How this all started.

Mattel Aquarius:

This is the first computer I ever had. My father bought it for me in 1986. I started using it as a game console, but my cousin Raid taught me how to write some programs. I wrote my first program for tracking the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. I did not have any recording media, so each time I used the machine, I had to rewrite the program from paper, improving it a little each time. I wrote many programs on this machine; one calculated the day of the week for any given date (which was a big deal for this machine), along with many other small programs. The specifications of the device are laughable when compared to today’s machines.

Year: 1983 CPU: Zilog Z80A or NEC D780C (Z80 compatible) RAM: 4KB ROM: 10KB Colors: 16 Hard Disk: None Recording Media: Cassette Recorder (Which I didn’t have) Monitor: TV

NEC PC 6001 Computer.

This is the computer on which I truly learned professional programming. I developed a version of the game Burger Time for this machine after enjoying it on the Aquarius. I also developed soccer game prediction software.

The specifications of the device are laughable when compared to today’s machines.

Year: 1983 CPU: PD-780C-1 RAM: 16KB (I got an updated version that had 64KB RAM) ROM: 16KB Colors: 256 Hard Disk: None Recording Media: Cassette Recorder Monitor: TV

Olivetti PC1 Computer.

I used this computer at work; I could not afford such an advanced machine at the time.

Year: 1988 CPU: NEC V40 RAM: 512 KB Colors: 4 Hard Disk: None Recording Media: 3.5” Diskette