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Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:29 pm
by TI-994A
The one that started it all... 
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:55 pm
by blueb
I bought mine at a just opened 'IBM Store' in Dec 1981. Cost with a dual-floppy (160kb capacity), mono-chrome monitor, and an IBM dot-matrix printer was $7,100 CAD (6,000 USD). I remember because a 'leasing expert' came into our business and wanted to give us a 4 year lease for over $11,000, which I nearly choked on at the time.
Times have changed. I recently bought an 8 core 16 thread NUC for a little over $500(US) haha
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 1:39 pm
by TI-994A
blueb wrote: Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:55 pmI bought mine at a just opened 'IBM Store' in Dec 1981. Cost with a dual-floppy (160kb capacity), mono-chrome monitor, and an IBM dot-matrix printer was $7,100 CAD (6,000 USD).
Lucky you! I had always wanted one, but it was prohibitively expensive. The amount you had paid is equivalent to about $25,000 today.
Nevertheless, I was still lucky enough to get a compatible - the
Canon A200 PC. Lovely machine with whisper-soft floppy drives. And I already had an Epson 80-column dot-matrix printer for my TI-99/4A.
Loved the fanfold paper!
Computers and their peripheral hardware somehow had a different thrill to them in the early days.
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 2:04 pm
by Caronte3D
I learned COBOL on a machine like that.
Good old times... The only syntax I remember is: "Procedure Division"
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 2:20 pm
by TI-994A
Caronte3D wrote: Tue Aug 12, 2025 2:04 pmI learned COBOL on a machine like that.
I was required to learn COBOL in college! BASIC was not offered even as an elective.
Code: Select all
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLOWORLD.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY 'HELLO, WORLD!'.
STOP RUN.
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 12:31 pm
by blueb
TI-994A wrote: Tue Aug 12, 2025 1:39 pm
... The amount you had paid is equivalent to about $25,000 today.
True.. but worth every penny! How else would I have found PureBasic?
No, seriously, over the years I've really enjoyed using computers.
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 6:39 pm
by TI-994A
blueb wrote: Wed Aug 13, 2025 12:31 pmTrue.. but worth every penny! How else would I have found PureBasic?
No, seriously, over the years I've really enjoyed using computers.
I'm sure it was. And computers are always great, but never as great as the early home computers of the 80s.
Re: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 11:30 am
by Piero
TI-994A wrote: Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:29 pmThe one that started it all...
