It all started early in 1986, the¢school that I attended had just¢purchased some new computers (BBC¢micros 32k). Their make was irrelevant¢computer fever spread like wild fire.¢Talking with my friends I discovered¢the names of several other computers as¢well as some rather strange stories of¢rubber keys and plastic keys that¢tended to fly off the keyboard at the¢slightest provocation. Further¢investigation revealed the name¢Spectrum!¢ At home things were hotting up, it¢was only one month to my birthday and¢to my great surprise on that fateful¢day I was given a computer, was it a¢Spectrum? NO, my dad had heard the¢stories of exploding keys and pathetic¢pictures as he called them. Yes you've¢guessed it, the computer I was given¢was an Atari 800XL with tape deck,¢joystick and five games. 'No not a VCS¢games machine a PROPER computer', was¢all I could be heard saying to my¢friends for the next six months. Any¢way I liked it. The first game I ever¢played was The Lone Raider, I got¢hooked. The catchy music that played¢all through the tape loading sequence¢was something very original.¢ A few days later I paid a visit to my¢local computer shop. To my delight¢there was quite a selection of games to¢choose from, but to my dismay they were¢all around the ten pounds mark. Any way¢one was bought, after a great deal of¢time, around an hour, I finally decided¢on Spy Hunter. Well worth the money.¢ Upon my next visit the budget era was¢launched. What two games at #1.99 each.¢Wow, what a bargain! One Man & His¢Droid and Clumsy Colin Action Biker¢were the games, both by a company¢called Mastertronic, not as good as Spy¢Hunter but then for #1.99 who could¢complain?¢ I spent the next few days searching¢for some books or magazines related to¢my computer. At last on the shelves of¢W.H. SMITH's a magazine called Atari¢User caught my attention. It contained¢many pages of reviews and programs I¢could type in (well in theory anyway).¢After many, many hours at the keyboard¢it finally ran, Bounce my first ever¢type-in game.¢ As time slowly passed by interspersed¢with monthly trips to the local¢newsagent I discovered some of the down¢sides to Atari computing. Why did tape¢games take so long to load? Why did my¢attempts at programming always fail to¢be saved properly? I had to re-write my¢first game, Space Wolf about four times¢due to it not being saved properly. I¢know I should have made back ups but I¢was young (and I needed the money!).¢ As my knowledge grew I became aware of¢things called disk drives, printers,¢track balls and mice! Ignoring the¢rodents all were priced way out of my¢reach until one very happy day in my¢life. Through the virtue of not dying¢(something I am very happy about) an¢insurance policy taken out on my life¢had matured and sat in my trembling¢hand was a cheque for over nine hundred¢pounds, of which I still have a¢sizeable chunk left today!!!! A few¢weeks later I had in my grasp one of¢the new XF 551 disk drives. More things¢to learn, but what power games loading¢in seconds rather than many minutes, no¢more losing files through faulty save¢routines. I rate this as my most¢essential purchase I have ever made.¢ As time passed by my programming¢skills improved and my games collection¢increased, I also noticed a serious¢lack of new software. Another disaster¢was soon to follow, the sad demise of¢Atari User but what's all this about a¢bi-monthly Page 6 Atari User. What's¢Page 6 and where did it come from?¢After several months of giving some¢serious hassle to my newsagent I¢finally received a copy of a new¢magazine called New Atari User. All¢became clear, about as clear as mud,¢but what I could easily see was the¢magazine was good, very good infact.¢What had I ever done without it?¢ My life plodded ever onwards, buying¢more games, programming new games and¢utilities.¢ Then one November I visited a¢computer show and bought a 1020 plotter¢from one stall holder. A few weeks¢later it went faulty. After a very long¢phone call my life was looking much¢happier. My 1020 was fixed and there¢was a possibility of having one of my¢programs marketed as a full commercial¢release.¢ A few weeks later there it was, Print¢Lab in all it's glory. If it wasn't for¢the broken printer cog it might never¢have been marketed.....¢¢Richard Gore¢
