Computers…from back in my day

I can remember my family’s first computer like it was yesterday, the Macintosh LC-III. Boy this thing was state of the art, with an external CD-ROM port, a slotted 3 1/2 inch disk drive on the CPU, and an HP Deskwriter C printer! My parents purchased this item for the family in the early 90’s and it was top of the line, with 256 graphic pixel capabilities, 25Mhz processor, I mean we could watch screen savers, listen to sound effects and create our own works of art through the drawing program installed with the included software. We mostly gathered up a collection of computer CD-ROM games, (which were CD discs that had to be loaded into the cache before they were inserted into the external CD-ROM) and watched in awe at the graphic quality and amazing sounds. Going back to my earliest encounter with computers was when  I was merely seven years old, the Apple IIe. I remember being issued my first 5 1/4 inch floppy disk to write my name on, back in second grade! This was mine, and I would be saving word processor notes and game activity from my ‘station.’ This was too cool! I clearly remember using arrow keys and the function keys to navigate the black and green monochrome resolution. My favorite game to this day would have to be Oregon Trail; I enjoyed hunting more than reading the story line. I am just now realizing as I write this that my small school of only 350 students, in a town of only 850 people at the time, had the latest and greatest computers to date from 1983 on the Macintosh line! This means I was born the same year 1983, and almost exactly one month prior to the full Macintosh desktop release date! (Start this video to view the boot up of the Apple IIe and re-live the nostalgia) Before any computer games or computers were even relevant to me, I was using my older brothers 3-D Viewer to look at film slides on rotary configurations. I was raised through my elementary years of grade school utilizing overhead and slide projectors, listening to audio separate from video using vintage metal and rubber headphones. My first Sony Walkman was the FX 21, I could carry the radio wherever I went and listen to audio cassettes. I am excited to continue sharing what I have experienced and compare it to what I know today. Computer technology will only continue to get better and smaller, and the need for portability will only push the market further into the mobile phone market. It has been 29 years since the release of Macintosh, and now we are up to handheld mobile computers capable of virtually anything via apps and internet connectivity.