The 80's will never be beaten for being the most innovative & exiting time for being a home computer user, quite apart from the seemingly never ending choice of home computers that were constantly popping up more often than a CUSA thread, it was a time when you actually had to use your brain just to get the things to work properly...
None of this straight out the box plug'n'play stuff for softies, more a case of I've just bought a VIC20 and no one told me I need a tape deck for it to use the ruddy thing, but you could type in the simple basic programs in the magazine you'd just bought as well and play that. Then spend another hour or two typing it in again next time you wanted to use it cos you still didn't have the tape deck to save it on...
It was a time when all the high street shops were packed out on a Saturday morning with all these spotty faced kids & teenagers that you met each week who spent hours droolling and arguing about which cassettes to spend all your hard earned pay or pocket money on that week and typing rude words on all the different computers that were on display, knowing that you'd never be kicked out of the shop cos the manager knew that eventually you'd soon part with your cash for all the latest games and then bugger off...
Course it was from these Saturday morning meetings in the high street shops or the specialised shops hidden down dark dingy lanes were you had to dodge the old tramps sleeping & puking in the doorways where lots of the user groups and cracking crews started. Don't really see or hear much of that these days in the likes of PCWorld or your local toffee nosed Mac dealers...
Twas indeed a wonderful time to be a home computer user and I've still got the scars to prove it...
