What Spectrum owner could forget the banshee-like screeching that accompanied a game loading via data cassette? Or that it lasted about ten minutes? The Spectrum was perhaps less powerful than its great rival, the Commodore 64, having a palette of only seven colours (plus black) and a single channel of sound – but it became hugely popular, particularly in the UK, and led to a knighthood for its creator Clive Sinclair. This compact, rubber-keyed 8-bit classic became a common fixture in British bedrooms and studies during the 1980s, chiefly as a games machine. These plastic behemoths were as beefily-specced as they were wallet-emptying expensive, and their UFO-inspired looks (glowing alien eyes!) moistened the underwear of adolescent FPS addicts worldwide. The PC was the uncontested ruler of the world of hardcore gaming, and Alienware’s desktops were widely considered the most scarily powerful gaming PCs available. The BBC Micro is 40 years old – here’s why it matteredĬast your minds back to a time before hi-def games consoles.Despite being largely ignored outside the UK, it’s undoubtedly one of the most iconic computers ever and found some success as a home computer, games machine (classic titles like Elite debuted on the BBC Micro) and even as a tool for synth-pop bands like Erasure, Yazoo and Depeche Mode. Guaranteed to trigger a flood of memories for anyone who went to a British school in the ’80s or early ’90s, the Acorn-designed “Beeb” swiftly became the go-to computer for educational establishments, who prized its durability, power and versatility. Apart from that hockey-puck mouse, which was rubbish. The bold styling was backed up by equally ballsy feature choices: the G3 tossed out a 3.5-inch disk drive in favour of just a CD tray, came with a “hockey puck” circular mouse and was the first home computer to offer a USB port. Jonathan Ive’s curvaceous and colourful all-in-one design was cuddly, colourful and cool – making something based around a 15-inch CRT desirable is no mean feat. Along with the iPod, the original iMac is probably the product that best encapsulates Apple’s late ’90s/early ’00s resurgence.

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