The Golf Course
1986 — anyone with a home computer was buying INPUT magazine, a Marshall Cavendish computer course published in weekly parts. The reality for me: I enjoyed looking at the pictures and typing in the listings without understanding the code. That was all part of the fun. Issue 6 included a listing for a golf course. I diligently typed in the entire listing and typed RUN.
The screen started rendering. On the 12 inch B&W Matsui television, it looked like magic. It felt like an age to fully render — in fact the article suggests you go for a cup of coffee whilst it completes, which I did, and had a brief chat with my dad in the kitchen, explaining to him that the magazine had told me to have a cup of coffee. When I returned, I was quite impressed.
I recently enquired about the article in a Facebook post, describing it as “realistic” — oh, how the memory plays tricks on you. Anyway, after all that typing I saved it to tape so I could show it to my brother later on. When I did show it to him, he was fuming, demanding to know what was the point of all that typing if it was not a game!!! Needless to say, I never shared any further coding adventures with him.
Read the source
INPUT magazine, issue 6, is downloadable from Archive.org.
Images from INPUT magazine (issue 6) are included here under Fair Use guidelines for the purpose of historical commentary, nostalgia, and personal memoir. All rights belong to the original publishers. If you are the copyright holder and wish for this image to be removed, please contact me.