Whiz Kids

An article by Paul    Comments Off

We all do it – think about when it was that a particular interest / hobby that we still enjoy today actually began?

In 1983 I was the proud owner of a Sinclair ZX81 and computers were not very mainstream yet across New Zealand schools.

Also at that time I recall a new programme on the telly called ‘Whiz Kids’ that I fell in love with.

The show was about a bunch of kids who would solve crimes with the aid of a computer and their BMX bikes. Not exactly a top rating plot I know (the series only ran 2 years) but I was hooked.

The use of technology (brand new at the time the show aired) as a cool tool used to do weekly good with was, in my view, inspired for its time.

With the benefit of hindsight the show did much to bring the concept of owning a ‘home computer’ in to the living rooms of kids watching at the time.

Remember this was also the year that the movie ‘War Games’ starring a fresh faced Matthew Broderick came out and the phrase ‘shall we play a game’ conjured up all sorts of nuclear war worse case scenarios in the minds of people for years to come.

In 1983 these two technology fuelled fictional threads did much to propel my interest in tech to a whole new level. That and the fact that I was finally getting the hang of BASIC programming and could save my 1kb games to tape!