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This year it’s the 40th birthday of some of our favourite computers - and 40 years since the explosion in home computing. We’d like you to help us celebrate!
1982 saw the launch of the best selling computer of all time - the Commodore 64 - as well as many of the UK’s most popular computers - the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, the Dragon 32 and the Oric 1. It also saw an explosion in home computing across the world.
To celebrate this momentous year, the museum will be hosting a number of events under the banner of “Summer of ‘82” - kicking off with a festival devoted to the machines of 1982 on the 21st and 22nd May.
We’re looking for exhibitors!
Would you like to exhibit at this event? We’re looking for a range of exhibitors, so let us know how you could get involved.
User Groups and System Specialists
We would like to devote a space to each of the more popular systems, showing not just their history but how these machines are still being used and developed for today. For example, for the Dragon, we might show an early system in its original packaging, to show what you would have bought in 1982. Alongside that we might have a fully expanded system, complete with floppy drives, 80 column graphics and monitor - to show what could be done with this machine if you’d had the money in ‘82. Finally, we could demonstrate a modern upgraded machine with VGA graphics, sprites, SD cards, wifi connectivity etc.
So if you’re a specialist collector, or a member of a user group or Facebook group that might have access to a range of systems for the BBC, Spectrum, Commodore 64 etc, we’d love to hear from you.
Collectors of the Obscure
At the end of this page is a list of machines from 1982. It would be great to have at least one of each - do you have one or more in your collection? Again, we don’t mind more than one of a particular system, if each is demonstrating a different facet of the system.
Hardware and Software Developers
Do you sell or design upgrades or expansions for any of these systems? Have you made a modern replica? We’d love to devote a space to you and give you an opportunity to demonstrate and sell your products.
Similarly, do you (or did you) write software for any of the machines listed below? Do you have demos you would like to demonstrate? You don’t have to be published, and it doesn’t have to be finished and polished. We just want people who can talk about what was like to use these machines back in the day - and what it’s like to develop for them now.
The List
This is almost certainly not a complete list of systems from 1982. Please let us know what we’ve missed. How are we defining a ‘1982 computer’? It had to go on sale, for the first time, anywhere in the world, at some point in 1982. So, for example, the BBC Micro was announced in December 1981, but the first machines didn’t ship until Jan 1982 - so it’s on the list. The Acorn Electron was announced in 1982, but didn’t ship until mid 1983 - so sadly it doesn’t make the list.
Act Sirius 1
Atari 5200
BBC Micro
Colecovision
Colour Genie
Commodore C64
Commodore MAX
Dragon 32
Epson HX10
Fujitsu FM-7
Hitachi MB6885 / Basic Master Jr
HP-75
HP-87
Jupiter Ace
Laser 200
Franklin Ace
Lynx 48
Midwich MC
MPF-II
Newbrain
Olivetti M20
Oric-1
Positron 9000
Rainbow 100
Sanyo PHC-10
Sanyo PHC-20
Sanyo PHC-25
Sharp MZ-2000
Sharp MZ-3500
Sharp MZ-700
Sharp MZ-80A
Sharp PC-1251
Sharp PC-1500
Sinclair Spectrum
Sony SMC-70
Sord M-5
Tandy PC-2
Thomson TO7
Vectrex
