Re: 8k is enough for anyone
My Dad had a Pet 8000 to run Visicalc and some Stock Control software in 1979/80.
I can remember the command "dload cosmicwars 8000" to run a Space Invaders clone - which even then was disappointing as the packaging always had better graphics than the game in those days - especially when you looked at what was in the arcades.
ZX-81 games were similarly packaged and disappointing - you have to be of a certain age to remember the excitement of buying a ZX-81 tape in WHSmith, but then the crushing disappointment of a few blocks moving on the screen when you got it home and loaded it up. They never had these games running as demos, for good reason!
Even worse was if it was a bad tape and you spent hours for it never even loading, and then there was the RAM pack wobble (not confined to just the ZX-81) waiting until you had typed pages of hex listings in in to crash and void your evening's toil! Typos in the magazines usually meant that they never worked anyway even if you keyed it in correctly and avoided the RAM pack wobble.
I can echo the sentiment above that at the time it seemed like magic (although tempered by what you saw in arcades), but actually it was a bit shit (but it's all that was available for home/small business use).
Ahh, jumpers for goalposts, marvellous etc.etc.
