Favourite Computer

[stigodump]

Strictly speaking the Megadrive isn't a computer.

Anyway, it has to be the Amstrad CPC. Easy. The 6128 in particular was a wonderfull machine. It may have had too many lazy Speccy ports but it also had a lot of games that took advantage of the extra graphics modes.

[Khallvhan]

Sorry! Your right, guess that's what I get for posting at 5:30 in the morning!

C64 is my favourite computer

[SirClive]

1: Spectrum 128K (The original one) - My second computer, while it had colour clash, the sound was a lot better one the games that supported the 128, and in a lot of cases.. NO MORE MULTILOAD! My favourite because I was only 6 or 7 years old when I had my first machine (so I never really appreciated it!), but by the time I got this a lot more of my friends had computers as well.

2: Atari 520STFM, 2nd favourite just because I had owned a Spectrum for far longer, 6 years as opposed to only 3 with my ST (before it died), Great machine though, some great games, and was the machine that I really cut my teeth on in terms of 'Serious' Applications like GFA Draft

3: Commodore C16, ahhhh, my first computer.... Probbably appreciated far more now I've bought another one (Well a Plus4 actually), can't beat a good game of Rockman or Kikstart...

Man after my own heart!!!!
3 of my all time faves (bet we are the same age!)

C16 was great for a newbie and was better looking than the 64. Wish I still had one so I could have a quick bash at BMX Bandits. Had a superb space invadery type game with colourfull graphics but can't remember the name.

Atari ST was my first computer with real power and have a real soft spot for it even though I swapped it for an Amiga which was actually better.

But the king of all computers for me (suprise suprise) is the good old Speccy. In particular the 128k for its lovely sound and less multi load.
Despite being monochrome, games just played batter on the Spec. A lot of the time they even looked better! I would like to shake the real SirClive by the hand and kiss his shiny bald head (not like that you filthy minded gets )

[Slackdog]

Atari 800XL!

I'd ased for a speccy but tightarse parents etc

Grew to love the machine - Ballblazer, rescue on fractulas etc

my beloved A1200 a close second mind

[Sparrowhawk]

Strictly speaking the Megadrive isn't a computer.

<pedant>
Strictly speaking, it is. It has a CPU, it has memory, it has input/output ports, it runs firmware, an OS and apps (well, games).

"Console" should be seen as a subdivision of the "Computer" group, with machines like the C64, Speccy CPC etc as "Home Computers".
</pedant>

Not that it matters really, but I'm trying to fins things to do to avoid having to go back to coding a financial services application!

[TMR]

"Console" should be seen as a subdivision of the "Computer" group, with machines like the C64, Speccy CPC etc as "Home Computers".

In fact, two of those three have also been consoles as well, the CPC Plus hardware was used for the Amstrad GX-4000, the Ultimax (or Max Machine) was a cut down version of the C64 and the C64GS was a complete E revision C64, only lacking the resistors to connect the unused ports and with a different BASIC and Kernel ROM. In all three cases, the cartridges ran "off the shelf" on a stock machine.

On the other hand, the NES wasn't called the Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan for nothing - it could be expanded to add all the missing features.

[Sparrowhawk]

On the other hand, the NES wasn't called the Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan for nothing - it could be expanded to add all the missing features.

Very good point - I'd forgotten about that.

[The Penultimate Ninja]

It has to be the C64 for me for the great music, the really cool artwork on the loading screens and the nostalgia.

My best C64 Memory:
The torture of waiting a few weeks for Shoot em Up Construction Kit to arrive from a mail order company, then the excitement of my brother and I spending all our time making games for the other to complete.

[stigodump]

<pedant>
Strictly speaking, it is. It has a CPU, it has memory, it has input/output ports, it runs firmware, an OS and apps (well, games).

"Console" should be seen as a subdivision of the "Computer" group, with machines like the C64, Speccy CPC etc as "Home Computers".
</pedant>

Not that it matters really, but I'm trying to fins things to do to avoid having to go back to coding a financial services application!

Well strictly speaking my dvd player has most of those and I wouldn't call that a computer.

[stigodump]

In fact my mobile phone has all of those inlcuding apps. That doesn't make it any more of a computer.

[Antiriad2097]

In fact my mobile phone has all of those inlcuding apps. That doesn't make it any more of a computer.

There won't be a market for mobile phone games then?

Modern mobiles are more computer than phone.

[Sparrowhawk]

In fact my mobile phone has all of those inlcuding apps. That doesn't make it any more of a computer.

Yes it does - the OS is probably something like Symbian (descendant of Psion's EPOC OS for its palm computers), WinCE , embedded Linux. It runs apps (try doing that on an old analogue handset!). It has all the characteristics of a computer. It just happens to be a computer that you use for mobile communication. And it does the same thing as a traditional phone. It doesn't make it any less of a computer. Hey, you can probably even get a Speccy emulator on it!

I know what you are saying though, and I'm not trying to cause an argument!

[Randall Flagg]

This whole conversation kinda rests on what you define as a "Computer". I think since the eight bit age things have changed slightly. It was easy to label things as computers,consoles,phones etc then. Not so easy now.

[stigodump]

Yeah as technology progresses so does the lines of distinction get ever more blurred.

Mobiles are moving towards being mini computers. You can already get pocket pc's with built in camera and phone and that is how I see mobile phones in the future. They won't be phones anymore but a pocket pc with camera and phone built in.

Obviously I know what you are saying and you are quite right but just because something uses computer technology that doesn't mean it's a computer.

The best way to categorise something is by establishing its primary function.

[Sparrowhawk]

The best way to categorise something is by establishing its primary function.

I agree with you actually, but I think that "computer" is not a primary *function*.

eg:

My Passat has a computer in it. The Passat is not a computer. I accept this! Ditto my washing machine and my television, DVD player, etc.

However
A desktop PC, a games console and a modern phone all run user-interactive apps, save files, display output etc.

If you can't call a console a computer, then you can't call a PC a computer either. It is, depedning on your usage, a Word Processor, Web Browsing Utility, Tax Calculation Matrix...

Computer is the mechanism. Console is the functionality. It does not mean that we don't label things as console or computer. Much the same way that we don't call ambulances "vans with blue lights", which is precisely what they are.

And now I realise that I am getting rather anal about this and so shall shut up about the topic once and for all!