What was your Dream Computer as a kid?

[MaximumRD]

Always a quality presentation from this channel.

My own experience with the brand new Atari ST in 1985. A video full of nostalgia. Join me on this trip down memory lane, where I recreated the scenes of the past using AI and my actual machines. Let's explore this fantastic time period, the Golden Age of video games. Let's have a look at some of the best Atari ST games, including the most outstanding of all: Dungeon Master...

 

[Justin]

[socrates63]

Dream computer as a kid? Hmm... that's a good question. Well, I think I got my dream computer as a kid with the Atari 800, my first home computer. If I dreamed about anything, it was getting a disk drive and a 1702 monitor. I eventually got both. The 1702 was a huge upgrade over the 14" family TV (or whatever size it was) that over scanned and was a bit fuzzy with the RF connection.

I went on to having computers from the XL and XE lines and eventually got an ST and all that. However, I don't remember thinking of a dream computer during those days. That didn't happen until the early 1990s when I wanted a Macintosh IIci. I decided to switch over from the ST to something else, and the Macintosh Iici was what I drooled over. Having been spoiled using a GUI with the ST, I really didn't want to get a PC as it felt like I was going backwards in computer tech with the horrendous CGA graphics and sound and equally hideous pre-3.0 versions of Windows. However, I ended up getting a decked out Northgate 386/33 mainly due to being pressured by family and friends who already had a PC (I'm the tech support in my social circle).

[- Ω -]

I'm older than many of you here, so way back in 1977 my first dream machine was the TRS-80 Model I, but as a kid I simply didn't have the money to buy one.  Looking back that was a good thing as computers were changing so fast and obsolescence raised its ugly head rather quickly.  About six years later I ended up with a TI-99/4A because the color graphics, the Parsec game and the lower cost for entry locked me in.  I eventually did get a TRS-80 Model III later for more practical uses, but got rid of it after a couple of years.  The TI-99/4A is a quirky machine, but nostalgia brought me back to it decades later as nothing more than a hobby machine to see what I could make it do with new tech add-ons.  As the years piled up, and the decades have past, computers no longer seem to be the mystical and magical holy grails of my youth, now I see them as only a tool to do the things I want.

I am finding out one thing as I approach codgerhood, it's true what they say about senior citizens and their second childhood, however it's more fun the second time around as now I can get whatever I want, unlike that kid so many years ago that had more dreams than means.

[RickR]

My dream computer was the Atari 400.  Improved Atari games and those cool store kiosks made me drool. 

I ended up with a VIC-20 instead due to lower pricing and loved it.  But my dream came true a few years later when I found an Atari 800XL/1050 disk drive/1025 printer bundle on clearance at Sears.  The computer did not disappoint.  I loved it and still do.

 

 

[RickR]

OH!  And of course I have a 400 in my collection now.  This one is on my "never sell" list.

 

[MaximumRD]

1 hour ago, RickR said:

OH!  And of course I have a 400 in my collection now.  This one is on my "never sell" list.

 

I was totally on the Commodore side of the fence in my early computing days but I always LOVED the design of the Atari 400 and still do! 

Edited November 18, 2023 by MaximumRD

[Justin]

4 hours ago, RickR said:

But my dream came true a few years later when I found an Atari 800XL/1050 disk drive/1025 printer bundle on clearance at Sears.  The computer did not disappoint.  I loved it and still do.

If you were talking to someone thinking about getting into 8-bit computing, what things would you tell them about the Atari 8-bit computers when explaining why you loved it and still do?

[RickR]

59 minutes ago, Justin said:

If you were talking to someone thinking about getting into 8-bit computing, what things would you tell them about the Atari 8-bit computers when explaining why you loved it and still do?

I would say that there are a ton of great games.  Atari (and others) made really good arcade ports on cartridge, and then there was an unbelievable world of disk-based games.  Electronic Arts, Epyx, Datasoft -- so many classic games.  Literally thousands of the very best 8-bit games.  All that with super simple controls and great graphics/sound.