| When I was a lad the home computer was just | | | | overheat and cause a fairly nasty burning smell! |
| coming on to the market. Yes - I am one of the | | | | Due to the large demand for the Spectrum and |
| sad people that remember the Sinclair ZX80 and | | | | other similar home computers a fairly decent |
| Sinclair ZX81. The latter I even tried to write a | | | | number of software houses sprang up to satisfy |
| program for but due to the minute amount of | | | | the demand for all of the school kids who wanted |
| memory (0.5KB) you were limited to about 15 | | | | to see what their new computer would do. One |
| lines of basic before the 'memory full' error | | | | that stands out for me is Ultimate Play The |
| message came on to the screen. Not that any | | | | Games who produced classic games like 'Jetpac', |
| game on this computer would be that visually | | | | 'Manic Miner', 'Transam' and 'Jet Set Willy'. Many a |
| exciting due to the only colours employed were | | | | night I spent trying long hours to defeat the 20 |
| black and white. | | | | levels of ' Manic Miner'. Spurred on by the rumour |
| But this was just the beginning and it wasn't long | | | | going round school that completion of the 20th |
| before a flood of other home computers came | | | | and final level would be rewarded with a code |
| on to the market. I pleaded and pleaded with my | | | | that could be redeemed for a cash prize I was |
| parents until they finally relented and used their | | | | not going to give up until I completed the course. |
| 'Access' credit card to buy me a 16K Sinclair ZX | | | | In the end I resorted to cheating and used the |
| Spectrum for £99 (they couldn't afford | | | | 'infinite lives' code which from memory was |
| £129 for the 48K version). | | | | something like 6031769. I could be mistaken as |
| Imagine my excitement unwrapping this | | | | we are talking about something that happened |
| marvellous piece of technology on my 13th | | | | over 20 years ago but I have a funny feeling that |
| birthday. Up until then I had been writing programs | | | | it is the correct code. Sad eh? |
| in BASIC programming language on the | | | | The limitations of memory on home computers in |
| HONEYWELL computer at school (kindly donated | | | | the early 80's meant that games had to be fairly |
| by a local firm who had no further use for it). The | | | | simple in terms of graphics because the |
| school's computer had probably less computing | | | | programmers probably only had 48 - 64k of |
| power than a modern mobile phone but took up | | | | memory at most to play with. This resulted in |
| the space the size of 2 classrooms. The | | | | games that although visually simple and lacking in |
| mainframe took about 10 minutes to boot up and | | | | deph of colours had fantastically addictive |
| this involved a procedure where punched cards | | | | gameplay. Even my dad would beg me for a turn |
| were fed through a card reader to get the thing | | | | on the computer to play 'Space Raiders' - the |
| started up. Once started it would take a further | | | | Spectrum version of Space Invaders. The whole |
| 10 minuted to respond to each instruction. Luckily | | | | family took it in turns to play the computer and |
| the fantastic ZX Spectrum kicked the poo out of | | | | try out all the new games. There was a fairly |
| it. | | | | vibrant market in copied games at the time as all |
| Oh yes - the ZX Spectrum with its choice of | | | | games were on a cassette tape and could be |
| approximately 8 colours, its keyboard that was | | | | easily copied from one tape to another. My final |
| likened to the feel of 'dead flesh' and its wonderful | | | | collection included almost 1000 games and I could |
| sound technology that could be no better | | | | honestly say that I played and knew how to play |
| described than as a series of beeps was the | | | | every single one of them. |
| most fantastic invention since the VCR. Of | | | | Now I am approaching the grand old age of 40 I |
| course, a lot of kids at school were jumping on | | | | have my own children. I have a 7 year old and a |
| the Spectrum bandwagon but equally as many | | | | 5 year old and they are both massive fans of the |
| were plumping for its main rival the Commodore | | | | Playstation 2 and games on the PC. Occasionally |
| 64. Many a lunchtime was spent arguing the pros | | | | they ask me to help when they are stuck on a |
| and cons of each computer over a corned beef | | | | particular part of a game. They might as well ask |
| sandwich and a bag of crisps. | | | | me to decipher a coded Russian message |
| The Spectrum was easy to write programs for | | | | because I am absolutely lost when the number of |
| and came with a handy guide to BASIC | | | | keys and gamepad combinations outweighs the |
| programming and a 12 month guarantee.This | | | | number of fingers on both hands. You see, in my |
| came in handy when I dropped mine accidentally | | | | day it was nearly always 'Z' for left, 'X' for right |
| on purpose after 11 1/2 months and Sir Clive was | | | | and 'SPACE BAR' to fire. Now I think that you |
| gracious enough to send me a replacement. I | | | | probably need a university degree to play most |
| even used my Spectrum to write programs for | | | | modern games. |
| my Computer Studies 'O' level. As I remember | | | | Yes - give me the good old Asteroids, Frogger |
| these programs included a simple 'hangman' game | | | | and Bomber anyday. You can keep your new |
| with a succession of wrong answers resulting in a | | | | fangled all singing all dancing latest games. I'm |
| liittle stick man being hanged on screen and a | | | | happy with the 2 dimensional 2 coloured sprite |
| small french vocabulary test based on about 3 | | | | that simply responds to the direction of the |
| verbs. Printouts were done on the Spectrum | | | | cursor key I am pressing and thanks to the |
| dedicated thermal printer which used silver | | | | internet there are many sites where I can wallow |
| thermal printer paper that looked like the silver | | | | in my nostalgia and play these games for free. |
| cigarette wrapping found inside cigarette boxes | | | | Only thing missing is the screeching noise from |
| and reacted to heat to turn black. If you had a | | | | the tape player and the 15 minute wait to load |
| large document to print the printer would start to | | | | the game. |