Introduction (Updated)

This website has been ignored quite a bit as my job took up more and more of my time. What spare I had I preferred to use working on my classic motorcycles, gallons of dirty oil and some large hammers are excellent at easing stress! Now I am retired though, I intend to revamp the site. Once we have moved house and my computers come out of storage then I intend to take loads of photos and upload to these pages. These images will NOT be copyright and please feel free to use them. If you would like a higher-res original then please contact me. My aim is to maintain awareness of this really interesting phase in computing.

Please also note that my contact form had broken following an upgrade to the hosting server. Rather than try to fix it, I have set up a new email address which is shown on the contact page and please use that for any comments, disagreements or whatever.

Why a web site devoted to computers no longer built and of no obvious use? Perhaps to the younger ones (and I include anyone under 40 in this), it is a very good question. Probably the answer is simple; if you were there you would understand! From what I recall, I have had something like 5 MS-DOS/Windows computers and two laptops at home and another dozen or so over various jobs. The fact I cannot even recall them says it all. Modern computers are boring! When I switch on, I know what will happen. It will show a screen inviting me to enter setup; it will then beep and enter whatever version of windows it runs (or even MS-DOS6 for one of my laptops) and then I start work. It will have a very similar screen, the same keyboard, same type of mouse, probably a similar amount of memory. It is very difficult to get excited. No wonder items like a Linux Netbook are seen as exciting and yet all it means is an alternative to Windows.

During the 8 bit era, things were so very different. Every computer looked totally unlike those before it. Even those built by one manufacturer could look quite different. There were still similarities. Processor was normally a Z80 or 6502 or similar (more on processors later). Memory would normally be anything from 1 KB (kilobyte or about 1/1000000 of the amount in a 1GB laptop or PC). The vast majority did not have a Disk Operating System (such as MS-DOS or Windows). The system booted into a program called BASIC (mor