by Tom Napier
If the home computer can
be said to have had a
Golden Age, it ran from the
late 1970s to the early
1980s. Back then, there
were dozens, if not
hundreds, of computers
from which to choose.
Magazines compared
brand-to-brand, operating
system-to-operating system.
Beginners laboriously typed
20-line Basic programs into
their Sinclair ZX-80s. The
computer geeks had S-100
systems running CP/M on
Z-80s, spending half of
their spare time and all
of their spare cash plugging
in new boards. The rest of
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us bought more domesticated
computers, whose works were
hidden inside the case that held
the keyboard. Everyone used a TV
as a display, despite the poor res-
olution inherent in its RF interface.
Those who were more affluent
bought that super-commodity com-
The Golden Age ended not long
after IBM introduced their personal computer. Initially, you had to
own a company in order to afford
one, but the demise of the home
computer had begun. The days
when you could showcase your
individuality and inventiveness by
manufacturing computers in
your garage were over.
puter, the Apple II. They were inordi-
nately proud of its ability to display
three colors and to run programs not
only from a cassette recorder, but also
from an add-on floppy drive. Back
then, when a 10 MB hard drive cost
as much as a small automobile, a
5-1/4” floppy drive was every computer
Oh, there were spurts of
resistance. The Macintosh
appeared, achieved a dedicated following, and still survives
in mutated form. For several
years, the Commodore
Amiga was the most capable
desktop computer on the
market, but Commodore’s
marketing geniuses went
hobbyist’s greatest aspiration.
PHOTO 1. The
Compucolor II,
in all its simulated
wood-grain glory,
had more keys than
one knew what to
do with.
astray and the PC ultimately developed equally powerful graphics.
Although the Amiga still has fervent
fans, as a commercial product it
is long gone. Today, there may
be competition in the computer
market, but there is essentially no
choice. As Henry Ford said of the
Model T, “You can have any color
you want, so long as it’s black.”
MY FIRST COMPUTER
Throughout 1977 and 1978, I
developed a site-wide radiation
monitoring system for CERN, the
European particle accelerator laboratory. I achieved unheard-of flexibility and features by substituting an
8080-based microcomputer board
for the racks of TTL chips that had
previously been used. I developed
SEPTEMBER 2005
