Remember the time..?

I grew up in the eighties during a time when we had vibrant colours, break dancing, mobile phones the size of a laptop and the mighty P.C.! (Personal Computer). P.C. was a term given to a machine hiding away in your study, predominantly used by the geeks and misunderstood by the rest.

This is also the era which kick-started home-brew gaming where people learnt to code and create software from their bedrooms. Computer magazines had started to become the norm in newsagents across the country and there was a small craze around home-brew gaming..

I’m a keen gamer; I don’t have as much time as I did back in the 80’s to play games, butI like to keep up with what’s new and watch the industry keenly.

One thing I do remember was the introduction of home computing; not your traditional P.C. but another strange band of household computer… ZX Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad.

The Amstrad computer with a built-in Floppy Drive!. It was a step up from the Tape Deck!

The thing about these smaller band of computers was they were essentially a cheap and easy way to get into the world of computing and gaming without your parents having to re-mortgage their house. Around £300 offered a child or young adult the ability to take home a piece of the future.

What came in the pack, I hear you ask..?

1. The Computer itself
2. A small CRT (Amstrad was green on black)
3. Some power cables
4. Some games (Gauntlet was a stand out!)
5. Coding manual (YES! a real manual with instructions on how to code!)

I have vivid memories of Amstrad Basic (is that what its called these days?) and recall opening the manual and rushing to the part which had code in it. I started copying and typing in the code and when you made a mistake, lord, you’d have to start again!.

I believe, without the advent of home computing in the 80’s and the introduction of cheap home computers we would not have seen many great computer games or publishers. The outbreak of the gaming industry would have been delayed by at least 10 years. The impact to the Engineering as a whole has been immense and you probably can’t measure or even realise it.

The 80’s had a couple of things in common with the world of Engineering today:

1. An explosion of new tech everywhere; people were trying to “innovate” almost anything to make human life easier. Remember those remote key fob finder things that made a sound to locate your car key? In 2017, it’s about Robotics, AI, machine learning, automating jobs in society and pushing the boundaries of Cloud computing .
2. People took to the craft really quickly and realised the potential was in writing software to solve issues. People coded at home and some of these coders were very young!
3. It was exciting to be known as a NERD 🤓 and still is. The 80’s NERD had long hair, didn’t leave his / her room for weeks on end and even gave up basic hygiene (😳). I’m thankful to say that today’s NERD isn’t the same animal and does clean him/herself on occasions (once a week).

So, here’s to the 80’s — The catalyst of home computing, home coding, green CRT monitors, block graphics for games, choppy game music and strange fashion. Remember MC Hammer’s trousers?!