What classic computers did you use in school?

[Steve W]

When I took a computer course, my school had TRS-80 Model III machines everywhere, which was around 1983 or '84. By that time I had already gotten my first home computer, a TI-99/4A, so I knew a bit about programming in BASIC. I brought in type-ins from one of my computer magazines that occasionally had TRS-80 programs in it, and also wrote a few other odds and ends on it. I still have a floppy laying around here with all my Trash-80 stuff on it. It saddens me to think that there's not much chance of it working anymore.

[AdamAnt316]

I first encountered a computer in school in 1992, when I was in the fourth grade. The computer lab at the school had a bunch of Apple //es, along with an Apple //gs (which the teacher usually used) and, for a brief time, an Apple //c. The programs we used included Bank Street Writer 3, Number Munchers, and Lemonade Stand. We had a hand-me-down Apple //e at home at the time, so I was able to follow along in some ways. I remember the whole class being amazed when the teachers used a terminal program to 'chat' with a school across town.

In middle school, every computer lab had a whole bunch of Macintosh LC IIs. One or two of them in the library were hooked up to the then-new Internet, and a couple more had CD-ROM changers connected which were loaded with encyclopedia CDs, but most of them just used good ol' floppy disks, and were networked together via AppleTalk cables in order to be able to print to the library Laserwriter. Had all sorts of fun with ClarisWorks, Oregon Trail, and KidPix, among many other things.

By the time I got to high school, most of the computer labs used 486DX2-66 PCs, though the Mac lab had Mac Classics and Classic IIs. Eventually, most of those were replaced with modern computers. Interestingly, during my junior and senior years, the school librarian set up a crude TV studio in the library, for which he used an Amiga 1200 for on-screen graphics.
-Adam

[ButtonMasher123]

I don't know the exact one besides the fact that it was an apple, but I do know that Oregon Trail and Number Munchers were the shit back in the day especially Oregon Trail when you had to shoot down the deer for food.

[Rob2600]

The first time a teacher took my classmates and me to the computer room was in second grade in 1985. We had a room full of Apple IIe computers, which were only two years old at the time, and a cabinet with tons of different 5.25" floppy disk games, though 99% of the disks never worked. We'd play a mad scientist/monster creation game, Oregon Trail, some other math-related maze game with a timer, and drew pictures in Logo.

We used Apple IIe computers throughout the rest of elementary school and middle school. By the end of eighth grade, those two-year-old computers were now nine years old. We were still drawing pictures in Logo.

Then, I took a computer programming class in 11th grade in 1994, and was shocked to find my high school's computer room filled with...you guessed it...Apple IIe computers! Not 486s, not 386s, not even 286s or old Macs. No, my high school was still using those same computers from 1983, eleven years later.

I also took an AutoCAD class that year and we used 8088 IBM XT computers from, again, 1983. Imagine trying to render wireframe graphics in 1994-95 on an eleven-year-old budget home computer. (It'd be like trying to use Photoshop CS4 on an old Pentium II computer with 64 MB of RAM.)

[mnbren05]

Apple II's for K-6, then we upgraded to crappy old macs running software that was 3-4 years old, then finally in 9th grade we got in on a state program to get new Dell's for our school system. We even got a letter of thanks from Dell and posters of the "Dude you're getting a Dell" guy for all the students.

[Sonicwolf]

In Grade 1 we had a Commodore 64.. No... I wasnt in school in the 80s. it was 1997! It was a sad thing to use by then. Then we used Macintosh Classics until 1999 in which we got a bunch of eMacs which acted like crap.

[Haoie]

In 96 and 97 we used some variant of Mac. Umm, what was it called, those earlier models?

Oh and played Zoombinis!!

[Pantechnicon]

TRS-80 Model III's in junior high (1982-1984), then in high school (1984-1988) we had Apple IIe's. In both cases use of these was very limited, meaning junior high had only two machines and high school had something like six or eight, and this was in a high school of 3000 kids.

I think there might have been a Mac Model I on the high school campus somewhere in one of the art classes, but I never got to use it.

[Sonicwolf]

In 96 and 97 we used some variant of Mac. Umm, what was it called, those earlier models?

Oh and played Zoombinis!!

Are you talking about those small all in one Mac's with the 5-7inch screen? Most likely a Macintosh Classic if so.

[kedawa]

My elementary school had a computer room full of C64s, which I used to play such educational games as Ninja Mission, Space Taxi, and Frogger.

In high school we had Unisys Icon computers, which were pretty crappy overall, but had a few fun programs, like a speesh synth and a line animation app.

My high school had some Amiga for the AV dept. and the art room.
I got so much awesome Amiga software from school. In exchange for me teaching him how to use Deluxe Paint, the art teacher gave me all of the games and joysticks that they had, which came with the used A1000 that they bought from a student.
The funniest game that I got from him was Hollywood Poker Pro.

[CosmicMonkey]

BBC Micros and Archimedes. Oh, and a Macintosh Classic II in one of the English rooms for some random reason. Then they upgraded to a proper PC network whilst we were on Summer holiday one year.

[Ed Oscuro]

My experience seems similar to Boatofcar's.

The library in Battle Creek had some Apple //s and MECC's Oregon Trail. YOU'VE DIED OF DYSENTERY! Never could figure out why you'd not want to start off as a banker. Even back then my favorite part was the hunting minigame. Later on they upgraded to Macs or possibly PCs with a photo-realistic (lol) version of the game (only saw it once or twice - apparently this was '96 or later, when Oregon Trail II came out). Terrible. Isn't there Deer Hunter for a reason? That's not Oregon Trail.

A few years later I was in a private Christian school (an experience I just wrote a short story about) and they had at least two runs of PCs. I recall at one time there being some ancient amber and green screened DOS machines, I believe; some of these DOS machines could run a Tron game (I think that was in color, however).

Later on (I think) there were some machines able to play one of the Super Solvers games - I believe. Think "Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue!" I remember a platformer; in one Aztec-themed area you'd jump through holes in the floor and generally end coming in again through the ceiling. I'm also pretty sure I saw a copy of Castle of Dr. Brain (which I never recalled being played) in a closet in this same room; and there was yet another computer along a different wall (teacher's desk side, facing out towards the windows) which could play one of the Carmen Sandiego games.

Since then I've found Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue! and Castle of Dr. Brain at local thrifts - who knows, might be the same copies.

Come to think of it, it might not be such a bad idea to hunt down some more of these games (at the very least, I should try out the ones I've found to see if they match up with what I remember).

Other stuff: I took a computer class at the local CC, Kellogg Community College, around '94 or so and got my first floppy disk, a blue one. I used that thing for years. Sadly, it died, along with my old files. I fooled around with Claris Works on some Macs at the old Kellogg HQ building (at the time being used by the taste testing group) and saved files to it. Back to KCC for a second - they had Mario Teaches Typing, which I thought was amazing.

BBC Micros and Archimedes. Oh, and a Macintosh Classic II in one of the English rooms for some random reason. Then they upgraded to a proper PC network whilst we were on Summer holiday one year.

Nice. I actually got a Mac Classic II as a gift from one of my HS teachers; thing has 16 MB of RAM apparently - more than it's supposed to (I know I've mentioned this before).

Checked out Ninja Mission, thing looks rather similar to Karateka.

[Push Upstairs]

You should add the years, I always hope that other districts besides mine were so behind in technology that they were using Atari 800s well into the 90s

I went to a few different schools during my early years so computer use and models varied some, but most still used the Mack Truck of computers...the Apple //e.

My earliest computer use was a //e which was circa 1985-1989. Of course at the time my parents had a //c at home (but that is for another discussion).

I used //e's (at a different school) from 1990 to around late '91 or early '92. Then I was attending a funded middle school that had Macs (which I only got to use for one quarter...some weird rotating class thing).

The movie to where I'm at now dropped me into a far less funded school that had a lab full of, wait for it, //e's with a whopping *two* Macs (which I never recall ever getting to use.

Pretty much in school (and at home) I was using Apple // computers up until 1994.

[Auzlander]

Man I started out on a PET, computer back in grade school. I sometimes miss that old balck and green screen.

[CelticJobber]

We used Apple IIEe's at elementary school from Kindergarten (1988-89) to the fifth grade (1993-94), then they upgraded to some form of Mac's (can't remember the specific model) which we used until 6th grade and they also had Mac's at my junior high (1994-98).

At my highschool they upgraded to iMacs which had just came out not long after my sophmore year began (1998) and we had those until I graduated in 2001.

[tom]

no computers in my school, we weren't even allowed calculators (that was German school during the 70s you know).
Later at work we used this, well until the mid-80s:

[boatofcar]

Um...what is that?

[Berserker]

Um...what is that?

It looks like about 5 different types of printer (regular, postcard, store receipt, ticker-tape etc.) crammed into one box. So... when did you guys get screens anyway?

As for me, the great majority of elementary and middle school was spent on old Macs that usually only had one thing that was at all interesting going for them - DinoPark Tycoon, which wasn't really that interesting as I was already well into games like Doom and Simcity 2000 and Quest for Glory 4 on my PC at home by then.

I'm sure there were Mac versions of some of those around, Sim City 2000 at least, but no one ever put those on our school computers. High school was a different story, as by then they'd switched to PCs and so you could start sneaking your own games on there in the computer lab.

[tom]

Um...what is that?

Punch card writer/reader, way before anyone's time here.

[bangtango]

Nothing but Apple's (Apple II, etc.) and Mac's all the way through high school. Didn't bother me. The software was great.

[Volcanon]

K-5 Apple ][e in the lab. The usual number munchers and other fun.
Library had random "Performa" Macs, which meant "lower than low end" for the most part - still better than Apple ][e.

6-7 We got hand-me-downs from the high school, so half Mac LC IIIs, and half some of those all-in-one Powermac 5xxxs.

8-9 Various powermacs.

10-12 iMacs, and one XP lab. The XP lab was a joke. The network was badly maintained, people downloaded viruses and porn dialers, and people played random stupid games on it, making most of the computers unusably bad. The mac lab was decent and we got to make movies on iMovie for OS9.

University -> random PC boxes. They weren't bad, but nothing spectacular. At least the University of British Columbia knows how to program a PC network and lock people out of downloading viruses that screw up the computer long after you've logged out. They are getting a bit old tho, I dont think they are bothering to apply patches.

University in Japan -> basically the same as UBC, but with japanese windows.

[NoahsMyBro]

Grade 6 - 1980 - We had a small computer lab with a handful of Digital terminals, connected to some mainframe somewhere, but I don't know where or how. I think there was a TRS-80 in the room as well, but I didn't use it. I used the terminals for some French program (i.e., to learn french). Also, I played an artillery-launch game on the Digital. Took a couorse in Basic one summer.

Skip ahead to high school - 82-86 - The lab had a PET (Ugghh with a capital Ughh!). Also a bunch of TRS-80s and Apple ][s. Took some course in Basic again, but was happy for more computer time. For my final project one semester I wrote some 'program' on the Apple ][ that painted a picture on the screen of a sports car I drew out. Was pretty simple - I drew the picture on graph paper, and then wrote the program to draw the same lines, in the appropriate colors, on the screen. Aside from that my program didn't DO anything. The night Reagan bombed Lebanon I was at a friend's house typing up a term paper on his Coleco ADAM. I didn't know anything about the ADAM, and anytime I needed to do something other than type in my paper I needed him to walk over and help.

College - I didn't use computers. Had myself an awesome Panasonic electric typewriter from Macy's, with a 4k internal memory and a 1-line, 15-character or so, display.

After college, after puttering around aimlessly for a few years, I got myself a 486-40 and a Compuserve account, soon followed by a Netcom account, and my life was forever changed.

[Aussie2B]

What amazes me is that so many of you had so much access to computers, even programming classes, yet started school a decade or more earlier than I did. My schools really didn't have squat. I started kindergarten in '87, and for my first few years of school, I probably never even saw a computer (besides maybe in an office or something). Once I hit maybe 3rd or 4th grade, each classroom had one or two computers, and they were used for virtually nothing but Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, and the Munchers series. I know I used Mac II's in school, but I don't know if I was using them that early. I have no idea how you guys can remember what you used so well. o_O Then in junior high we had a few rooms full of computers, but I didn't get to use them unless a class as a whole was using said room. I'm pretty sure I started using some kind of IBM PC at that point. Junior high also brought me my first exposure to the internet. One room was solely for the typing class, which everyone had to take. My earliest experiences with typing was on a typewriter, but I stunk at both. I think I was struggling to get 25 words per minute. In my 7th grade science/math room (had the same teacher for both), we had some really ancient monochrome, mouse-less computers, probably older than anything I used in elementary school. Played a lot of Frogger and other games on those. In high school we had roughly the same access to computers, but since we were expected to type all of our papers at that point, I finally got my own.

[Astrosmash]

My grade school computer lab was all Atari 800s and Apple IIs and IIe's. Oddly enough, they only had very boring, basic reading and math programs on the Ataris, while the Apples had all the fun stuff like Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego (okay, so they also had the painful Stickybear Teaches Typing on the Apples, but otherwise...)

I remember when they got their first Mac (which was actually a few years old already; even though they got it around '89 it was one of the earlier models). Kids got into fights over who got to play a game called Nigel's World on it. As I recall, you played as a cartoon Scottish photographer who traveled the world taking pictures, which displayed as real photos on the screen after you took them. I also seem to remember transition screens with Nigel traveling in various plaid-painted vehicles as clips of bagpipe music played.

[Tron 2.0]

Most that i can remember the,Apple IIE then towards the end in high school Macs.