.

Somewhere in mid-80s, my parents broke down and bought us an Atari 2600. We actually owned something before that to play Pong on, but I can’t remember what it was. Anyway, we used to spend hours playing Atari games at friends and relatives houses, so we eventually ended up with one of our own. The games were simple, but we loved to play. For days on end. I think school happened in there somehow.

Also, along the way, we talked our parents in to our first home computer as a family – the TI-99 4/A. We also spent hours playing Parsec and Tunnels of Doom on this thing. Tunnels was great because we could get the whole family together and explore the dungeons looking for the King’s treasure. We even has a tape player to store stuff on – that was what the po’ folks did back in the day when floppy disk drives were too expensive. Um… a floppy disk is… well, if you don’t know – go look it up. Anyway – cassette tapes are very finicky, so every other time you stored stuff on them, you usually lost it. But it was soooo cool to be able to turn off the computer and have it remember where you were in the game.

I even learned how to do graphics and some video game programing on the TI. Now, granted, the pixels on the graphics were a good 1/4″ square. And the action was pretty slow in Basic programming language. But I still fondly remember my first program – Stormtrooper Battle 357. You had to go up 10 levels of the DeathStar, each level with a Stormtrooper to shoot. Of course, the trooper just stood there until you hit the ‘F’ key – because I didn’t know how to do it differently. Then, when you got to the top hatch of the DeathStar, you had to enter the “secret code” to get out. What was the secret code? Take a wild guess….

Any way, I also remember in High School how the Nintendo Entertainment System became huge. We spent hours at friends houses playing Super Mario Brothers, Castevania, Duck Hunt, etc, etc. Until my brother got one for Christmas, and then we spent hours in his room playing those games. Yeah, and we did manage to make it to school most of the time. Somehow.

About the 10th grade (1989), my school started offering a computer course. So, I jumped at that. Don’t even remember what computer was used, but it was IBM, and it had the old monochrome screen. I Spent hours programming BASIC (that’s one of those old computer programming language, for those that don’t remember) and designing goofy banners to print out. I was the envy of my class when I learned how to change the color of the text on my screen from green to any one of 16 basic colors.

Of course, I was also around when the arcade video game scene took off (late 70s – early 80s). Wasted many quarters on anything from Donkey Kong to M.A.C.H. III to Karate Champ to Dragons’ Lair. Also, I remember playing on several Apple IIE‘s back in the day.

Well, that pretty much takes me up to college, and the fact that I got a job the last month of high school and worked through my entire 6 year stint at college (yep – 6 years, not 4) pretty much changed the computer landscape for me. I’ll hit that in part two.