![\"IMG_0793-1024x768\"](\"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_0793-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>have bought, built, given away, traded and sold. Pleasant memories of some my favorites started coming to mind and I started listing them out. If you don’t like computers this post probably isn’t for you!<\/p>\nIt all started around 1980 with my first computer, the Commodore Vic 20. I can remember pretty clearly that my brother and I had asked (no begged) for an Atari 2600 for Christmas. Our friends had them and the games were amazing. My dad thought that if we had a game machine we would just play games and never learn anything and he was probably right so that Christmas instead of the 2600 we found a rather ugly off-white plastic keyboard under the tree called a Commodore Vic-20. I don’t think we had any games with it though it did have a cartridge slot in the back. Later we did end up getting Cosmic Crunchers and the Temple of Asphai (on 6 cassette tapes).<\/p>\n
If my dad had caved on the Atari, I may never have experienced the life that I <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Commodore Years – 1980 – 1993<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Clone War Years – 1993 – 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n After the industry decided to abandon the Amiga and I would argue the FUN part of computers, I started building a steady stream of Windows and Linux based PCs. This started around 1993. I wanted to start my own BBS and feature both Amiga and PC software as well as gaming and to build a community around computing. The BBS software options seemed better on the DOS\/Windows platform at the time. I didn’t like the idea of paying Compaq, Packard Bell, Dell, Gateway, or any of the other clone makers lots of money for substandard overpriced hardware when I could tailor the whole experience from case to graphics card to my own demands and budget. I also hated Intel at the time and built machines with AMD processors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Apple Years – 2008 –\u00a0<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well I finally did it. “Did what?” you say… Listed my first awesome and lovely Apple computer on ebay. This was my first MacBook Pro – a computer I talked about buying for probably 3 years before I actually pulled the trigger and spent the money. You see I really never cared much for the … Continue reading My Computer Museum<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16,20,32,42,45,46,47,121,125,148,161,173,175,178],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","tag-amiga","tag-apple","tag-bbs","tag-clones","tag-commodore","tag-commodore-128","tag-commodore-64","tag-modem","tag-next","tag-sgi","tag-sun","tag-vic20","tag-vintage-computers","tag-windows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blackfrogguitars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>have. I may have never had an interest in computers and software and mobile devices, HTPC, automation, engineering, computer animation, art, music, and on and on… That computer, that plain looking little box hooked to the tv with a cheap RF modulator was the beginning of an obsession that continues to this day. Thanks mom and dad!<\/p>\n<\/a>So here it is, my list of computers that I have owned. This list excludes work computers (laptops, workstations, desktops, etc) and excludes mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, Windows phones, internet appliances, touch screens, and big fancy calculators – maybe they will appear in a future article)<\/p>\n\n
Commodore Vic 20 – my first computer with only 5k of RAM and a tape deck for storage – yes we stored programs on audio tapes!<\/li>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nAs mentioned at the start, when the aluminum body Mac’s running OS-X came out, it became my new pursuit to try one. These machines were not only beautiful on the outside but had a stable OS that wasn’t built like a house of cards (yes I’m talking about Windows Mr. Gates). When we finally saved enough to buy our first Mac it brought back the pure joy and fun that I had missed since the Amiga years. I still have a couple of rogue Windows 7 boxes in the mix currently but only because I had previous investments in license keys for HomeSeer and SageTV.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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