The inevitable happened and the cycle of upgrading was about to begin. Yup, we got bored with the monochrome, blocky, soundless output coming from the results of our bashing on the membrane. The ZX81 just wasn't cutting the mustard any more. It had seen me safely across the change from primary to secondary school and been a source of wonder to me and my new friends but it just wasn't enough any more. There are, after all, only so many games of Sniper a body can stand. And while I could (and probably should) have taken it more seriously and learned some more about programming something about that route just didn't appeal. Not with only 16k to play with at any rate.

Plus school gurus Mr Vincent (Maths) and Mr Blenkin (Chemistry) had both announced in their wonderful photocopied magazine INKEY$ that they were moving on to new machines - and who wants to be left behind by a teacher? Already some people who contributed had upgraded to Spectrums or moved across to something called a Commodore, screenshots were appearing of smooth curves and sprites that didn't need an understanding of cubism to appreciate. Badgering of the parents was resumed, although the Daddy was also hearing things at work about the possibilities of the more powerful machines and was ready to be swayed.

Of course, the chance of a new piece of kit meant saying goodbye to the old faithful in the most drastic of ways and finding a buyer for something we no longer wanted. After placing adverts in INKEY$ and on the inevitable postcard in the window at Spar and still finding no buyer things were looking grim. In a move that would earn me a stern reprimand from the Mother, with the promise of worse should the Father ever find out I offered it to Ian Sheppard for £5 less than we were looking for. The gambit paid off and suddenly we were without a micro and looking hard at the options available.

Most of the myriad of computers competing for our cash could be passed of easily. The TI-99 had been experienced in action at a primary school Christmas Fayre and not been impressive when the price of initial purchase was discovered. No-one we knew had anything other than the VCS, so Atari computers were discounted due to lack of local knowledge. Rumours were circulating of something new called Oric, but it had yet to hit the shops. The choice was down to three.

Howard Jeffries had one of them. A Vic 20. It looked the part, certainly, with the proper keyboard and all but come on, only 3.5k? What was the point of going down in terms of memory? Admittedly he did have two games for it that blew away anything we had played on the ZX81 though (and without wanting to mke those games seem poor do remember that we never purchased any commercial software for the Sinclair wedge, making do with magazine listings). The first of these was Radar Rat Race. First impressions struck an immediate memory with me - we had played something very similar on the boat to Holland in the summer of 1982. Rally Driver? Rally Cross? Some name like that anyway. And the music was still rolling around my brain months later. OK, so the cars had turned into blocky rodents, and the flags were replaced with cheese but this was the same deal.

The other game was something called Gridrunner. I only got to play that once before Howard said we had to go. Something to do with me beating his High Score I think.

The parents, wise ones that they were (and let's face it they were doing the money part of the transaction) decided that the Vic didn't offer enough over the '81 so it was off to town to look at the other two contenders. Tucked away in the Welwyn Department Store was a computer section. It was already run by the two chaps who would survive the take-over by John Lewis (had it already happened in mid 1983? The brain of the Simon cannot remember) and still be in charge when we moved away in 1989. Short & Crumpled was not about but Big & Baggy was more than happy to compare the Spectrum I desired with the Commodore 64 that was the only other choice left open. Both were put through their paces and despite being hampered slightly by the rubber keys the Spectrum won for a couple of reasons. Price was obvious, but the need for a dedicated tape machine rather than using one we already had pushed the 64 out of reach for this budget. Plus we already had a stack of Sinclair Users and INKEY$ listings to try out. Uncle Clive won the day and the Tramiels would have to wait a few more years and change company before they would get any of our cash.

On getting home and unpacking the new computer we were delighted to find nestling inside the polystyrene a cassette labelled Horizons. A guided tour of the system awaited along with the delights on side 2. Thru' The Wall. Had we ever played breakout before? I think not. It was a wonderous experience and infinitely better than calculating our bio-rhythms. The new age had begun at 197 Daniels.

Of course, war would soon break out when Tony Worsely went down the 64 route, which led to much reduced access to the trainset in his loft due to his disparaging comments about block and blob graphics, but I had Karl Lawrence and Peter Gelling on my side. And the twins Martin & Jason. And one or two more. Other 64s did creep into the Sir Freds Scene (not to mention David Charles with that Dragon thing) but the Spectrum was to remain supreme for a good few years yet.

Simon

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