I Wish my first computer was a PLUS :-P

[uniserver]

darkcastle requires real skill.

 

[krye]

Especially when there's no save. I've been playing Dark Castle for 25+ years and I still can't beat the Black Knight.

 

[markyb86]

There's a modern version!? Is there one that works on PPC Macs?

version 3 works on my b&w!

 

[uniserver]

shuffle puck requires real skill too :-D

 

[UNA_Lion]

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1500. It sported 16K of screaming ram, no power switch, rubber keys, a hookup for TV, and you had to purchase a tape cassette recorder for programs.

 

[James1095]

We had an original IBM PC purchased in late 1983 as I recall. Kept that going until we got a 386sx in 1991. I was always a PC guy until someone gave me a complete Mac Plus around '96 or '97.

Macs were wickedly expensive back in the day. A base model Plus was what, $2500? Adding a hard drive would set you back another $1500 or so, a printer was around $800, or $4K if you wanted a fancy new LaserWriter. A couple years later you could get color if you could afford to drop close to $10K on a well equipped Mac II, more than many brand new cars cost at the time. PCs cost a lot more then than they do now too, but they were still about half or less the cost of a similarly equipped Mac.

It's funny to look back at all the Mac vs PC flame wars that raged on for years though. I wondered at times if anyone actually used their computer of choice for anything other than writing letters mocking the other side.

 

[markyb86]

I was always shocked how Mac's specs were always so much lower than PC's at the time but were right on par or better at handling the same software.

 

[uniserver]

Its truly amazing what the Mac OS can do with a 680nothing!~

A big half of the Macintosh experience is great software!

 

[James1095]

Macs had the advantage of starting out with a blank slate several years later than DOS PCs, an eternity in the era when computer technology was growing and maturing at an explosive rate. Without being encumbered by the need for backward compatibility, they could take full advantage of all the available technology, designed from the ground up as a graphical system. They were also a closed platform, Apple designed and built the hardware and operating system together, allowing software to be developed to utilize the full potential of the hardware, rather than catering to the lowest common denominator. I'm sure some of you fellow PC guys remember screwing around with special drivers that would allow a specific program to use a fancy graphics accelerator, or buying a particular sound card that was supported by the games you wanted to play. DOS applications talked directly to the hardware without an abstraction layer so they had to be tailored specifically to use that particular hardware in order to take advantage of it.

Unfortunately the closed nature was (and is) a double edged sword. The high prices and lack of choices limited adoption while a huge selection of arguably inferior but cheap and versatile PCs flooded the market. Apple also ignored gaming for too long, insisting that the Macintosh was not a toy. My friends and I all had PCs back in the day because all the best games ran on DOS. If Mac versions were released at all, they came late and were much harder to find.

Looking back though I'm often impressed. A vintage Mac is far and away cleaner, more polished, more usable, and more modern feeling than a PC of the same era. It wasn't until the mid to late 90s that the Wintel world really started to catch up.