In: Bloomsbury sigma 10
Tom Lean tells the story of how computers invaded British homes for the first time, as people set aside their worries of electronic brains and Big Brother and embraced the wonder-technology of the 1980s. This book charts the history of the rise and fall of the home computer, the family of futuristic and quirky machines that took computing from the realm of science and science fiction to being a user-friendly domestic technology. It is a tale of unexpected consequences, when the machines that parents bought to help their kids with homework ended up giving birth to the video games industry, and of unrealised ambitions, like the ahead-of-its-time Prestel network that first put the British home online but failed to change the world. Ultimately, it's the story of the people who made the boom happen, the inventors and entrepreneurs like Clive Sinclair and Alan Sugar seeking new markets, bedroom programmers and computer hackers, and the millions of everyday folk who bought in to the electronic dream and let the computer into their lives.
Introduction -- 1. Electronic Brains -- 2. Hobbyists Create Microcomputers -- 3. Computers for the Man in the Street -- 4. Computer Literacy -- 5. The Boom -- 6. Two Information Revolutions That Weren't -- 7. The Maturing of the Computer Game -- 8. The Unmaking of the Micro Epilogue: Back to the Future? -- Further Reading -- Prices and Other Numbers Acknowledgements -- Index
Cover -- 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
Englisch
Bloomsbury Sigma
9781472918338, 1472918339, 9781472918352
287 Seiten
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