Back in these dark days, there were almost as many hardware formats as software publishers - indeed, one leading weekly magazine published a Top 20 computer chart, littered with manufacturers now long since gone to that great skip in the sky: Jupiter, Lynx, Oric, Newbrain, Dragon etc. The best-selling computer of the day was the Sinclair Spectrum, available in 16k and 48k versions for £125 and £175, although the technically superior, but far more expensive, Commodore 64 (£345) was starting to win friends and influence people.

Overnight though, Sinclair produced the first great marketing splash the embryonic industry had ever seen: this week the Spectrums were cut to £99 and £129 respectively, and many daily newspapers carried massive double page spreads trumpeting the fact that you - yes, you - could now buy a colour - yes, a colour - computer for under £100. A massive psychological barrier against home computer ownership had been lifted, and Spectrums moved faster than at any time in their history.

Ironically, given that the advertising played on the sub-£100 pricing, the more popular purchase was the technically superior 48k model. No doubt many consumers were wooed by the ridiculous price drop, and decided at the last minute to go the whole hog. This move, and the huge profile it gave Sinclair, was one of the main reasons why the low-cost opposition mentioned at the top of this piece began dropping out of the charts and then, ultimately, out of existence.

But save those tears, it also helped the UK become one of the most creative programming countries in the world, as thousands of teenagers, perhaps cheesed off with the unreliable tape loading system, and the overall poor quality of the resulting load, began writing their own programs, first in BASIC and then in Z80 Assembler. The next two years belonged to the Spectrum as companies like Ultimate (now called Rare, of course) produced a whole range of classics for it. Glory days indeed, and it wasn't until the Commodore 64 came down to a similar price point that it began winning over hearts and minds.