, , , , as a young man growing up in England, I became interested in computer technology when it was in it's infancy. My first "computer" was a Z80 chip on a breadboard. For you out there wondering what on earth that was, simply explained it was a processor on a bare circuit board that you could input primitive data through various switches and pulses, and actually store information. It had no case,no screen, and the only place I had seen this chip in action was the controller of a Bally pinball machine !
I had started out a career in amusement machine maintenance and repair, but became so interested in digital technology, that I self-taught myself electronics, and managed to score a scholarship with Nixdorf Computer in Germany, a major player in the emerging field of industrial computer control.
Then in the 70's, PONG came along ! the first consumer video game you could attach to your TV and play for hours. When eveyone realized computing could be fun, the first simple home computers emerged from Sinclair, Commodore, Atari and more. After emigrating to the USA in 1980, I bought a Radio Shack color computer and learned to program in BASIC, a low tech consumer grade computer language.
When IBM introduced the first personal computer, that's when I realized that I really wanted to work in the field of computer assembly and repair. I bought a Radio Shack T1000 IBM clone and just messed with it. I added hardware, pushed the envelope on it's capabilities, crashed it hundreds of times and sat hours trying to get it to work again!! But I was already learning the skills I needed to help others with their computers. There was little help available in those days, today the internet has all the info you need to fix the toughest of problems. I pride myself in being able to tackle the most daunting tasks, and returning systems to full functionality.