Anyone see Electric Dreams on BBC4

[retrogeezer]

ah yes, weekend at bernies - great film!The tech team should just have come round to my place, I have virtually everything they have used so far other then a Goblin Teasmade.

[RedSparrow]

Electric dreams 1980s?

Been done before!

 

I give you Adam and Joe's 'The 1980s House'

 

[blackbird]

Anyone else think they should have used period vans to deliver the stuff? Would have been a nice touch.

I thought the same thing

[trigger]

Anyone else think they should have used period vans to deliver the stuff? Would have been a nice touch.

I'm sure Fred would of lent them one of her Transits, I wonder what the family car will be next week, I guess it will be a Sierra if the Ford theme follows.

[Pillock]

I didn't know anyone who had a Model B - we had 'em at school (Granny's Garden is the game I remember most) but us kids all had Spectrums or, in my case alone it seemed, a Commodore 64. My dad was a big fan of the Epyx games though (Summer Games 1 & 2, Winter Games, World Games, California Games, you name it) so we had a few of those. Plus International Soccer, which is still the best football computer game ever.Then, of course, the 90s arrived and we all pestered our parents for Amigas...

I had a Spectrum (48k, then a +2a) but my mate had a 64.... far superior graphics on the 64 (the spectrum had terrible attribute clash) but more games for the speccy. 1992 I got my Amiga 500, then about 1994 upgraded to a 1200. I stuck with the Amiga for ages - refusing to upgrade to those nasty Windows boxes. Spent a ruddy fortune on it. Ran an Amiga mag for a while too and was quite a name in the hacking scene (in the harmless, geeky meaning of the word).But Granny's Garden is the only game I can remember from the BBCs at school too :)I would question International Soccer being the best football game.... Sensible Soccer is.

[RedSparrow]

Currently enjoying Micromen on BBC4.Was Clive Sinclair really like that? Seems a bit of a harsh portrayal to me.We had a Commodore 64. Still got its box and all its bit and works everytime.My uncle gave me a ZX Spectrum a few years ago. Worked for a couple of days and then got really hot and broke. :(And we had BBC Acorns at my primary and secondary schools. We were still using BBC acorns in 1998. Then Acorn RISK PCs before we finally got PCs in 1999!

[retrogeezer]

found a photo of my mint in the box speccy:

 

[brammy777]

This sounds possibly quite odd and a bit O/T but on the subject of retro computers and what not, im massively tempted to buy one of those ex school BBC computers as i remember them very vividly.They werent very good, granted, but i like them.Why did they have red keys again?I remember when i first used one in 1995, seems an age away now.

[Pete-M]

Currently enjoying Micromen on BBC4.Was Clive Sinclair really like that? Seems a bit of a harsh portrayal to me.

Two of my mates mooned at Clive Sinclair somewhere near Reading in the late '80s. Mates were stuck in traffic, 6 of 'em in the back of an ex-Fire Brigade Marina van (THF311V) when they spotted a very pissed off looking Sir Clive behind them in traffic. He was driving a Volvo 240 GLT Estate.I had a ZX81, Vic 20, and a Spectrum+. Then a QL, oops.I knew a chap who had a BBC Model B. Poor lad hardly ever left his bedroom, spent all day playing Elite. Had that sickly cathode ray tan that only proper computer geeks had.

[Spottedlaurel]

Conforming to the Shite genre, I had a Dragon 32. In fact I tried the fire the old girl up after the show for a game of Jetset Willy, maybe followed by an hour or two of Tubeway Army. But I no longer have a tape recorder.

We had a Dragon 32 too, on the basis that it was similar to what our school used, but I remember feeling slightly disappointed we’d gone for the oddball choice. A Space Shuttle simulator and Chucky Egg were the games I mostly remember from it.I think it was only fairly recently that my mum disposed of it, though the other week a bag of games and stuff did turn up for it. CT, I’ll try and get them for you if they haven’t been chucked.Agreed that it was a shame they didn’t use period delivery vehicles and there was very little about bikes/cars of the era (though the dad did struggle again with the gearchange I noticed). But I suppose the thing of the programme was to show how electronics changed the way we live, and there was much more of that to look at in the ‘80s.

[kelvin2008]

I had a dragon 32 too, still have, hasnt been fired up for years also a bbc b when dad realised the dragon wasnt any thing like the bbc us kids used at school, thats still in dads office as well, used to see clive sinclair driving around regulary and took computer lessons in that high tech glass building( acorns old place or sinclairs not sure now ) when I was at cambridge college of arts and technology doing engineering.

[Mash]

My first computer was an Amstrad 128k at Christmas in 1988. My parents decided that it would be an excellent thing to have but I wasn't all that fussed about getting a computer to be honest, still I went along with it. I actually felt a bit guilty that here they were spending 400 quid on something I wasn't convinced I'd get much use from I played a few of the games it came with and spent many hours programming lines of Basic into it from library books to get very mediocre results but it really was a complete waste of time and money. Might dig it out if I can find the keyboard bit - it had a colour monitor with a unit underneath that meant you could use it as a TV and that got used more than the computer.

[Roc 24v]

Spectrum man myself, first a 16k in 1984, then upraded it to 48k a few months later.

 

http://www.zxspectrum.net/

 

Online Spectrum games.

[AnthonyG]

I enjoyed Micro Men, although Alan Armstrong's 'baldness' and ginger wig was prob. the worst TV makeup I've seen in a very, very, long time!Interesting that no actor was used for Alan Sugar - obviously didn't want to offend him! Great period shot of 'Siralan' being chauffered about in a early 1980s Silver Spirit, though.I did read a couple of books about Sinclair, and he was fairly unconcerned about things like relability and component quality, and a terrible manager, so the portrayal was reasonably accurate, although obviously a caricature. He did lose interest in a Sinclair product almost as soon as it was initially developed or launched, that was spot on.But he did a lot of inventing himself, which didn't really across in the drama.P.S. True Microshite - I had an Acorn Electron, and got bored with it fairly quickly, Just didn't have the patience with early Basic and the cassette programs. As with the Amstrad monitor/TV above, I got a lot more use out of the mono cassette recorder that came with it than I did with the computer.

[Ratdat]

I had a Dragon 32 when I was a nipper. It was utterly useless unless you wanted to sit there for hours writing 800 line programs in BASIC. I've got a Yamaha CX5M from about '84 stashed away somewhere though. That's pretty funky. Must be quite scarce now I'd magine..

 

[Arragonis]

We managed to get a Speccy for free. After my pestering my dad ordered an early one which was DOA. The replacement one failed when we spent a few hours tapping in a Golf game from a magazine, which was the first time I heard my dad swear. They refunded his dosh and then sent the broken one back repaired, so we kept it and it went to my cousin for crimbo.Meanwhile...

I knew a chap who had a BBC Model B. Poor lad hardly ever left his bedroom, spent all day playing Elite. Had that sickly cathode ray tan that only proper computer geeks had.

...that was me. When Elite came out I went into my bedroom in 1984 and by the time I came out some dodgy looking bloke in glasses was prime minister.The B was also my dad's idea, I wanted a 64 for, er, games but having said that the "proper" OS in the beeb, its assembler and structured Basic is probably why I still twiddle bits for a living now, so maybe he was right after all.My kid loves JCB Digger via BeebEm too . Emulation FTW!

[Guest]

I wonder if they'll move onto games consoles for the 90s? There's been a Playstation featured in some montage footage. And a Game Gear - hope it comes with a battery charger!It'll be quite funny if they end up repeatedly making slightly ill-informed choices and end up with a 3DO, Jaguar and Philips CD-i stashed under the TV.

[retrogeezer]

I've got a 3DO for sale if anyone is looking for one?

[retrogeezer]

No comments on the 90's then!!

 

Found some more pics of my stash from when I was putting it in my parents loft before moving:

 

[Pete-M]

I know a chap with a Sony MSX machine, and a Sirius 1.He's the chap who invented all the Fuller stuff for the Spectrum. The FDS keyboard, the Fuller voicebox thingy etc. He's got a good old collection of 70's/80's/90's shite in his basement..As for Micro Men, saw it the other night, mustard mitt, it had me laughing somewhat.

[trigger]

Bloody hell!, There's a few quids worth of gear there if you stuck it on ebay!.Funny enough I've just finished watching the 90's one on Sky +, You forget how quickly things advanced dueing the 90's, From the Fax and pager at the start to the Nokia 3110 at the end.I though the Toyota Town Ace was a strange choice of car though, Would of more expected a Renault Espace as a MPV then one of them.And I'm still shocked to think that it's almost 10 years since we was all celebrating the new millennium!

[mnde]

I really enjoyed the 80s programme.

 

I thought the Beeb was obviously going to be the choice, seeing as it was a BBC programme and all

 

Our first computer was a Dragon 32 with some rudimentary games. I remember the main colour seemed to be green. I had a Star Trek game that absorbed a lot of my time: Dragon Trek!! Then at some point it must've broken. I've still got some Basic and Machine Code programming books that my Dad bought for it...

 

Then in the mid 80s we graduated straight to the Amstrad CPC6128 and I avidly bought Amstrad Action. I believe there might be a stash somewhere at my mum's. I'd go through the games seller adverts and circle all the games I wanted...

 

Eventually the disk drive broke so we were restricted to tape games. My favourite games were Elite and Bard's Tale (EDIT: the original, not Bard's Tale III - I had that on the PC later). International Karate + was pretty good too, and Match Day II. I loved buying games from Toys R Us, WHSmiths and Antics Model Shop in Guildford.

 

From that I graduated to playing Elite, Lurking Horror, Xenon II, Space Quest 1,2,3,4, King's Quest III, Police Quest II, Hero's Quest, Test Drive III, Flight Sim 3, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, X-Wing etc. on my Dad's B/W IBM Compaq 286.

 

Then Master System II. Endless games of Mortal Kombat II with my brother!

 

Then at some point we bought a boxed Spectrum 48K at an antiques fair in Ripley, so we began to live the Speccy dream. Some of the games I'd previously bought for the Amstrad had a Speccy version on the flipside, schweet! Got Elite and loads of other games from boot sales, or new from shops while they were still selling them. Then Mum bought me a Speccy 128 from a charity shop for £1. Quality! No power adaptor, but I just used the one that came with the 48K. I've still got both machines, manuals, books and a smattering of games, but they haven't been out for a while. My favourite Speccy game (apart from Elite of course!) was Formula One by CRL, a manager type game:

 

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0001845

 

Highly recommended for re-living the mid-80s world of Mansell, Senna, Piquet and Prost. I've dabbled with emulators (Acorn Archimedes Elite = WIN) but my laptop is currently running Ubuntu Linux so I'm just starting to look for emulators again.

 

After the Electric Dreams programme, my girlfriend pointed out that there's a computer museum at Bletchley Park, so that's a must-visit in the near future! We went to the Museum of Technology in Warsaw and that had some amazing computer tat from the 50s to the 90s!!

 

Mark.

[seth]

From our campsite in Wales this summer:

 

[RedSparrow]

Just bought one of these online:

 

 

We had these at school. Brilliant little machines, so much more efficient than IBM/Windows. Its a bloody tradgedy that IBM became the standard.