On these pages I thought Id tell you the story of my introduction into computers. Ill be telling the story in my own words, and the facts may not be totally correct (or chronologically accurate). This is how I remember things (and my memorys not what it used to be).

 All brand name and trademarks mentioned are acknowledged.

Hed stay behind school when he could (get a life!!) and program the computers available there. Yes the good old TRS-80s. Remember them. They used to boot off 5.25 floppy disks and were still faster at booting than any modern machine running windows (after youve put on a virus checker, firewall, and all the other pieces of software that a modern day computer needs).

Viruss/spyware werent a major issue. You watched films like Wargames about kids (or geeks as those who dont understand computers like to call them) hacking into computers. No criminal gangs or intent was involved. It was the sheer challenge.

Just while I've given Wargames a mention, does anyone else like me think it was a good film (although it is looking dated now). Basically it's about a computer genuis (or hacker) who gets into the US military's computer and starts the game Thermoneuclear War. Obviously the US Army aren't too chuffed about this. I'll not spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it does have a cheesy ending in my opinion? Anyway, back to computers. The only network available (to me) at the time was the Stockport schools network.

Those were the days when money could still be made out of computers. Millionaires were still being made (and a million pounds was a lot of money in those days) out of computers. It was a growing business.

The only computer (if you can use that word) games in the home were the good old ping-pong type games (actually they may have progressed a little beyond them by then). I used to play for hours (well minutes) with my brother knocking that square ball back and forth. Have a go at my Javascript version of this classic(!!) game here. The internet was a mere twinkle in the US militarys eye at this time.

Those were the good old days of computers (if you got access to one).

People (well kids) were getting bored with playing in the streets/parks in all weathers. Who wants to play football? Not me. Who wants to date girls? Not me. Thats not to say there wasnt girls I wouldnt have minded taking out from school though. But computers were my main passion.

However, a revolution was about to take place. Something that would change the lives of people up and down this land. This was going to be big. Homes would never be the same. And the man behind this revolution. Sir (I believe hes a sir now) Clive Sinclair.

Part 2 of the story can be found here.

Some of the pictures on this page may be copyriohted. I have obtained permission to use them as necessary. If you wish to use them for a project or web page yourselves, please contact the website involvesd for permission. Thanks for your cooperation..