ZX81

Just saw this on the BBC News website and went all funny inside. I recall when the Sinclair ZX81 came out and boy did I desire one. Posh friends had one but my parents being working class didn't buy into my constant pleadings for one. I was 13, the ZX81 seemed revolutionary and so futuristic its hard to convey nowadays. I remember going into WH Smiths and remembering the whole code to a game called '1k Ski' which literally ran on 1k of memory. When you ran the game it was guiding a line of full stops cascading down the screen between square blocks. It ran for a few seconds then ended, if you hit a block it ended immediately. Games in time did of course get better and then extra memory came out in the form of a 16k plug in ram pack which was a dubious connection at best. I had to wait a while before the ZX Spectrum came out before I managed to get my first computer and I so wish I still had it. I'm feeling all nostalgic and fuzzy warbles inside now!