abritdownunder
Member
Hi Everyone,
I've been doing a lot of research in to vintage computers lately, it seems strange to me to think of the machines I grew up with as vintage. I suppose that must mean I'm now vintage! Anyway, while I was growing up in the UK, the BBC ran an initiative to raise the public awareness of computers. They approached several computer manufacturers to produce a micro that could be used for this initiative. After Newbury, makers of the New Brain computer, withdrew, Acorn won and went on to make the now famous BBC Micro - in all it's forms. Personally, I was never much interested in the BBC Micro at the time, although now I'd rather like to get my hands on one. What did spark my imagination was the BBC TV programmes that ran in 1981 and '82: The Computer Programme and Making the Most of the Micro. I was very happy to find that someone has put these programmes up on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogGKF5pDjmM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirq-uFFKRc). These are pretty poor quality, probably VHS, recordings and I don't know how long they will stay up, they are probably breaking all sorts of copyright laws. These were interesting to watch again, partly for the nostalgia, partly for the bad haircuts but mostly to see how wrong (and sometimes right) their predictions were.
I also came across an interesting document, The Legacy of the BBC Micro (http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Legacy_of_the_BBC_Micro8.pdf), which looked at how the BBC Micro and the BBC's Computer Literacy project impacted British education and culture. It looked at the machines that people were using at the time and which were the most popular, besides the BBC Micro. It showed that Sinclair, with their ZX81 (60%) and Spectrum (68%) lead the British micro market, closely followed by the Commodore 64 (54%). Perhaps no real surprise there, but I was surprised at the relatively low percentage of TRS-80 (18%) and Commodore Pet (30%) owners there were. I was a TRS-80 user, and I was very happy with it, but I always wanted a Pet - they looked so futuristic.
Obviously this survey was carried out in the UK, it was conducted online and those factors may skew the results slightly, but I thought it was interesting. So, I was wondering, for those of you old enough to have been around in the 1970's and '80s, what micros were you using at the time.
A Brit Downunder
www.abritdownunder.org
I've been doing a lot of research in to vintage computers lately, it seems strange to me to think of the machines I grew up with as vintage. I suppose that must mean I'm now vintage! Anyway, while I was growing up in the UK, the BBC ran an initiative to raise the public awareness of computers. They approached several computer manufacturers to produce a micro that could be used for this initiative. After Newbury, makers of the New Brain computer, withdrew, Acorn won and went on to make the now famous BBC Micro - in all it's forms. Personally, I was never much interested in the BBC Micro at the time, although now I'd rather like to get my hands on one. What did spark my imagination was the BBC TV programmes that ran in 1981 and '82: The Computer Programme and Making the Most of the Micro. I was very happy to find that someone has put these programmes up on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogGKF5pDjmM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirq-uFFKRc). These are pretty poor quality, probably VHS, recordings and I don't know how long they will stay up, they are probably breaking all sorts of copyright laws. These were interesting to watch again, partly for the nostalgia, partly for the bad haircuts but mostly to see how wrong (and sometimes right) their predictions were.
I also came across an interesting document, The Legacy of the BBC Micro (http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Legacy_of_the_BBC_Micro8.pdf), which looked at how the BBC Micro and the BBC's Computer Literacy project impacted British education and culture. It looked at the machines that people were using at the time and which were the most popular, besides the BBC Micro. It showed that Sinclair, with their ZX81 (60%) and Spectrum (68%) lead the British micro market, closely followed by the Commodore 64 (54%). Perhaps no real surprise there, but I was surprised at the relatively low percentage of TRS-80 (18%) and Commodore Pet (30%) owners there were. I was a TRS-80 user, and I was very happy with it, but I always wanted a Pet - they looked so futuristic.
Obviously this survey was carried out in the UK, it was conducted online and those factors may skew the results slightly, but I thought it was interesting. So, I was wondering, for those of you old enough to have been around in the 1970's and '80s, what micros were you using at the time.
A Brit Downunder
www.abritdownunder.org