ZX81 - All that there was
Music was on vinyl .. So you had to go to
a record store and find the album and buy it
Like Stevie Winwood ...
And Al Stewart and the Year of the Cat.
And Carly Simon not being at all vain.
And then there was the new kid on the
block with the funny hair cut Howard Jones.
And so no instant pictures from your iPhone.
Photography meant buying film and then having
the film developed which took time.
You also needed to know how to set focal lengths
and frame rates and the like. All manual.
And film was limited to say 12, 24 or 36 pictures.
and you only got like one chance to get it right.
And photography was not cheap. Images were expensive.
Music for me was mono if portable. This involved
often quite basic sound equipment and the cassette.
Recordings were often as crude as placing the
microphone directly in front of the sound source.
Games at work meant cards, darts and maybe pool
if you had a refectory or canteen.
There were mobile games.
Like Othello.. No batteries needed.
As to hobbies you could always collect stamps.
Watch the footie.
As for sex, as in what some download on
the internet, I am told.. Well this meant
if you wanted pictures of naked ladies you
had to go to a store, reach up to the top
shelf and then have the embarrassment of
standing in a line to pay for it.
And so nerds like me would buy Amateur
Photographer and arty book by David Bailey
making out it was an interest and a hobby.
The lovely Marie Helvin.. Was a classic in the time.
Video was in its infancy and hadn't made it's
mind up whether it was Betamax, VHS or Video 2000.
I still have all my Video 2000 tapes but no player.
And the point of those stamps. Why stamps ?
Think about the level of communication that
you make today by phone or computer. Now reflect
on a time when there wasn't that facility. So
how were you going to buy stuff, talk to people
communicate and generally discuss matters....
By letter. I guess you could send a telegram.
We had land line phones but really it was and
still is expensive to make telephone calls. And
only one of you could do it at a time at home.
So you would get through a lot of stamps.
And with so little ways to communicate we spent
a lot more time travelling to each others houses.
Buses and trains were a lot more frequent and there
was also a lot more routes and lines available.
I also played my guitar a lot. And drew and wrote
and generally was very creative using my hands.
I did have a kinda computer.
Though it was very basic.
Little did I know how important that
company logo would become.
OK so what changed the day the ZX81 arrived?
I guess first I should set out what technology
and gadgets I already had ....
I had a black and white TV. Only with a 5" screen.
I also had a cassette player,
And the ZX81. I knew I would be able to use
it cus I had poured over the box so many
times in Smiths making sure I was prepared.
Don't forget that there was NOTHING before this day.
And so what did I see the first time I switched on?
A cursor... a simple single cursor.
Surprisingly the first thing I typed wasn't
hello world. I mean, why on earth would I
be thinking that. Folk didn't type hello world.
They were more likely to do maths as an extension
of using the calculator. After all we knew how
to use our calculators.
And then I tried to test the computer with some
crazy bonkers maths....
And trigonometry.
And then my first program... At this point I 'gysummed '
And I am not going to explain that term.
Basically I fell in love.
I got frustrated very quickly with the tape machine.
I had no tape counter and so had to mark
the tapes with the save positions.
So came the first of many many upgrades.
I just had to get a better tape machine.
The shops were already rebranding tape machines
as computer specific cassette deck.
And so I was hooked in. Trapped forever.
Never forgetting that once in my life, that
what you see here, was indeed, all that I had.
And for those reading this that can not imagine
a world without what they currently have, remember
that once, what you see here is truly all there
really was for many. It began with this.
The dawn of the world of home computing.
My story in pictures.
