In an earlier post, I mentioned the illustrious history of the ZX-81 and the massive cooperation entailed in order to purchase the thing.
But fast forward to 1984/1985 and I guess I was rocking enough cash to boldly go it alone. And I did, with the stunningly whelming (neither over, nor under) Acorn Electron.
I’m not sure this was ever available in the USA. So here’s a picture of the beast, resplendent in it’s beigey-ness:
Are you in awe? 32K of RAM. POW!!! Real keyboard. ZAP!!! Third best selling computer in the UK at the time! Ka-Blooey.
Take that ZX-81. Cower in shame before the mighty beast that was… the Acorn.
Actually, I have almost no recollection whatsoever of what I did with the thing. But I can tell you one thing. The Acorn Electron was the computer that introduced me to the difference between hype and reality.
Elite. It was the game to lust for. The item beyond ALL ELSE that must be possessed. I seem to recall it was ungodly expensive, but according to the Internets, it was 13 quid ($26 or so), which I guess was more than a 13-year-old’s bank account could handle.
But MAN did that game suck. Here’s a picture of the box:
Note the lavish $26-worthy graphics on the right. And also note the wireframe badness on the left. As I recall you were supposed to land on various planets and trade. But the problem with low-res wireframe graphics is that you can’t tell when you are just near a planet or actually crashing in to it.
After many hours of frustration, I admitted defeat and returned the product (I guess back then the notion of piracy was just toooo crazy and hi-tech to entertain).
Perhaps this brutal childhood disappointment is why I never became a gamer.
But hey, who has time to start a company and "command a Cobra space ship in a fantastic voyage of discovery and adventure" anyway 😉