When did you guys get your first home computers? I got my first computer a vic20

back in the early 80s probably around '81 maybe before. I would play on it for hours, poking memory bits and moving sprite.
I rememeber my first program Basic went something like this
1 print "I love my vic20"
2 goto 1
and I was instantly addicted and saved it all to tape. Tapes were kind of fun. I can't tell you how much music got sacrificed to "save data".
The vic 20 had some really excellent text based RPGs. I loved them all. But it definately was not a gaming machine. In fact I don't think it had any graphics outside of text.
Then I saw Jason Fahmer's commodore 64

.
He was always the kid that had eveything first. Luckily, he was also my best friend at the time. I got one right after that. My mom said just about after they came out, which was 1982, so lets say 1983 when
(e:mike) was born.
Many of my other friends had a tandy or an Apple II. I remember wanting an apple II GS, whatever the gs stood for.
I never got a modem because my dad was an insurance salesman and he couldn't have the business line tied up with me using the computer. I wonder what would have happend to me during the dot.com boom if I had had a modem before that. Luckily, the mail man [inlink]paul,2626[/inlink] would bring around programs and I quickly got my hands on GEOS, the first graphics operating system I had ever seen. The commodore 64 was truly a viable home computer for the time.
At school we played Oregon Trail ont eha Apple IIs
(WIKIPEDIA - The_Oregon_Trail_%28computer_game%29)
I remember using logo
(WIKIPEDIA - logo programming language) by third grade. PENDOWN FD 90 RT
We played some otehr game about mixing chemical on other planets to make compounds. Taht was fun too.
Nearly everyone I knew had a home computer. A lot of my good friends at the time. Jason Fahmer, Angela Vacanti, Kelly LeVan, Heather Killian , Chris Watson, Chris Parada. Seems like most of the people I hung out with in the early to mid 80s.
Then the macs came out in 1984. Those macs were pretty advanced machines that could do a lot of home computing tasks. Heather got one and so did Chris Watson. I remember distinctly that Heather always had some really cool computers.
I am sure everyone remembers the first computer based encyclopedia they saw. Mine was at Heather's house. Or maybe not because I lived in such an isoloted weird place like Kenmore.
I remember the crazy advertsiement with tthe woman running and smashing the computers or something

. I wanted one so bad, but we didn't get one or an amiga.
(WIKIPEDIA - home computer)
I lifted this list from wikipedia.
* Apple II (June 1977, North America) (color graphics, eight expansion slots)
* Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 (August 1977, N. Am.) (first home computer for less than US$600)
* Commodore PET (December 1977, N. Am.) (first all-in-one computer: keyboard/screen/tape storage)
* Atari 400/800 (1979, N. Am.) (first computer with custom chip set)
* Commodore VIC-20 (1980, N. Am.) (under US$300; first computer in the world to pass the one million sold mark)
* TRS-80 Color Computer (1980, N. Am.) (Motorola 6809, OS-9 multi-user multi-tasking)
* Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (June 1981, N. Am.) (16-bit CPU)
* Sinclair ZX81 (1981, Europe) (£49.95 in kit form; £69.95 pre-built)
* BBC Micro (1981, Europe) (premier educational computer in the UK for a decade; advanced BASIC)
* ZX Spectrum (April 1982, Europe) (best-selling British home computer; "made" the UK software industry)
* Commodore 64 (August 1982, N. Am.) (best-selling computer model of all time: > 20 million sold)
* MSX (late 1983, Japan) (a computer 'reference design' by ASCII and Microsoft, manufactured by several companies)
* Apple Macintosh (1984, N. Am.) (first fully GUI-based home/personal computer; first 16/32-bit)
* Amstrad/Schneider CPC & PCW ranges (198?, Europe) (British std. prior to IBM PC; German sales next to C64)
* Atari ST (1985, N. Am.) (first with built-in MIDI interface; also 1MB RAM for less than US$1000)
* Commodore Amiga (July 1985, N. Am.) (custom chip set for graphics and sound; multitasking OS)
I think then there was a huge lapse before we got another computer when I was in my late high shcool years. That actaully worked out good for me because I was not at all into computers in high school. Liek I would use it sometimes to type a paper, but it was deifnately not my passtime. I was much more into doing outdoors stuff and exploring sex and drugs.
ICON is a great club belive it our not there are benchs and seats in there it really is a great place to see a show. Glad to hear about you going to a concert hope it is a blast. One of these days maybe i'll make it to the old pink. Drunk at 7 that is early, hope you have a great time.