Early PCs at the National Museum of Computing

Commodore, Apple, Sinclair, IBM and other early personal computers at the National Museum of Computing. Including a look at the Altair 8800b, Apple IIe, Timex Sinclair 1000, Commodore PET 2001, Commodore 64, and other classic microcomputers. Enjoy!
This video was produced with the kind cooperation of the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom. The museum’s website is at: www.tnmoc.org/
If you like this video you may enjoy my first video from the National Museum of Computing, where I looked at the Colossus, Harwell Dekatron (WITCH), EDSAC, and the ICL 2966 mainframe: • Colossus & Other Early...
You may also be interested in my classic PC videos:
Toshiba 5100: • Classic PC: Toshiba T5100
Atari Portfolio: • Classic PC: Atari Port...
Apple Newton Messagepad: • Classic PC: Newton Mes...
Psion 7: • Classic PC: Psion 7
More videos on computing-related topics can be found at: / explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / explainingthefuture

[@briancrane7634]

Powerful memories indeed! To tell the secret I wrote my very first computer program in 1969 in college (my father did not allow 'frivolous' games in the house). It was a stack of punched paper cards that I 'programmed' on a great console the size of a steel office desk that sounded like a bren gun whenever I pressed a key. I then handed these precious missives to a gentleman through a window. He loaded them into a great bin with many other 'programs', then, with what I have always described as a genuflection, he placed the 'compiler' as the first group of cards. After a distinct hesitation he pushed a great red button. The machine rumbled to life and began to draw the cards from the deck one by one. We went to the 'operations room overlook' where we could gaze through the glass windows at 'The Machine'. We were all praying to the computer gods that no cards would catch in the works and ruin the 'run'. And my prayers were answered! To my great fortune the 'batch' ran correctly and my program (all of 100 lines) executed correctly. I had then, officially, become a 'computer programmer'. Many thanks for this cool, bracing stroll along memory lane!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great story! :)

[@mickelodiansurname9578]

Lol the Bren gun is also a dinosaur itself now.... When I was younger in the Irish army I used to love the Bren cos there was a magazine and easily cleaned build It was better than this US belt fed nonsense. Typical British simplicity in design. Whatever happened to this British design simplicity? With brexit the Brits will need to get that back. Notice after all how many of those machines up there were designed built and sales driven by Brits.

[@metdat4707]

@@mickelodiansurname9578 The Bren was a Czech design

[@kevinshumaker3753]

@@mickelodiansurname9578 Considering this episode was at the British Computer Museum, it is to be expected that the computers would have a British bent to them. If you go to the Smithsonian (IIRC was a naturalized Brit, but originally born in France) Museum in Washington DC, the focus is US designed and built computers, with a smattering of other countries designs. As is the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and the Computer Museum in Seattle, and others. The General Purpose machine CPUs are mostly US designed and built (80xx, 65xx, 68xxx, Zilog, Cyrex, Intel x86, AMD, etc...) then used by manufacturers around the world...

[@amiaf]

I remember that I argued for 3 month straight, day and night with my parents for a brand new commodore 64... Finally, one day, when I had lost all hope for ever getting that, my father came home with bunch of boxes and called me down stairs....and there it was, my first PC... One of the condition was that I had to learn programming and not just gaming, so I started going to an institute to learn BASIC language, even today I use the principals I've had learned then for programming and understanding new languages.... PS: I never forget the smell of that brand new C64...

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great story.

[@shaxsonfamily1868]

Blimey, does this invoke some great memories! My best mate had a ZX81 and I begged Santa for a ZX81 in 1983. My parents scrimped and saved and, unbeknownst to me with my brother's agreement, bought me and my brother jointly a 16k ZX Spectrum that Christmas. When I opened it, I burst into tears - firstly, because I never expected to receive such an amazing gift, but also secondly because my brother (who at the time we did not get on well with at all) agreed to to it. Without exaggeration, it completely changed my life.

[@wmsbike]

My second was a radio shack with 20meg hd and the salesman said I'd never need more than that...

[@charlesbaldo]

Same experience. I added a Corvus constellation with 30 meg, I have single files that big now

[@ftorresgamez]

The very first computer my father bought was a TRS80 Model I. That thing had only 4K of memory and the early version of BASIC so it couldn't do much but it was awesome. Later my father expanded its memory to 16K and Level II Microsoft BASIC, bought games for us but also added disk drives and CP/M. But it was still his computer. So in 1982 he bought us kids a brand new VIC-20. Sure, those machines were primitive with primitive and blocky graphics and so little memory you would run out of it very quickly, but they were the most engaging machines you could have in your hands. You could write your own programs! Or copy those from magazines and books, and make then work! I am so glad computing has moved to a point where computers are an essential part of our daily lives. It's what any of us dreamed all those years ago. Yet there's still something about those early home computers that makes one nostalgic.

[@ukktor]

I remember seeing computers in elementary school in the late 70's. No one at the school knew how to use them, including the teachers. I specifically remember asking our librarian about the the two Apple II computers and she said they had never been turned on. I also remember my first computer, a Vic-20 my parents bought at a yard sale. They didn't quite know what it was, but thought I would like to play with it. I also remember being insanely jealous of my neighbor's C-64. I remember having my mind blown playing Flight Simulator and Zork on an early IBM PC. In High School i was one of the only people that figured out how to use the Amiga 500 in my art class and spent most of the year doodling on it. In contrast, today I am taking and older 3d-printer I own and giving it to the 12-year old son of a friend of mine that owns his own Windows 10 laptop. After watching this video, I have wondered what the 12-year old me from many years ago would have thought to receive a similar gifting of items that during the early 80's would have been the stuff of dreams and science fiction.

[@microknigh7]

All this kicked off the year I left school and started as an apprentice with GPO Telephones LOL. A year later I built myself a Transam Triton, which appeared in a late 78 issue of ETI. It was in kit form, but sold in such a way that I could buy a new pack of parts every few weeks to gradually build the entire thing.

[@stevekellett6934]

I bought the first commodore pet in 1997 from a shop named Sumlock who were on Deansgate in Manchester. I still dare not say how much I paid for it, but I had hours of fun, frustration and utter fascination and so started a 40 year love affair with the PC. Loved this trip down MEMORY lane.

[@Utahdropout]

I still have two Sinclair 1000s, a Kaypro II, a Texas Instruments 1000 (or something like that) and several other early IBM compatible PCs along with an Atari video game with stacks of game cartridges. I lived in Los Angeles in the '70s and was very much involved with the early days of the "Micro Computer" revolution. I sold "Mini Computers" for Sperry Univac as well as did some programming and system support for Lear Siegler when they were making the ADM 3 line of computer terminals. I even have an ADM 3 and a copy of a Data General Nova 3 "copy cat/knockoff" mini computer Lear Siegler was trying to market in the last '70s. As you stated in you video you did indeed stimulate a stream of fond memories of those times. Having lived through those years wrestling with the problems of trying to get those early computers to do something useful, I am constantly amazed at the capabilities of the current hardware and software that is available for such meager amounts of money these days. Such as the Raspberry PI and the other single board computer systems that are out. I can't begin to keep up with the advancements. Thank you for what you are doing in "Explaining Computers". Cheers

[@5argetech56]

I'm a Boomer, I lived through all that. I remember all of the machines listed in this video. Being born in the late 1950's, I saw it all, first hand. The Internet, Mp3's, Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Netflix, etc. My first love was Hi-Fi Audio ( Tubes Amps ). Electronic circuit design. My first computer was a MIDI Music Sequencer. Yamaha QX-21 (1988). I finally got my first real PC in 1994 Windows 3.11 for workgroups. Today I fix and upgrade PC's. We have come a long way.

[@maxpolaris99]

The Amiga (I had an A500 in 1988) was such a joy! Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end........

[@98grand5point9]

My first pc was a Timex . However I quickly returned it and got a Vic20 in its place. Soon after I had a Commodore 64, which I still feel had the best keyboard I've ever used. Later I purchase an executive 64 (luggable) which I had until about ten years ago. Many computers have followed, with my phone being more powerful than all but a few laptops and pcs I've owned. Thanks for your channel, I enjoy it quite a lot and I greatly appreciate you are not long winded nor do you have constant back round music.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks fr this. :)

[@dj_paultuk7052]

Blast from the past there !. Ive been to the NMoC many times now and love it. They have a Research Machines 380z which was the first computer my School got back in 1985. I had lots of the 80's computers, VIC-20, Acorn Electron, BBC B 32k, Dragon 32. All of them different in their own way. Those really were the days. Happy memories.

[@kevinshumaker3753]

Brings back memories of my first 3 computers: Timex Sinclair 1000, which I had the light pen, 16K memory module, thermal printer, and color plotter accessories. I now have one under my desk with a 16 memory module, waiting for restoration, and being emulated on my PC. I learned Z80 machine language on it. Commodore 64, with so many hours of fun learning programming in Basic and machine language. Ran my first BBS, learned how to beta test software, and so much more. Commodore PC 10, first as a dual 5.25 drive system, and slowly upgraded with a 3.5 drive, 40MB HD, internal Zoom VFD modem, and so much more. It drove my first business involvement into PCs, and IT departments, and becoming an Enterprise Level Help Desk. So much has happened in the intervening years with computing, and now I while away the time going back with the RPis. What goes around comes back around, and my internal support system is full of VMs and RPis (like back in the day with time share systems and TS1000s...) Thank you for bringing back the memories...

[@Yadro767]

Great stuff Chris. My first computer was an Apple IIC, and I still have an Apple IIGS (in boxes in the garage). I was fortunate to be able to visit the National Museum of Computing while on an extended London layover (airline pilot). Adjacent to the museum is the now Unclassified Bletchley Park, where the Brits broke the German Enigma Code during World War 2 (as depicted in the movie "The Imitation Game"). Very interesting and most worthwhile to visit, you could easily spend a day at each of these wonderful sites.

[@MarkTheMorose]

Very nostalgic for me. I was in high school when the 80's boom in UK home computing started; the ZX81 was around, the Spectrum was about to be launched, a mate 's dad had the PET (a CBM xxxx model, no doubt), and the machines on the high altar were the Atari 400 and 800. My first computer: a Sharp MZ80A, followed by a VIC-20, C64, then Amigas: 1000, 500, 4000, then a Pentium 75 in 1995. I used to enter data into SuperCalc 2 spreadsheet on an IBM PC XT in my first job.

[@bmwnut93]

I grew up in the late 70's and 80's. Dad was into computers from the get go. He had a Teletype Model 33ASR and TI 99/4 and TI 99/4A. He also had computers that wold boot from 8" floppy discs and just about every IBM PC. His first real hard drive was 5MB and was spun buy a belt driven AC motor. It is all gone now. I wish he would have given it to a museum.

[@mrbrent62]

I owned and used many of those computers. I worked at ComputerLand in 1985 and got to bring home state of the art computers. I remember taking a laptop (Data General) to a restaurant and attracting a crowd of people around me. Most of whom had never seen a computer close up. In 1984 I was taking notes at College on an NEC 8201. I was an early adapter and none of the other students were using laptops to take notes.

[@paulschmidt7473]

I spent a summer working for Commodore Canada before they launched the C64. The machine I worked on had the serial number 8, and a few desks over was a Commodore 64, with the serial number 1. They actually had Vic-20 cases and keyboards, I wish they would have sold them to us at the end. Commodore had hired 10 programmers to port educational software over from the PET to the C64. You would load it in, look for stuff like PEEK, POKE and SYS commands, which all needed to be changed, because the addresses were all different.... Then find the new value, and plug it in....

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sounds like a great summer job! :)

[@jimpretty7768]

That is VERY cool!

[@TotoFrancey]

Chris -- Where I am watching this it is a mid Sunday morning. Where you are it is middle noon. This connection made through technology makes me realize how far we have come since we have become much more electronically advanced. Like some of your videos this makes me feel my age. I hate to admit this but I recognized almost all of these models, with the exception of some of the Sinclair line as it was not as readily available in North America as it was in the U.K. Thank you for all your videos. :I still need to watch part one of this series which I will be doing..."Very Soon."

[@ExplainingComputers]

Looking at these old micros does indeed make you think. As you say, we've come so far . . .

[@TheGeekPub]

Great video! But one small error: IBM never wanted the PC to be cloned. IBM in fact sued Compaq over the first PC clone.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Indeed. But what I said in the video was "In attempt to become the market leader, IBM made its ‘PC compatible hardware platform’ an open system, so allowing other manufacturers to copy its technology sell peripherals and ‘clone’ IBM PCs" (ie using an open system enabled clones to be made). IBM did made a very conscious decision to adopt an open architecture, and they certainly wanted others to make peripherals, if not to go as far as they did (ie the cloning of entire systems). This followed a very similar (and successful) approach taken with the IBM Systems/360. PS -- a great channel you have! :)

[@TheGeekPub]

Got it. I see the point you're trying to make! Thanks for the reply!

[@ExplainingComputers]

I was trying to avoid getting too bogged down and going off at a tangent. But I get your point too! :)

[@Raffles666]

ps/2 pcmcia - hardly open ;)

[@Raffles666]

cp/m stuff was easy to 'bit-copy' :) remember super-calc?

[@mCKENIC]

Powerful memories indeed! I remember getting a used ZX Spectrum with Christmas money (and matching funds from Mum & Dad) and sitting at it with my ALF teddy programming in a firework display from a magazine. No tape back-up of course so it stayed turned on for two days while I input the lines of text - which ran - a couple of sprites shooting up the screen and bursting with a suitable farty sound! Brilliant! :-) Thanks for the video!

[@asphixmx]

mCKENIC The same happened to me with Commodore 64. 5 hours typing the program from the magazine, the computer powered on two days for not losing the game lol

[@mCKENIC]

:-) Brilliant!

[@chriskennedy1612]

Wow! - Thanks for this one Chris... it really shows my age!! My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, and then an Amiga 500. I had the Amiga for a good few years, and collected peripherals such as a Star LC 24 pin colour dot matrix printer, the Amiga memory upgrade board, external 3.5"FDD and the massive plug in HDD! - one of my favourite games was "Prince of Persia" which, if I recall correctly, came on 10 Floppy disks!!! I remember the Atari ST being the main competitor to the Commodore Amiga at the time. I briefly owned an Amiga 600 and a 1200 before moving over to, and experimenting with 'IBM' PCs, starting with a 386, then a 486, before the Intel Pentium chips were available. At Secondary School we had 2 computer rooms full of BBC model 'b' machines and a state-of-the-art room full of 486's!! Oh dear, the nostalgia!! Haha

[@chelfyn]

So many computers from my past! My first 3D renders and forays into computer art were on an Amiga (now my career), and my first programs written on commodore PETs at school, and a C64 at home. Then there's all the 5150s I learned Pascal on in college, and even a PalmV on a foldout keyboard snuck away in a background shot. One day I'll try and count up how many computers I've owned over the years... may take some time.

[@zboy303]

I remember copying the BASIC for a submarine game from a magazine on my neighbour's ZX81. It wasn't until I got a 16K Spectrum that I saw the delights of tape in action! I'd cheerfully watch an episode looking into detail of each of these computers.

[@safirahmed]

Computers shown in a museum does bring back memories from the past such as first seeing these computers in high street shops and thinking about what these computers could do from all those years ago.

[@WalterLaughlinMISM]

You displayed all my favorite from before I had an IBM clone, AKA Commodore VIC-20 and 64 , and the little known Sinclair!

[@CyberAwed]

I owned every one of those, including the Atari 400 which I wired to the bus of my TRS-80 so I would have color. I named it the ATARS480. Everything became a chore to program in assembler and finally got the Columbia IBM clone. An amazing time in history.

[@Radagast1953]

Jonathan , Aah! Now you're talking about my first PC, the Columbia! This was truly a PC clone, at least more so than the Compaq. It did, however, have a proprietary mother board with "non-standard" (though few standards there were back then) slot spacing so I was never able to upgrade using that case. It was one of the most configurable PC's available back then, with a ton of options from the manufacturer (Columbia). I was on a tight budget and focused on what I already knew was the most important option ... MEMORY! I got the max of 256K of RAM. However, this left me with not enough money for the 20MB hard disk, so I opted for dual 5.25" floppy drives. I also couldn't afford color (plus I was not impressed with CGA resolution), so I opted for the monochrome interface and monitor, which was capable of 80x24 characters display (much more important for a programmer who used a 3270 terminal at work). I used that monitor through my next couple of upgrades, even getting a high-res gfx card that supported it, so I could try out the new MS-Windows GUI (running under[/over?] DOS). I also invested in a Northstar keyboard, which was the best available at the time. It had function keys at both the top and the side. I was used to the side keys on my 3270 terminal. Function keys were really important back then, in the days of CPM & DOS. Now I never use them, even when they're available! Thanks for the memories guys!

[@jimsteele9261]

I had an Atari 800 and an 800xl wired to a common peripheral bus. I could compile a program on the 800, write it to disk, then boot it on the XL for testing. Which was handy, since the program was too big for the 800 with the language cart plugged in. Fun Times. :D

[@bryngerard4334]

The first machine I owned was a Columbia VP, the 'luggable' offering from them. I had worked with PC's and CPM based machines for a couple of years before owning it. Eagle computer with CPM and later MS/DOS. At one of my work places, we had upgraded from a TRS80 Model II with Pickles and Trout CPM to a Micromation Mariner that had 8 Z80 slaves, each with 64k of RAM, a 20MB hard disk and ran MPM. One of the printers we had was a Florida Data. It printed at 1200 CPS! It was so loud and made the stand wobble as the print head moved so quickly. Eventually, screws started falling out of it. We built a closet with sliding doors for it along with a NEC Spinwriter, in the end, to cut down the noise.

[@bigsky1970]

Had the VIC-20 and the Commodore 128 (it could boot in to C-64 mode as well) and the C-128 was capable of backwards compatibility with C-64 programs. The school however had the Apple IIe's and the RadioShack TRS-80's (Model I and later upgrading to the Model IV). The Model IV's were basically run in a slave/master configuration, mostly for computer typing class as each of the slaves loaded the typing software off the master computer. There were a few games loaded on the master computer by the computer course students and you could run games on the slave machines. Also recall using CompuServe on our family computer at home (C-128). Even though it was a toll-free call, they charged by the minute on the toll-free line. We were stuck with using the toll-free line as there were no local dialup numbers.

[@paxhaven5]

Great video! My first computer was the TI 99/4a. It was a great little computer. I still have it packed away, and I get it out every now and then. Still works fine!

[@ExplainingComputers]

I remember those! Glad you still have it working. :)

[@PabloGaraguso]

I like these videos on computing history. I think they add a nice touch and variety to the channel. Well done!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@bobl.1044]

A real trip down memory lane. Had a Dragon 32, a Sinclair Spectrum with 48k ram, then went on to an Atari ST and onto an Acorn 3010 which I had the cpu changed from the ARM250 to an ARM 3. It was fascinating to watch the engineer doing surface mount work! I still have my Acorn, probably still have it when I die. I'm fond of it and might dig it up and mess with it again...

[@51rwyatt]

In the U.S. our family's first PC was a Commodore 64, followed up by the Mac Classic. What I find most surprising is that after all the generations and improvements, early games on those computer felt just as immersive.

[@TheNZJester]

This video was giving me a lot of flashbacks. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 and I had the 16Kb upgrade pack. I later went to the Sinclair Spectrum 48K model computer. For a Time I had a Commodore 64 before moving to the Amiga 500. It was with the Amiga 500 I got my very first hard drive adding on an A590 expansion with a 20MB HD in it and an extra 1MB of memory populating the A590 unit giving me 2Mb total memory. I still have the Amiga 1200 computer I eventually replaced it with although a few years back the 120MB HD in my A1200 died. My Amiga 1200 also has an expansion board in it with a 68030 CPU and a 68881 MPU on it. I also had this tiny little board that plugged into the 2.5" IDE header with a passthrough for the IDE HD and allowed for a SCSI device to be plugged in externally converting IDE control signals to SCSI control signals. I had a 100MB iOmega Zip drive with a few cartridges I plugged into that as well as a SCSI CD writer that you placed the discs into a caddy to insert them in instead of an ejecting tray.

[@Thrakus]

The Altair had color video output via addon video card months later in 1976 , The Cromemco Dazzler for the S-100 Bus witch was also used to show weather forecasts on TV the 1980`s.

[@hsoj9550]

It's amazing to me, as a 22 year old born in 1995, that all of the computers shown in this video are older than me, some by several decades, save for that one PDA style device near the end. Amazing how far technology has come, and how far it will go! What an outstanding video! Thank you for sharing the great wonders at that museum! :)

[@BoaFilmsPlc]

So many memories. I had a Commodore Plus 4 (C16) then went on to the Spectrum plus 2 and finally the Amiga 500 & 1200. Both I fitted with a battery clock pack & the 1200 with a 2GB hard drive! After installing Directory Opus 5 + Workbench & all my DPaint software I still had 98% free space!!! Well written programs don't need to be massive like nowadays!

[@JeffSmith03]

Well done. I remember about age 12 I bought Atari 800 XL on a closeout sale. I was surprised to get such coolness for only $40 but would not have guessed the Atari I knew was about to disappear. About the same time my brother finally got his first too, ZX 81 mail-order. He tried to build the kit on his own first but it didn't work so he had to spend extra and send it back for them to build. After we both got IBM PC clones it seems strange how I forgot what it used to be like when our computers worked in very different ways so we couldn't even share our games to run on the other's computer. The other thing was that I never knew another person who had the same computer as me. It was more rare in those days to know someone in the neighborhood with their own home computer.

[@allancole2086]

My first go on a computer was at High School, 1981 and being the chess club guy I needed to play the Apple 2. I booked it for a lunch date, set the predictive moves to far too many and left at the end of lunch with the machine still pondering its first move. I took it as a human v computer success. To be honest, those machines scared the heck out of me; I was sure I'd dodged a bullet... but my next meeting was in 1997 when a youngster on the job got a computer, I so bought myself my very first Windows 95 IBM Aptiva setup (the company refused to buy one for me) including all the essential peripherals it cost me $4,500 NZ. It was love at first sight. Thanks for the memories, I am a recent subscriber and am looking back through your videos. My son recently found my second Aptiva, and finds it all very quaint. Somehow I became an historical artifact.

[@wanyman]

We had Commodore 64 computers at my elementary school in Idaho, and it was a special privilege we had to earn. Later my uncle bought us a Texas Instruments TI-994A. I have many fond memories of playing games and watching my dad write endless streams of code using TI Basic. I currently still use a Brother Power Note from 1996, which has a Z80 processor.

[@nickygeeksterx01]

Thanks Chris, I could watch this all day, absolutely fascinating, definitely going to make a visit to Bletchley Park museum and thanks for all the links provided. Great video as always.

[@sveinnarn]

Commodore PET, Vic 20 and my very first own ZX Spectrum were my first encounters with computers. The 80's were an incredible time to be computer enthusiast. Thanks for this great journey through memory lane.

[@ForViewingOnly]

Thanks Christopher. That was the golden age of computing for me. An exciting time to be a kid in Britain. I remember at my secondary school in 1982 it was near impossible to get on one of the three Apple II computers that were set up in the maths room. It seems it was the norm throughout the UK for the maths teacher to be responsible for the school computers, and it was also the norm they had no idea how to use them and were terrified that the students would break them. So at the age of 12 I went to a computing night-school with my Dad. That was one of the most exciting periods in my early life, having gone crazy over War Games and Tron like a lot of other kids at the time. At night school we used the Commodore PET 2001, already a very old computer but good enough to learn the fundamentals of BASIC. After night school finished I started my campaign of nagging my parents for a home computer and 6 months later we got an Atari 400, and a year later we sold it and got a BBC Micro. I had a few games but mainly I immersed myself in programming, skipping A-levels and starting work in tech at a young age. What a seriously great era to be young and working in tech! Now I follow Explaining Computers to try to keep up with everything that's going on!

[@Big-Chungus21]

It was definitely way before my time, but the BBC Micro really was fantastic. One of my favourite games for it was Elite, which i still think looks quite beautiful even now. Personally im still excited for what future computers might be capable of. Imagine every family owning an affordable computer fully capable of running video editing, or 3D modelling / rendering, and so many other things that arnt too accessible at the moment unless youre a little better off.

[@jakobforney8891]

Being born in 2000 (which I know is not that long ago) I can only imagine what it's like for people older than me to see how far technology has come. I remember my dated computers at my elementary school that could have been 20 years old and I think about how far computers have come just in the 15 or so years I've been interested in them is insane to think about. Makes me think how much farther can we really advance? But this will soon be answered in about 20 years.

[@waynestewart1919]

That was a cool blast from the past. I need to restore my C64.

[@reggiep75]

When UK Sunday evening TV is mostly rubbish I can ALWAYS rely on this channel to deliver interesting things to watch.

[@sorenmpeterson]

This video brought back a lot of memories. I remember using the Apple IIe (and later IIc) in school and playing games on a friend’s Commodore 64. Our first computer at home was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Eventually, we stepped up to an IBM PC clone with a 10 MB hard drive, and a few years later I headed off to university with an 80286 clone.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@aldeen19]

Oh my God ! .. The good old days, ..sweet bitter memories. Thank you very much indeed.

[@leifporizkova7594]

Thank you for spending your time making your videos as I like seeing your videos. ☺ Good work

[@BrokeMansPC]

It hard to imagine this stuff existed 30 years ago. Amazing work Chris!

[@perrymcclusky4695]

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I bought with it the 16k memory, plus three programs: Chess, Frogger and a flight simulator. Learning to program in Basic was extremely interesting. I am still fond of Basic to this day! My next two computers were a Commodore Vic-20 and a Commodore 64. I used the 64 for ages.

[@VicTilling]

My first computer was a Vic20 and I was very happy with it. Did a lot of programming with it. Never saw it in colour as TV was black & white in those days.

[@mosspa1]

Lots of memories, there. I got into personal computing in 1975 when I helped assemble one of the first microcomputers in Canada, an Altair 8800 at McGill University in Montreal. In early 1977, I bought a Kim-1 6502 microcomputer while I was in grad school, and later that year I built a Polymorphics Poly-88 as a kit. With its 5-slot S-100 bus, that computer saw many changes over the next five years. In 1978, I added a floppy disk control card, and purchased a Siemens 8" floppy drive and a CP/M operating system at a computer show in Philadelphia, where I had the opportunity to met Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozinak, Adam Osborne, and Gary Kildall as they were selling their wares from their little booths. In 1980, I purchased a Northstar disk sub-system with a 5.25" 160KB floppy drive, which I later upgraded to two 720 KB half-height drives. In 1981, I upgraded the CPU from the 2MHz 8080 Polymorphics card to a 4MHz Z-80 Godbout Z80 card, and I added a Godbout RAM card on which I put 48k static RAM, upgrading the system memory to 56k. I also acquired the WordStar word processor that year, on which I wrote my PhD dissertation. In 1982 I got an Epson dot matrix printer, and in 1983 I submitted the first dissertation printed on a dot matrix printer (in hi-quality mode, of course) at Bowling Green State University. That little orange Poly-88 case saw a lot of action up until the time I retired it in 1985, when I bought a generic IBM-PC clone. I still have the Poly-88, restored to its original components, including the rare Poly-phase cassette interface, sitting in a box in my garage. I also have the original Kim-1, in all of it's 2KB memory glory, that I keep on my office desk next to a Raspberry P1 3B, so I can show my students how far single-board control computers have come in 40 years. No doubt about it. Over the years I have become a certified personal computer junkie, building at least 25 computers to date. Last year, I built a 64GB AMD Threadripper 1950x system that I have overclocked to 4.2GHz using a GeForce 980 TI for graphics. My current project is a 32GB Intel Z390 i9 9900K system with a GeForce 2080 TI graphics card that will replace an i7 Skylark 7600K system currently serving as my office desk computer. It really is hard to believe how far this technology has come in 40 short years!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great post, thanks for sharing here.

[@craigm3734]

I was turned on to programming in the first place through using my school's TI 99/4s. My first computer was a businesslike-gray TRS-80 MIII that came with a whole 16K of memory, soon to be upgraded to (a very expensive) 48K by yours truly. It ran for a year or so being loaded by a cassette recorder as its data drive, but ended up sporting dual 180K floppys.

[@Colin_Ames]

Very interesting. I was at the museum last year, and it truly is an excellent place to visit if you have an interest in the history of computing.

[@bobbobson4069]

This is an excellent documentary on early home computers. Beautifully produced! I take my hat off to the producer/director - clearly a lot of work has gone into this. I will subscribe and look forward to more videos like this. Marius Gudonis.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for the sub. Welcome aboard

[@stevejones9740]

Really enjoyed that Chris. It did indeed bring back many happy memories of the early days of personal computing. My fist home machine was a Sinclair ZX81, quickly followed by a BBC Micro Model B. My first 'real' computer was a used Osborne Executive (similar form factor to the Osborne 1, but with a better display). I was originally bitten by the micros available in the laboratory in which I worked from the mid 1970s to the mid 80s. First came the Intertec Superbrain - a 64kB CP/M all-in-one affair with dual 5.25 inch floppy drives. Next came the DEC Rainbow, which ran 8 bit CP/M on a Z80, and CP/M-86 on an Intel 8088. Next came a series of ICL PC & ICL Quattro machines running various flavours of Concurrent CP/M-86, with the later models having hard disks (which were sometimes known as 'Winchesters' for reasons which I can't recall). The ICL machines were the first I'd used which had serial terminals attached (up to 4 of them) rather than integrated video displays. After that, both at home and at work, the IBM compatible PC running Microsoft operating systems gradually took over, and I moved into mainframe & mid-range computing.

[@michaelangellotti5741]

1. PET in high school and CBM too. 2. Apple IIe 3. ZX80 in bare board build form. 4. Apple IIe clone. 5. Commodore 64. 6. Compaq "luggable" with the amber screen. Ahh ... the memories.

[@franzitaly1512]

Great video and great memories indeed! I learnt Basic on a Dragon 32, oh those years...

[@crumplezone1]

The Amiga still has a very active fan base and user groups, thanks for the vid , a great history walk through :)

[@farmerwoody123]

Yes! been waiting for this one :)

[@KowboyUSA]

farmerwoody123 same here!

[@JRattheranch]

That was a walk down memory lane. 1978 Commodore Pet 8k with a tape drive and a huge dot matrix printer. I learned to program on that and moved on to a commodore 64K then a wonderful machine for the time. A Sword 128 K, with Sword Basic and 1.2 Mb floppy drive. Happy days. At 69, still writing databases. 👍 Thanks for this, especially that Osbourne... 😁♥️

[@yakovkhalip9714]

First computer at my home was Amstrad PCW8512 - dad took it from home from job in 1988. It was a rare machine here in Moscow. It had no games, but CP/m, basic and logo. My first own pc was bought in 1995 - Pentium-1/75 by Digital. I still have it and use sometimes for gaming. in 2006 began to collect vintage computers - no have about 40 machines from 1981 to 2001 - PC's from IBM PC to PIII, macs ans Amiga 3000. Use them for gaaming and learning to master C language for dos)

[@andyscusting7783]

History of Computers is very interesting . On 17.1.2022 I visited The Mercedes Benz dealership in Ballarat and took many photos of a replica of Carl Benz's 1886 three wheeled buggy .

[@spikekent]

Awesome trip down memory lane Chris, thank you.

[@Liquinex]

being a young subcriber..ive a great interest in the older PCS or MCS as they where known..Keep up the good work Chris

[@paulalancaster1]

Great video! Thanks for the memories. I built an Altair 8800a from kit in early 1976. With a 4k static ram board kit the total cost was $700. I had to get a personal loan from a bank to buy it. It needed a fix to the CPU clock circuitry before it ran at all (I drove 150 miles to the nearest MITS store for that repair). One of the RAM chips on the 4k board was bad and I tracked that down myself and replaced it. At that point, the only software available was some 8080 assembly language games (like 'kill-the-bit') that came printed with the Altair instruction manual that had to be entered on the front panel switches. (I knew about ALTAIR Basic but had no paper tape reader to load it). I added a VDM-1 video S-100 card and a HItachi monochrome monitor, a parallel port board to support an external keyboard, and a CUTS serial port board that came with a cassette tape OS called CUTER - my first external mass storage! Using this rig I wrote a text editor and assembler in combination, using each of these two programs to bootstrap itself and each other until they were both powerful enough to do some serious assembler work. It was 1978 before I got a dual 8" external floppy drive unit running CP/M. I sold the Altair 8800a on eBay years ago for over $2000 - it still ran fine.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[@L.Scott_Music]

I taught my self BASIC on a TRS-80 at my local Radio Shack when I was 11. Later in Collage I majored in Computer Science and there was a room full of Commodore PETs. I remember one of the unique things was it had a number of predefined "sprites" (named so IIRC) that you could easily use like ASCII characters in arrays to build graphics. At home we had a Commodore 64. It played Frogger! But one of it's big selling points was that it had a programmable output for controllers for experimentation. When we eventually gave it to our young neighbor he taught himself quite a lot with that. He and his older brother eventually developed the worlds premier stop motion animation software. It wasn't until 1995 that I built my first Cyrix 486 clone running Windows 3.11. Been building my own ever since.

[@MichelMorinMontreal]

Greetings... I return to your museum series with ever-renewed happiness. Being part of the old generation of computer enthusiasts, I had the opportunity to sit down (a long time ago!) in front of the first Xerox prototypes and with it, at the origin of the graphical interface. If you ever feel like "giving back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" in this historic field, it would make an excellent publication, as you have mastered it!

[@dougirwin6707]

My jump into the world of computing was a TI-99/4A. I remember loading from a tape recorder, going to watch some television then check on it now and then until it finished loading.

[@okhouri]

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum. When the Psion Series 3 came out, I bought it and absolutely loved it. I bought the later versions also, upto the 5mx

[@mattcassle4880]

Best xmas present my mom ever got for me was a VIC20 back in 82 I think it was. By doing so she set the spark that has helped me get to where I'm at today. Also two years of typing classes in high school and an Apple ][e (w/dual floppy drives!) that my step father used in tax season further launched my computer skills. Great video & trip down nostalgic lane!

[@waynecyr8213]

My first real interaction with computers was in 1982 when I was in Grade 9. Our school got 4 computers: 2 Apple II Cs (possibly Es....cant remember for sure) and 2 Commodore PETs. My friends and I would stay hours after school learning to program and copying game programs from magazines into them. It was beyond amazing for us in those early days and I'll fondly remember them for the rest of my life.

[@totherarf]

Now this jogged a memory! ..... I still have a Vic 20 in its box in the loft somewhere! This had the special extra of a memory expansion pack of 8Kb (if my memory serves) I also remember being an apprentice working at the West Gorton site of ICL ..... They obtained a "super clean" supply line for their testing by running a motor generator set on site!

[@stevefulgione4231]

Powerful memories indeed, Christopher. I had the Apple IIe, Amiga and the Mac SE back in the day.

[@JimHendrickson]

The first PCs I used were an Apple II+ and Commodore 64 (I owned the Commodore, but the Apple IIs were at school). I had a lot of fun learning BASIC on the C64 and it doubled as a game console. If I didn't have that C64 I certainly wouldn't be where I am today.

[@NeilNTR]

My first computer was a commodore 64. Back in 1986. Then got an Amiga 500 in 1991 and an Amiga 1200HD afterwards. I wouldn't mind using those computers again.

[@johndeconinck9703]

Great memories indeed. I personally loved my Amstrad/Schneider CPC 464 with its cassette deck. It had a great sound synthesizer and you could spend hours copying programs from magazines or even uploading software directly by recording radio transmissions onto the cassettes. It had a magical feel to it. Thanks for this nice overview!

[@visiter127]

Brilliant videos, had a c64 that was well past it when I had it, then went to a dell pentuim 2 now to a a Intel I 5, amazing how things have moved on love to see another one of these type of videos in ten years.

[@larryirons8746]

My first microcomputer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 (later rebranded as Model I), which I bought in 1978. I bought it with the expansion interface, 32 K RAM, and 2 floppy drives. Over time I upgraded it to add double-sided, double density, half-height floppy drives. I changed out the TRSDOS for NEWDOS 80. I even had VisiCalc, the proto-Lotus spreadsheet. I also had a word processing program that I used to publish a book. I bought an Epson printer in 1980 for $599.

[@Treellet2056]

Yes, I started-off with Sinclair's zx81, the vic-20 was next, Commodore 64, an Amstrad '1024?'. The first computer I got to take apart was an IBM XT, running on dos5, with WordPerfect, Supcalc(3/4), I learnt to code on that using b-basic which was included with dos5. Out of all the computers I had the Psion 3 was the most useful, it went into my rucksack, I did library-research on it, wrote-up draft-papers, there was loads of useful software freely available, include critical-path analysis apps, project-management apps, even diagnostic apps for fixing desktops, an awesome bit of kit for the time!

[@Jfteksp1]

Just want to say I really love these historical videos.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your kind feedback. :)

[@XSpImmaLion]

Earliest memories I have of a computer at home was in the late 80s... this is in Brazil, so tech came late at high prices here. I'm still not sure exactly what computer it was, but it was a blue-gray keyboard style computer that you needed a tapedeck to run programs and it connected straight to a TV. Everything that came to Brazil back then got rebranded to local names like "Itautec". If I'm not mistaken it ran some form of BASIC too, and I remember at least one game - Zaxxon 3D... so it was most likely a TRS-80/CoCo. After this, it was already a PC-XT with that green phosphorous screen. My first contact with a programming language was DBase III Plus with Clipper as compiler. I think the first serious thing I did with it was a sort of costumer control database for a home based console game rental thing... my dad helped me with it. This was probably back in 93-94, so I was around 14 yrs old. xD We also had this ancient 600 baud rate modem that was almost the size of a computer nowadays, heavier all metal, that I don't remember ever being used. Perhaps it came from my dad's work, I just found it one day in home storage. When I started dabbling with BBSs and IPX connections to play Doom we already had a US Robotics 5600 board - that's 5600 baud rate, not the more popular and last of the line 56Kbps. This of course only happened because my dad got into computers very early in the age of computers here in Brazil... he worked with valve computers, punch cards, mainframes with tape storage and the likes. When he died back in 1999 he was still working with a small team porting stuff from old IBM mainframes to more modern platforms, at Itaipu hydroelectric power plant/river dam. He lead the division of computers for HR on one of the main contractors building the dam back in the 80s, Unicom. Great memories of the time. I still remember very clearly the Sundays my dad had to do something in the offices, he took me there... huge floor space filled with offices with dumb terminals with desks built to house them. They were all connected to the refrigerated "server room" filled with mainframes. I was a kid back then, so I was both fascinated and kinda bored. xD Didn't understand the value of it all.

[@dangaAgadanga]

Ultimately one of the best videos of computer science 😊

[@derekhorton2588]

Being in the electronic components business I decided to make a Triton which was a Practical Electronics design and a kit of parts was available. I would think that this was around 1980 +- a couple of years. The kit was around £350 then! It consisted of an 8080 processor, 2K RAM using around 24 DIL chips . The Tiny Basic and Monitor driver was 0n about 16 2708 EPROM. It was capable of outputting composite video and used cassette tape as program store - MOST unreliable. I learnt a lot by doing that about what's going on "under the hood" which still applies today. It certainly was a trip down memory lane Thanks so much.

[@derekhorton2588]

For more details go to www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6210/Transam-Triton/

[@Slarti]

I got my first computer in 1982 - a ZX Spectrum then I got the 128k version. I wrote my first database on the 48k in BASIC and was able to save all of 12 records within it. This was followed by a Powerbook in 1991 on which I wrote my Information Systems final year degree project. I then got a Psion 5mx, a Toshiba laptop, an emachines netbook and several desktops the last one of which I bought all the parts separately and assembled myself which, incidentally, was great fun. I work as a software developer so I am living out my dreams of when I was 12, although back then the interwebs thingymajig was probably just a glint in a prospective physicist's eye.

[@rithvikshivakumar8776]

I’m 13 so I have never seen computers like this and to know how computers were back then is really interesting and how they have changed so much in less than a 100 years!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching. It is great to get your reaction to these older machines. How things have changed in a very short time as you say. You may like the video that came before this showing some even older computers! kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZy2qXZvpat6kNU

[@saxonlight]

I went shopping for an Amiga 500 in 1987 here in California... I was in a Federated store in Ventura one evening drooling over the Amiga computers on display. I was checking out the 500's 3.5" drive and noticed something was wrong... someone had managed to put two 3.5" diskettes into the internal floppy drive. Funny how things stay in your memory over the years. About 5-years earlier I got my first computer at a Federated store in Laguna Hills CA... an Atari 400 with 16K RAM and a tape drive. It was a very exciting period for computing.

[@rager1969]

I loved the Federated commercials with Shadoe Stevens as Fred Rated. I used to work at a Software Etc and loved showing off the Amiga to customers. I got my Amiga 500 in mid 1990 at a Montgomery Wards in Santa Ana for $600 and a broken 1084S for $50 at a Federated liquidation sale in Anaheim or Fullerton. A small computer shop in Anaheim that specialized in Amiga fixed the monitor for $90 and made an RGB cable for $20, so it was well worth it. In fact, that monitor still works, but the 500 doesn't.

[@saxonlight]

Good times. haha I had forgotten about Fred Rated. I used to own an Amiga 3000T... I was moving in 2002 and threw the thing out. Biggest mistake I ever made in the computer world.

[@martyburgess341]

Ah the memories. I had a Commodore 64 and a friend had a Commodore 128. Loved it so much

[@wdavem]

When I was very young there was the atari 800, played many games on that, which came on 5 1/4 disc and small cartridge. It had a memory expansion board that was so large and packed with IC's that it couldn't have fit in the slot if it had a housing (cover) as the other RAM modules did. It got very warm. My Father got the first Macintosh when it came out in '84. I remember Mac Bottom (external hard drive) and the Fanny Mac (after market external fan to prevent the stupid convection cooling-induced failures, of which there were several). Some programs were 'Megaroids' (mac version of Asteroids) , Mac Paint and Mac Draw, Deluxe music construction set (when upgraded to 512k that worked better), eventually Dark Castle. I remember the screen of death where the mac had XX eyes and the messed up checker-board pattern which apparently was really bad. At school there was the Apple 2, then C, then E, then the GS... but of course since this was public school in the mid-late 80's (in the US)... I rarely saw those computers until they were old and beat up.

[@brassj67]

Very well presented. Good content. Brings back memories

[@jimpretty7768]

Thank you for that! A great trip down memory lane indeed! I cut my teeth on Fortran bubble cards in high school, where a friend and I also bought a Commodore Pet (8K) because we wanted to created a dating game based on peoples likes and dislikes :-) Although that was left for others to perfect, I was fortunate enough to have owned and used lots of the ones you highlighted and then some. After the Pet, came the ZX-81 (yes, we ordered it from the UK into Canada, so it was not the Timex branded one), Commodore 64, Atari ST (eventually with a brilliant Mac emulator), and so on.

[@blutey]

Remember my father buying the Sinclair ZX 80 in 1980 and using it at home.

[@ve5uo]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I built a ZX-81 when I was a teen. Had an appleI ][ clone later. Went on to work for DEC later on after school...lots of history on the mini-comper side as well. Fun times!

[@S-I-T]

Fond memories of the C64. My first industry job was working as a video game artist for Ocean Software in Manchester.

[@UmVtCg]

Awsome, I loved F29 retaliator which was published by ocean software.

[@zboy303]

I went up there once or twice, being a musician on Sleepwalker ;)

[@sumdude4]

Actually remember some of those old macs and IBM PCs when I first started school back in 93. Got my first computer as a hand-me-down back in..97 I think? A Packard Bell Legend 115. I remember when my dad had to take a drill to the ram slot to get the new stick to fit and upgraded it to a Cyrix 133mhz cpu. Good times with that old thing.

[@RetroBerner]

My mum taught me how to program basic on our c64. We spent about a week writing lines of code to make a hot air balloon bounce across the screen, just to lose it all when somebody inadvertently tripped over the power chord. :)

[@daithimcbuan5235]

I grew up with the C=64, then graduated onto the Amiga 500, 1200, then 4000. Fond memories! I also used a VIC 20, Atari ST and various others, though I never knew anyone with any of the British makes... perhaps they weren't marketed much in Ireland.

[@Coqui-Media]

Love this vid, Chris. Thank you for posting.

[@skyhawk77]

My first ever computer was also the ZX81, I was only 4 years old at the time but even so and whilst I was fascinated with moving black blocks in 'Space Invaders'. What made it special was being able to play with my brother and sister who are 9 and 11 years older than me and to get a higher score lol. It was followed a few years later by the much more powerful Atari 800 XL which still lives in a box in my loft and I still have a pile of games in a suitcase for it. Also had a Dragon 32, an Atari Mega ST, Amiga 500 & A1200 in the 1990's. After 17 years in the loft, my Amiga 1200 is set up to play in front of me right now, proudly amongst my music production equipment and Intel I7 920 custom built desktop.

[@DLiberator78]

This was a fantastic video and a trip down memory lane. See all those classic home 8-bit micros brought back some memories. I still own server models of ZX Spectrums and a couple of Commodore Amiga A1200s as well as an Acorn Electron and some other retro consoles in my collection. This was a very interesting video.

[@DanElgaard9]

Started with Commodore PET - then the CBM 8032 - folowed by the C64 and, of cause, then to the Amiga (which I still have) - now I on to PCs, but those Commodore days was the days...