-> I remember when my dad purchased our first PC back in '92.  It was a Gateway 
-> 2000, 486 Mhz, 4mb RAM, 3.5 floppy drive, 5.25 floppy drive, and Windows 
-> 3.1.  I think he used Prodigy internet service to dial out to internet back 
-> then.  I was only familiar with my Atari 8-bit system from '85 and up. 
-> Then, I started using the Gateway 2000 computer to learn more.  He upgraded 
-> to a Compaq PC in '99 and gave me the Gateway PC.  I upgraded the 5.25 
-> floppy drive to a CD drive, the RAM to 16mb, installed 56k modem, and 
-> installed Windows 95.  It worked well with AOL internet services for a 
-> while.
-> -- Adam Glazener  

   I'm guessing your fairly young... early 20's?  My first PC was a
Commodore 64 (not the 64c, the 64!) Around the time I got into Junior
High, my dad bought an AT&T 6300 PC from a guy who worked for Mc
Donalds.  A lot of folks had issues with the AT&T 6300, though the more
you learned about it, the more you loved it!  Unlike the 8088 based
systems, it had a 16-bit bus.  It had this ackward built-in CGA graphics
card that you had to go through an act of congress to disable it!  Using
the built in CGA you got standard CGA modes plus a 640x400x2 color mode
I believe.  This actually also I am wanting to say allowed you to
technically get a 320x200x4 mode using Tandy drivers, but not the
16-color modes.  I think it had a few similaries with the Plantronics.
I did later put a VGA adapter card in the AT&T, but because it went to
the 8-bit adapter card, it wasn't that impressive!  (The on-board cga
was on a daughter board via 16-bit bus....) I also later put a
Herculees card in the AT&T, which opened the doors to some neat stuff!
I ocasionally used it for dual monitor support, but being a programmer,
I generally loaded a driver that used the MDA area for EMS memory, or
just wrote my own programs that'd store the data to the screen memory
myself... This actually had even better benefiets to using regular
memory, because while your program was running, you could flip on the
monitor and watch the characters on the screen change and know that the
memory was getting changed!  (can't do that with normal ram!) ;-)
Later, I got a job at Circle K.  After 3-4 months of saving my money up,
a friend sold his 80286 PC-AT compatible with EGA card.  I felt like I
was being selfish and blowing all my money in on toys when I bought the
80286... But later my mom told me all my cousins was amazed that I had
saved as much as I had at the time to be able to just pay cash for the
computer and still have a fair amount in my checking account!  Later,
working for myself, I managed to acquire an 80386sx, moved up to an
80386dx-40 (if you know your history of computers, you'll know only one
company made an 80386dx-40, and it wasn't intel!) 




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