My goodness, what a thought. It must have been in about 1992 when the family got its first desktop computer – a large, off white CRT monitor, a horizontal console with, horrors, a 5 1/4 inch gloppy disc drive, and a basic OS, not even Windows! I remember the first word processing program – WordStar, a green interface where I wrote my coursework essays and a good deal of early fanfiction. Then came WordPerfect – blue and white and a touch more sophisticated. I think that was the upgrade!
At some point, we got a Windows 3.1 enabled PC, complete with Encarta – now THAT was something – two CD-Roms full of facts and information that kept us entertained for hours. I suspect my parents still have the CDs somewhere.
Unsurprisingly, my main memory is of typing reams and reams of stories on these early computers – including a 50,000 word Quantum Leap fanfiction the summer after I finished my A-Levels in 1995. And the odd computer game, one of which involved steering a janitor called Joe around a series of ever more precarious platforms. And then, later, Gabriel Knight, “The Beast Within”. My best friend Rhi despaired of me ever completing that one, I think – but we both fancied the video renderings of the guys in it!
Here’s to a simpler time, before internet commodification and smart phones. Kids today will never know the joy of waiting for a CD-Rom to load, in order to search up the geography of Africa for homework. Or the excitement of just focussing on typing that one story that’s eating your brain, and waiting an eternity for the hard copy to print out on the dot matrix printer. I miss it.
Fay Keenan 