the first time i saw a graphical user interface on a Macintosh SE

Thu Aug 09, 2018

the first computer i saw was in a school library, the school librarian introduced us to the personal computer for the very first time, it's the first time for a lot of us, including me

it was the apple IIc.

for the most part, it only worked when we inserted a floppy disk, which we were told what it was. it required the disk to be turned over.

later on at toy stores i saw the commdore 64, and really old atari 500 models. at the local radio shack they had a tandy 1000 and tandy color computer.

in junior high we were taught how to use the trs-80.

i visited relatives same age as me and they had a ibm clone xt with 640 k but cga graphics. i think it was 4.77 mhz 8088 they told me they spent more than $3000 but it included 640k upgrade, color cga monitor and printer. i don't recall if it had a hard drive or not.

they told me it was faster and more powerful than the 1mhz apple 2c and apple 2c

my parents went to a party and i was there, it had families with kids.

the party was at a fairly large home with kids and they showed me and i think this was around 1987

the macintosh SE



they told me they spent $4000

visiting wikipedia

Macintosh SE - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE

The Macintosh SE is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from March 1987 to October 1990. It marked a significant ...
Introductory price‎: ‎US$2900 (dual floppy); US$...
Weight‎: ‎17 pounds (7.7 kg)
Memory‎: ‎1-4 MB RAM; (4x 150ns 30-pin ‎SIMM‎)
CPU‎: ‎Motorola 68000 @ 7.8 MHz

with an starting price of $2900 the $4000 sounds possible, if they had a hard drive and other expansion options.

again my neighbor who was a doctor told me they spent $5000 for an apple III so

i got the impression computers were very expensive.

he would NOT allow me to touch it. no touching. but unlike the Apple III it wasn't NOT under a dust cover

he did briefly, for like 5 minutes turn it on, then moved a mouse and i saw the mouse cursor.

that moment was the very first time in my life i saw a graphical user interface, on a macintosh.

i saw folders and a trash can and pull down menus. however, he didn't do anything with it.

so at the time i was impressed with what i saw, for like 5 minutes, but as he didn't load any apps, nor games, i wasn't sure what to make of it.

later that year i convinced my parents to buy a tandy 1000sx starting price was $799, upgrade memory to 640 k was $100 and cm-11 high resolution for $459 and accessories like power cord $60 we bought the dmp-130 printer which i think then and now was a piece of junk and $50 for printer cable

it came only with dos 3.2 and deskmate

it only used command line dos

at the time i thought the more money you spend, the more you get, so the macintosh se from apple must be much better. they spent $4000 I spent $799 + $600+ in upgrades

as i type this on Thu Aug 09, 201

this is what the tandy 1000

the only reason my family bought a tandy 1000 was that there was a radio shack nearby and a computerland store, which wanted $4000 for an ibm ps/2 model 50

he 1000 and its many successors were successful unlike the PCjr, partly because it was sold in ubiquitous Radio Shack stores and partly because the computer was less costly, easier to expand, and almost entirely compatible with the IBM PC. The PCjr's enhanced graphics and sound standards became known as "Tandy-compatible". With its graphics, sound, and built-in joystick ports, the 1000 was the best computer for PC games until VGA graphics became popular in the 1990s.[8] Software companies of the era advertised their support for the Tandy platform;[14] 28 of 66 games that Computer Gaming World tested in 1989 supported Tandy graphics.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Design_and_architecture

my tandy 1000sx was never under a dust cover.

the most basic truth about the tandy 1000 is it was dos compatible pc, but it was the best dos gaming pc until VGA came along in the 1990s.

tandy 1000 had 3-voice sound and 16 color graphics that was used to create good games in its time that played ok.

so even though the rich family spent $4000 on an apple mac se, as far as gaming is concerned, it was almost useless.

there were very few games for it. and it was slow and black and white, not color.

i got more use out of my tandy 1000 in terms of games than he did. as well as the apple 2e and 2c owners.

i knew of other rich children of doctor families who owned a apple 2gs and that was better as was amiga.

but for what i paid i'm happy, though about 6 months after i bought it tandy introduced the 1000tx with 286 processor.  

that 5 minutes of macintosh see graphical user with mouse keyboard icons in the mid 80s when my school was having us learn using the trs-80 model 3 and apple 2e was the only introduction i had of a GUI until college.

when it came to pc as a kid i had a one track mind games. i did type school reports, book reports. so i learned word processor.

and it terms of games the tandy 1000 was the best dos game pc of the 80s and better than the $4000 macintosh and ibm ps/2 series. i got a lot of games for free just by trading for them in school. not sure if you could have done that had i had a amiga or apple 2gs

it was only when i went to college i would finally be introduced to the GUI on pc, windows 3.0