My First Computer!
Introduction
I got my first computer in September 1993 when I was eight years old. I used it for playing games and programming with QBasic and MS-DOS batch files. The internal speaker was loud. The mouse didn’t work under DOS because I didn’t know how to install the driver. The computer broke in early 1997.
Specs
Original specs:
- make/model: Digital DECpc 425i
- CPU: Intel 486SX 25 MHz
- RAM: 4 MB
- HDD: 170 MB
- FDD: 3.5-inch HD
- CD-ROM drive: none
- sound card: a cheap Sound Blaster compatible
- speakers: none (I think I used the sound card only for the joystick)
- modem: none
- mouse: three-button
- joystick: QuickShot Warrior 5
- monitor: 14 or 15-inch
- printer: a Canon colour inkjet
- OS: MS-DOS 6 & Windows 3.1
- price: 10,000 FIM
Upgraded in mid-1996:
- RAM: to 8 MB
- CD-ROM drive: four-speed (600 kB/s)
- speakers: yes
I also bought a Gravis Analog Pro joystick in 1996.
DOS games I played
- Abuse
- Armored Fist (a tank simulator on 4 floppy disks; one of the few physical games I bought)
- Arnie II (a shoot-'em-up)
- CD-Man (a Pac-Man clone)
- Commander Keen series (1, Dreams, 4, 5, 6)
- Cycles (motorcycle racing in primitive 3D)
- Doom
- Duke Nukem II (it crashed often on my computer)
- Duke Nukem 3D (it was really slow!)
- Electro Body (Electro Man; a platformer)
- F-15 Strike Eagle II
- Flight Simulator 5 (CD-ROM)
- The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki
- Gemstones III (a Breakout clone from a PC Gamer coverdisc)
- H2O (a game with fluid physics from a PC Gamer coverdisc)
- Jetpack (from a shareware/freeware CD)
- Leisure Suit Larry
- Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge
- Oh No! More Lemmings
- PC Rally
- SimCity
- SkyRoads
- Slicks ’n Slide (the only shareware game I registered)
- Street Fighter II (the music slaps!)
- Stunts
- Tank Wars (Bomb; a simple artillery game)
- Terminal Velocity (I borrowed the CD from a friend and my drive scratched it)
- Wolfenstein 3D (I edited the graphics a lot and didn’t keep a backup of the originals)
- Worms
Most of the commercial games were “backups” from my friends, my dad’s workplace and the computer shop that did the upgrade in 1996. I'd have enjoyed some games such as Larry more if I'd spoken English, though. Discovering shareware CD-ROMs in 1996 was an important experience for me because for the first time I had more games than I had time or willingness to play.
Windows games I played
- Minesweeper
- Taipei (mahjong)