My First Computer and My First Support Request

Because I currently work in the support space, I thought this would be a really good place to start. It's also, chronologically, my first computing related event.

My First Computer and My First Support Request

So it was actually July of 1981. I had just graduated 8th grade. Late August I would start High School. A few months before, my family got our first VCR. This was about a year or two after my family had gotten our first Atari 2600. Anyway, I remember the Atari and VCR details, because my family also purchased a LIFTETIME membership to Brightstar Home Video. Brightstar Home Video, is where my family also purchased the Bally Aracde.

I say family, but truth be told, we did whatever mother said. LOL. Mother enjoyed Atari and Pac-Man, but lets face it. Atari2600 PacMan was nothing remotely like the arcade version PacMan. If you remember your trivia, you could guess that Bally made the arcade version. Which would help you understand why my mother wanted us to have the Bally Arcade, which coincidentally, came with a version of PacMan that very closely resembled the real arcade game, and was nothing like the Atari knock-off.

It also came with a Basic Programming cartridge. The documentation provided with the programming cartridge looked to be 146 pages, if I recall correctly. I read it, every word. I read it again, and again, and again. Somewhere around the third question I asked mother, and the third I don't know, included a suggestion to "ask the people that made it" any questions I had. So I did.

This wide eyed 14 year old, sat down, and personally composed a letter, and sent it off to the manufacturer. It was the only address I was aware of. I even went through the trouble to include SASE - the necessary Self-Addressed-Stamped-Envelope, to compensate for the rampant laziness of the world. They never actually mailed me back.

Here is the letter I composed:

How absolutely precious! A wide eyed 14 year old boy, asking what is ascii to Hex and why would I need that? Even better, what is this light pen, what would i use it for, and where can I buy one? I love it.

Like I said, they never mailed me back. 'Computer Groups' were very new, and just beginning to appear, and I certainly didn't know of any. As it seems, my letter eventually made it to 2 different user groups. It seems as though my questions were mostly answered, by a gentleman named George Moses. Mind you, I composed it in July 1981. It was published in the 'Michigan Astrobugs Newsletter' in March 1984. Then again in the Arcadian June 1985. I had no idea either group ever existed.

Until, around 2005, when i discovered the response. I was 'googling' myself. LOL. That is when I found it, online. I downloaded both (from the reference links at the end of this,) and I can see, based on 'pdf' properties, one was scanned in March 2001, and the other December 2001.

So, to be clear, I ask P4 questions, before 'support' was even a notion, and even before the internet really existed.

It did take more than 2 and a half years, but eventually, my questions were answered.

It also took almost 25 years for me to get the answer.

And I still don't have a light pen.

For those interested to see the responses, (not as good as my letter, if you ask me!) Here are links to both newsletters.

Astrobugs_March_1984

The Arcadian Vol 7 Issue 1