Once, several years ago, I saw an advertisement
for a new computer with lots of memory (48K), four sound channels,
onboard disk drive/printer interface, and more colours than I could
ever imagine in a computer. After costing a DIY motherboard and all
the necessary add on utility boards of another computer, this new
one seemed expensive. However, it did have a little brother with
only 16K but all the capabilities of the bigger model. This was the
one I was to buy as my first ever computer.
In the ensuing months, I was to hunt in vain for
articles in magazines relating to my machine. To be fair, computer
magazines were in their infancy then. I did strike lucky by buying
the first edition of an American magazine which was dedicated 100%
to my computer. I can remember those halcyon days when everyone was
a beginner and helped each other over the difficult bits.
The Americans took to the computer with open arms
and the market leaders at that time began to worry. Over here it was
a different story. None of the computer magazines wanted to know
about it. They pushed all other computers but mine. I was fortunate
in a way. At the same time there appeared what seemed to be a far
superior machine from DAI which quickly disappeared without trace.
It had no baby brother so I could not afford it, and I stuck with my
computer.
Strangely enough, all the flak from the U.K. press
brought us owners more and more together as a family. A club member
from the midlands finally started up a U.K. magazine. He was
dedicated to both the computer and the magazine which you will
realise if you read the magazine. Now, with our own magazine, we did
not care about the nationals not writing about `Our Computer'. At
the same time, fate struck a bitter blow. Bad management, poor
advertising resulting in low market sales, a downturn in the sale of
computers generally and other minor adversities seemed to bring the
manufacturer to his knees. Rumour was rife that we were to see the
end of our much beloved machines.
This only brought us even closer together, and we
hung on to other rumours about cheaper chips, a new and better
machine, change of management, you name it, we believed! I do not
think that we would have believed what was to eventually happen to
the management if we had been told. That the directors of our most
ardent rival would have nothing to do with new ideas from the
creator of their business, that he would leave them and take over
our firm? Surely not!
Crazy or not it happened. This man was strong
enough to disregard the laughter and lambasting from the press about
his new business. After all, he saw it from a competitor's angle and
realised the potential. He then stood on the heights and told all
about the unbelievable power and low price of a new generation of
machines that he was to bring out. Again the snide remarks from the
press (noticeably in the U.K.). How can this man compete against the
overwhelming sales of the market standard `Big Blue'? In fact,
looking back, he was to do for the sixteen-bit machines what Sir
Clive Sinclair did for U.K. home computers in general, i.e. sell a
machine at an affordable price and force the competitors to rethink
their own over-inflated prices. We are the owners who are now talked
about and not talked down to! We are the ones who are going places
at last. But glory is not won at a cheap price.
All of our eight-bit models will run the same
software, but sixteen-bit is another world. Our happy family now
seems to be dividing itself into two camps. I notice this in
readers' letters published in the American magazine that I still
subscribe to. Complaints about a magazine within a magazine, less
eight-bit articles (even though the magazine is thicker than ever
and the number of eight-bit articles remain the same!) and a general
feeling of being left on the shelf. Why this is I do not know. I
never felt any animosity towards my computer's big brother, nor its
replacement and certainly not to the new version that has almost
three times the memory of my machine. I suppose that, having bought
the sixteen-bit model, I can be accused of having the best of both
worlds. True, but that still does not help me understand this
disturbing trend that has now appeared. Certainly everything is
newfangled about this machine and it is much publicised, but not to
the detriment of the eight-bit models. Our new owner has promised to
support existing models and is pressing software houses who have
never done so in the past to write for the eight-bit range. He is
even supporting the VCS!
When such internecine squabbles occur it is only
the users themselves who come out worst and they can only blame
themselves for such short-sightedness. They knew years ago that
sixteen-bit was the future, only memory prices hindered home
ownership. Now it is within their grasp and they should be using
their existing machines to learn about the new generation. Believe
it or not, a lot of software is downloaded from mainframes to the
sixteen-bit, and new techniques worked out on the sixteen-bit
computers can be used for eight-bit computers. Software houses who
would never deem to work on these machines are now looking seriously
at what, to them, is a new and unplumbed market. We will reap the
benefit by being able to buy upmarket programs at a reasonable price
and not be stuck with the cheap and nasties that certain other
computer owners have to contend with.
Some people complain that when I do start talking
I can be quite verbose, so I had better end this diatribe. Suffice
to say that those who recognise my name will know that I am
dedicated to helping beginners come to grips with their computer,
regardless of the model involved.
As a footnote, I have intentionally not mentioned
my computer, although you should have recognised it by now. This was
done purely because the attitudes arising are not restricted to this
computer alone. Users should stick together for the benefit of all.
G.M.
Hutchinson.
BAUG
Software
PO Box 123
Belfast
BT10 0GL
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