The Computer: Story of a Love Affair

ZX81 It all started with the ZX81, back in - well, it wasn't quite 1981, I don't think I managed to afford one until the following year. It came with 1K of RAM memory, but I splashed out and bought the expansion pack that gave it a total of 16K. It sat on the desk in the dining room in Stewartby, plugged in to the black-and-white portable TV that got replaced when Mum and Dad bought us a colour set. I used to type in pages and pages of code from magazines I bought. Heck, I even tried to learn some programming in machine code.

After that, we managed to buy an Acorn Electron, which added colour, more games, BBC Basic. Oh, I still have a soft spot for those early machines. They were the charmers who began the long love affair with computer technology.

But of course, they were still mainly for fun. I never managed to buy the gadgets and gizmos that would have made for serious computing. Even the BBC computer was beyond our means, and when the first PC's started coming out, it looked as if, on a clergy stipend, we'd never be able to afford one.

So the first serious computer I was able to buy, that I could use for work, was an Amstrad PCW256, reduced to about £250 in Tandy's at Swindon, because the automatic feed for the printer was broken or missing. Most of what it did was the W bit - word processing - but that didn't bother me. It felt like real computing, real writing and document production, even desktop publishing! The difference between the two Grove booklets I've authored, one on a typewriter with real scissors and paste, and one with the Amstrad PCW, was like the difference between walking and driving my own Model-T.

When we moved to Oxford, Alison needed a 'proper computer' to do her M.A. so she bought another Acorn, this time an Archimedes. I mostly used it for playing some of its superior games like Lemmings; for work, I was still plugging away at the good old PCW.

Then at last we launched out into the world of PC's. Either we got rich, or the prices came down. Well, a bit of both. And we joined the computer generation in good earnest.

What is it about them that I love so much? Surely not just the unquestioning obedience: you push a button and something happens. Anyone who's used Microsoft software knows that isn't always the case. And (don't say it too loud) even Linux crashes or hangs sometimes. Nothing like as often. No, it's something to do with the mastery, but more with the mental challenge, the exploration and discovery. It's a new world out there, and for someone who's not into real life (and real time) exploration or pioneering, this new world to be explored from home is a fascinating and beautiful place.

You can read about some of my other computer adventures here: