Computer shops in and around Leeds from the past.

[jonleeds]

Yes the ZX81 was the first computer I remember people getting besides them Atari 2600 games consoles and those Binatone / Grandstand 'Pong' rip off games which had all versions of 'Squash / Table Tennis / Football' etc on them. I've got an Atari 400 computer I picked up about 15 years ago at York car boot sale, that has a similar annoying touch sensitive keyboard the same as the ZX81 had. What a nightmare to type on.My Commodore Plus 4 I can remember going to buy it from Debenhams in 1983 where is was on special offer for £199 which included a dedicated Commodore Datasette (cassette player / recorder) plus it came with 10 games included - my favorites of which were Icicle Works and Treasure Island. I can still remember the music that played in the background..! Unfortunately I had to play these games on a black and white TV apart form the rare occasion when I got to use the living room telly on a Saturday night if my parent were of t't'con club. Its seems fantastic the amount of money these things cost back in the early 1980s, its almost as though there has been zero inflation on the prices of computers and consoles in that the price of a Playstation 3 today at £200 for example is roughly the same price as an equivalent computer / console back then. It seems the prices of much home technology has either stayed roughly the same or plummetted in price. I can remember when the first video recorders came out they were fabulously expensive yet you can pick up DVD players and even Blu-Ray players for well under £100 now.    

[Erminman]

I also had the plus 4. Treasure Island game came with a map, and they were two of the ten free games that were Maths based games, one of which was a racing car game and the lanes to had to drive in were related to the correct answer. I do remember the monty miner 'mole' game and one air simulation which one side took an hour to load then most of the time it crashed. happy days. I feel retro now because I still have a PS2 in my spare room.

[jonleeds]

Yes thats right Erminman, plus I can remember some obscure title called Fireant, and another one called Mayhem that were amongst the 10 free games. I dont think I played the maths games much. Also I can remember there was a company called Mastertronic who did a line of cheap £1.99 games and I used to buy one every weekend, some of them were quite good like 'Kickstart' with the music from the TV show and 'Finders Keepers' which was also a good game.

[mhoulden]

I don't know about Leeds, but I do remember the Computer Store in Halifax which I think was part of a local chain and there may have been one in Leeds as well. I also vaguely remember Tandy in the Schofield/Headrow Centre.

[kango]

I remember Boots selling a lot of Sinclair stuff and as mentioned Tandy but in the Merrion centre. I have been collecting all things ZX81 for the past thirty odd years and it may surprise You how active things are for the little black door wedge.So much so that add ons and software are still being produced for it and at the moment the average ZX81 amongst the members of our forums comes with high res graphics 6 channel stereo sound proper keyboard, USB support , SD card reader turbo high speed ULA chip and a few other things in the pipeline.In Germany the support is even greater they also have the odd web server run by the 81.In 1979 a Cray mk1 computed the highest prime number after a run time of two months it had over 13000 digits.In 1982 Dr Frank O'Hara calculated these digits on a ZX81. Run time two and a half hours.Not bad for a little black door stopper.My first computer came from Kays catalogue, also didn't Comet and Currys sell computers?                    

[Riponian]

I used to have an Oric, and wrote a few bits of code on it. Now, courtesy of that Armley based company I have a Raspberry Pi or two where it's possible to relive the days of staying up "just trying to get that bit of code" working.A pile of these old pieces of kit were donated to our club (RADARS) and we sold a lot of it on a well know auction site, it was a surprise what some folk would pay for it.Ironically, I've just got back from assisting a session with those little beasties over in Stockholm, where we've had a bunch of Swedes tapping away programming them to run as a media player.    

[jonleeds]

kango wrote: I remember Boots selling a lot of Sinclair stuff and as mentioned Tandy but in the Merrion centre. I have been collecting all things ZX81 for the past thirty odd years and it may surprise You how active things are for the little black door wedge.So much so that add ons and software are still being produced for it and at the moment the average ZX81 amongst the members of our forums comes with high res graphics 6 channel stereo sound proper keyboard, USB support , SD card reader turbo high speed ULA chip and a few other things in the pipeline.In Germany the support is even greater they also have the odd web server run by the 81.In 1979 a Cray mk1 computed the highest prime number after a run time of two months it had over 13000 digits.In 1982 Dr Frank O'Hara calculated these digits on a ZX81. Run time two and a half hours.Not bad for a little black door stopper.My first computer came from Kays catalogue, also didn't Comet and Currys sell computers?                     Dont know if it will interest you Kango, but I know of a chap in Cookridge who is selling a Sinclair ZX80, apparently it works but its set to run on the South African video system or something, it was listed on Gumtree a few weeks ago for £250. I emailed him last week and he said he still has it.Its surprising how many of these old computers still have very active user groups with people still developing software and hardware for them. A few weeks ago I sold a Commodore PET II that I bought at the airport car boot sale for £10. I'd had it stuck in the spare room for 15 years and I decided to have a clear out. I sold it for over £600 to a dedicated Commodore enthusiast / collector in the USA.

[jonleeds]

Riponian wrote: I used to have an Oric, and wrote a few bits of code on it. Now, courtesy of that Armley based company I have a Raspberry Pi or two where it's possible to relive the days of staying up "just trying to get that bit of code" working.A pile of these old pieces of kit were donated to our club (RADARS) and we sold a lot of it on a well know auction site, it was a surprise what some folk would pay for it.Ironically, I've just got back from assisting a session with those little beasties over in Stockholm, where we've had a bunch of Swedes tapping away programming them to run as a media player.     Wow Riponian, the Oric was quite an obscure machine even back then, was yours the 'Atmos' model? I was given a Raspberry Pi by a friend about 12 months ago and I even though I'm quite tech savvy I couldnt really work out what it did so I let that go on eBay for £35, only to find myself a few months later purchasing what amounted to a similar device in the form of an Android 'Smart' TV dongle as I wanted an HDMI source to view HD movies on my plasma screen telly. Like you've mentioned I could have set up the Raspberry Pi as a media player.

[tyke bhoy]

kango wrote: I remember Boots selling a lot of Sinclair stuff and as mentioned Tandy but in the Merrion centre.     Tandy moved to the Merrion Centre next to Woolworths fromsomewhere in the vicinity of Albion Street but my memory fails as to precisely where. I also seem to recall there was a branch towards the bottom of Eastgate

[simong]

I have a (possibly dead, haven't plugged it in for years) ZX81, an Atari ST 2600 which saw a lot of use in a home studio (I believe there are people who still swear by them (and probably at them)) and a Yamaha CX-5M, which was an early music composer system running on the MSX platform, which was Microsoft's first attempt at a home computer platform in the mid-80s and used cartridges. Considering selling them or possibly donating them - the Computer Museum in Cambridge doesn't have a CX-5M at the moment.