I am about to trump most of you:
When did I start on computers? it was 1979, and my uncle had just bought the brand-new TI-99/A. I was 3-4 years old, and my Uncle thought it would be neat to freak out my grandparents by teaching me how to program the TI/99-A to say "Hello" all over the screen. I remembered how, and eventually taught myself how to program that thing quite well before I entered kindergarden.
Then my grandfather bought the always-fun C64. I loved that computer. (Still have it *and* the TI)
Then he bought his first PC, an XT. From there on, i was an Intel man... 8088 to 386 to 486DX2-50....
Then came the remiere of Star Trek: generations. I'd taken the opportunity of it's opening to see Interview with the Vampire, but friends of mine were in Generations. After the movie got out, the parking lot was a mess, so we'd hung out in the back of my truck chatting up a storm. Discussing how to summon demontic entities, that kind of thing. At one point I mentioned my brand-new computer I'd bought a month before, a Compaq Presario w/ a 486DX2-50. He went "you think that's hot? I gotta machine that will blow you away." So the bet was on. He took me to his house, and showed me his...
Amiga 1500
In short order, I was blown away. While my 486DX2-50 was capable of only 16-color in full Windows 3.1 GUI, this thing was doing 32. When I got 256-color under DOS, this was getting 12-bit HAM6 mode displays. The mouse didn't hang, and the games were fun. I was won over....
Of course this was just before Commodore went under.
I couldn't find an Amiga for sale anywhere, so the "wow" faded in memory until '97, when a guy mentioned having an A1000 for $30. I jumped on it.
I still run that lovable machine.
