Last week was the 30th anniversary of the Sinclair ZX-81. I missed it.
Am I that old? Yeah, unfortunately I am. Sigh.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons.)
My first sight of one of these things was as at school. Some other kid—I can’t remember who now—brought one to class and was showing it to everyone.
I coveted that thing.
I can remember the envy.*
I never got one.
My first computer, several years later, was a Sundox, a Taiwanese clone of an Apple ][+. (For those that don’t know, Apple’s Roman two was written with an inverted pair of square brackets. Very geeky in a Star Wars kind of way.)
Set up and running (Source: Wikimedia Commons.)
Early home computers hooked up to your tele and pirated your Walkman (or whatever else) as input/output devices. I still quite like that these machines made good re-use of other technologies in a way that’s not really done today. (Nor desired.)
Ah – the technology of our youth, eh?
All geeks are cordially invited to reminiscence. No fisticuffs over who’s toy was better!
Footnotes
As you might guess by my abrupt change of topics, I’ve had my fill of the Ken Ring saga. Consider my previous post a purging of sorts. Then again fiascos like that sometimes don’t go away in a hurry, so I may be back to it…
* And, it seems, very little else! Haha.
(Updated at 6pm for silly editing error that resulted in misplaced sub-clause.)
Other articles on Code for Life:
A short not-a-post about that Xmas card
Another one bits the dust: Goodbye Walkman
Minorities, disabilities and scientists
Forecasting space weather and capturing paper data
ahh I remember coveting these through the window of David Reid Electronics stores.
Although I didn’t get a real computer to play with until the BBC Model B.. None of this Commodore 64 nonsense!