-Mac I learned to program on my cousin’s ZX81 (1K, no expansion pack), then got my own Spectrum 48K for Xmas 1982.
My father got me a ZX81 kit when I was 12. After successfully completing radio transistor and digital clock kits, he over estimated my skills. I made a mess of the soldering and it didn’t work, so it had to be posted for fixing. He then took me with him to pick it up from Sinclair’s headquarters in Cambridge.
Once the computer was up and running, my dad would read to me from the Basic manual that had a spiral binding.
I could speak English at the time, but couldn’t read it. I remember my father reading the instructions to me. Every few sentences he would stop and comment: “I have no idea what they are talking about!”, and I would ask him to continue reading because it was all so perfectly clear. It never occurred to me that one day I will be the same with my children…. :-)
My first program on the ZX81 was a game: a character appeared on the screen for a random amount of time, and the player had to guess how much time that was. I think this pretty much used all the available memory - 1kb. To save the program I had to use a simple tape recorder, which somehow converted the software to squeaking sounds - a remarkable thing, and an absolute miracle when it worked!
For my 13th birthday my dad got me the 16kb memory extension pack which was plugged to the back slot of the computer - a massive upgrade! My uncle bought me the printer: It had a 10cm-wide silver paper role that was etched with heat or something like that (aluminium coating would evaporate and reveal the black paper underneath it). The printer connected to the slot at the back and had a pass-through for the memory extension. I printed the Thank You notes for my presents on this printer and posted them in the mail.
