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Trans Am - Historic perspectives on the 80's home computer scene







1982 was the beginning of the true 8 bit home computer revolution. Whilst hobbyists had been putting computers together since the 70's it had been a tiny little market. Sinclair, BBC and Commodore had changed all that with the BBC, ZX series and Vic-20. Now there were 'real' computers available at realistic prices for home users!

Before this gameplayers had focussed on the console market dominated (at the time) by Atari 2600 with hangers on in the form of colecovision, intellivision, Philips G7000, vectrex and a variety of those plug and select 'all in one' consoles that were still kicking around. All were great console machines but completely closed to home programmers (except the G7000's hex assembler cartridge which let you write your very own 1/4k unsavable programmes!).

Programmers were buying acorn atmos's and other DIY systems and starting on the long road of assembly languages, aswell as the occasional add on BASIC interpreters.

Now there were computers springing up with their own languages and taperecorders to save your work! BASIC was the tool of choice for home programmers. Some sported other languages, the Jupiter Ace had Forth! Just look over this list and see if these early 80's names ring a bell.

Vic 20, ZX 80/81/spectrum, BBC 'A' and 'B' (and soon the Electron), Color Genie, Jupiter Ace, Mattel Aquarius, Einstein, Oric 1 (and later Atmos), Sharp Z80A, Atari 400/800, Dragon 32, Apple 2


There were probably more strange rare beasts roaming the new frontier of home computing!

Prices were broad. Our faithful spectrum went for £125 for the 16K and £175 for the 48k. Vic 20's could be had for around the hundred mark (though they were more when they were newly released) and the grossly overpriced BBC went for £299 for the 16k Model 'A' and £399 for the 32k Model 'B'. The BBC's held their prices even after the spectrum went down to £100 and £130 (which is when I got the 16k one!). I admit the BBC had a great BASIC interpreter but they overplayed the education card (they were strong in schools, as were research machines models), fooling many parents!

When the dust had settled at the back end of 1984 some of the models had become virtually extinct. The Oric struggled on in the form of the Atmos, the Ace and Aquarius were dwindling and new exciting machines were coming forth - Commodore 64's and Amstrad CPC's were doing great, the spectrum had become the spectrum + (which made for some great deals on old stock rubber keyboard ones) and Nintendo were coming forth with real alternatives for the gameplay only market.

By the mid 80's everything started going 128. You had the CPC 128s, Atari 800xl/130xe, the spectrum +2/3, the disastrous Commodore Plus 4 (16k Ram, what were they thinking?)., MSX's with 64 or 128K and of course the games computer par excellence - The Amiga 500 (and the Atari ST was pretty good too) with a massive 512K.

By the late 80's the spectrum's cards were marked, yet the sheer volume of spectrum owners kept the software companies writing even as they were ditching the others! Right into the early 90s new titles could be had all over! The spectrum was not only one of the first it also outlasted most of the competition - what a machine!



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Back to the start
Trans Am, what it was and why I liked it
Get a kinda sorta feel for Trans Am with this Javascript trickery! Play web trans Am two!
Other 16k (yes 16k!) games of the era
Contribute! Tell us your memories, your favourite games and what that halcyon period meant to you!
Links! Other than the webring, here are the five major links for spectrum fans