You may need to download the latest version of the 
Transcription of audio file:
Zx 80, I remember that. I could never afford one, but I really, really wanted one. My friend had one, and he had a ZX 81. I just remember those flat keys and trying to press them, and thinking, 'Are they working?' I used to play some games - well I think he only had one game, I think it was something like 3D Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was quite scary actually, for a kind of 1K game. I think that was with a 1K expansion pack.
© Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library
I really, really wanted one, but I couldn't get one. But then eventually I got a ZX Spectrum, which I got given as a birthday present, I think, or a Christmas present.
And it was amazing, I just remember those rubber keys, those sweaty rubber keys, and playing - what was it? Daley Thompson's Decathlon? I think that was it. And having to press z-y-z-y, and then jump. You used to have to plug your Spectrum into your telly. The actual machine was really nice. You had to have a tape deck that went with it.
Looking back on it now I don't like the fact of these games. I mean, I love the memories, and I thought, 'These games are brilliant!' You know, like Manic Miner, School Daze and things like this, or 1942, and Rambo. I thought it would be brilliant if I could play those again.
I've got two Spectrums now, and I was thinking I'd relive all my fantasies of playing the games that I used to remember, and the good times. And I plugged it in and started playing the games, and it actually depressed me. The memories I had of the games were of really good graphics, and amazing video or animation, and really good fun. And they were really good fun, and they had really good animation, but coming back from now, and what you get now with computers, it was a letdown. And so I've said to myself I won't play them anymore, I'll live with the memories. I'd rather keep the memories as opposed to going back and visiting them and then being disappointed.
I've got one ZX Spectrum in the office. I think I have it in the office just as nostalgia, to remind me of what a personal computer used to be and how big it was. And I think it's a design classic. It actually looks really interesting, and I think it's a beautiful-looking thing.
