Well, I have been watching retro UA-cam channels for a while now, and I noticed there tends to be a lack of context. We talk about Spectrums, Apple II's, C64's Amigas and so on, but its rare they are shown within the environment of their time. As people age, there will be less and less people to represent the earlier days, and 1981 is not really THAT early. So in time I may do another series on 1970s, more focussed on the USA, where it kicked off. But, it certainly IS interesting to see the reality of micro computing, at a specific time in specific country. Bear in mind, the experience in say Brazil, Poland, Russia etc would again have been totally different based on access and budgets. Interesting stuff. more soon!
Other illuminating sources can be found in electronics magazines of the era. Whilst gaming was a driving force for consumer computing, it was the ‘tinkerers’ that built the industry. Interesting times, as I recall. Thank you for the effort you put into this research and sharing it.
I was not into electronics, mind you, I was 10 when this mag hit the shelves. I know, no excuse! But apart from that, no one in my family had anything to do with electronics. But its pretty clear that it was largely a venn diagram intersect of computer workers, using Mainframes and Minicomputers, or the children of such, who were also electronics hobbyists (Steve Wozniak) that made the magic happen. But then it took those with a general interest to actually make it mainstream. I like soldering things together now as a challenge, for fun. But MAKING a Micro as a first machine would have been a massive barrier to most. And you could not expect businesses who wanted to use micros to do the same?
I still have some of my old Compute, Analog and Antics magazines. I remember when I was 14 spending days typing in the basic programs on my Atari 800xl. I also had a subscription of MAD magazine that had lots of interesting computer programs and articles in them. Sure brings back lots of memories.
Wow what timing! I've just started downloading all the old retro magazines to make sure I have a digital copy of every publication particularly with the court case ruling against archive
great video watched it start to end - happy memories for me as that was the time I got into computers - I actually wanted a TRS80 at the age of 12 and my father advised me to get the VIC20 instead for Christmas present - so glad he did! I then went onto the C64, then the Amiga and even picked up the CD32.
This is fabulous! What a detailed time capsule. As an American it's particularly fascinating to get a glimpse of what this time was like in the UK and the machines that were popular that we never got over here. Please keep doing these, and keep them nice and long. 😉 I did my part and joined!
Thanks Rob. And also thanks for being the FIRST to JOIN the channel. Now I see the Blue Star next to your name, I think I may change it to yellow. Or maybe something more Retronauty. Problem is, its such a small icon to fit anything meaningful into. BTW, more episodes of these ahead. Please let me know what you REALLY liked in this one, and in turn found less interesting. I think I need to rationalise some items, as some future editions have more going on and 50 mins is quite a long episode (harder to make, less consumable for some).
@@RetronautTech You're welcome! If there's an orange star available that might be a bit more in keeping with the retro theme perhaps. I really liked the ads showing what things actually sold for, although I had to do a double price conversion for all of them in my head from 1981 UKP to 2024 UKP and then from 2024 UKP to 2024 USD. 😆 The section on mainframes was great, too, totally not something you'd expect in a modern game magazine and gave a real flavor of the time. You could perhaps de-emphasize actual game reviews unless there's anything notable in how they're covered, especially when they're mostly of the factual "this is how the game is played" sort. That's more readily available material and perhaps a bit less revealing of the times. Hope that helps a little!
@@robjones3818 Actually, I did not show the REVIEWS page in this ep, just NEWS. But as I said, they are kind of indistinguishable.I'll probably show an actual REVIEWs page in the next ep, just to give an idea. I want to show how their reviews evolved over time to get a baseline. Certainly prices ARE interesting. There is a kind of dogma as to why X machine won over Y. Quite often it was down to pricing and sometimes pricing is driven by hardware. So its insightful to see the real prices on the ground at the time. As a teenager I bought MANY games, but also some others, well er... hrm. And we were made to feel like filth about this. But looking back and realising that games often cost £60 ish in todays cash, makes you realise why the whole cracking scene existed. Anyway, an interesting point to raise in the next vid maybe ;)
Indeed, must admit its been such a long while, that I found reading this issue to be a revelation, same goes for the following ones. Every now and again there is an article that makes you go "wow!!", such as a small snippet in an upcoming edition, where some obscure game called "Donkey Kong" has its launch announced in the arcade. Formative times...
Wow what timing 've just started down load ing all the old retro magazines to make sure I have a digital copy of every publication particularly with the court case ruling against archive org!!!
@@RetronautTech I know would be very sad - keep up the great videos! I used to type in the CV&G listings into computers I didn’t own at WHSmith, Dixons and Tandy’s back in 81/82 the staff didn’t like me doing that hogging the computer lol
Thanks for the video! It's always interesting to hear memories of the experience in other regions, often telling the same story from the perspective of different lived experiences. As an example, the computer form factor that consists of a the computer and keyboard all-in-one was originally called a console, but this word fell out of disuse pretty quickly with the rise of the NES and I've said console a few times when talking about the A500 or C64 and been met with wild stares!
I DO remember having some, earlier on, but sadly my existing collection does not reflect this. For instance, I distinctly recall reading the Elite review in issue one of Zzap, but that seems to be long gone. I am planning more of these episodes. Any feedback? Too long, just right? Anything you found more or less interesting? I would like to make them more compressed, as 50 minutes for a single edition seems too long to me.
S-100 cards were similar to the later ISA cards on a PC. They usually plugged into a backplane (S-100 bus), often in a 19=inch rack. It first appeared on an Altair 8800 and became a bit of an industry standard for CP/M based machines.
I remember they changed its name to Zork at some point. I thought that happened before it was sold. Wasnt it sold commercially on PDP-11's first? Think it was developed on the PDP-10, but then the first test of the Z-machine was the PDP-11 verion?
I was into text adventures. I got stuck playing Zork. I wrote in and got a detailed letter back giving me hints! Im in New Zealand! What a blast, thanks for the memories! Hey is their copies of the mags made into pdfs so I can look at them again?
You and me both. I now own the entire Infocom range of games. Not saying I have played them all, but during the dark days of C I got into retro and then noticed that Infocom games were going relatively cheap on Ebay. Mind you, to get the whole range was not cheap. Expect an in-depth series on Infocom pretty soon.
For me, a machine is a console, when its SOLE function is to play games. This is usually signified by it also being as small as possible, with no keyboard (out of the box). I understand the Atari 400 was MEANT to be a console, to replace the 2600, but was changed to a Micro late in its development. IMHO that was a mistake, if the 400 was kept as a console, it would have more easily replaced the 2600 I think, as they could have cut costs, somehow. And besides, to make it into a Micro it had poor expandability AND its keyboard was not great. Then the 800 would have been the clear choice for computer users.
The Sharp MZ-80K was a bit of a weird machine. BASIC loaded off cassette. The character set had upper and lower case letters, but for some reason, the lower case letters were all mixed up, at least in the UK version.
Weird, hrm, well loading basic from casette was not weird. Just meant the machine did not have BASIC in ROM on launch, for whatever reason. Apple II for instance DID, but it was Integer only so egg on face they made a (sharp) deal with Microsoft and tada Apple had Applesoft (microsoft basic). But it had to be loaded from casette, or floppy, which sure was a grind, until the plus was launched and had it on ROM. Maybe the MZ-80k also had a ROM you could buy and plug in to have it available on power on. The character set sounds like it was because it was a Japanses machine and I assume they used one of the cases to store Japanese characters. Seems odd though that having replaced these with roman letters, that there were muddled. Interesting...
Thanks for this; I'm American and had no idea growing up what was going on with home computers overseas.
Well, I have been watching retro UA-cam channels for a while now, and I noticed there tends to be a lack of context. We talk about Spectrums, Apple II's, C64's Amigas and so on, but its rare they are shown within the environment of their time. As people age, there will be less and less people to represent the earlier days, and 1981 is not really THAT early. So in time I may do another series on 1970s, more focussed on the USA, where it kicked off. But, it certainly IS interesting to see the reality of micro computing, at a specific time in specific country. Bear in mind, the experience in say Brazil, Poland, Russia etc would again have been totally different based on access and budgets. Interesting stuff. more soon!
Other illuminating sources can be found in electronics magazines of the era. Whilst gaming was a driving force for consumer computing, it was the ‘tinkerers’ that built the industry. Interesting times, as I recall. Thank you for the effort you put into this research and sharing it.
I was not into electronics, mind you, I was 10 when this mag hit the shelves. I know, no excuse! But apart from that, no one in my family had anything to do with electronics.
But its pretty clear that it was largely a venn diagram intersect of computer workers, using Mainframes and Minicomputers, or the children of such, who were also electronics hobbyists (Steve Wozniak) that made the magic happen. But then it took those with a general interest to actually make it mainstream.
I like soldering things together now as a challenge, for fun. But MAKING a Micro as a first machine would have been a massive barrier to most. And you could not expect businesses who wanted to use micros to do the same?
I still have some of my old Compute, Analog and Antics magazines. I remember when I was 14 spending days typing in the basic programs on my Atari 800xl. I also had a subscription of MAD magazine that had lots of interesting computer programs and articles in them. Sure brings back lots of memories.
MAD Magazine :), I never read it, but I did REALLY like Spy'vs'Spy on the C64.
Wow what timing! I've just started downloading all the old retro magazines to make sure I have a digital copy of every publication particularly with the court case ruling against archive
great video watched it start to end - happy memories for me as that was the time I got into computers - I actually wanted a TRS80 at the age of 12 and my father advised me to get the VIC20 instead for Christmas present - so glad he did! I then went onto the C64, then the Amiga and even picked up the CD32.
This is fabulous! What a detailed time capsule. As an American it's particularly fascinating to get a glimpse of what this time was like in the UK and the machines that were popular that we never got over here. Please keep doing these, and keep them nice and long. 😉 I did my part and joined!
Thanks Rob. And also thanks for being the FIRST to JOIN the channel.
Now I see the Blue Star next to your name, I think I may change it to yellow. Or maybe something more Retronauty. Problem is, its such a small icon to fit anything meaningful into.
BTW, more episodes of these ahead. Please let me know what you REALLY liked in this one, and in turn found less interesting. I think I need to rationalise some items, as some future editions have more going on and 50 mins is quite a long episode (harder to make, less consumable for some).
@@RetronautTech You're welcome!
If there's an orange star available that might be a bit more in keeping with the retro theme perhaps.
I really liked the ads showing what things actually sold for, although I had to do a double price conversion for all of them in my head from 1981 UKP to 2024 UKP and then from 2024 UKP to 2024 USD. 😆 The section on mainframes was great, too, totally not something you'd expect in a modern game magazine and gave a real flavor of the time.
You could perhaps de-emphasize actual game reviews unless there's anything notable in how they're covered, especially when they're mostly of the factual "this is how the game is played" sort. That's more readily available material and perhaps a bit less revealing of the times.
Hope that helps a little!
@@robjones3818 Actually, I did not show the REVIEWS page in this ep, just NEWS. But as I said, they are kind of indistinguishable.I'll probably show an actual REVIEWs page in the next ep, just to give an idea. I want to show how their reviews evolved over time to get a baseline.
Certainly prices ARE interesting. There is a kind of dogma as to why X machine won over Y. Quite often it was down to pricing and sometimes pricing is driven by hardware. So its insightful to see the real prices on the ground at the time. As a teenager I bought MANY games, but also some others, well er... hrm. And we were made to feel like filth about this. But looking back and realising that games often cost £60 ish in todays cash, makes you realise why the whole cracking scene existed.
Anyway, an interesting point to raise in the next vid maybe ;)
Wow! Great memories :-)
Indeed, must admit its been such a long while, that I found reading this issue to be a revelation, same goes for the following ones. Every now and again there is an article that makes you go "wow!!", such as a small snippet in an upcoming edition, where some obscure game called "Donkey Kong" has its launch announced in the arcade. Formative times...
Wow what timing 've just started down load ing all the old retro magazines to make sure I have a digital copy of every publication particularly with the court case ruling against archive org!!!
I THINK I got these from another source. It would be sad if archive.org was torpedoed, as it does so much good in terms of preserving old content.
@@RetronautTech I know would be very sad - keep up the great videos! I used to type in the CV&G listings into computers I didn’t own at WHSmith, Dixons and Tandy’s back in 81/82 the staff didn’t like me doing that hogging the computer lol
I had a VIC20 in the UK when it released when I was 12 years old so I remember buying the CV&G mags when they started publishing
Thanks for the video! It's always interesting to hear memories of the experience in other regions, often telling the same story from the perspective of different lived experiences. As an example, the computer form factor that consists of a the computer and keyboard all-in-one was originally called a console, but this word fell out of disuse pretty quickly with the rise of the NES and I've said console a few times when talking about the A500 or C64 and been met with wild stares!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I had nearly all of this mag for the first 5 years or so. It was great. I had a Vic-20 at the time and moved onto C64.
I DO remember having some, earlier on, but sadly my existing collection does not reflect this. For instance, I distinctly recall reading the Elite review in issue one of Zzap, but that seems to be long gone.
I am planning more of these episodes. Any feedback? Too long, just right? Anything you found more or less interesting? I would like to make them more compressed, as 50 minutes for a single edition seems too long to me.
S-100 cards were similar to the later ISA cards on a PC. They usually plugged into a backplane (S-100 bus), often in a 19=inch rack. It first appeared on an Altair 8800 and became a bit of an industry standard for CP/M based machines.
Ah, that makes sense.
"Dungeon" is the original non-split version of Zork. I have had a version on my Amiga for yonks so it should be available for most everything.
I remember they changed its name to Zork at some point. I thought that happened before it was sold. Wasnt it sold commercially on PDP-11's first? Think it was developed on the PDP-10, but then the first test of the Z-machine was the PDP-11 verion?
I was into text adventures. I got stuck playing Zork. I wrote in and got a detailed letter back giving me hints! Im in New Zealand! What a blast, thanks for the memories! Hey is their copies of the mags made into pdfs so I can look at them again?
You and me both. I now own the entire Infocom range of games. Not saying I have played them all, but during the dark days of C I got into retro and then noticed that Infocom games were going relatively cheap on Ebay. Mind you, to get the whole range was not cheap. Expect an in-depth series on Infocom pretty soon.
BASIC language was a cartridge for the 400/800. So a console is somewhat appropriate name because to do anything you need to plug in a cartridge.
For me, a machine is a console, when its SOLE function is to play games. This is usually signified by it also being as small as possible, with no keyboard (out of the box). I understand the Atari 400 was MEANT to be a console, to replace the 2600, but was changed to a Micro late in its development.
IMHO that was a mistake, if the 400 was kept as a console, it would have more easily replaced the 2600 I think, as they could have cut costs, somehow. And besides, to make it into a Micro it had poor expandability AND its keyboard was not great. Then the 800 would have been the clear choice for computer users.
@@RetronautTech if the 5200 or whatever it thye named it had of arrived in 1981, gaming history would be different!
@@VIC-20 You mean the Atari next gen console?
@@RetronautTech Yes, the follow up to the 2600 being released earlier.
The Sharp MZ-80K was a bit of a weird machine. BASIC loaded off cassette. The character set had upper and lower case letters, but for some reason, the lower case letters were all mixed up, at least in the UK version.
Weird, hrm, well loading basic from casette was not weird. Just meant the machine did not have BASIC in ROM on launch, for whatever reason. Apple II for instance DID, but it was Integer only so egg on face they made a (sharp) deal with Microsoft and tada Apple had Applesoft (microsoft basic). But it had to be loaded from casette, or floppy, which sure was a grind, until the plus was launched and had it on ROM. Maybe the MZ-80k also had a ROM you could buy and plug in to have it available on power on. The character set sounds like it was because it was a Japanses machine and I assume they used one of the cases to store Japanese characters. Seems odd though that having replaced these with roman letters, that there were muddled. Interesting...
tandy and apple can get lost
Whoah! Those are some strong words there :), why the emotion? Please explain
@@maxmirni2768 no school yard arguments here please!