Since their conception at the start of the 20th century, few technologies have progressed as much as the computer. The development of first the valve, then the transistor and finally silicon chips have lead to the processing power of computers approximately following Moore’s Law which states that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on a chip will approximately double every 2 years.
In the 1980s computers were starting to become affordable for the average home user and among the most popular were the Sinclair range. The ZX81 was the first home computer of many people who are now around 25 years old and older.
Sinclair ZX81
The ZX81 was the big brother of the older ZX80 and was released in 1981 (that’s 28 years ago, if you want to feel old 
). It had a Zilog Z80 processor, like the later Amstrad CPC range, and a wopping 1KB of RAM (try to get your Vista in THAT Microsoft!).
The screen was 32 x 24 characters which lead to some rather blocky graphics, but no one seemed to mind. Several games were released including a version of chess that fit in the 1KB of RAM.
The original price was £49.95 – but that came unassembled: you had to solder the unit together yourself. If you wanted the hard work done for you the price rose to £69.95.
Interestingly the ZX81 didn’t use the ASCII character set but instead used its own proprietary character encoding where 0 was space, 1 – 10 were block graphics and the letters and numbers were represented by other codes.
The ZX81 was eventually replaced by the ZX Spectrum which was capable of much better graphics, including colour, had at least 16KB of RAM and for which hundreds of games were released.
Unfortunately whatever cartoons I was watching as a child in the 80s, they would at some point be interrupted by adverts (unless I was watching BBC which doesn’t have any).
Oddly, some 20 years later, there are still many from that period that stick in my mind. Here are a few.
Shake ‘n’ Vac
I don’t think Shake ‘n’ Vac is still going – and I’m not surprised. Whoever thought throwing scented grit on your carpet and then immediately vacuuming it up was an economical use of money clearly had no head for business. The tune was kind of catchy though.
Hammerite
Hammerite was metal paint. Again, I don’t know if this is still going but the image of dancing suits of armour and tin men is still with me some 15 – 20 years later so as adverts go this one is pretty successful.
Carling Black Label
Carling is most definitely still going. I’ve never been much of a lager drinker, owing to it being a kids’ drink and me having always been an old man, but the ads were quite funny at the time. The joke, for those unfamiliar with the ads, is that the catchphrase was always “I bet he drinks Carling Black Label”
Um-Bongo
Everyone my age I ask about this remembers it, yet no one knows anyone who actually bought the stuff. Of course this is one of those ad jingles that did the rounds in the playground at school, with everyone trying to find the lyrics in the days before the internet made that a trivial task.
The Leeds (Building society)
In what might be regarded as an odd choice I’ve decided to include this one for a couple of reasons. The first is that I remember the catchy tune that was used in all the Liquid Gold adverts. The second is the interest rate offered in the ad – 10.75%! My current savings account pays something around the 2% mark (if that) due to the Bank of England’s woeful attempts to curb recession by cutting interest rates (this after they’ve been telling us for years that we need to save, they then make it so it’s not worth saving…). You might recognise Arthur Daily from Minder
