The IBM PC turns 25: Engadget's first PCs
posted August 12th 2006 4:24PM
Ryan Block - My first PC was my grandfather's Toshiba T-1200 series. The family business at the time was a robotics company called CIMAD (anyone want to dig up some dirt on that one?), and way early on they had car phones (one of those too big to actually remove from the car) and one of these puppies for doing "work" on the go. It was a powerful box: 4.77MHz, 640KB RAM, 640 x 200 pixel monochrome screen. The T-1200 was pretty massive, no doubt about it, but at 11 pounds it wasn't too much worse than many of today's high performance clunkers. I only remember actually doing three things with this device: playing Apes on it, fixing it when DOS crashed (which was, like, all the time), and carrying it around with me wherever possible, because being the only pre-teen kid with a laptop in the 80s had so much cachet. Robots, laptops, video games, I guess some things never change.
Darren Murph - While it's a bit hard to remember so far back, the mere mention of Wolfenstein 3D brings it all back into focus. My first PC was a run-of-the-mill beige box packed with a state-of-the-art Intel 80386 microprocessor (better known at just "386"), 2MB of RAM, dual floppy drives (5.25-inch and 3.5-inch), a 1x CD-ROM drive, and a killer 14-inch color CRT monitor. My folks surprised me with this on Christmas morning, and their primary intention was to teach me to type correctly and whip me into shape for "all those jobs" in the future that would require such expertise. It didn't take long to figure out that typing "WOLF" at the DOS screen using any combination of fingers I so desired would launch the legendary Wolfenstein 3D, where I spent entirely too much time stuck on that last boss before learning the "I + L + M" trick. My folks had no idea how that machine would mold my interests, but hey, at least I'm putting those oh-so-crucial typing skills to good use.
Will O'Brien - The first PC that I had at home was a sturdy Zenith 8088 running at a smoking 8MHz. I managed to write a few programs in BASIC, specially designed to annoy my sister. After a year or two, we even upgraded the graphics card and bought a CGA monitor. Aside from writing papers using WordPerfect for school, I played plenty of Jumpin' Jack and Flightmare. (No Wolfenstein for me until we bought the 486SX a few years later) Those were the days when shareware was actually a good thing.
Thomas Ricker - Hmmm, my first PC huh? Well this may come as a surprise but I've never owned a PC. As any purist or fan boy will happily pontificate, my father's Apple ][ -- the platform of my deflowering -- was not a PeeCee. Oh sure, pops sprung for an IBM AT (pictured) in my final year at university which delivered an Intel 80286 clockin' in at 6MHz, a 20MB hard disk, a couple MB of RAM, MS-DOS 3.0, and a 5.25-inch floppy drive all packed neatly into a lovely beige box. The attached dot-matrix printer would rattle the walls and send the cat into fits whenever WordStar detected a ^ P. Sadly, my AT met its demise in a hairy buffalo accident which must never be discussed.
Paul Miller - Being the son of graphic designer, my first computer experience involved scanning color images onto the family Macintosh IIci just because I could. My first actual experience with PCs was years later watching over the shoulder of a neighborhood kid messing around with MegaZeux, Commander Keen and crazy DOS prompt actions like "CD" and backslashes. It wasn't until 2001 or 2002 that I got my first proper PC though, an eMachines T1090, with a spankin' 900MHz Celeron processor, CD-ROM drive, 20GB drive and 128MB of RAM split between two 64MB sticks. I stole a 10Base-T PCI card from a friend to get it running on my network, and proceeded to push the machine to its limits with late night games of Unreal Tournament and an installation of QuickBooks. The Command Prompt still gives me the heebie-jeebies, and I try to pretend things like the registry and DLL files don't exist, but I'm thoroughly cross-platform these days and wouldn't have it any other way.
Ross Rubin - I'd played my fair share of games on an Apple II, Commodore 64 and Coleco Adam that belonged to friends (I was holding out for the Intellivision Keyboard Component), and the first PCs I used on a regular basis were IBM PC ATs at a school lab and the infamous PC jr. to work on BASIC homework at a neighbor's house. As a Mac-only guy for many years, who was also lucky enough to generally use Macs at work, I finally purchased my first PC when a series of articles about PC software I got to write justified the purchase -- a Dell Dimension XPS T700r with a 700 MHz Pentium III. It had a DVD-ROM drive, a 10GB hard drive and came with Windows 98. I added a tape drive which I used exactly never and eventually a CD burner and more RAM. I'd had a big 20-inch Radius CRT that I used with my Power Computing PowerWave 604/150 and had dual video inputs, so i would use it to switch between the two computers. With the size of that thing, there wasn't room for much else on my desk. I replaced that computer as my home music server last year and still have it. (Please do not bid if you do not intend to buy. Users with positive feedback only please!)
Chris Ziegler - Not including the trusty TI-99/4A that I used to cut my teeth on BASIC, my first true PC was a homebuilt 8MHz 286 sporting 640K of RAM and an expansive 40MB hard disk. My favorite feature of the box was its clearly-labeled external "Turbo" button, toggling the processor for compatibility with older PC and XT apps (my copy of Pitfall being a prime example -- though attempting to play it at full speed was great exercise for hand-eye coordination). I clearly remember pleading with my parents to spring for a Hayes Smartmodem 1200 so I could check out the then-new Prodigy service; they eventually relented, though not until we upgraded the giant beige box to a 386DX with 4MB of RAM. Some 13 years after canceling our membership, my Prodigy ID and password are still inexplicably stuck in my brain. Should they ever decide to go back to a DOS-based service, I'll be first in line to whip out my credit card.
Don Melanson - My first PC was a Tandy 286 sold by Radio Shack back in the day. It had a massive 25MB hard drive and 1MB of RAM, not to mention full-blown VGA graphics, which proved to be perfect for playing countless old-school Sierra adventure games when I should have been doing my homework. Soon after we added a 2400 baud modem and I discovered the world of BBSes (both of them), where I got a taste of the demo scene that made this PC do things I'd never imagined was possible. Sadly, that's not the actual computer at the right. It was sold long ago and replaced with a true monster of a system: a 486.
Mine was an Amstrad CPC464, but whatever, that was for games. Other than that, my dad got one of the first Macintoshes delivered in the UK, and it came with a personal handwritten letter of thanks from Cupertino. THAT was pretty awesome, glad I still have it all too.
My first computer was a hand-me-down IBM PS/2 Model 60 (286) with 4 megs of RAM and a partially functioning 80 meg hard drive. It was cool because the HD had lots of bad blocks, but if you didn't use it very often, and then ran scandisk, you could get it to work occasionally.
I got my start in gaming and programming with QBASIC and floppy based games like Pharoah's Tomb and 688 Attack Sub (EGA graphics baby - oh yeah!).
The first computer I actually bought myself was a Compusa Packard Bell special with 166 mhz processor and 16 meg of ram, as well as a gargantuan 1 gb hard drive, all for the low, low price of $1000.00. I spent 145 dollars at my college store to buy a NIC for it, and promptly discovered the joys of software piracy, leading me to destroy my poor computer with a botched Windows 98 beta load. Stupid Windows 98 beta.
Here's a brief history form a blog posting I made last October. I've since added a 2006 toshiba satellite to the list:
* 1986 private label PC XT, monochrome monitor (local retailer, $1,900)
* 1989 private label 386SX, with CGA color display (local retailer, ~$1,600)
* 1995 Acer pentium 90 mhz (From Best Buy, $1,600) First windows computer, first internet access computer. Ran Gina’s game software “Can I interest you in a hot cup of tea?”
* 1998, private label AMD K5 (local repair shop, $350) used/reconditioned, to replace lightning damaged Acer. Insurance covered this and it worked well.
* 2001 Dell PIII 866mhz (Dell reconditioned, $1,100), this was for my grad studies program and upgraded for video editing. Its served me well…over time I upgraded it with a network card, a video card, a firewire card, a 19″ monitor, DVD burner, additional harddrive, and a new power supply.
* 2003 Dell PIII 500mhz (eBay used $350) this one never worked too well
* 2004 Gateway Profile 4 for Gina (Gateway reconditioned, $700) this is a sexy looking PC, but it’s a little buggy.
* 2005 Dell 5100 P4 3.0Mhz (Dell reconditioned $700) my new hot rod.
Even though it was not a PC, the Vic-20 with a Tape Recorder and a copy of Byte magazine was the first computer I used. Remember when Byte used to feature articles and basic code.
Anyway, the first PC was a IBM compatable AT. Anyone remember DR. Halo? My first graphic designs stirrings began on that machine.
Apple II - 48K - Only had UPPER CASE until my computer teacher came over and soldered a board on the the computer which enabled upper and lowercase characters.
I started with a KIM-1, programmed in assembly, connected to a ADM 3 terminal. Graduated to a Parasitic Engineering Equinox 100 (which I still have), and then on to numerous Morrow computers.
First computer that was in our house was a Sinclair... the first box I bought new and for myself was an Apple LC2.
pffft....my ENIAC can beat any PC out there
lol...but seriously, my first PC was a Gateway 2000 way back in the days. I used to play Need for Speed 2 a lot on that PC. I don't remember ANY specs because I was only like 6 at the time. Now I'm 16! wow...10 years went by that fast. Here is how my PC looks like. I think the specs listed on that site is the same as my old Gateway 2000, but I doubt it:
http://www.dracowulf.com/stuff/puters/1992
//// my bad...that wasn't the PC I used to play NFS2 with. That PC couldn't handle that much power and graphics. I used a different PC for that game. But with the Gateway 2000, I used to play Wacky Wheels a LOT.
the first pc that i owned myself was a custom built pc with amd athlon 1800+, 256mb ram and a geforce 3 ti 200 ( back in 2001 i think )
the first pc that my family owned was a 286 of some kind, maybe commodore. ahh i remember the good old days when i used to play duke nukem on my dads pc, and when i borrowed a floppy with some games from a buddy, the pc got a virus lol. the monitor flashed black and white.
The first computer my family had was a Commodore 64. I never got to touch it, since I was rather young at the time we had it, but I did watch my mom program in BASIC and play games. Later on, Mom bought a Packard Bell Legend 486... I can't remember the amount of ram we had, or the hard drive size, but it had a modem, and we first discovered the internet with this Windows 3.11 monster.
(Sadly, the first computer I ever owned was an HP Pavillion with a 1.8 gig processor, 80 gig hard drive, 256 megs of ram, a DVD-ROM and a CD burner. Parts of it still survive today.)
Well, the question specified "PC." My first real computer was an Apple //c, but my first MS-DOS PC (that was forced upon me by my company) was a Zenith Z-171, a shoulder mounted portable that looked like a big lunchbox. Had I waited a few months, I could have gotten its replacement, the Zenith Z-181 which more resembled today's modern laptop.
I still have the Z-171 in my closet. Despite its clunkiness, it holds a unique place in PC history (see description below from old-computers.com:
The Z-171 is innovative portable computer was one of the first to have a LCD display which was back-lighted! It also was one of the very earliest battery powered portable IBM compatible computers.
This lunchbox system was in fact made by Vadem and OEM'd by Zenith (Z170/Z171), Morrow (the Pivot), Osborne (Encore), and maybe others.
It was an excellent IBM compatible portable system, and was sold in considerable quantities to the US government and Navy.
Amazingly, this machine was Year 2000 compliant. In fact, the internal clock goes up to 2015.
The first computer that actually belonged to me was a 66 MHz Compaq something-or-other that had 32 MB of RAM, a 14400 baud modem, 4x CD-ROM, and I believe a hard drive that was under 1 gigabyte. This was back in 1996-1997. The only thing I really remember about that computer was the fact that I couldn't put a sound card into it because it didn't have any PCI expansion slots (we may have been limited only to ISA eek!). Also, I distinctly remember being one of the first kids with AOL and how cool that was. A friend and I would play a game called Final Fantasy Extreme in the chatrooms on AOL for hours...Ah, fond memories... :-/ At least it ran Windows 95 ;-)
My first computer was an Amiga 500, I used to play Thundercats and this Text Based Troll game, haha, the good ol' days.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
My first PC was #00301 IBM PC (for a whopping $2500) and another $2500 for the seperate chassis which contained a 5 Meg Hard drive (no misprint there, just early on!)
The keyboard was the very best part, and the most reliable; although DOS did get the job done.
My first computer (some years earlier) was a PDP 11/07 which weighed in at around 200lbs.
My first computer experience was a tube processor with paper tape (Kennedy died that year.)
I still long for high resolution display after all these years. Think about it. A 12 foot long 3 foot wide piece of paper has a resolution of what? 12,000 x 3,000. Even the most rudimentary exercise requires that much paper surface to expose.
Party ON! Garth
Haha...I barely remember my first PC, but I was two years old at the time (19 now, please don't drop crap on the young'un here :P) and so of course not many details are going to stick. I've always grown up around pretty recent stuff, though, so whatever was fairly recent around 1989-1990 is likely to be what I had...
I have yet to buy a PC, although I've bought like 3 Macs, and been gifted a PC (a 2 GHz P4 which is used as a server).
The first PC that I owned was a Tandy 1000. I eventually upgraded the 8088 to a NEC v20, added memory and bought an external 10mb hard disk (at a cost of $1000).
My first computer was an LC III, which I think had 16 mhz processor and maybe 15 Mb hard drive. I believe it had System 7 on it. I loved that computer. I wrote all of my papers for high school on it, though you couldn't play many games.
This takes me bake to my old dragon 64 now that was a rubbish computer, i remember my brother spending all day on some code from a book and all what he got at the end of it was a few different coloured lines flashing across the screen
My first was an Amstrad CPC 464...ah, those where the days. Games on tape was such a novelty. That, and disguising strip poker as a friends mix tape....:D
My first "PC" was an authentic Apple II Plus, decked out with two 5 1/4 inch floppy drives (360KB!!), two pong-like paddles, a 300-baud acoustic modem and 64K of memory (actually 48K with 16K of "switchable" RAM). A 9" portable color TV served as the monitor. I actually could run DOS on it and compile Pascal programs, as well as using the built-in BASIC interpreter.
I printed on a SilentType thermal-paper printer.
Don't even ask how many thousands of $$ it cost!
I still have my Data General Model One... the first REAL laptop PC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_One
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/dg-1/index.html
My first pc was a TI 99/4A that I had an insane amount of fun with. No hard drive or floppy disk, only cartridges and an audio cassette recorder. I played on this computer with TI BASIC when I could even barely read, eventually typing in sample programs from the 321 contact magazine.
My first was an IBM PS/1 386 (or was it a 286?) in 1990 or 91. 30 Mb HD, and 1 Mb RAM? yowza. I still use my old Prodigy UserID for my default password. What a hunk of junk, but without it I dunno what I would've done with my life.
ah yes, IBM 80286 with a 3-color CGA display, 20mb HD, and 640k RAM. I learned so much on that computer which gave me basis to jump up to a Packard Bell 386SX-16 with an insane 16-color VGA monitor able to run Doom 1 @ 5fps! the good ol' days with DOS. Oh i just remember i still have my original Wing Commander I box with all the original stuff in there =P
Oh my god, I have the guady colors of the monitor of the Tandy 1000 burned into my cerebral cortex. My brother stuffed raisins into the floppy drive and they rotted in there before we realized and took the shell off. I had almost forgotten about the whole light pen deal. It's been so long...
My dad had that T-1200 from Toshiba. I remember playing where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego. I don't remember the brand of my first computer, but it had no hard drive and I had three games: Top Gun (with 2 joysticks), Up Periscope, and Think Quick.
At least I won't be the oldest one out there. Started with a VIC-20, cassette tape, Basic and the whole package. Learned to program on that and wrote all kinds of games. Next step was a KayPro (don't remember the model number) but it was portable and had a 5.25 floppy drive in it. One of those wonderful Daisy Wheel printers as well. After that it went traditional PCs with a Commodore PC10/2 with a 8087 math co-processor in it and 640k memory and 2-5.25" floppy drives. Next, IBM PS2 with 2-3.5" floppy drives. Added a 10MB hard drive at a later date. Gateway 486 DX 33 with a VESA Local Bus architecture, 2MB video card, and 32MB Memory, pretty good for 1993. The rest is non significant, but have owned just about every Intel processor series since the 486, except Celeron. Even had a DEC Alpha at one point...
Please. :)
Old school PC, first two pcs were both TI 99-4As. They were being discontinued when my parents got them. Both with cart slots, Speech synthesizer and cassette adapters.
Then I got an Apple ][C with a 5.25" floppy. Had good times playing Lode Runner and the Bard's Tale series. TONS better than the WOW crap and Galaxies. Back when you had a story, not some hack and slash adventure. Back when Game companies could PROGRAM!
Chronomancers, Geomancers...Bards Tale RULED.
psssh...15$ a month to live real life in a fantasy world ruled by guilds? Give me Bards tale anyday.
Still have both of the 99/4as..the 2C is long gone :(
heres an idea for all of you that survived long enough to get to the final fight of BT3...Tarjan vs Diablo...who would win? :)
People reminicing about Pentiums is WHACK.
Learned programming on a Digital PDP 11 with Card Reader as well as a PET and Mac.
First BOUGHT 'computer' was my Atari 2600 with modem and keyboard or my Timex Sinclair ZX...can't remember which was first...
Next was a Commodore 64 ... Compute magazine ROCKED...I loved typing in the machine code programs...I remember one was a word processor (Speedscript) that was great for the time! Come on...anyone else type that bugger in?
'Graduated' to an Atari 520ST (I ran the fastest bulletin board in my hometown using a ramdisk (WTF!) for the message board).
From then on it was Windows....never directly used a DOS machine.
My first computer was an Amiga 2000 - bought in 1989. I taught myself graphics and animation and later went to Los Angeles to revolutionize the effects industry.
I found the Amiga inspiring. That's not typical of most computers. In my opinion.
Vic 20! Yep, the first computer I used at home was a Vic 20 soon to be followed by the hallowed Commodore 64. Then we moved up to the PC world when my Dad brought home his 286sx laptop from work. Then, I got to use a Compaq plasma screen 386 SX luggable with the 387 coprocessor, and an SVGA (1MB) ISA video card in the ISA expansion module! It was all gravy then...
My first PC (of my very own) was a brand spanking new Gateway 2000 P5-60. It was a $5000 machine with 16MB of ram, a 420MB hard drive, and the newly released Pentium processor. It was one of the first computers to have a PCI! video card with a wopping 2MB of VRAM. It even had a speedy 2X CD-ROM drive. As an upgrade, which I still use with an older machine today, I got a Samsung 17GLsi monitor for a cheap $1k. The $1k HP Laserjet 4P didn't last quite as long.
I think about this system every time I think about buying a Mac Pro now. It was expensive and it was trash within 2 years.
My first computer was an Oric-1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Computer_Systems#The_Oric-1
used to play with basic and some tape games we had for them, later on in the years our trully first "PC" was and Amstrad 1640 which I enjoyed a lot
First "personal computer" was a TRS-80 Color Computer with 4k of RAM, which I eventually had upgraded to 16k for some outrageous price. Had a cassette tape drive and a cartridge loading system for game carts. Hooked into your color TV and allowed you to program in color. This was back in the early 1980's!
First PC was the IBM PS/2 Model 25. All in one unit with MVGA (guessing, don't remember exactly) screen. No hard drive and only one 3 1/2" floppy. I had to buy a special kit for a 5 1/4" model. Eventually added a 40Meg HD for about $400.
My first PC was an IBM PS2 Model 25, it had an 8086 processor, running at a blazingly fast 8MHz!!!, 640K RAM and a huge 20 MB HDD, MCGA graphics displaying an awesome (for the time) 256 colors!!.
By the way, I still have it, and runs just like the first day.
My 1st PC was a 286sx-25mhz with 4megs of ram and a 40 meg HD, with cutting edge VGA graphics. it cost a whopping $5,000 and ran windows 3!
I can't believe theres only a few mentions of the Amiga. Before I bought my (refurbushed) Amiga 1000 (I think must have been 89 or something) I was exposed to (though did not own):
1) The High School's PDP-8
2) My brother's C= Vic20, C=Plus4, and his C= Amiga 1000
IBM PC Jr... 128KB RAM (that's the big KB, yo!) and a 5.25" double density floppy drive! Double, son!
Because BASIC was so massive, I had to pick that up on a seperate add-in cartridge. Strangely enough, it did have an infrared wireless keyboard, which seemed someone advanced now, looking back.
These kids today and their 'mega' this and 'giga' that. Back in my day, we dealt in 'kilo's'.
Wait that didn't sound right.
Wow! there are other saddos wistfully remembering the old days just like me! I got the bug on a BBC B+ and loved the little squeaky noises coming from the tape as we waited for those games to load! It gave you plenty of time to wander off to the kitchen to put the kettle on again ;) My favourites had to be Devil's Domain, Chucky Egg, Kong and JetBoot Jack? I've still got a couple of BBC Masters with monitor in the loft, tape drives, real FLOPPY disks, together with programming books and user guide, just can't seem to part with them!
I thought I was the bees knees when i finally got a 486DX with 8mb ram and a 250mb hard disk. I had to compress the blasted thing to get Windows95 AND office on it! There I was till the early hours dialling up to Netscape chat rooms with my 19k modem.... and now, even though ive got an Athlon 3500+ with 2g ram and 1T+ hd I still get a hankering for Devil's Domain... thank god for emulators!
My first was a TRS-80 Model I with the "expanded" 16K of memory on the motherboard. I preordered it before they were advertised and had an extremely low serial number. I later added the expansion interface to add a serial and parallel port and a floppy disk drive controller. Unfortunately, it was stolen from storage about 20 years ago.
My next machine was an original IBM PC with a 64K motherboard. The original configuration had a AST Six-Pack card, Hercules mono graphics card and a whooping 10 MB hard drive. After I replaced that machine, I installed inside the bar in my rec room and the monitor and a joystick sat on top allowing it to serve as a game machine with classic arcade games. I still have that baby and it booted the last time I tried it (It's been a while).
My first computer was a Sanyo MBC1000. It an on CP/M, with no hard drive, no color monitor. It cost $1500 in 1982. I was going to get the Heathkit and build a computer, but I was worried I'd end up with a very expensive doorstop, so when the Sanyo came out at the same price as the Healthkit, I grabbed it.
I liked it so much I bought its higher end brother 4 years later, then finally switched to a DOS operating system in the late '80's.
After that I upgraded and built about 6 different DOS and Windows computers, until 2001 when I built the Empac Blaster PC thatI still use. In fact, just upgraded to WinXP and a new modem a few weeks ago. I don't do any gaming, so with all the upgrades of SDRAM I've stuck in this computer, it's way fast enough for me...even more so with the WinXP and new modem.
My first computer was a Tandy Pocket Scientific Computer PC-6 (Egon had the PC-4 around his neck in the Ghostbusters movie) which allowed me to do my Grade 10 computer science assignments at home instead working after school in the TRS-80 lab. It still works and remains my desk calculator at the office to this day.
My first IBM-compatible was an Atari PC-1; a phone book sized unit with 5 1/4" floppy, 512K RAM, 8Mhz 8088 processor, bus mouse, EGA graphics onboard and a matched orange monochrome EGA monitor. No card slots. I upgraded it to 640K, stacked a real time clock under the BIOS ROM, then swapped the 8088 for a NEC V20 for added performance. Purchased at the same time, Borland's Turbo C 1.0 (Professional, I think).
I had a 360K floppy configured to boot it, set the clock, install the smax BIOS extension to handle maxiform floppies (420K) and create a RAM disk exactly the size needed to hold C0.lib and COS.obj (required to link the C source), which it then copied in. Once booted, I could switch to a 420K disk from which to run Turbo C, and finally switch to my working floppy that held source code, object files and the final .exe. This finely tuned set up let me develop code without any further disk swapping on a machine without a hard disk. Eventually I bought Atari's 20 MByte harddrive, the no card slots thing meant that I was locked in. It's the only drive I've never filled.
Man...the first computer I got was a PowerSpec 4322 with a Celeron 366MHz, 32mb of RAM, a 6GB hd and a CD-ROM drive. Doesn't sound too good now, but back in what, 1999? that wasn't too bad...
being a latecomer in the pc crazy, my first pc was an IBM! IBM Aptiva desktop with a AMD-k6 350MHz processor, a whole 64MB of RAM, 8 GB hard drive, and a 40x? CD-ROM. I sport it with a large 17" color crt display, 16" viewable. I later upgraded it to a full-blown ferrari by boosting the RAM to 192 MB!!! Did i mention that i also had a 3.5" floppy drive? They were my favorite storage media until the bulky CD-R came into the market.
After the Spectrum and Amiga, my first PC was a self built 486 SX25, it has a 512KB Cirrus Logic ISA graphics card, 4MB of RAM and a 60GB SCSI HDD that was the full height of a 5.25" bay and had it's own controller card.
After that it got upgraded to a DX33, a 109MB IDE HDD and a Trident 1MB VLB graphics card, I remember playing SU-27 Flanker and being amazed at the graphics.
The case was a massive beige hulk, I used it for years, just updating it a component at a time till AT format was made obsolete...
That seems to be have been 1996, how things change.
My first machine was a Commodore PET 2001-N with 16k RAM and no input device. I was 15 and had cleaned out my college savings and I kept it hidden in a large box in the basement entering all my own programs by hand. Boy was there some arguing when it was found. After all was said they bought me the missing tape deck so I could actually load software.
Later I started work at the first Software store in St. Louis where my friend and TRS-80 owner worked. The owner needed a display PET and I was to bring mine in. Drove it seat belted in the passenger seat every day after school. Spent a lot of time on the TRS-80's and the lone Apple II. The Apple got very little attention for the software titles for the TRS-80 were so numerous and the business clients thought of it as a game only machine.
Went thru 4 years of college, my PET gathering dust while I wasted my time learning PL/1, FORTRAN and COBOL and one useful class of 8088 Assembler on IBM 5150's. Pieced together my first 8088 clone after graduation and have worked on them and with them ever since...