Electronic Dreams · How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer by Lean, Tom -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Half-Title Series Title Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Electronic Brains

Computers before stored program computers Electronic brains that can play chess The tea-shop brain Mad machines Miniature cities of silicon The microprocessor revolution Mighty micros

Chapter 2: Hobbyists Create Microcomputers

‘The home computer is here!’ Meanwhile, back in Britain Computer clubs and user groups ‘Learn about microcomputers by owning one!’ Computing for its own sake? The trinity

Chapter 3: Computers for the Man in the Street

The little black box Selling the future Atomic theory and American invaders What was a home computer for? First contact Electronic homes? Leisure software

Chapter 4: Computer Literacy

Meeting the challenge of the chip Computer programs on television programmes Other brands of microcomputer are available The machine with two brains The Beeb Programming children Down in Granny’s Garden Learning the language of the future

Chapter 5: The Boom

The Speccy The sawn-off BBC Micro The Cambridge connection Oric An industrial rebirth? Keeping up with the Commodore The good, the bad and the indifferent The Japanese are coming The maturing market

Chapter 6: Two Information Revolutions That Weren’t

An open medium Going online The armchair grocer Micronet 800 Good morning Prince Philip A failed technology? An electronic Domesday Book A time capsule of 1980s Britain Lost electronic worlds

Chapter 7: The Maturing of the Computer Game

Manic Merseyside minors Programmers in Porsches Of moles and miners and missiles Pirates An incredible use of technology? Playing God with the machine Load new commander? From the bedroom to the boardroom

Chapter 8: The Unmaking of the Micro

Maturing markets A quantum leap The Amstrad A new product in a mature market The advantages of no people and no money The new order The tap-dancing elephant in the room A failed technology?

Epilogue: Back to the Future?

A revolution revisited 8-bit nostalgia

Notes Further Reading

Big computers Microcomputing and games

Appendix 1: Breakout Appendix 2: Prices and Other Numbers Acknowledgements Index Plates Copyright