[ubuntu-uk] memory lane, was: Please can someone look at this and try to help

[Andrew Turner]

> I most certainly do. I was in Microland on the day they opened and on
> the day they closed. On the opening day I bought Jetpac and on the
> closing day I picked up a few bits for my Amiga - a genlock, some video
> editing software which they threw in for free and a BBC BASIC package
> iirc. I remember watching Stuart sitting there smoking away whilst
> playing with an Amiga and thinking that I really must get one when I
> could afford it. I didn't buy my Amiga from them, that was Athene down
> in Gosport, but I did get my GVP SCSI HD card with memory upgrade and a
> Workbench 2.05 upgrade from there. Amazingly they were the best prices I
> could find. One of the main staff there (other than Stuart and Bob) is
> now working at PC World, and when I spoke to him a while back he said
> that Stuart and Bob had recently moved from Cornwall to France. I still
> regret not splashing out on the Memotech MTX computer they had when they
> were closing down. Unfortunately I decided to think about it and when I
> went back it had gone :(
>
> The Baytree Bookshop was another favourite haunt of mine. I remember see
> the Sam Coupe there and thinking it was interesting. I seem to remember
> getting a dot matrix printer from them once, and I bought a copy of The
> Hobbit for my Spectrum there too. The bookshop is still there, but not
> the computer section sadly.
>
> I have rather too many retro computers now, and several BBC Micros,
> including one with the trackball, SCSI interface and Philips LVD player,
> along with the BBC Doomsday project disks.
>
> I take it you were local to Waterlooville back then. I was at Crookhorn
> when Microland opened, and working at IBM iirc when the closed. Still
> here, as you clearly noted :)

Wow, small world etc! I assume you mean Crookhorn Comprehensive School - I
was there from, er, 1984 til 1988, then at South Downs College. I now live
in Shropshire. What year did Microland open/close?

I used to get my BBC and Amiga software there, too. I remember buying
Elite from Microland, Revs from the Baytree, and also queuing up at
Microland on the day of release for Elite II. I was so excited, shame it
never quite lived up to expectations.

Andrew