The First Game - Thro' The Wall
The first game we had actually came with the ZX Spectrum on the 'Horizons' cassette , this was a rather lovely cassette that featured lessons on one side and demonstration programs on the other ( to prove how useful and resourceful your new best buddy was). The first of these was Thro' The Wall.
You see that? That is COLOUR, even the screen after the program loaded was cyan ( yes, that's the official name for that colour , sounds better than dirty turquoise doesn't it? ) When you had a ZX Spectrum , you saw a LOT of cyan. The loading screens ,when the cassette player was playing into the computer were a jolly cyan and red ( to this day I love this colour combination and use it frequently in the adult colouring I do ) this alternated with a blue and yellow striped screen ( also a colour combination I love using in artwork) . But back to the game. True, it did just consist of hitting a ball with a bat and knocking bricks out of the wall , but the thing that entranced me was the colour. The ZX Spectrum had a lovely magenta colour as well, not quite purple but not quite pink. After the monochrome of the old TV game this was a sheer feast for the eyes.
But it got better , if you pressed the break button ( I think caps lock had to be pressed as well) , you could see into this basic program.
But it got better , if you pressed the break button ( I think caps lock had to be pressed as well) , you could see into this basic program.
For a curious ten your old this was mind blowing. It was like the secret world at the back of the wardrobe, or the blue police box that made a strange noise. I was able to change shapes in the program and they changed on the screen. Now, this may sound very mundane these days, but in 1983 this was amazing. Especially for a 10 year old to be able to change something that was 'official', possibly written by big people in a posh office somewhere! I had changed something electronic ( I'll stop going on about it now, but for me it was a big step, as it was for probably hundreds of kids!) We could even turn the ball into a letter or a copyright sign. Not only was the game fun, but so was finding ways to change it ( and occasionally destroy it ).
I was hooked, but....could it do anything that would be classed as useful in the eyes of my parents? To be continued
I was hooked, but....could it do anything that would be classed as useful in the eyes of my parents? To be continued