My earliest memories of computing is having the CPC 464 and waiting for tapes to load. I would have been about 6 or 7 years old in 1984, using the computer in the corner of my parent’s bedroom. We had the colour screen and I loved playing Oh Mummy and Harrier Attack that came with it. I remember Animal Vegetable Mineral, which guessed something you were thinking of. As a child that felt like AI does to me these days.

Obviously being young I was mostly playing computer games with my younger brothers. One particular favourite was Gauntlet and Gauntlet II… two-player mode getting to level 99 or something and the computer crashing. Such pain. Other favourite games where Chuckie Egg, Klaxx, Rainbow Islands, Boulderdash and I’m sure more that will ping in my brain when I see them somewhere.

“I’m 13 and want to be a journalist”

As I got a bit older, I started using it more functionally. I remember doing the type-ins and my stepdad helping me to write a prime number generator in BASIC. I think that’s probably my best ever bit of programming!

Merline-Serve for all your CPC needs

Things started to accelerate when I was helping my dad with what grew from a hobby into an obsession. He was good at repairing electronics, and we started buying people’s items and reselling them. That grew and grew and became something dad and I did together.

My dad’s name was Arthur, and ran a PD library that became known as King Arthur’s Domain. So our buying and selling effort became known as Merline-Serve. That was Merlin with an “e” to make it the feminine form as I was really the everyday person that dealt with people and the logistics side of things.

In theory Merline-Serve wasn’t a non-profit, but all the money went back into the hobby, buying more stock and enabling us to get to conventions to sell things. This included the CPC Southwest convention and the WACCI Conventions at Walsall football stadium. My computer use at this time was for cataloguing what we were selling, writing letters and all sorts. My dad and I even did an evening GCSE together in Computer Studies, both passing with the same grade. I remember writing a DBASE III database for our stock.

The start of things

It was around this time I knew I wanted to write. The first ever thing I got published was for WACCI fanzine, the first sentence was something like: “I’m 13 and want to be a journalist.” It came true; at 19 I studied magazine journalism at the prestigious Highbury College, became deputy editor of a magazine in the learning and development field a few years ago, and now I’m editor of its latest iteration as a content website.

Back to teenage me: I wrote for various fanzines and got involved in speaking to various companies about competitions and computer fayres and stuff I can’t really remember in that much detail now. One distinct memory was a company returning a call about something I was trying to find out about, only to be dismayed that I couldn’t speak to them because I was at school! I guess in those days it was all a bit weird that kids were using computers and doing things.

Whilst I was technical in a lot of ways, at school I was more than comfortable using the BBC computers that were in all UK schools, and we even had some PCWs too, I wasn’t into the electronics or programming side of things. I focused more on software use and the people. I did some interviews (including with Rob Buckley of Radical Software) and I got into writing game reviews and even a terrible short story. I cringe now when I look back at all of my writing, but of course at the time it felt amazing to be contributing to something and have my work published.

Amstrad Action magazine

The way I got to writing for Amstrad Action was through being friends with Rob Buckley and getting to know Simon Forrester and Dave Goldberg. Another embarrassing memory is sending hand written astrology backgrounds to them both, one of them was a taurus seems to be fixed into my memory. Rob Buckley was a programmer and, if memory serves me correctly, they hired him to write the BASIC programming page, but he was rubbish at deadlines. So I helped him with the writing and timing and he focused on the programming. From there I offered other reviews and got a fair few things published (listed at the end).

I wrote for Amstrad Action the first time when I was about 15 or so. I remember the day I received my GCSE exam results was also the day Amstrad Action issue 108 arrived in the post with my first ever published article. I’ve never lost the buzz of seeing my name in print, which of course these days extends to website content, social media and videos, podcasts, reports and the like.

At the time I was published under my given name Angela Cook. Joann is my middle name and these days I’m known as Jo. The lightbulb part comes from my own company name, Lightbulb Moment, which is about loving the ‘aha’ moment when people are learning something new.

I really enjoyed writing different features, which is where my strengths were, rather than the more technical elements, though I got into teaching networking and server building much later. I also loved the art work back in the mid-90s for magazines, even more so when my feature made the cover art.

Writing for AA at that time I think gave me my own identity. Until then it had been very much wrapped up with my dad, running Merline-Serve. That was great, I learned a lot and have some very fond memories of going round to people’s houses and buying things, cataloguing them, speaking to people on the phone and all sorts. But now this was about me being my own person in the CPC scene and fulfilling dreams about being published.

On and on

I did a few other things after this, including marketing and selling, or trying to, titles from Radical Software. I think I got involved in some other things here and there, but again it’s lost to a memory these days. I wish I’d kept my files and taken more photo’s.

I wrote for Micro Mart, PC Mart and other publications outside the computer industry. Doing what I had from such a young age gave me not only a lot of experience and practical skills, but a huge confidence in what I was doing and where I was going that.

When I look at my career for the past 30 years, I can trace it all back to that choice of Amstrad rather than an Amiga or Spectrum. Even my love life is related to it, as my other half is Simon “Doc” Green. Simon ran PD libraries, did some coding, and worked on BTL along with Richard Fairhurst, myself and others and that’s how I met him. One of my earliest memories of Simon is about 1996 at the WACCI convention, where he though the 256k silicon disc I was selling was too expensive!

The Amstrad community to me was about being with friends, having a laugh and sharing your learning with others. It’s not lost on me that I now work in the learning and development industry, and that’s the same, a lot of friendly sharing. CPC architect and UKAG honorary president Roland Perry has said how the “community was friendly” on the Retro Hour Podcast (59 minutes in).

Back then, it was more than just owning a computer. The different “scenes” as they were called had some rivalry, but mostly within it was helping people, going to conventions, having great conversations and camaraderie. I almost couldn’t understand it when people didn’t get any one of the great magazines or weren’t part of a club – what did they do with their computer!?

In the 2000s I wasn’t involved in the Amstrad scene a lot. Almost the opposite as, quite sadly, my dad had hoarded a lot of computer stuff over the years and it became a bit of a problem. We eventually sorted that out, with a lot of it coming back home with me as Simon was still very much enjoying his retro hobby.

Simon then donated my dad’s entire Amstrad Action and Amstrad Computer User collection to The Cave at The Retro Collective. We went up there a while ago and it was odd: I had to wear gloves for the magazine archive, where, in my head, I was just flicking through dad’s old mags and seeing my childhood address on the cover. It’s a fitting tribute now that my dad has passed away.

Back to the future

In the last few years I’ve really enjoyed reminiscing about my time with Amstrads and the other computers we were using, which these days are just old tech. The UKAG meetings we’ve hosted have been great fun for the sights and sounds that bring back such memories. It’s also been good fun to going to places such the Play Expo in Blackpool, including helping out with some of the speaking sessions, and meeting retro celebrities.

I’m proud of being a tiny cog for my contribution to the Amstrad scene at the time, since then it’s an even smaller part. But the Amstrad’s part in my life is huge and I’m loving it’s resurgence.

Written by:
Jo Cook

Amstrad Action mini archive

Sep 1994 – Basically Basic first ever article

Nov 1994 – feature and with front cover art and Who Said That? Review

Feb 1995 – PD feature

March 1995 – Computer Fairs and BrunWord review

April 1995 word processor feature

May 1995 MicroDesign article