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Thread: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

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    QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Was it building your first, playing the coolest games, or something else?
    Read more.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    I was about 7 or 8 years old and got sat in front of an old BBC computer, I was amazed that one key could have two different functions, I also had a commodore 64 at home around the same age and used to love playing Dizzy the egg on it, however I had a bit of a hiatus and only really played on Sega/Nintendo systems until I got to a young teenager, it wasn't until I was 13 and we got our first windows machine in the house (P166 CPU and windows 95)that I really got interested in the actual workings of a PC, and then when I was 15 I finally got my own machine and my mother nearly had a heart attack when she came into my room and found me with the PC opened up (I was replacing the video card with a voodoo4, ah memories, I miss you unreal tournament!) - the knowledge of putting hardware together was passed down to me from an older friend I had and I just went from there, researching on the (slow 56k dial up) internet and asking him for help if I got stuck with something.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Circa 1992 I had an Amiga 1200, which I loved (edit - prior to which I'd had ZX Spectrums since about 1983).

    But then I remember seeing promo videos for two PC games from Ocean, called TFX (Tactical Fighter Experiment, and Inferno (both used the same engine), and realised how much more impressive PC gaming looked even at that early stage.

    Just after that I went to uni and a few guys in my halls had 386 or 486 PC's, and so started playing stuff like Indycar Racing and F1 Grand Prix. VGA PC's were lower res than the Amiga back then, but polygon counts and frame rates were miles better than my Amiga. I realised then I needed a PC, so got my first one around 1993 I think (a 486 DX2/66).

    Back then I didn't have a clue, so couldn't understand why my shiny new DX2 performed poorly compared to my friend's. Eventually we twigged that it was because his CPU was Intel, and mine was Cyrix. Still it was fun though, and got me locked into the whole never-ending cycle of upgrading which I still love about PC's (despite the cost). And tinkering with my PC's taught me enough to get my first IT job, back in 2003.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    They’re the hate and spite and war against the natural state of humanity. They’re the combined revenge for a billion wedgies delivered over untold millennia. They’re spit in the eye of physical fitness. They’re the Rage of Nerds made manifest on the material plane.

    Computers are F' You, that is what they are!

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Watching how much fun someone was having playing the original DOOM.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    My cousin's ZX80, my ZX81 and, shortly afterwards, the Model Bs at school.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Quote Originally Posted by Corky34 View Post
    Watching how much fun someone was having playing the original DOOM.
    Good grief, how could I have forgotten Doom during my uni days. That was probably the game changer in the end, which is convinced me it was time to sell the Amiga.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    My parents got us an Apple IIc since our school had some Apples. I started playing games and eventually typing in programs from a PC magazine that we were subscribed to.

    I was really blown away when my data got his first 286, hercules graphics & it had some wonderful invention called a hard drive (20 MB) ... no more swapping disks all the time ... woohoo!

    After 1 week I broke the computer (replaced the boot files on the hard drive when I tried to copy in a game). My dad told me that I was going to pay to have it fixed if I broke it again.
    Well I did it again but managed to figure out how to fix it after about a week or two. From there I continued with my gaming & learning more about computers (sometimes when I broke something) & programming.

    Yes Doom was big in my life later on but in the 286 days it was Wizardry for me.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    1994... installed Duke Nukem 2D demo and the game had an option to always start when Windows loads. After installation, everytime the game would load even before you got to the Windows desktop! Had to ask an aunt to reinstall Windows 95.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Trying to get Max Payne to run on my parents' first (only and subsequently last pre-made) desktop - a Pentium III Fujitsu machine bought from Tesco.

    I replaced the Rage Pro with a Radeon 7000 series then proceeded to brick the motherboard with a BIOS update. My Dad and I drove to Scan to pick up a replacement board, fitted it that afternoon and I've been hooked ever since.
    Last edited by NightshadowUK; 29-04-2017 at 01:13 AM.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    My first computer was a ZX81 which was bought in kit form,
    then a ZX Spectrum and a commodore 64

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    The first time i played Unreal Tournament (GOTY), Diablo, Warcraft 2, Dune 2000.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    My mum got me a ZX81 from WH Smiths for Christmas. Was the best gift ever. Did anyone else ever try and recode the magazine program printouts so they'd work in 1k ? I did, and loved every minute of it even if it was impossible to actually do, but so many of the games that'd take even up to 3k could be tidied up into that single kilobyte of memory.

    The only let down was cassette tape.

    The nest year, I got a 16KB ram pack. I remember I could only print things at school though, they had the Sinclair Thermal printer !

    THEN A BIG GAP UNTIL :

    Lombard RAC Rally for Windows 95 !

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    We had an Atari 2600 as well, but the first computer we owned was an Amstrad CPC 464, which we replaced with the 6128. The first IBM compatible PC we owned was a shop built 486-DX2 66. That was upgraded to a Pentium 200 MMX. Eventually that PC was replaced with something newer, and the 200 MMX became my little toy. It was the first PC I started upgrading myself, and I've built all of my PCs since.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    Video games.

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    Re: QOTW: What sparked your interest in PCs?

    A combination of things I'd say. My home computer evolution from Vic 20, Oric, Atari 800XL then Amiga. The idea of being able to upgrade components relatively easily in a PC was certainly a factor, the innate tinkerer in me couldn't resist. The final decision maker however was watching a work mate install and play DOOM on a work PC (naughty boy!). January '94 I had my shiny new Escom 486 DX2 66 and the tinkering and games playing hasn't stopped since.

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