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 mouse didn’t work under DOS because I didn’t know how to install a driver. The internal speaker was loud. The computer broke in early 1997.
Specs
- make/model: Digital DECpc 425i
- CPU: Intel 486SX 25 MHz
- RAM: 4 MB at first; upgraded to 8 MB in mid-1996
- HDD: 170 MB
- FDD: 3.5-inch HD
- CD-ROM drive: none at first; a four-speed drive was added in mid-1996
- sound card: a cheap SB-compatible (I used it only for the joystick port at first; I got speakers only later)
- modem: none
- monitor: 14 or 15-inch
- joystick: an analog QuickShot at first; Gravis Analog Pro in 1996
- OS: MS-DOS 6 & Windows 3.1
- price: 10,000 FIM + upgrades
DOS games I played
- Abuse
- Armored Fist (a tank simulator on 4 floppy disks)
- 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.)
Windows games I played
- Minesweeper
- Taipei (mahjong)