They were huge in Australia also - I recall visiting a 'computer show' in 1981 in what was then a population of 32k people city, and next year I convinced my Da

They were huge in Australia also - I recall visiting a 'computer show' in 1981 in what was then a population of 32k people city, and next year I convinced my Dad we ... ahem ... I needed a TRS-80 Color Computer. Putting aside the huge interest in Commodore computers, at that stage Tandy Electronics (the Australia version of Radio Shack) had a strong presence in the market. You could go along to 'computer courses' at my local Tandy store, and they had lots of stock of the various TRS-80 business and home models; the staff working there had good knowledge of the machines, and would even do RAM upgrades etc. There was even local development of various clones (eg the Dick Smith System 80, which was a TRS-80 Model 1 clone). This country town I lived in had newsagents that imported all the 'known' magazines (Byte) as well as specialist Color Computer publications. It become a monthly ritual for my Dad to drive 10-year old me around to collect all my 'necessary' magazines. Looking back, I was quite lucky in terms of timing as getting my hands on a PC I could program in BASIC and assembly, and also having access to worldwide print resources, meant I already had a wider outlook than the employment opportunities that were available locally (which really came down to working in the local steel production facility). It was quite a good time to be alive, and discovering computers and computing, when I think about it now.