I got into it from EAM/cards.
In 1970, I was working at National Space Sciences Data Center, building 26
at Goddard Space Flight Center. Doing gofer work for a British physicist
studying the Van Allen belts, as part of an on-site contract. FORTRAN,
APL, Gerber digitizer, and plotters (Calcomp and Stromberg).
When I heard about microprocessors, it was obviously inevitable that
computers were destined to become small and cheap. I was getting out
during a collapse of aerospace, and I opened an auto repair shop for the
1970s. I declared that I would get back into computers when I could
afford a table-top computer that could run a high level language, such as
FORTRAN.
I never said that that would be the first home computer, since I already
knew some crazy hobbyists. I merely said that that would be the first
one that I would get.
About eight years later, I bought a TRS80 for $398. Yes, you could buy
it without the video monitor and cassette recorder.
If I had a little more spending money, I might have gotten a PET, instead,
or, not much later, but more money, an Apple2.
Those were absolutely not the first home computer, either. But I consider
them TIED with each other as to which was first of that group. (do you
count announcement, production, going on sale, or being able to walk into
a store and buy one without pre-order?)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
