The first computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81. NOT the US marketed Timex-Sinclair, but a genuine UK ZX-81 imported to the US. Those were the days. 2K RAM... what more do you need? Oh yeah, YOU NEED THE 16K RAM MODULE!
Later I had a Texas Instruments TI-99, and a Mattel Aquarius (remember those?) In computer class at school we used Radio Shack TRS-80s, or "Trash-80s" as we called them. I remember in my class EVERYONE played these dumb pre-"hack" graphic adventure games in class, instead of working on assignments. One day the teacher walked around the room and pressed the reset button on every machine that was running a game. How embarrasing.
When my friend got an Atari 400, oh man that was the greatest piece of equipment I had ever seen in my life. We spent hours and hours typing in programs on that damn membrane keyboard. When we could afford to upgrade to the 800XL then we really owned L337 machines. For a little while they were even better than the best business PC you could buy.
One thing we always shared was a hatred for Commodore. You\'ve got to admit that the custom graphics and sound chips on the Atari were far superior to Commodore\'s. The Atari was ALWAYS better at handling independent sprites. Games were almost always faster on an Atari than the C64 version. It\'s just a fact man.