My first computer
My very first computer was a NEC PC-6001A. It was purchased for me when I was three years old (1983), by forward-thinking parents who were learning to use their own Columbia computer for word-processing, etc. They were generally thwarted in their endeavor by my loud insistence that I be allowed to play Space Invaders.
For some reason, I never bothered to research this important part of my childhood. I discovered it recently only by accident at the Obsolete Computer Museum.
From the page:
This is a picture of a NEC PC-6001A I bought at a local flea market (for less than $10) about four years ago. This computer was on the market around 1981-2 or so, but was never distributed widely in the U.S.The computer as shown has 8K of ram, plus built in Microsoft BASIC. I don't think it has dot-addressable graphics, but it does have color TV output and a set of line drawing characters (plus a small selection of other special characters, accessed by pressing the "ALT CHAR" key on the keyboard). It also has a three-voice sound generator (similar to TI-99/4A, MSX, etc.) and a built-in speaker, accessible from BASIC.
...
This computer was marketed as the "NEC Trek" computer. In spring 1994 [1984, actually] in the Los Angeles area, it was sold by The Federated Group, as a bundle deal: Computer, joysticks, thermal printer, cassette recorder, monitor, disk drive, "expander," and some other goodies for $350. Federated also sold some cartridge games and other stuff.
I definitely recall playing "Canyon Climber" on this computer. It came on a solid cartridge like the one pictured (I remember the cartridges being much bigger... probably because I was so much smaller).