h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My first computer was a Commodore 116. The data for this computer were loaded from a walkman-like device called the Datasette, which used ordinary Audio Tapes. The programs, mostly in BASIC could not be bigger than the memory of the computer (16 kilobyte), but loading from the tape usually took a couple of minutes. Though Commodores were the most widely used home computers in that time, today the brand name is only left on boxes for floppy disks or stuff like that, I think.

My first 'computer' was the Spectrum 128k - and, hey, it's STILL working! My first proper desktop machine was an Amstrad 1640, monochrome with a Hercules graphics adapter - I couldn't afford the CGA version at the time. (And yes, it's still operative - wish I could say the same of the PCs I've had since - they don't make 'em like they used to.) Of course, every Yuppie had to have their own PC and Lotus 123 - how else could they calculate the massive returns on their share portfolios? Hardly anyone used them to play games - number-crunching was far more exciting!

And what about all the other cool technology that became de rigeur for the 80s Yuppie? Microwaves - I'm still using the one I bought in 1984; mobile phones the size of house-bricks - well, I daresay my original model would still work, if the network was operative; fax machines - suddenly every workplace was knee-deep in paper scrolls (so much for the 'paperless office' ideal). We all threw out our 70s percolators and teasmaids and bought filter coffee-makers instead (mine was not consigned to a Charity Shop until the mid-90s, when cafetieres were 'the thing').

Oh, I LOVED the 80s - especially the Big Bang years. I was young, ambitious, computer-literate, had loadsamoney and a credit rating that beggared belief (remember Access, your 'flexible friend'?). Like all my Yuppie chums, I power-dressed for the office, wore my ra-ra skirt for cruising the wine bars of the City & West End, adopted Sloane Ranger wear for days in the country (twin-set & pearls + pleated skirt, with Barbour & green wellies in the boot of the Porsche 911 in case the weather turned), went New Romantic for parties, or donned a huge-skirted satin ballgown for more up-market events. From Tree-Hugging Hippie to Hooray Henrietta in the space of 5 years...

But then came the stock market crash, the property crash, the recession and unemployment... Ah, I didn't let it get me down - I may not have had the money any more, but at least I had all the stuff! So, in 1988, I decamped from London and joined the ranks of the self-employed, doing what the Tory Government dubbed 'telecottaging' before they realised that the 'cottaging' could have quite another meaning... Anyway, somehow my technology and I survived the bleak decade that followed and together we've built a thriving business - and it all started with that Amstrad 1640.

In the 80's a lot of us saw an end to our working lives for one reason or another. For many people early retirement/redundancy was the order of the day. My fate/blessing was early retirement (My thanks to Maggy, but others were not so lucky). I joined a golf club and bought my first computer (A BBC made by Acorn) The BBC's computer literacy course on TV was my introduction to computing, that became a recreational hobby. I have spent many fruitful and enjoyable hours pursuing that hobby since 83 when it all happened. Today I have two computers a RiscOS PC and a Windows PC switched to a common monitor and keyboard. I use the Windows PC to surf the Web but I find the Risc PC (a development from the original BBC/Acorn machine) far better to use for most other applications.
Ancient Brit

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99. It didn't even use diskettes, it had an audiotape recorder for data storage.

It was a fun little machine. In school we learned how to do programming in computer classes instead of working with applications like the kids do today. I still remember spending *hours* programming in basic on an Apple IIg to make a simple image of a flag.

Hard to believe that was only 15 years ago...

my first computer was a speccy 48k with the fantastic rubber keyboard, then i eventually upgraded to the 128k with integral tape recorder. ahh, those happy hours spent listening to the sound of the computer trying to load bootleg games copied onto cheapo tapes...

Well we had a ZX81 before that which we *upgraded from 1K RAM to 16K - wow!

Then the 16K Spectrum - then 48K - sheesh 128K? I dreamed of 128K

I was learning to program on a BBC Basic at school.

My dad insisted on buying second hand computers from his mates - namely the zx80, then the zx 81, then the bloddy spectrum. And he spent all his time moaning that no one did anything with them but play games. He didn't seem to understand that if he bought the one I knew how to program, I'd have been well away.

So it's all his fault that I'm not a highly paid computer programmer.

I'm the proud owner of a fully operational acorn electron - it still works if you can be bothered to plug it into the back of the telly and wait half an hour for a program to load through the earphone socket of a tape recorder.

We never did get to the end of sphinx adventure. Never quite managed to catch the mouse to scare off the elephant to get outside again.

. o O (Kill dwarf
What with? Your bare hands?
Yes
Dwarf kills you.)

My dad bought me a Speccy 48k, and quite literally it transformed my life in the '80's. I became a complete overnight. One of the summers, I think it was 1984, was really sunny, but I can't remember actually going out even once that year. I used to program games in Basic (with those funny rubber keys that had all the commands pre-programmed in each key), and gradually I learned some Assembler. I was also a huge Adventure game fan, Lords of Midnight, Colossal, and that awful Ian Livingstone game that drove me half-mad. I also programmed a game based on Shelobs Lair in LOTR. Never did anything with it mind you. I ended up writing business accounting packages for the Apple II, and then onto the IBM PC AT. That sort of lead to my current job...

I was so obsessed with it that my dad covertly confiscated the computer coming up to my exams. My keyboard gave in (no surprise) a few months before the exams, and my dad sent the computer to the repair shop, warning them that he didn't want to see it again until my exams were over. I never realised what he had done until afterwards. The cold turkey was exactly what I needed...