Retro Gaming and Childhood Computing Memories

1980s micro computers

Todays BBC News article about the computer they sponsored, the BBC Micro, takes me back to my childhood. While the machines back then didn’t have the power or cool factor of todays gaming machines, at the time they had a deep and lasting impact on the people, culture and what we take for granted today was born out of those geeks and their machines.

BBC Micro
The BBC did have a big impact in the UK, particularly in schools. It was too expensive for the average household so they released a more scaled down version. The only other time I can remember the BBC being so involved in something was when the internet was just starting to kick off they sponsored an ISP.

Radofin tv sports console systemWhile I didn’t own a BBC Micro, or its smaller, cheaper sibling the Acorn Electron, I am a proud member of the micro computer generation. We started out with one of those TV Sports Systems then graduated to a Commodore Vic 20.

Do you remember those sports consoles? Basically put batteries in, plug into the tv and play variations of Pong. Glorious black and white boxy wonderfulness. Kept me happy anyway.

commodore vic 20c64While other kids were already onto their second computers, usually the Commodore 64, we were just beginning with the Vic 20 as I turned (I think) age 9.

That little 3.5k beast had a profound influence on me. That and Star Wars made me the geek I am. Obviously I was jealous of the C64 kids, in particular my cousin Ian who would bring his over when he visited, but I was glad to own this little box of tricks.

Do any poll of geeks and the Commodore machines will rank highly. In other countries you will hear other names bandied as competitors. The TRS-80, the early Apple machines, but in the UK there was Commodore, Acorn, Sinclair and later, Amstrad.

sinclair zx81The alternative to the Vic for us at the time was the Sinclair ZX81. It was a popular (and cheap!) machine but far more limited than even the Vic 20. Sinclair had a massive share of the UK market with their machines but if it took the Spectrum to build real popularity.

sinclair spectrumStarting with the ZX80 they had several versions of the Spectrum, 48k, + and 128k models, even a 16-bit machine, the QL. That QL was the first mass market computer based on the Motorola 68000, beating both Apple and Atari to the punch, but ultimately failing in the marketplace.

amigaThe logical upgrade path for the Commodore kids was the Amiga, a 16 bit powerhouse. They did in fact have other computers that are lesser know, the 64c and the 128. The Amiga had its biggest rival in the form of the Atari ST.

Acorn didn’t want to sit back and let Commodore and Atari take the whole market. They built their most powerful machine, the Archimedes. It didn’t set sales figures alight outside of the education sector, but the legacy of that ARM RISC work lives on in a multitude of products to this day.

Which computer did you start with? Do you remember home computing fondly? Share your memories in the comments …

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under IT

Comments

15 Responses to “Retro Gaming and Childhood Computing Memories”

  1. Shane on March 20th, 2008 3:17 pm

    This leaves me yearning for my old Amstrad CPC 464 with tape deck and green monochrome screen. I shudder to think how many hours I spent playing Elite on this thing when I was a lad.

    Good times. Good times. Things were simpler then :)

  2. dandellion Kimban on March 20th, 2008 3:25 pm

    My first baby was atari 130XE. Nice toy with specs similar to C64. But much better looking, an a bit of batter basic. Friends had C64 or ZX Spectrum.

    Then Amiga came. I still miss her. Great graphics, stereo sound. I was actually making music on it. And do you remember what 1 MB or RAM was at the time, beginning of 90’s?

  3. James Murphy on March 20th, 2008 3:29 pm

    We (my parents) had a BBC B with the torch Z80 box plonked on top - an impressive toy for its time… yes I played Elite. With the joystick upside down. A lot (not that I was any good!).

    Had previously played with various things, first laid hands to keyboard (and started programming) on the very wonderful RML380Z at school

    My first desktop computer was an MZ80k (which was Sharp’s near clone of a PET) although before that I had a Tandy pocket computer (wonderful toy, complete with a fairly decent basic and 4 whole k of memory) which sadly disappeared at some point. Far and away the best calculator I ever owned…

    We had a binatone games console (pong etc), friends subesquently had the Atari.

    I think I have, at some point, had my hands on everything in that picture except the old old games console… and written code for (or copied code into) most - and a few more besides!

  4. Chris Garrett on March 20th, 2008 3:36 pm

    @shane - The Amstrad was a great machine, my Spectrum 128+2 was basically a marriage of Sinclair and Amstrad

    @dandellion - My first PC had 1mb RAM and the (huge) 40mb hard disk :)

  5. Deke on March 20th, 2008 3:38 pm

    Our first was a Franklin Ace 2000. It was a clone of the Apple IIe. Single floppy with a green screen. Several of my friends had one or an Apple II and we were apple to ‘trade’ software. Many times the copy protection was related to the speed the drive was spinning, so we had to adjust the drive speed by opening it up and tweaking a screw in order to copy the disk. It cost about $2500 US dollars in 1983. I loved it but was always jealous of one friends C64 because of the sprite graphics she could do.

  6. Chris Garrett on March 20th, 2008 3:40 pm

    @James - I used to copy those code listings all the time, sometimes they even worked ;) Commodore (Microsoft) basic was my first entry to programming.

    10 print “chris is cool”;
    20 goto 10

  7. Tony on March 20th, 2008 3:46 pm

    Don’t forget the dot-matrix printer that went with the Commodore 64. Ah, those were the days. 64kb of memory wouldn’t even hold one photo today… How far we’ve come!

  8. Chris Garrett on March 20th, 2008 3:49 pm

    Heh, do you remember the thermal printers? Silver rolls of paper, very popular with the sinclair models

  9. Jack @ The Tech Teapot on March 20th, 2008 3:54 pm

    Amstrad CPC 6128
    Acorn Archimedes 310 (nice like a lickle workstation but without all of the software)
    Atari ST
    Hyundai PC 8088 4.77 Mhz
    Elonex 386SX 16 Mhz

    Well, you get the idea…I hadn’t realised til now that my first three computers all started with A. Should have bought an Apple next I suppose. :)

  10. Chris Garrett on March 20th, 2008 4:10 pm

    You are the only person I know who had an Archimedes at home :) I saw one once in school (weren’t allowed to touch it, but saw it running “virus” game)

  11. Jack @ The Tech Teapot on March 20th, 2008 5:35 pm

    @Chris - I had an Acorn Archimedes (not the one that looked like an Amiga) but a proper workstation look alike and Atari ST & Hyundai PC all on my desk at the same time. I can tell you it was a squeeze. Sold them all to get the Elonex 386 SX. God I loved that PC…knocked the living hell out of it. As soon as I got a PC I didn’t bother with anything else after that.

  12. Chris Garrett on March 20th, 2008 6:40 pm

    Yeah, the PC was it for me from around 1991 right up to about 18 months ago when I got my first (of many I am sure) Mac

  13. Daniel Holter on March 21st, 2008 6:30 am

    Although our family got an early start with a TI-99/4a, my life’s path was permanently altered when my dad brought home an original 128k Mac from the local mall. I’ll never forget the first time I saw MacPaint on display.

    I recognize that Sinclair beast - it’s triggered some long-forgotten memories. Gotta ask around about that one now…

  14. Rob on March 21st, 2008 8:58 pm

    What a great machine the BBC was, how many of us sat for hours and hours waiting for Chuckie Egg or Elite to load carefully tweaking the tone control on a tape deck which seamed to need a different setting every time you turned it on! Happy simple days :)

    ‘The Beeb’ creators are to reunite at the Science Museum in London to discuss the legacy see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7303288.stm

    You can get a free version of Chuckie Egg at http://www.repton3.co.uk/chuckieegg.aspx and Elite at http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/game.htm

  15. Dan Ratliff on March 22nd, 2008 6:44 pm

    My first computer that I bought for myself was an Atari 800 that came with one 16K board of ram, and a cassette tape drive. It was expandable all the way to 48K ram by adding 2 more 16K boards and had an awesome cassette tape drive and a 9″? green screen monitor. My first awesome game was Dodge Racer on cassette tape. If I remember correctly it took about 10 minutes just to load the game from the cassette before you could play. I still have that machine and it is still functional! Can’t find the cassette drive at the moment though. I also still have the ‘highly advanced’ version, the 1040 ST with built-in 3 1/2 inch floppy drive and the huge 60 meg hard drive. I remember having to give the hard drive a good smack in the side to get the drive to wind up on occasion. Ah yes, the good old machines of prehistoric times. lol Of course I also have my N-64, the Super Nintendo, the original Playstation, the Sega CD with the 32X expansion that plugs into the top. I still occasionally play the DOOM cartridge in the 32X. Old gamer geek here, yes indeed.

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