First computer was a TI-99/4A and I used it primarily for games. Had Mini-Memory and the Assembler cartridge, so dabbled in TMS9900 for a bit. Extended Basic was so powerful though that I mainly just stuck to that. Was great trying to create your own games or type in those you found in the computer mags back then.
I've had Apple ]['s, C64's and A8's after that. Apple was fun for games and bringing home some homework that needed to be saved to disk. C64 and A8 though - primarily gaming again, although I did have a Gorilla-Banana printer for my Atari 400, but I have to admit... I never really used a computer and printer combo for homework and such. 9-pin printers looked too "computer" like and I would have never wanted to hand that in as such. We had typewriters if anything more professional was to be used. Never did the cheesy early computer Christmas card thing either, even though it was popular in the 80's.
Printers in the early to mid 80's, were more like luxury items than necessity to me. Hell, the disk drive too, to an extent. While it was pretty much standard fare on the Apple, you could certainly get by without one on the TI/Atari/C64 for a while anyway. Tape drive for the TI worked fairly well and with prices of the RAM expansion, Disk Drive Module and drive itself being sky high, you made do with what you had or could afford.
When the Amiga came along, I was in my teens, working and learning the importance of saving money. The A1000 was a money pit back then, so I ended up selling it to get an A500. Again, primarily for games. But since the parallel port was more standard, I did end up getting a nice 24-pin dot matrix for her and that allowed me to type up nice letters and databases to keep track of phone numbers, albums, my console games, etc. By the late 80's, finally got a sound digitizer and had fun playing around with that.
By the early 90's, I had re-purchased an A1000 with memory expansion and the A1300 Genlock. They were dirt cheap back then and I always loved the styling of the A1000. Anyway, added titles to some home movies and did some dubbing, light special effects and titling for friends, which ended up having paying friends of their own
First modem I ever had IIRC, was for the Amiga. Had one for my A500, A1000 and eventually the A1200. Only mildly ever checked out the BBS scene, but because phone usage and long distance back then was cost prohibitive, I never really saw the value in hanging out "online" all day or tying up my phone line all night downloading whatever. Just never saw the value of the online experience until the mid to late 90's.
Wish I could say I've done more useful things with all my computers, but the truth is, I guess I've always sorta/kinda viewed them as the paragon of fancy electronic toys. Working on them today is a much more utilitarian experience to be sure. Much more necessary to have online access, printers, cameras, scanners, mass storage and all that jazz, although I will admit - if the internet continues to "evolve" the way it is, I have romantic notions of ditching it all. Seriously. lol
Had I grown up with all of these things as standard equipment, I'm not sure how I would have received all of it. In my teens, I think I would have felt like a douche staying inside all day, "playing" on the computer or chatting online. Don't get me wrong. Growing up with arcade games all about the house, we certainly had our share of indoor time - but it was better balanced than I see kids doing today. We'd play a few quick games here and there and then would head outside. NONE of us were fat. I had only one chunky friend (incidentally, his family had a complete Atari 800 setup) but he was nowhere near as jumbo as kids are today. He was simply predisposed to it. Any fast or junk food we might have had, was quickly burned up playing - that's how much we played outside! Even in our late teens.
