My First Time Technology

Virtual Museum 2019

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CHRIS JOHNSON-STANDLEY – ROGUE ROBOT

My first digital encounter was with 'Prestel'. It was effectively an early internet system launched by BT (at that time still Post Office Telecoms) in 1979. My father worked for BT and brought a box home on which we could access basic games, use a (very) basic email system (although we didn't know anyone else who had the system, so that was pretty useless), and look up companies who could cryogenically freeze you for a sky-high fee.

​This was the early 80's so I felt very much like Matthew Broderick in 'War Games', though the only catastrophe I caused was running up a huge phone bill.

DAVID HAYWARD - FERAL VECTOR

​​Playing a Bruce Lee game on an old Atari with my older brother in the early 80’s. In two player mode, one of the enemies became P2 and it turned into a cooperative game. Except, the character was a big green troll with a horn he could blow, which was a *great* way to annoy your older brother while he was getting beaten up and crying for help.

CHRISTIAN KRUPA - SPECIAL ANIMATION SAUCE

I think it was my old mate Roger Lewis who somehow got his hands on a Sinclair ZX80 and 81 and a ram pack. We struggled with the weird flat keyboard to even type the load command but after many tries got the fabled 3D monster maze to load. Stepping round a poorly drawn perspective of a maze, barely able to even make out what we were looking at, punctuated by the random appearance of a blocky Tyrannosaurus Rex was at once a terrible and frustrating experience coupled with an excitement of knowing that this was the start of something new. Things got better as computers developed but that moment seems a strange mix of the ancient, almost 1950s 'modern' world and the sudden onslaught of the post modern that we are now fully within.

HELEN MELLER - HEBDEN BRIDGE ARTS FESTIVAL

Playing Pong in my bri nylon nightie with my brother, hypnotised by the travelling dot as it crossed the screen of the black and white telly!