Like everyone from the UK who was born in the 1980s, my first three years at primary (read 'elementary' for those in North America) school were spent using BBC Bs and becoming an international Grand Master at 'Granny's Garden'. Thereafter, the school switched to Acorn Archimedes computers, which had precisely one game available for it.
That game was, however, Lemmings, so all was forgiven.
Heading into secondary school in 1994, Windows 3.1 was the order of the day (unless you were using the horrendously old Macs in the secondary lab) until about 1997 when Windows 95 came in, and the school had just about upgraded to 98 when I left in 2001. The electronics lab still used BBCs for PCB printing as late as 1999, however.
I actually cut my teeth on a DEC PDP-11 after gaining access to it through my best friend whose father was the local college's football coach. I could write volumes on the havoc that we managed to cause on that system and its administrator. As for computers in school I think it was somewhere around 1979-80 that our school first allowed students access to their Apple II and it wasn't long after that my friends and I acquired a copy of Apple Adventure and "begged" to stay after school to sharpen our basic computer skills. At the time it was as close to the DEC's Colossal Cave Adventure that we could have ever hoped for. Now where did I put that Plover egg?
While we started out with tape-loading Commodore PETs (PET-man FTW!), we eventually had a few of the ICONs as well. They came in around Grade 8 (1988) and were CGA-level colour systems. They were relegated to the library and you had to sign up for time to use them. Our everyday computers were the Commodore 64s (1 per class) that came in in Grade 7.
The teacher brought in some educational material (Lemonade, anyone?), but we spent most of our recesses playing either Rock'n Wrestle or Hardball!.
My first experiences with computers was on a really old Mac when I was in Kindergarten. By third grade, we had Win95 machines. Up until about 2003-2004 my school still used Win95 most of the time.
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.
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
Last edited by AdamAnt316; 02-27-2009 at 02:35 PM.
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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.
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.)
Last edited by Rob2600; 02-27-2009 at 02:46 PM.
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.
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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.
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In 96 and 97 we used some variant of Mac. Umm, what was it called, those earlier models?
Oh and played Zoombinis!!
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by Ed Oscuro; 02-27-2009 at 10:44 PM.
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.
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Man I started out on a PET, computer back in grade school. I sometimes miss that old balck and green screen.
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.