Computers And Consoles: Spectrum, Amiga, Mega Drive, N64

Loading times measured in minutes, four-player splitscreen on a fourteen-inch television, and a tape that failed at 98 per cent.

Here's the run, in order.

The 8-bit home computers

• ZX Spectrum, 1982, with rubber keys and colour clash. Cheap enough that ordinary families could have one, which is the whole reason British game development exists.
• Commodore 64, the other side of the playground argument, with a far better sound chip.
• Amstrad CPC, which came with its own monitor and therefore didn't need the family television.
• BBC Micro, which was in every school in the country and is why so many people learned BASIC.
• Games loaded from cassette, taking several minutes, with a screeching loading screen - and failing near the end more often than anyone will admit.
• Type-in listings from magazines, pages of code entered by hand, with one typo ruining the lot.
• Elite, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Chuckie Egg, Dizzy and Head Over Heels.

The 16-bit computers

• Commodore Amiga, 1987 in the UK, and a genuine leap - the A500 is the machine a lot of British people remember most fondly.
• Atari ST, its direct rival, and strong in music production because of its built-in MIDI.
• Floppy discs, disc swapping mid-game, and the Amiga's boing.
• Lemmings, Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Speedball 2, Worms and Monkey Island.
• Public domain discs, demo scenes, and the magazine cover disc, which was the whole reason you bought the magazine.

The 16-bit console war

• Sega Mega Drive, 1990 in the UK, with Sonic and an advertising campaign built entirely on being cooler than Nintendo.
• Super Nintendo, 1992 in the UK, with Super Mario World, Zelda and Street Fighter II.
• The playground split was total and neither side has ever conceded.
• Street Fighter II is the game that made arcade-style fighting a household thing.
• Import games, region lock adaptors, and the cheat cartridge.
• Sonic 2's launch had its own marketing day, which was a first.

The 3D generation

• Sony PlayStation, 1995 in the UK, which changed who played games - it was marketed at students and adults rather than children.
• Nintendo 64, 1997 in the UK, with four controller ports as standard, which is why it owns so many people's memories of a room full of friends.
• GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time on the N64.
• Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation.
• Sega Saturn, which lost badly, and the Dreamcast in 1999, which was excellent and lost anyway.
• Memory cards, and the misery of losing one.
• Demo discs off the front of magazines, played more than most full games.

Handhelds and the rest

• Game Boy, 1990, with a green screen you could only see in direct sunlight, and battery life measured in days.
• Tetris, which came bundled and is still the reason most people owned one.
• Game Gear, which was in colour and ate six batteries in four hours.
• Game Boy Color, Game Boy Pocket, and the link cable for trading Pokemon.
• Tiger handhelds - one game, an LCD screen, and no actual movement.
• The arcade, the 10p machines, and the local chip shop with one cabinet in the corner.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• The Spectrum's low price is why British game development exists.
• Four controller ports is why the N64 owns those memories.
• The magazine cover disc was the reason you bought the magazine.

Where to shop next

• Sweets that disappeared
• School dinners we all remember
• Toys of the 80s and 90s
• Christmas presents every child got
• Phones before mobiles
• Dial-up, MSN and MySpace
• Cassette tapes and taping the charts
• Video shops and late fees
• The Argos catalogue and the wishbook
• School stuff we all had
• Cars, caravans and the British seaside
• Things kids today will never understand
• Out until the streetlights came on
• What childhood cost then vs now
• Sweets quiz
• Guess the year quiz
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Birthday cards for kids
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What was the most popular home computer in the UK?

The ZX Spectrum in the eighties, because it was cheap enough for ordinary households, and the Commodore Amiga A500 among 16-bit machines. The BBC Micro dominated schools.

Mega Drive or SNES?

The Mega Drive arrived in the UK first and was marketed as the cooler option; the SNES generally had the stronger first-party games. The argument has never been settled and never will be.

Why is the N64 remembered for multiplayer?

It shipped with four controller ports as standard, which no rival did. GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64 then made four-player in one room the default way people used it.

Why did games take so long to load?

8-bit home computers loaded from ordinary audio cassette tape, reading data as sound at very low speeds. Several minutes was normal, and a failure near the end meant starting again.