IBM Personal Computer's 30th birthday

DTVuser2009

DTVuser2009

Banned
#1
#1
On January 1, 1980, the very first IBM personal computer was born. it sported a blazing fast 4.77MHz 8086 CPU, 256KB RAM, and PC-DOS. at one time, that was a fast, capable machine selling for over a couple grand!



Hard to believe that this is where it all started ^^^

The picture is of a IBM Personal Computer XT, a rather fancy name which was proudly emblazoned on the computer's nameplate. i remember the lights dimming every time i flicked that big orange switch on the right hand rear of the machine as its 250W power supply literally roared to life!
 
Aaron62

Aaron62

Contributor
Staff member
#3
#3
Eww, One thing I remember about those old IBMs were the two color screens they used to have. Either green and black or orange and black. Both hideous color combinations. Then came VGA which was nicer, but when XVGA hit the streets, wow, you mean we can view real pictures on a computer????
 
DTVuser2009

DTVuser2009

Banned
#4
#4
Gaming in CGA was worse than text-only Hercules monochrome!

I remember those mono monitors burning in badly, too. you could see the main menu burned into the school computers then and it wasn't on!

The color monitor cost another grand, too. it was a premium at the time.

When my XT was upgraded to 16-bit (it only had 8-bit slots don't ask how it worked!) VGA it was, at the time, like when we first got into 16-bit color a few years ago...at the time, having anything better than 4-colors (CGA) was awesome!

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe looked so much better in VGA!

Some games, however, still looked like crap, but it was just more colorful:



Oh, and as far as Internet Access, try the only thing worse than AOL:

 
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