Timex Sinclair 1000
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nxxz5uCriH8/UMIXmLjbJ1I/AAAAAAAAAEI/M6pc6cr6OI0/s1600/timex-sinclair-1000.jpg"; imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nxxz5uCriH8/UMIXmLjbJ1I/AAAAAAAAAEI/M6pc6cr6OI0/s400/timex-sinclair-1000.jpg"; width="400" /></a></div>
My first computers were the <a href="http://www.ti994.com/"; target="_blank">Texas Instruments 99/4</a> and <a href="http://www.99er.net/"; target="_blank">/4A</a>. I bought mine as an adult friend was an engineer at TI and my first computer mentor who also offered me the employee discount. Sadly, though the first 16-bit home computers, these were probably the most proprietary, shackled, and closed home computers in the universe. I wrote many an <a href="http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/software/s_carts/ext_basic.html"; target="_blank">Extended Basic</a> program with them, but I longed for a bit more open of a box to play with.<p>
I was an early reader of <a href="http://vintagecomputer.com/history-of-byte-magazine.html"; target="_blank">Byte</a> and <a href="http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1835"; target="_blank">Computer Shopper</a> magazines (back when they were far more interesting in the early 1980s. I always had a hankering for <a href="http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Cpm/"; target="_blank">CP/M</a> computers, but those were sadly far beyond my means as a teenager. When I saw some of the amazing things being done with the <a href="http://qix.me/timex:start"; target="_blank">Timex/Sinclair 1000</a>, always <a href="http://www.infodaily.org/Topics/Computers/My-First-Computer-Sinclair-ZX81.asp"; target="_blank">considered a "toy" computer</a>, I was intrigued.  These were so stunning simple and cheap that even a kid like me could acquire one and, more importantly, it was so simple that expansion was wide open. The <a href="http://www.pictureviewerpro.com/hosting/zx81/fredn.htm"; target="_blank">most amazing things</a> were done with this hardware, things far, far beyond its original design.<p>
<script charset="utf-8" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=ss_mfw&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822/US/quasiindefatx-20/8001/f555095d-7bc5-4027-b5d5-7c0637267d96"; type="text/javascript"> </script> <noscript><a HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=ss_mfw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fquasiindefatx-20%2F8001%2Ff555095d-7bc5-4027-b5d5-7c0637267d96&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A></noscript>I didn't write as many programs for the T/S1000 as I did for the TI home computers, but I had endless fun souping the thing up and making modifications. Years later, I haven't touched my TIs, but I still pull out my Timex occasionally and made another change to it.  I increased its memory to 32k (I know, that seems pathetic these days) and wired up a better keyboard (strangely, old TI keyboards are just about perfect). I will have to post a picture of the rat's nest that the computer has become, which I think is kinda cool and looks the way a home-made computer is supposed to - wires, free-floating chips, discrete components and all.