Editor's Blog: Home computing from Acorn, Amiga and Amstrad, to the ZX Spectrum

Here at silicon.com we recently, rather unexpectedly, unleashed a tidal wave of tech nostalgia by asking the deceptively simple question: what was your first home computer?

This question formed the basis of our latest reader poll - which saw the ZX Spectrum voted as the most popular of the 10 pieces of antique hardware we listed.

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That meant beating other classics such as the Apple II, BBC Micro, my own personal favourite the Amstrad CPC464, and others including the Commodore 64 and Dragon 32.

For some younger members of the team we had to explain that in the golden age of home computers the idea was you could actually use these - at the time very expensive - pieces of hardware to create your own programs.

Magazines dedicated pages and pages to hundreds of lines of code that enthusiasts could use to program their own games and other applications.

In fact, even now I can remember the hot flush of rage I felt when I couldn't get a game to work after spending hours every night for a week inputting a program. Even now I'm convinced the mistake was in the code, not my typing. I also nursed a bitter envy of C64 owners, which I still harbour until this day.

But that kind of frustration aside, these home computers launched the careers of many UK tech entrepreneurs - and are still warmly remembered by many others, whether they ended up with careers in IT or not.

I'm not sure whether the games consoles that followed will lead to the same flowing of innovation or fond remembrances in 20 or 30 years' time.

And the poll wasn't the end of the story. While many approved of the ZX Spectrum being crowned king - including one reader who keeps his machine in a display case - we also received comments from antique computer fans up in arms that their beloved hardware of yesteryear wasn't included in the poll.

Where was the ZX81? Where was the Commodore PET? What about the NewBrain, Nascom or Tandy TRS-80?

All I can say is that the next time we look at the history of computing - and frankly it's a compelling issue so I'm sure we'll be revisiting soon - we'll make sure we get as many of these old favourites involved as possible.

And just in case home computing nostalgia isn't enough for you, I propose a new question that should keep armchair historians arguing for some time. What was your first business computer?

Post your comments below and if we get enough suggestions we might even run a poll on that too.

Editor's choice - three things you should check out on silicon.com this week:

Find out what the priorities of your CIO are this year, have a look at the latest CIO Jury discussing the insider security threat, and read Seb Janacek on why he loves his Mac.