6 ms·

British PCs of the 1980s

80 points by mariuz 4y ago

natas 4y ago
Note that none of the machines in this article are actually PCs or PC-compatible. They are what europe wrongfully called "micro-computers", but not PC or PC-compatibles.
- chris_j 4y ago
  Why wrongfully? Is there something wrong with the term "micro-computer" that I'm not aware of?
  - rzzzt 4y ago
    I don't see any problem with it either, my understanding was that the following weight classes existed around (and slightly before) that time: Mainframes = room sized montrosities Minicomputers = multi-cupboard units Superminicomputers = just one cupboard or small fridge Microcomputers or personal computers = these guys in the article
  - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
    I don't see an issue either. Micros aren't just C64s and Spectrums. It's everything below a mini. An early IBM PC was a shadow of the class dominating supercomputers they are today.
- dfawcus 4y ago
  The closest to PC's as we know them now (in that they actually ran MS-DOS) would have been Apricot's range of machines. The Apricot PC ('83), Apricot PC Xi ('84), and Apricot XEN ('85). I actually used the XEN at the time, since a relative had one. However these were not IBM compatible, in that they used different support chips, and had different memory maps. The Apricot XEN-i ('86) actually was IBM PC compatible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apricot_Computers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apricot_Computers
  - rwmj 4y ago
    And of course the Amstrad PCs which were hugely popular over here (until the hard disk disaster). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC1512 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC1512 They were only mostly PC compatible with a few rough edges, eg proprietary mouse and keyboard, PSU integrated into the monitor (oh Amstrad!) They were all exceptionally cheap compared to similar american PCs of the time.
- twic 4y ago
  If they aren't PCs, and aren't correctly called microcomputers, what are these?
- soneil 4y ago
  They called themselves PCs at the time. The term existed before IBM-PC became a defacto standard.
  - MBCook 4y ago
    Agreed. One is the Amstrad CPC, which literally stood for Colour Personal Computer. PC is only synonymous with Wintel because everything else died except the Mac, so the terms were essentially interchangeable.
- clankyclanker 4y ago
  If they aren’t PCs, and they aren’t microcomputers, then what should they be called?
  - flohofwoe 4y ago
    In Germany they were usually called what translates to "home computer".
    - clankyclanker 4y ago
      Sure, but that was the “microcomputer” of the time. Room-sized main-frames were the computers, the file-cabinet sized PDP-8 was a mini-computer, and something that could fit on your desk was therefore the next size down, the micro-computer. This was around when the most portable computer was not known as a “laptop” but a “luggable” due to its mini-fridge-like nature.
- amelius 4y ago
  PC = personal computer Since it is so personal, the iPhone should probably be named PC above any other device.
  - blooalien 4y ago
    I'd consider it valid to think of "PC" as being "Personal Computer" when it's a home machine (too unwieldy to wander around outdoors with), and "PC" maybe = "Portable Computer" or "Pocket Computer" when dealing with the average smartphone, tablet, laptop, netbook, e-reader, etc, since they're all computers. Definitely don't mean "Windows" computer though. Where's the letter "P" in "Windows"?
- goosedragons 4y ago
  ? Micro-computer was used in North America too. And before the IBM PC and IBM PC compatible clones took over the market it wasn't uncommon for personal computers to be called PCs either.
- moosedev 4y ago
  "Microcomputers" (or "micros" in the magazines of the era) is a fine term for these machines. It distinguished these affordable home/school/small business machines from professional workstations, minicomputers, and mainframes that were larger and orders of magnitude more expensive. I had an Amstrad CPC at home and used BBC Micros (hey, it's even in the name!) at school. My friends had ZX Spectrums, Acorn Electrons, and the occasional rare MSX or C64. The only not-really-an-exception exception in the article would be the 32-bit Acorn Archimedes; it was generations ahead of the other (8-bit) machines listed, and "microcomputer" is really associated more with the 8-bit machines in my mind, but I think that's because by the time I encountered 16/32-bit machines (Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, 386-based PCs, the Archimedes) in the early 90s, the term "microcomputer" was falling rapidly out of fashion. Those more powerful (and expensive) machines actually launched in the mid-80s and were absolutely still microcomputers in the parlance of the day.
- LeoPanthera 4y ago
  Saying "microcomputer" (we didn't use a hyphen) is wrong is incredibly arrogant. They're computers based on microprocessors. Hence, microcomputer. We often called them "micros" for short. Many Brits still do. I know that "PC" now means "capable of running Windows", but back in the 80s and early 90s it usually meant more literally "personal computer", which was a synonym for "a computer small enough to fit on your desk".
  - blooalien 4y ago
    A "PC" capable of running (Microsoft) Windows is also capable of running a wide variety of other operating systems as well. Despite what some would like to believe, Microsoft compatibility does not define what a personal computer is, even today. The PC is the machine, Windows is just software running on the machine.
- sys_64738 4y ago
  I think you're confusing a Personal Computer with an IBM PC compatible.
tristanb 4y ago
I loved my BBC micro. I borrowed a book from a library that gave me a few hundred line of BASIC software I had to type in. It was great.
- tcskeptic 4y ago
  My school got one (in Malaysia). It was the first computer I ever used. Typing BASIC programs in from magazines and saving them out to cassette tape. Good times. It felt magical.
29athrowaway 4y ago
You need to watch Micro Men (2009 docudrama).
- helsinkiandrew 4y ago
  https://youtu.be/XXBxV6-zamM https://youtu.be/XXBxV6-zamM
  - 29athrowaway 4y ago
    There's also a version with the reactions from some of the people featured there.
    - kencausey 4y ago
      I found these 2: Micro Men - 10th Anniversary - With Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser https://youtu.be/yaonVYOTSsk https://youtu.be/yaonVYOTSsk Micro Men - 10th Anniversary - The Chat After the Film https://youtu.be/l4I2ktcWdJM https://youtu.be/l4I2ktcWdJM
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sys_64738 4y ago
The British PCs were actually rather poor. The Commodore 64 was the second best selling computer in Britain during the 1980s. The Sinclair Spectrum was just cheap which was why it sold more but it was pretty poor.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  Yes, the Spectrum was poor, but it was also genius and a case study on how to deliver a brilliant balance between performance and production cost.
  - outofmyshed 4y ago
    The existence of Elite and Driller running on such limited hardware at all is a product of true genius. Anyone decrying the Speccy doesn’t understand the impact of the price differential on its utility and popularity. No-one I knew had a BBC Micro (although they were in our schools).
- helsinkiandrew 4y ago
  All computers of the 1980s were pretty poor, but that misses the point. The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64. It sold to households and children that couldn’t have afforded or thought about buying anything more expensive and had a profound impact on computer literacy https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spectrum-this-is-where-the-uk-games-industry-came-from/ https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spec... >"You could buy a Spectrum at WH Smith's for £125, take it home -- it would take you two or three weeks to go through the programming manual, if you're that way inclined," Goodwins said. "Then start digging into the machine. You could, within two or three months, be writing little games that were actually pretty good, and in six months you could have something that was as good as the rest of the market. By yourself. While going to school. Kaboom! This is where the UK game industry came from." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Ki... > This industry took off after the release of the ZX Spectrum in 1982: by the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies selling video games on cassette compared to 95 the year before. An estimated 10,000 to 50,000 youth, mostly male, were making games out of their homes at this time based on advertisements for games in popular magazines. The growth of video games in the UK during this period was comparable to the punk subculture, fueled by young people making money from their games.
TMWNN 4y ago
Three of the seven on the list were unsuccessful and quickly disappeared (Dragon 32 almost immediately; Electron and Archimedes less so). No argument on the commercial and historical importance of ZX81, Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Amstrad CPC646, but to have to fill out a list of "key British PCs of the 1980s" with three dogs is kind of sad. Might as well get to 12 with Oric, Camputer Lynx, Grundy NewBrain, Z88, and SAM Coupé, amirite? (Yes, yes, I know about Archimedes having an ARM CPU and such.) And sys_64738 is correct; Spectrum is garbage and ZX81 is even more garbage. One can, as I do, acknowledge the astounding breakthroughs of something like 1K ZX Chess and The Lords of Midnight and 3D Monster Maze while still stating that they are amazing despite (or because) the hardware they run on is so terrible, especially when considering that Commodore 64 was only slightly more expensive.
- maheart 4y ago
  >Spectrum is garbage and ZX81 is even more garbage... especially when considering that Commodore 64 was only slightly more expensive. Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore) was hugely influenced by what Sinclair was doing (really cheap computers). It definitely influenced the VIC20. You can't underestimate how widespread their influence is/was. Source: Commodore: A Company on the Edge. Sort of like the Velvet Underground quip about only 20 people seeing the band live at one point, but every single one of the viewers starting their own band as a result.
petesergeant 4y ago
For American readers, the Amstrad was launched by the guy who hosted The Apprentice TV Show in the UK, who named it after himself (initials AMS). It'd be grossly unfair to call Lord Sugar the British Trump for a number of reasons (he didn't come from money, he's a billionaire, etc), but still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad
- youngtaff 4y ago
  > It'd be grossly unfair to call Lord Sugar the British Trump Indeed but… - he made his money from property development rather than business lucky break on Sky boxes aside) - he’s not an entrepreneur in the way the Apprentice portrays - he lectures people on needing to work from the office while he works from Florida - …
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    - has a habit of posting faintly racist things on Twitter
- calderknight 4y ago
  Donald Trump is a billionaire as well, maybe wealthier than Lord Sugar. I don't know that much about either of them, but I'm not convinced that it's "grossly unfair" to draw that comparison.
thom 4y ago
I grew up around a bunch of these machines (and more besides, like the Oric). My dad wrote programming books for many of them, and was even on the front cover of the first Dragon User magazine: https://archive.org/details/dragon-user-magazine-01/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/dragon-user-magazine-01/mode/1up I’ve been feeling bad lately because I started programming at about six or seven and my kids haven’t been hugely interested (my oldest child’s computer teacher laments that most of his class don’t know what files and folders are). Reminiscing about this list of machines reminds me just how naff they all were, however lovable. You had to really work quite hard to drag much fun or utility out of them. Only eating what you can kill teaches quite a lot, I guess.
- richardw 4y ago
  What was wonderful is that you could get value in one or two lines of code. No NPM or JS stack, no jar hell, no servers…you had all you needed on day 1. You also created without all the fluff. It was like programming with wire drawings, where the absence of perfect image and sound and video meant a you were dealing with real basics. Just drawing a circle might mean using cos and sin. Printing graphics might mean binary to switch dots on and off. Those ads bring back so many memories. What a wonderful time.
stranded22 4y ago
Ah, memories... I started programming on my zx Spectrum 128k - borrowed a book from school. I say 'programming', it was mostly typing out what the book said
quattrofan 4y ago
[dead]
notorandit 4y ago
I too started with the Spectrum 48K, but that article is missing the Sinclair QL that, along with the Acorn Archimedes, was ahead of it's times. By far, IMHO.
PaulRobinson 4y ago
I got to learn to code using the school’s BBC Micros (and later, Archimedes), a sibling’s VIC-20 and a CPC6128 at a time when my peers had Atari STs and Amiga 500s (my family were a lot poorer). I loved all of them in different ways. And while the unique hardware architectures were interesting, for me the really exciting part of this era was that computing was something you did/made at least as much as you consumed. Modern consumerist computing habits make me a little sad (but I still love my iPad Pro). Typing in pages of BASIC you didn’t understand is one level. Writing your own code and making something new is another. And pretty much every single owner in the U.K. engaged in that process, there were books, TV series, it was part of the school curriculum until the age of 14 that everyone had to some coding, you name it. The first book I used on BBC BASIC was an Usborne book that they’ve now made available for free download (the first one is my first book): https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books Consider the age group it targeted, and the fact it was about 50 pages long. Where is today’s equivalent? Well, Usborne has some newer titles: https://usborne.com/gb/books/browse-by-category/science-and-technology/computers-and-coding https://usborne.com/gb/books/browse-by-category/science-and-... They look pretty OK, but only one seems to get into the nitty gritty, and I’ve never seen them in the coding section of my local bookshops in London. I wonder if there is even the smallest appetite for these in families any more. It feels like coding as a kid only ever happens if it’s a family trade (a parent codes), or has a teacher who wants their class to explore what’s possible a bit. My niece was told she was too young to learn to code at 12, but I learned BASIC and was diving in deep at the age of 11… The fact Harvard CS50 might be a first experience of building software for a bunch of people starting at University is slightly depressing (despite it being a very polished course).
- dfawcus 4y ago
  "it was part of the school curriculum until the age of 14 that everyone had to some coding" Not when I was at school in the 80s it wasn't. We had some school computers (PETs, RM 380Z), but one had to be proactive to use them. They were not used as part of any syllabus. I recall there was a computing option available, but it was useless, and AFAIK did not include coding. Possibly post 1984 when the school got a bunch of Beebs, it may have been added, but by then I was past the leaving age (15/16 at the time), and in the 6th form. Anyway, the joys of 6502 assembly, Z80 / 8080 assembly, and using CP/M. An even earlier machine which hasn't been mentioned yet was the UK101, I got a second hand one of those in the early 80s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK101 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK101
Marazan 4y ago
The level of cope from C64 owners in this thread is particularly high.
spants 4y ago
That is the new stuff. I had a Nascom2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascom

80 points by mariuz 4y ago

Note that none of the machines in this article are actually PCs or PC-compatible. They are what europe wrongfully called "micro-computers", but not PC or PC-compatibles.

chris_j 4y ago
Why wrongfully? Is there something wrong with the term "micro-computer" that I'm not aware of?
- rzzzt 4y ago
  I don't see any problem with it either, my understanding was that the following weight classes existed around (and slightly before) that time: Mainframes = room sized montrosities Minicomputers = multi-cupboard units Superminicomputers = just one cupboard or small fridge Microcomputers or personal computers = these guys in the article
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  I don't see an issue either. Micros aren't just C64s and Spectrums. It's everything below a mini. An early IBM PC was a shadow of the class dominating supercomputers they are today.
dfawcus 4y ago
The closest to PC's as we know them now (in that they actually ran MS-DOS) would have been Apricot's range of machines. The Apricot PC ('83), Apricot PC Xi ('84), and Apricot XEN ('85). I actually used the XEN at the time, since a relative had one. However these were not IBM compatible, in that they used different support chips, and had different memory maps. The Apricot XEN-i ('86) actually was IBM PC compatible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apricot_Computers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apricot_Computers
- rwmj 4y ago
  And of course the Amstrad PCs which were hugely popular over here (until the hard disk disaster). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC1512 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC1512 They were only mostly PC compatible with a few rough edges, eg proprietary mouse and keyboard, PSU integrated into the monitor (oh Amstrad!) They were all exceptionally cheap compared to similar american PCs of the time.
twic 4y ago
If they aren't PCs, and aren't correctly called microcomputers, what are these?
soneil 4y ago
They called themselves PCs at the time. The term existed before IBM-PC became a defacto standard.
- MBCook 4y ago
  Agreed. One is the Amstrad CPC, which literally stood for Colour Personal Computer. PC is only synonymous with Wintel because everything else died except the Mac, so the terms were essentially interchangeable.
clankyclanker 4y ago
If they aren’t PCs, and they aren’t microcomputers, then what should they be called?
- flohofwoe 4y ago
  In Germany they were usually called what translates to "home computer".
  - clankyclanker 4y ago
    Sure, but that was the “microcomputer” of the time. Room-sized main-frames were the computers, the file-cabinet sized PDP-8 was a mini-computer, and something that could fit on your desk was therefore the next size down, the micro-computer. This was around when the most portable computer was not known as a “laptop” but a “luggable” due to its mini-fridge-like nature.
amelius 4y ago
PC = personal computer Since it is so personal, the iPhone should probably be named PC above any other device.
- blooalien 4y ago
  I'd consider it valid to think of "PC" as being "Personal Computer" when it's a home machine (too unwieldy to wander around outdoors with), and "PC" maybe = "Portable Computer" or "Pocket Computer" when dealing with the average smartphone, tablet, laptop, netbook, e-reader, etc, since they're all computers. Definitely don't mean "Windows" computer though. Where's the letter "P" in "Windows"?
goosedragons 4y ago
? Micro-computer was used in North America too. And before the IBM PC and IBM PC compatible clones took over the market it wasn't uncommon for personal computers to be called PCs either.
moosedev 4y ago
"Microcomputers" (or "micros" in the magazines of the era) is a fine term for these machines. It distinguished these affordable home/school/small business machines from professional workstations, minicomputers, and mainframes that were larger and orders of magnitude more expensive. I had an Amstrad CPC at home and used BBC Micros (hey, it's even in the name!) at school. My friends had ZX Spectrums, Acorn Electrons, and the occasional rare MSX or C64. The only not-really-an-exception exception in the article would be the 32-bit Acorn Archimedes; it was generations ahead of the other (8-bit) machines listed, and "microcomputer" is really associated more with the 8-bit machines in my mind, but I think that's because by the time I encountered 16/32-bit machines (Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, 386-based PCs, the Archimedes) in the early 90s, the term "microcomputer" was falling rapidly out of fashion. Those more powerful (and expensive) machines actually launched in the mid-80s and were absolutely still microcomputers in the parlance of the day.
LeoPanthera 4y ago
Saying "microcomputer" (we didn't use a hyphen) is wrong is incredibly arrogant. They're computers based on microprocessors. Hence, microcomputer. We often called them "micros" for short. Many Brits still do. I know that "PC" now means "capable of running Windows", but back in the 80s and early 90s it usually meant more literally "personal computer", which was a synonym for "a computer small enough to fit on your desk".
- blooalien 4y ago
  A "PC" capable of running (Microsoft) Windows is also capable of running a wide variety of other operating systems as well. Despite what some would like to believe, Microsoft compatibility does not define what a personal computer is, even today. The PC is the machine, Windows is just software running on the machine.
sys_64738 4y ago
I think you're confusing a Personal Computer with an IBM PC compatible.

tristanb 4y ago

I loved my BBC micro. I borrowed a book from a library that gave me a few hundred line of BASIC software I had to type in. It was great.

tcskeptic 4y ago
My school got one (in Malaysia). It was the first computer I ever used. Typing BASIC programs in from magazines and saving them out to cassette tape. Good times. It felt magical.

29athrowaway 4y ago

You need to watch Micro Men (2009 docudrama).

helsinkiandrew 4y ago
https://youtu.be/XXBxV6-zamM https://youtu.be/XXBxV6-zamM
- 29athrowaway 4y ago
  There's also a version with the reactions from some of the people featured there.
  - kencausey 4y ago
    I found these 2: Micro Men - 10th Anniversary - With Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser https://youtu.be/yaonVYOTSsk https://youtu.be/yaonVYOTSsk Micro Men - 10th Anniversary - The Chat After the Film https://youtu.be/l4I2ktcWdJM https://youtu.be/l4I2ktcWdJM
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

sys_64738 4y ago

The British PCs were actually rather poor. The Commodore 64 was the second best selling computer in Britain during the 1980s. The Sinclair Spectrum was just cheap which was why it sold more but it was pretty poor.

actionfromafar 4y ago
Yes, the Spectrum was poor, but it was also genius and a case study on how to deliver a brilliant balance between performance and production cost.
- outofmyshed 4y ago
  The existence of Elite and Driller running on such limited hardware at all is a product of true genius. Anyone decrying the Speccy doesn’t understand the impact of the price differential on its utility and popularity. No-one I knew had a BBC Micro (although they were in our schools).
helsinkiandrew 4y ago
All computers of the 1980s were pretty poor, but that misses the point. The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64. It sold to households and children that couldn’t have afforded or thought about buying anything more expensive and had a profound impact on computer literacy https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spectrum-this-is-where-the-uk-games-industry-came-from/ https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spec... >"You could buy a Spectrum at WH Smith's for £125, take it home -- it would take you two or three weeks to go through the programming manual, if you're that way inclined," Goodwins said. "Then start digging into the machine. You could, within two or three months, be writing little games that were actually pretty good, and in six months you could have something that was as good as the rest of the market. By yourself. While going to school. Kaboom! This is where the UK game industry came from." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Ki... > This industry took off after the release of the ZX Spectrum in 1982: by the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies selling video games on cassette compared to 95 the year before. An estimated 10,000 to 50,000 youth, mostly male, were making games out of their homes at this time based on advertisements for games in popular magazines. The growth of video games in the UK during this period was comparable to the punk subculture, fueled by young people making money from their games.

TMWNN 4y ago

Three of the seven on the list were unsuccessful and quickly disappeared (Dragon 32 almost immediately; Electron and Archimedes less so). No argument on the commercial and historical importance of ZX81, Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Amstrad CPC646, but to have to fill out a list of "key British PCs of the 1980s" with three dogs is kind of sad. Might as well get to 12 with Oric, Camputer Lynx, Grundy NewBrain, Z88, and SAM Coupé, amirite? (Yes, yes, I know about Archimedes having an ARM CPU and such.) And sys_64738 is correct; Spectrum is garbage and ZX81 is even more garbage. One can, as I do, acknowledge the astounding breakthroughs of something like 1K ZX Chess and The Lords of Midnight and 3D Monster Maze while still stating that they are amazing despite (or because) the hardware they run on is so terrible, especially when considering that Commodore 64 was only slightly more expensive.

maheart 4y ago
>Spectrum is garbage and ZX81 is even more garbage... especially when considering that Commodore 64 was only slightly more expensive. Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore) was hugely influenced by what Sinclair was doing (really cheap computers). It definitely influenced the VIC20. You can't underestimate how widespread their influence is/was. Source: Commodore: A Company on the Edge. Sort of like the Velvet Underground quip about only 20 people seeing the band live at one point, but every single one of the viewers starting their own band as a result.

petesergeant 4y ago

For American readers, the Amstrad was launched by the guy who hosted The Apprentice TV Show in the UK, who named it after himself (initials AMS). It'd be grossly unfair to call Lord Sugar the British Trump for a number of reasons (he didn't come from money, he's a billionaire, etc), but still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad

youngtaff 4y ago
> It'd be grossly unfair to call Lord Sugar the British Trump Indeed but… - he made his money from property development rather than business lucky break on Sky boxes aside) - he’s not an entrepreneur in the way the Apprentice portrays - he lectures people on needing to work from the office while he works from Florida - …
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  - has a habit of posting faintly racist things on Twitter
calderknight 4y ago
Donald Trump is a billionaire as well, maybe wealthier than Lord Sugar. I don't know that much about either of them, but I'm not convinced that it's "grossly unfair" to draw that comparison.

thom 4y ago

I grew up around a bunch of these machines (and more besides, like the Oric). My dad wrote programming books for many of them, and was even on the front cover of the first Dragon User magazine: https://archive.org/details/dragon-user-magazine-01/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/dragon-user-magazine-01/mode/1up I’ve been feeling bad lately because I started programming at about six or seven and my kids haven’t been hugely interested (my oldest child’s computer teacher laments that most of his class don’t know what files and folders are). Reminiscing about this list of machines reminds me just how naff they all were, however lovable. You had to really work quite hard to drag much fun or utility out of them. Only eating what you can kill teaches quite a lot, I guess.

richardw 4y ago
What was wonderful is that you could get value in one or two lines of code. No NPM or JS stack, no jar hell, no servers…you had all you needed on day 1. You also created without all the fluff. It was like programming with wire drawings, where the absence of perfect image and sound and video meant a you were dealing with real basics. Just drawing a circle might mean using cos and sin. Printing graphics might mean binary to switch dots on and off. Those ads bring back so many memories. What a wonderful time.

stranded22 4y ago

Ah, memories... I started programming on my zx Spectrum 128k - borrowed a book from school. I say 'programming', it was mostly typing out what the book said

quattrofan 4y ago

[dead]

notorandit 4y ago

I too started with the Spectrum 48K, but that article is missing the Sinclair QL that, along with the Acorn Archimedes, was ahead of it's times. By far, IMHO.

PaulRobinson 4y ago

I got to learn to code using the school’s BBC Micros (and later, Archimedes), a sibling’s VIC-20 and a CPC6128 at a time when my peers had Atari STs and Amiga 500s (my family were a lot poorer). I loved all of them in different ways. And while the unique hardware architectures were interesting, for me the really exciting part of this era was that computing was something you did/made at least as much as you consumed. Modern consumerist computing habits make me a little sad (but I still love my iPad Pro). Typing in pages of BASIC you didn’t understand is one level. Writing your own code and making something new is another. And pretty much every single owner in the U.K. engaged in that process, there were books, TV series, it was part of the school curriculum until the age of 14 that everyone had to some coding, you name it. The first book I used on BBC BASIC was an Usborne book that they’ve now made available for free download (the first one is my first book): https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books Consider the age group it targeted, and the fact it was about 50 pages long. Where is today’s equivalent? Well, Usborne has some newer titles: https://usborne.com/gb/books/browse-by-category/science-and-technology/computers-and-coding https://usborne.com/gb/books/browse-by-category/science-and-... They look pretty OK, but only one seems to get into the nitty gritty, and I’ve never seen them in the coding section of my local bookshops in London. I wonder if there is even the smallest appetite for these in families any more. It feels like coding as a kid only ever happens if it’s a family trade (a parent codes), or has a teacher who wants their class to explore what’s possible a bit. My niece was told she was too young to learn to code at 12, but I learned BASIC and was diving in deep at the age of 11… The fact Harvard CS50 might be a first experience of building software for a bunch of people starting at University is slightly depressing (despite it being a very polished course).

dfawcus 4y ago
"it was part of the school curriculum until the age of 14 that everyone had to some coding" Not when I was at school in the 80s it wasn't. We had some school computers (PETs, RM 380Z), but one had to be proactive to use them. They were not used as part of any syllabus. I recall there was a computing option available, but it was useless, and AFAIK did not include coding. Possibly post 1984 when the school got a bunch of Beebs, it may have been added, but by then I was past the leaving age (15/16 at the time), and in the 6th form. Anyway, the joys of 6502 assembly, Z80 / 8080 assembly, and using CP/M. An even earlier machine which hasn't been mentioned yet was the UK101, I got a second hand one of those in the early 80s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK101 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK101

Marazan 4y ago

The level of cope from C64 owners in this thread is particularly high.

spants 4y ago

That is the new stuff. I had a Nascom2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascom