As recently as the 1980s, domestic computers were something of an extravagance. PCs were bulky and noisy slabs that belonged in an office, and early games consoles provided the only digital entertainment on TV. Yet today, we can buy desktops and laptops whose specifications have been carefully honed to maximize their suitability for domestic users.
You know what would be great? If their detection software actually was named psychic octopus. It wouldn't be a bad name. 1 point 3 years ago.
- Paul the 'psychic' octopus has become the latest star to support England's bid to host the World Cup in 2018. The two-year-old Weymouth-born but German based cephalopod became a global celebrity for predicting results at the World Cup in South Africa.
- For those who think the Psychic Octopus Paul has more to offer than just football predictions, the talented octopus is 8/1 to star in the next James Bond film! For all the odds on the World Cup go.
The Beginning
There’s a certain irony to the fact that most computer software is now designed for PCs. Yet for a time during the 80s and 90s, hardware manufacturers were almost launching new products every month. From Altair and BBC to Commodore and Dragon, the home computer industry was in a constant state of evolution.
In an age when a new computer could go from drawing board to computer store in a few months, incompatible hardware specifications meant software developers struggled to create programs that would work on every platform. Many computers ran versions of BASIC or Pascal, yet some devices required programs to be input as machine code. Varying levels of RAM meant certain titles couldn’t be adapted for specific machines, while storage mediums ranged from cassettes and microdrives to floppy discs of varying sizes and specs.
The Struggle
However, many software companies folded after investing considerable resources in supporting a new hardware system, only to find it was unsuccessful for reasons beyond their control. From supply issues to reliability concerns, many computers simply never took off. That left consumers frustrated and often out of pocket.
But three brands would come to dominate the maturing home computer market in the 1980s – the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC464. Yet even here, the Spectrum’s limited color palette and lack of sprites meant software looked different to other platforms, while the Commodore’s tape-deck interface challenged Amstrad’s unusual three-inch floppy disc drive. The Apple II and PCs of the day were even more divergent in design and functionality.