Posted by bljs | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on January 25, 2022
As a child of the 70’s and 80’s I have been lucky to watch and be involved (in a very small way) with the development of the home computer. My involvement has been purely as an ‘end user’, sadly I had neither the forethought nor the funds to invest in any of the main players (1 share in Microsoft was worth $21 when it floated and now is worth $310!) but my interest in and amazement at the progression is immense. As a teacher in a primary school I am expected to help the children learn about major, era defining historical events from Vikings to Tudors to Victorians to the industrial revolution. The more recent technological revolution will be one of those eras taught in future schools and the growth of home computer will be a major part of that.
Where did it start?
My first computer
Sinclair ZX81 1981 – 1,2,3,Go (Set-up, power-up, ready)
In 1981 my parents managed to rustle together the £70 needed to buy there son a ZX81 computer (that’s about £280 in today’s money). Actually, it would have been more than that as mine came with the 16k upgrade! In a household where money was always tight this was a wonderful gift. This was the machine would fuel my love of computing although I would not own another computer until I went to University some 15 years later.
The ZX81 was, as already shared, a Sinclair machine and as such was programmed using basic. And you did have to programme it. You could buy games on tape and play them into the machine (the noise this created when you failed to plug everything together correctly is indelibly etched into the memory of every home computer owner of that era) which would take up to 6 minutes and was not guaranteed to succeed. Mainly though we (my fellow computer friends) and I would buy a weekly or monthly ZX magazine and eagerly type in the codes within.