BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-17, 22:05:

Heh heh, now I want to write an 80s Noir Detective serial and the running gag per episode is the "Why is there a kids computer on your desk?" "It connects to the police database".

Except it was 'sneakernet.'

He had a big brown duffel he carried that included a floppy case. There werent rules about data exfiltration then, so he took copies of the database software, and his case files, home.

It was generally uninteresting stuff about petty theives and prostitutes. A few were noteworthy though.

He'd get furious mad if we got anywhere near his casefile disks. Lol

Dont let that stop you though. The PCjr *DID* have an internal modem upgrade.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/167689089754

We just didnt have it.

I saved up $1500 and ordered from the ad pictured here:

For $1500, I got:

• Slim line case
• 1.44 Floppy
• 386SX-20
• 512KB Paradise VGA
• 14" KFC monitor .28 dot pitch
• 2 MB Ram

The second MB ram cost me $60. They were kind and gave me a pair of 1MB simms.

Didn't have enough for a hard drive, but I was in college and they gave me a network card that could mount Novell Netware drives.

I added a Caviar AC280 drive a couple months later. Upgraded to a 1MB trident 8900D card about 9 months later

The motherboard they gave me unexpectedly had a 64kb Cache, so not only did it keep up with my friends that had $2000 386DX systems, it was like 5% faster on 16 bit code, which at the time, was like 99% of the code. Can't remember the motherboard though. I think it was award bios, and 8 30pin simms in a block by the power, and had a dallas battery.

I added 8MB ram so that I could run OS/2 2.0

I replaced the motherboard in 1993 with a 486-33 once the price dropped to < $600

douglar wrote on 2026-09-18, 17:19:

I saved up $1500 and ordered from the ad pictured here: […]
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I saved up $1500 and ordered from the ad pictured here:

The attachment Computer Shopper November 1990_0823.jpg is no longer available

For $1500, I got:

• Slim line case
• 1.44 Floppy
• 386SX-20
• 512KB Paradise VGA
• 14" KFC monitor .28 dot pitch
• 2 MB Ram

The second MB ram cost me $60. They were kind and gave me a pair of 1MB simms.

Didn't have enough for a hard drive, but I was in college and they gave me a network card that could mount Novell Netware drives.

I added a Caviar AC280 drive a couple months later. Upgraded to a 1MB trident 8900D card about 9 months later

The motherboard they gave me unexpectedly had a 64kb Cache, so not only did it keep up with my friends that had $2000 386DX systems, it was like 5% faster on 16 bit code, which at the time, was like 99% of the code. Can't remember the motherboard though. I think it was award bios, and 8 30pin simms in a block by the power, and had a dallas battery.

I added 8MB ram so that I could run OS/2 2.0

I replaced the motherboard in 1993 with a 486-33 once the price dropped to < $600

Man $1500 was quite a sum of money back then.

G-X wrote on 2026-09-18, 18:30:

Man $1500 was quite a sum of money back then.

That money was everything I saved from my summer job that year + part time work in September & October. And my PC had no hard drive or sound card. ... and yet the 486-25 was $3999

I tried a 65MB RLL drive, but it was clunky. I returned it and ended up paying $430 for the 80MB HD 3 months later. Fortunately Price of Persia and Railroad Tycoon both fit on a single floppy.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-09-17, 15:02:

The *very first* pc I ever used, was the PCjr my dad bought in the 80s for his police work. […]
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The *very first* pc I ever used, was the PCjr my dad bought in the 80s for his police work.

It was sufgiciently pc-like that the police dept's database software would run on it. He kept casefiles on 5.25 360k floppies, and worked at home from time to time.

Mostly, we used it to play the bundled game (kings quest 1, with tandy sound) and some text adventure games.

*edit
the PCjr had the Racore Drive II expansion, giving it a second disk drive and expanding its RAM to the PCjr's 512k maximum. The jr memory map is strange, and video memory starts sooner than on the normal PC.

Ist computer was a PCJr my dad bought, Racore Drive II w/ DMA and 640k so the later Racore expansion. He was an engineer at Control Data so unknown why he picked it except I think we got a deal on it brand new.

After he passed I ended up collecting 5 PCjrs, 2 of them Racore expanded units - one with the 512k and one the 640k expansions but neither with DMA. I dont remember what happened with our original machine.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 16:18:

... First computer in the house was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k games were gamed, loaded off cassette tape ...

Brace yourself for impact.

While you and me were loading games (like Tornado Low Level) from cassette tapes into our ZX Spectrums, real world Panavia Tornado navigators/weapons officers were loading navigational data from the exact same medium into their supersonic strike fighters armed with tactical nukes.

I'm not kidding

G-X wrote on 2026-09-18, 18:30:

Man $1500 was quite a sum of money back then.

Yep, a friend of mine in high school bought his computer in 1996, a 133 MHz premium system, if memory serves he paid around $3,000 for the whole package. Even by today's standards not considering inflation, $3,000 is a pretty penny for a complete computer.

TELVM wrote on 2026-09-19, 19:36:

Brace yourself for impact. […]
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BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 16:18:

... First computer in the house was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k games were gamed, loaded off cassette tape ...

Brace yourself for impact.

While you and me were loading games (like Tornado Low Level) from cassette tapes into our ZX Spectrums, real world Panavia Tornado navigators/weapons officers were loading navigational data from the exact same medium into their supersonic strike fighters armed with tactical nukes.

I'm not kidding

Cool stuff, yeah TLL was a pretty good game on Spectrum. Turns out this is doing dual duty for those nav data point uploads, it's also the cockpit voice recorder. On a twisting this whole connections thing into a pretzel note; There were fears that CCCP member states were buying up ZX Spectrum and ZX81s in the early 80s, to repurpose as single board computers FOR such things as attack aircraft and missile guidance and navigation.

My first machine was an IBM Portable PC 5155. It had the standard config for the machine, as it came from IBM:

• 256k RAM onboard
• CGA graphics
• 2x 5.25" 360k floppy drives

While it was a bit lacking for RAM, and was a bit outdated for 1990, it was the first IBM PC or compatible that I owned. My father bought it from a friend of his for $500USD, and it came with the original IBM manuals in their ring binders and sleeves, and the original IBM DOS floppies.

Over the time I owned it, I added:

• AST SixPackPlus w/ 384kb onboard
• 3.5" 720k floppy drive
• Western Digital MFM controller
• 10mb Seagate MFM HDD
• Hercules graphics/printer card
• 14" Hercules monochrome monitor
• Adlib music card

By the end, it was a fully functional IBM XT, and it was great for programming with the Hercules monitor. The PSU wasn't happy powering the HDD, and eventually died. Once that happened, I picked up an original 5150 and installed all the components into it.

I loved that machine, and played so many games on the tiny internal CRT, and wrote lots of BASIC, and then C programs on the Hercules monitor.

- Alex

TELVM wrote on 2026-09-19, 19:36:

Brace yourself for impact. […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 16:18:

... First computer in the house was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k games were gamed, loaded off cassette tape ...

Brace yourself for impact.

While you and me were loading games (like Tornado Low Level) from cassette tapes into our ZX Spectrums, real world Panavia Tornado navigators/weapons officers were loading navigational data from the exact same medium into their supersonic strike fighters armed with tactical nukes.

I'm not kidding

None of the Fin operators had "tactical nukes".

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2026-09-20, 12:48:

None of the Fin operators had "tactical nukes".

^ WE.177

^ B61

TELVM wrote on 2026-09-20, 14:26:

https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?mode=view&id=249450 ^ WE.177 […]
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ElectroSoldier wrote on 2026-09-20, 12:48:

None of the Fin operators had "tactical nukes".

^ WE.177

^ B61

Wow well there you go you learn something new every day.

kaposzta wrote on 2026-09-17, 10:55:

Our first PC was a 286 with CGA graphics and 40 MB HDD from 1995 to 1997, we joined quite late in the game 😁 It was the best computer ever! Never malfunctioned. I remember playing Defender of the Crown, GP, Prince of Persia, Civilization, Sim City, Street Rod, Railroad Tycoon, Arkanoid, Alley Cat, Arcade Volleyball, Gorilla.bas etc., and I also created some very primitive games in QBasic. Sometimes I just typed stupid things to DOS, and it was still fun. Those were the times! Then we switched to AMD K5 PR100, 16 MB RAM, SVGA graphics, and sold the old PC to a neighbor. A few years ago I asked them whether they still have the 286, but unfortunately they threw it out several years prior.

This really drives home the notion that the best hardware is one you already got 😁

My first PC (in 1988) was an Amstrad 1640, with Hercules and two floppy drives, and NO hard drive.
It was bought second hand for 5000 Finnish marks (something like 1800€).

Before that I had a C64 for a few years so I wasn't very impressed with the PC's gaming abilities.
What I was impressed with though, was the resolution of the Hercules. Very nice for any text based stuff.
I guess EGA would've been even better (albeit slightly lower res) but that was a very costly thing.

Overall it was a nice machine but it had some OEM oddities which made it too hard to upgrade (well, for me at least).

The Solutor wrote on 2026-09-17, 11:20:

The legendary Olivetti Envision (the swan song of Olivetti) […]
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The legendary Olivetti Envision (the swan song of Olivetti)

Not my first computer (that was a TI99/4A), nor the first PC I used, but the first PC I had at home at my disposal, bought in 95 few days after the release of Win95

It was way ahead of its time, wireless keyboard, VFD display, optional MPEG decoder, remote controller, SCART output, ability to display 800x600 resolution on a PAL TV, in short a mediacenter/HTPC released a decade before such terms were created.

Also it had a GUI driven BIOS setup, with mouse support, and it did SW power OFF , when most PC where still based on AT PSUs, and had a WORKING standby, independent from the OS installed years before the ACPI specs were published.

Last but not least it was a antracite, in an era where everything was ugly beige, light gray in the best case scenario.

The one in the foto is powered by a AMD 486 DX4 100 (easily clockable to 120)

there was also the P75 variant (easily clockable at 90Mhz)

I still have both of them, plus a second P75 I got a decade later

Ah someone else! I came across one of these only once, but I remember it had an MPEG acceleration thing. Wonder if anything could utilise it!

I reckon the P75 would have easily done 100MHz with a fan if the board was a BA2247. But I think said board shipped with a 100 or 133 anyway! The other boards, iirc, were missing the ability to select 66MHz FSB, frustratingly. I wonder if the clock chip was the same across variants? If so there is probably a way to get 66 out of it.

I always thought it interesting that they went with a Wildcat rather than sticking with the SiS550x they had with the similar-release-age PCS P75/n's (Trigem Torino).

You should document up the boards for theretroweb or the System Specs forum though, as the Envision does not appear to be on there and lacks decent board pictures and documentation online. I'd definately find it interesting (especially if you have the MPEG accelerator working).

CrustyCeleron wrote on Today, 18:51:

I reckon the P75 would have easily done 100MHz with a fan if the board was a BA2247. But I think said board shipped with a 100 or 133 anyway!

I think mine had a real P75 (which means nothing by itself, I mean that the CPU was labeled and sold as a 75MHz).
Whatever going to 90 was sort of a mild overclock, no voltage change, no additional fan, nothing. It just worked, and likely could have worked at way higher frequencies if the jumpers were there like in a OEM board. (same thing on the DX4 100 as I already wrote)

The other boards, iirc, were missing the ability to select 66MHz FSB, frustratingly. I wonder if the clock chip was the same across variants? If so there is probably a way to get 66 out of it.

Likely maybe even via SW, but at the time I was not that expert and I wouldn't risk something that I paid almost 1.000.000 of old liras that likely is something like 2000€ in 2026 money (which, in turn, was already 1/4 the original price) .

I always thought it interesting that they went with a Wildcat rather than sticking with the SiS550x they had with the similar-release-age PCS P75/n's (Trigem Torino).

Probably was a separate project, something like the very first PC from 1963 Programma 101 (which was even relabeled as "Calculator" to prevent it to end in the hands of the Americans).

Speaking of the Americans Lockheed had a similar research unit called Skunkworks.

You should document up the boards for theretroweb or the System Specs forum though, as the Envision does not appear to be on there and lacks decent board pictures and documentation online.

That's unbelievable, I'll do but not take your breath, I have some logistic complications ATM

I'd definately find it interesting (especially if you have the MPEG accelerator working).

No, no MPEG card, practically at the time I bought my first Envision 400 (few days after the Win95 release) there were already SW able to play MPEG videos w/o any HW helper, which made the HW card useless.

Together with the machine there were a number of CD bundled, among them the Video CDs of Star Trek II the wrath of Khan. (criminally cropped to 4/3).

P.S. Another thing practically unknown on PCs of that era was the BIOS driven by a proper GUI with mouse support and all, something that became the norm only in the UEFI days, 15 whole years later.

The Solutor wrote on Today, 19:31:

P.S. Another thing practically unknown on PCs of that era was the BIOS driven by a proper GUI with mouse support and all, something that became the norm only in the UEFI days, 15 whole years later.

Was it an AMI WinBIOS? https://wiki.softhistory.org/wiki/AMIBIOS_5. Quite a number of systems of that vintage had them (think the GUI was more popular on 486s than Socket 5+).

They had them on the desktop Torino PCS's too. Dreadful thing. Refuses boot of anything AMD or in my case, even MMX. Not just not recognised, but outright refusal. To this day they're still not realistically modifiable. Easier to transplant an Award 4.5x over than it is modify that AMI era.

Still. It did look cool at the time 😀.

CrustyCeleron wrote on Today, 19:56:

Was it an AMI WinBIOS? https://wiki.softhistory.org/wiki/AMIBIOS_5.

Probably, I think it was customized by Olivetti, I remember it as more colorful than the screenshot you linked.

Quite a number of systems of that vintage had them (think the GUI was more popular on 486s than Socket 5+).

I know it wasn't the only one, still pretty rare in my experience.

They had them on the desktop Torino PCS's too. Dreadful thing. Refuses boot of anything AMD or in my case, even MMX.

Yeah I tried a Pentium MMX, but I think there was an utility by Intel to test if the BIOS was MMX ready and it said NO, but when I had my hands on a real thing I tested it anyway.

Initially I thought the dual voltage was the BIG problem, and the BIOS only a secondary concern.

It was the opposite: Pent MMX worked w/o a sweat on single voltage MBs, but the BIOS was an absolute NO GO.