80’s Computer: the technology that changed me

The technology that changed my life in the 80s had to be the first time I saw a computer in the 1980s. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I remember it had the old rainbow Apple/MAC symbol on it. If I had to guess I’d say it was an Apple II system. I remember it had some sort of word fishing game on it.

The school didn’t have many computers for the students to use. There may have been about eight of them. I was amazed by the system. The interaction was what fascinated me. Sure there were plenty of games that I could play on my Atari 2600, but this device could do so much more. I wouldn’t have much more exposure to computers until more libraries started getting them in to allow searches and (later) to allow access to 56k dial-up Internet. That’s about the time I started reading about QBasic programming. It may have been Jr. High School (late 80s) that I was in a class where we actually got to write code in QBasic. We used Goto/Run commands. I loved it. It made lots of sense to me.

Once I was out on my own and able to buy my own computer, it was over… I was hooked.

I still believe that if I’d had more early exposure to computers I’d be a great programmer by now.

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