I was just working on a project and thought started to think about Poser and the changes from Poser 1 through today. That also got me to thinking about my first computer that I bought. It was a Sinclair. I got the upgraded memory so that I had the grand total of 2K of memory. Anyone else remember the good ole days? Do you remember the Commodore 64 or the 128? How about the Tandy computer that was the first notebook computer and could run on 6 AA batteries?

Here's a "starter list" of my computers: 1.) Commodore VIC-20 (yawn) 2.) Commodore 64 3.) Commodore 128 4.) Atari 520ST 5.) Hyundai XT Clone (getting warmer, but still archaic) 6.) "Home-brew," practically mindless 386SX 7.) Homebrew 486SX (ouch) 8.) Homebrew AMD K6-4/100 9.) The above AMD painfully transformed to an Intel Celeron with lots more goodies. I've done most of my Poser work with computer #9.

TI 99/4A (something like that) long break Amiga something or another Several PC clones, the last of which I built my self...not sure it was worth the amount of time I spent sweating over where all the screws (spacers?) went, trying to figure out how to mount the CPU fan with no instructions, etc.... Next computer.....MAC + OSX! eric

Ah, yes. The early '80s. I remember:

Heathkit computers (build-it-yourself!)
The Atari 8-bit systems (I still have a working 1200XL)
The PET 2001, VIC-20, Commodore 64, and Commodore 128
The ever-popular and expandable Apple IIe, and its compact cousin, the IIc
Radio Shack's TRaSh-80s (later assimilated by Tandy)
The IBM PCjr
The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
The tiny Timex-Sinclair ZX 1000, with its wretched membrane keyboard
Coleco's failed attempt at a personal computer, the ADAM
The Amigas and the Atari ST series, which were popular with graphic artists for a while
Apple's Lisa
The first Macintosh, with its monochrome screen, beige case, and something Steve Jobs called a "mouse"

(Never ask a dragon what he remembers.)

The girlfriend bought a Commoder 64 and then when the 128 came out she was comparing that to the Amiga because of the graphics. Some time after that I bought my first one, it was a 386/40.

Boy this brings back some good and bad memories... My first computer was an 8086 running at 8mhz with 640k of memory with an addon memory card, a whopping 20Mb hard drive running DOS 3.0. B/W 14inch monitor with little or no graphics capability. Probably one of the best machines I ever owned. Never had any problems with it. From there it was just a progression.. 286 running at 12mhz a 386 that was a total piece of sh**! a 486sx with my first color monitor and graphics!! a P1 200mhz MMX system that I still have and runs great a P2 400mhz Celeron that was a total waste of money. to my 2 current systems both 1Gb Athlon with 1Gb ram As a sign of the times, I paid less for my 2 current systems combined than I did for the P2 system. Ed

We had the IBM pc jr. I remember having a fit when the kids spilled juice over some of the floppys - remember those? Then for me, it was the mac portable. I bought it used for about $1000. I came loaded with Quark, Pagemaker 3 I think and Word. It was the size of a portable typewritter and came in a carry case that I schlepped all over Manhattan for my PR and desktop publishing business. Of course no manuals so I figured out the programs myself. Next came the Proforma by Mac - Memory upgrades were too expensive for the portable, but I fell in love with mac's ease of use. We still have this computer as the back up for school papers and emergency e-mail. Currently I am on a G3 iMac which if I'd realized I would be working in 3d, I would have gotten a tower. That will be the next one. the dual gig machine.

Before I bought my first computer, I worked on an Atari, a PC (and then was horrified when the 286 came out and my Tetris score plummeted!), an Apple of some sortprobably IIC, an Amiga 500 and 2000, C64. I own (in this room) a 386 (my music box, with Roland MT-32 and sequencer), a 486-50, a P100 (extremely cannibalized), P200 (built from the P100 and then moderately cannibalized), P266 (built from parts of the previous 2), P500, P733 (another Frankenbox), Mac 8500/150, Mac G4 with dual 450s. Yesterday a friend dropped off an Amiga 4000 as long-term loan, so that I might possibly be able to retrieve my early animations and get them into a more modern format. That makes 5 different operating systems. I do not have a working laptop, which is a nuisance, but can't afford a Titanium yet. Note: I wish that I had switched to Macs long, long ago. As you may have guessed, I can sweep this room with a glance, but dusting takes time! Carolly

When I had a choice between VHS and Beta, I naturally chose Beta. I decided I would not repeat that error. So in the computer wars I went with a PC. You don't want to know what stock I buy. Q

Anybody remember the Jupiter Ace? Great little Z80 machine with a rubber keyboard and a case made from 0.5MM plastic. The OS was Forth... and that's where I started programming. Only 4Mhz... but went like a rocket!! 8Mhz 286. Pile of crap but with colour monitor! Couldn't run windows 3.1! Various machines of varying velocity ending up with my 900 AMD. Does for me! Although I feel the beconing of the dual G4... H:)

My first PC was a 486DX-33MHz, with 4MB of RAM, a 200MB hard drive, and Windows 3.1. My first upgrade project was to install an additional 4MB of RAM, bringing the total to a lofty 8MB. Those four 1MB SIMMS cost me approximately $200. This was well before the big memory price deflation of the late '90s. My current PC is ... well, technically, it's still my first. I've been steadily upgrading it for years. It no longer has any factory-original components, not even the mouse, which outlived every other element in the system (the keyboard was the first to die). My scanner and cable modem are perched atop the gutted carcass of the original desktop case.

Still want to dream a little bit: Have a look at: http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/ Oh, by the way, I started with a commodore plus/4, earned some money publishing small listings (=programs you had to type in yourself) in magazines...

Really? Perhaps I saw (and possibly used) some of your listings. In what magazines were you published? Compute!? Family Computing? Compute!'s Gazette?

HaHAHa!!! I'll have to check. I think my 2 Commodores can still work. I know the monitors still do. I remember my first (2mg) very expensive Matrox card and sister capture card. What a joke, by today's standards. All went the way of my Thiumph GT6- 3motors in 2 years- looked great though.... Somebody help me!!!! Q

My first encounter with computer graphics was at a CAD course at my university. A CAD program was running on the state of the art "mini computer" (anyone remember that term?) of the time, a Digital Equipment VAX 785. At that time these machines were so hot that they had export restrictions due to their military significance (They were among other things used on nuclear submarines). The one at my university was the first one installed in Sweden. About 20 people could work simultaneously with a CAD application on that machine without any performance problems. I have been told that the computing power of a VAX 785 at that time can be compared to something in between an Intel 386 and 486 processor... Sometimes I wonder where all the computing power in our modern machines is wasted, since we were able to do quite advanced stuff in the old days with pretty simple processors...

Where is it wasted? My guess would be operating system overhead ... Windows is bloatware.

Lol recognise and owned a lot of the above....anybody remember the Einstein by Tatung?

I started with the 1802P that you wired. When Heathkit first came out with an 8080A based machine, the H8, I bought that and built it along with a paper tape reader/punch. This together with a casette player was how you loaded your operating system. It had a massive 8k memory. I also built the H9 Video Terminal and a printer. Later I souped it up to a Z80A with 64K memory and all the add-on boards from Trionyx. Once card was for computer graphics which could do some of the special effects for Wrath of Khan. I even got it to read double density floppies. Later I built several Z89 computers. Then IBM came out with their PC and made all of it obsolete. Then I went the same route everyone else did through 8086, 80286, etc. I still have the H8 and H89A.

Talk about performing wonders with obsolete equipment? NASA is conducting a desperate search for obsolete computer equipment to keep the Space Shuttle running. The Shuttle's been using old computer equipment to run for decades. Heck, these guys go out into space, perform missions, then return to earth. We use more powerful computers for Poser than they do on the Space Shuttle.

I haven't been a graphics nut that long...I used to be into comps mostly for sound and utilities(real computers, like post 486 on up...) anyhow... started on a Commedore 64...used to drive mom nuts with "call sound" command...making it play the theme from ET and StarWars kept that until we bout a TRS-80 (lovely POS system) when THAT died (took WAY too long) we bout a 386DX by Tandy I dissappeared from Techie sociey for four years (aka, Army enlistment) Got out, and bout a lovely P90 powered storebuilt Threw that away with the advent of the PII233, and boosted to 256 meg RAM (started liking graphics about here...and discovered the bane of ALL persons with limited time...online gaming) rode that POS until two years ago, where I bought a pre-built compaq5200US...and have steadily built on that, while buying my wife her own system, and pushing it, too. Current-a pair of Tim (The Tool Man) Taylor originals: A 200MHz FSB MB pushed by a duron800 oc'd to 1.2 gig, with G3ti500, 1024 SDRAM, and 160 gigs HD space is one...the other's an Athelon T-bird on an Asus board, with a gig of DDRAM, G3ti200, with 60 gigs HD, both with 19" monitors... I'm MUCH better, now! (but I still bitch about rendering time anytime I go to save any animations longer than 10 seconds running time at 30 fps, if I don't keep its render size 320X320 or below) Future goal (if I can stop buying 3D animating and designing programs and add-ons long enough): Multi-proc towers rigged in a small network, each running a gig of RAM per proc, rigged for resource sharing (3 towers total..one for kids/server/hardware firewall usages), I'm satisfied with my graphics cards...but I'd like to add some better monitors, too, upgrade my sound cards in the new machines, switch over to 266MHz FSB procs and MB's across the line. Unfortunately for me, I'm a die-hard PC fan...I say unfortunately, because they don't seem to be budging from the 32 bit cycling, and I played on a MAC that had Poser on it the other day....that 128 bit processing makes a HUGE difference in render speeds!

Dave's list: Sinclair ZX81 (1k of RAM!) Commodore 64 (Remember those UK ads with the elephant = giant memory?) Amiga A500 (Loved it!) Amiga A1200 (Really loved it!) Compaq Presario 486 (Slow and unreliable!) Current - Athlon XP 1900, lots of RAM = V. HAPPY! Dave :-)

I still have my ZX81. Haven't found a way to run Poser on it yet, though... :) The plus side, of course, was that programmers in those days had to be efficient. There was no bloatware!

Sinclair ZX80 BBC Micro Model B (32k RAM) - various memory, disk and peripheral upgrades Acorn A3000 (32bit RISC 4MB RAM) - processor, memory, disk space all upgraded multiple times Acorn RISC PC Upgraded with 202MHz Strongarm processor, added 486DX co-processor to run DOS then Win95. Dell PII 300 MHz PC 64MB RAM PIII 500 MHz 196MB RAM Athlon 1.3GHz 256MB RAM P4 2.4GHz 1GB RAM -- Mark

My little list:

Sinclair ZX81 with the wobbly 16K RAM pack
Dragon 32 (ugh)
TI 99/4A (with the voice synth module... v.cool)
Amiga 500, with the 50MB SCSI drive and a whopping 4 MB of RAM.
A long hiatus.....
P90
PII 450
Current system: Athlon 1200 lots of RAM, GF3, 4x40Gig 7200's in RAID0+1.

At work it went something like:

8MHz 086
12MHz 286
20MHz 386SX
25MHz 486SX
100MHz 486DX4
P133
PII 450
PIII 900
Still waiting for a Poo4.

We had one no one has mentioned. We upgraded the zx81 for an Amstrad of some sort. Had a couple or so of them, they were cheap. In fact I jumped straight from an Amstrad to a second user 486dx 66.(built not off the shelf) then bought a p133(built not off the shelf) Now use a built up Athlon. apart from an advent for about a year before it didn't resemble anything like the way it arrived I haven't had any named pc's, after all you don't keep teccies in the family and buy from shops, do you?

Acorn Atom (12KB split either side of the ROM, 192256b/w max display) Atari ST 520, upped to 4MB, two monitors and an 84MB hard disk. PC 486SX25 4MB upped to 486DX266 with 8MB PC P166 32MB PC PIII450 256MB upped to Athlon 1700XP with 768MB

I remember upgrading my Atari 400 from 16k to 32k, cost something like $160 for the board. Tape cassette drive and all that stuff.

I had 3 Ataris, then when straight to a 10 Mhz 286. Never did any of them "funny" computers. Remember paying $560 for 8 Mb of memory foy my 386 though, and $360 for an Atari floppy (60k!) disk drive. Gee, if I had all that money I wasted on that old junk... Was fun, though!

Jim, Part of the reason my P100 got so thoroughly cannibalized was the cost. The CPU was built to my specs by JDR (I could swap cards, move jumpers, and such, but was nervous about building my work machine from scratch). I had to wait for the P100 card, and insisted that it not have the floating point error. 1 Gig harddrive and tape backup. 4X CDRom. I think the graphics card was Orchid, because I later installed the Matrox. Spiffy machine. The box cost $6000 in 1994 dollars. (No mouse, keyboard, monitor, just the box.) As developers we were s-o-o-o-o-ooo far over the bleeding edge, but we were making the games which would other people's systems 2 years in the future. Carolly

Some of the high-end Mac systems right before the Power Macs came out were going for about $10,000 with a laser printer, that is about as expensive as mass market computers got, I'd guess. After that it got cheaper as well as better. And boy, were those purchasers pissed when the Power Macs were announced a week after they spent all that money! I knew one!

I started small, here's my list up to today Sinclair ZX81 Sinclair Spectrum Commodore Vic20 Commodore C64 I took a rest from computers and moved to games machines here. sega master system sega mega drive sega mega cd then back to real machines in '93 Packard Bell 486 SX25 64Mb Ram Packard Bell pentium 200Mhz 64MB Ram Medion Pentium4 2.0Ghz 1024Mb Ram I wonder what the minimum spec for poser 5 is going to be, how many people are going to be able to use it? Rob

First: Timex - Sinclair with the chiclet keyboard... TI 99-4/A - with Extended Basic, woo-hoo! A 486 SX/33 mhz with 20 MB RAM (which eveyone thought was too much) And now... An AMD K6II 366mhz with 160 MB RAM. I have used: A late 70's era mainframe with 8 1/2" floppies at my bro's school. Apple ][+ at my high school. Macintosh at college (old-skool Mac, with the CPU and monitor in one blocky box) And that's about it. Not counting game consoles, of course (Pong, with a big switch to choose between four games; Atari 2600; Colecovision)

An inspired artist can create a masterpiece with spit and charcoal which will catch viewers by the throat 50,000 years later. However, few people have been allowed to see these works. On the internet we can reach millions of people at one moment in time to share in one experience. However, a few short years later those images are gone and irretrievable. Sigh, Carolly

the day I'm totally 100% happy with a render I've done I'm gonna print & laminate it. Valandar you reminded me I had a Pong machine too, I had 1 of the first to arrive in the UK, My dad worked in the toy trade, great for xmas & birthdays :) Rob

Incidently, Jims rule of thum is never replace your computer until you can by a non-top-of-the-line CPU that is twice as fast as the old, as you can see from this list I've pretty much followed that on my PCs: 10 Mhz 286 20 Mhz 386 33 Mhz 486 66 Mhz 486 133 Mhz 486 200 Mhz Pentium II 500 Mhz Pentium III 1.1 Ghz AMD Thunderbird (never actually used) 1.4 Ghz AMD Thunderbird Next one will probable be a 2.8 Ghz or so Pentium IV. (As soon as it is invented!)

On the other hand, Windows XP works just fine on my "home-brew" Intel Celeron 533 mhz computer. It's maybe 3 years old. Well parts of it are maybe 2 years old.

Next one will probable be a 2.8 Ghz or so Pentium IV. (As soon as it is invented!)

Should be available by Christmas. Perhaps sooner, if AMD continues to pressure Intel.

I use a similar rule-of-thumb, Jim! I progressed from 33 MHz --> 120 MHz --> 200 MHz --> 400 MHz --> 850 MHz. Given current pricing, my next upgrade will probably be 1.7-1.8 GHz.

My rule of thumb, or perhaps superstition: The amount of Ram should match the CPU speed. My comps. seem to be more efficient that way.