How many of us can truly remember what life was like prior to the mass invasion of computers? In my case, the dawn of space travel alerted me to the potential for computers. But there was always the notion that computers were arcane things that lived in dungeons, tended to by mysterious high priests and their accolytes. They required enormous resources in terms of capital expenditure, skilled personnel, energy, space and air conditioning. Clearly, only the largest of oranisations, with very specific needs, could afford the luxury. And they were dumb. A new-born cockroach is incredibly sophisticed by comparison, and could probably be taught tricks with less effort than it took to make computers do the most basic of things. But, when it came to performing mind-numbingly boring repetitive calculations, they did the job well.

In my teens, I marvelled at how NASA had managed to shoe-horn a computer into the space of an attache case, this being the on-board guidance computer for the Lunar Excursion Module. On the first decent to the Moon (during the Apollo 11 mission) in 1969, this computer was overloaded; it was necessary to take manual control of some functions to avert disaster. Yet, just a few years later, in 1971 & 1972, hobbyist electronics magazines began giving details of how to build desktop calculators not that much less sophisticated, using off-the shelf components. In November 1971, Intel announced the first true microprocessor, the 4-bit 4004 chip, which only really became available the following year. That chip spawned an entire industry.

Soon, more sophisticated derivatives arrived, like the 8-bit 8008 and 8080 variants, followed hotly by similar chips from other manufacturers, like the Z80 from Zylog. Legendary names appeared on the scene: Altair, Chromemco, Osborne, Radio Shack TRS-80. Other chip manufacturers experimented with different architectures, like the 6502 from MOS Technologies (which became the heart of Apple and Acorn computers, among others) and the 6800 from Motorola. Soon, small single-chip computers with on-chip Basic appeared. In the mid-70s, 16-bit chips began appearing, e.g. the TMS 99000 from Texas Instruments (really a RISC processor, as we would categorise it now).

These were heady days. Some of us actually got to touch the chips - I recall that when the 6800 became available in SA, it cost well over R600, i.e. more than 3 times my monthly gross income of the time! There were those who could afford the early kits or integrated offerings, but they were few. Industrial technology demonstrator kits were available at more modest prices, for those willing to roll their own, and a few filtered into the hands of the amateur. Later, for the adventurous, totally home-grown South African systems like Carel Sterling's SA-bus system became available in component form. Primitive graphics was even standard on some systems designed for the home or small office. But to most people, all this constituted a technical curiosity... something to play with and learn new principles. Few of us had any idea of what practial use could be derived. But it was exciting.

So it was that a small group of enthusiasts formed, to share knowledge, ideas, resources and even discounts for "bulk" purchases. This was very informal. Fortunately, we had a venue: the Television Centre in Randburg, kindly provided by Angus Anderson. Initially, we focussed on experimenting with the technology, pretty much all we could accomplish was to put something together with our bare hands. Imagine how impressed we were with one another, when we could flick a switch attached to an input, and actually see an LED flash on an output! (When the program worked, that is.) Pretty trivial stuff by today's standards, but all new to us at the time. We were going through a paradigm shift - moving away from building dedicated single-function devices, to a more generic hardware platform differentiated by software.

By about 1976, we had grown in numbers and managed to formalise our relationship. The Transvaal Amateur Computer Club was born.There had been more changes in the industry. Component prices had dropped and for the few it was possible to buy off-the-shelf products, such as the Apple II. New members desirous of understanding the technology that was seeping into their organisations were attracted to us, and we grew again. Rapidly. Having between us a few items that we thought worthy of display, we held the progenitor of the Computer Faire in the foyer of one of the Wits University buildings. Some students and passers-by poked their noses in, but it was generally a rather quiet affair. The next year, we had a larger exhibition, in the Sunnyside Park Hotel, which attraced a larger crowd. The most amazing thing on display was the 5Mb winchester hard disk drive for the Apple, itself bigger than most modern PCs. We even had a competition for the members to enter their projects into, to spur on innovation. And still we grew.

In 1978, we held the first fully-fledged Computer Faire at the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. And what a buzz! There were so many new things on the scene, it was difficult to absorb the changes. Speeds had gone up, memory was becoming comparitively vast, interesting peripherals were appearing. A full two years later, the Australians, with much fanfare, trumpeted what they claimed to be the first Computer Faire in the Southern hemisphere.

Gradually the mix of membership grew. People were now actually buying complete "solutions", and the home-brew contingent were the minority. We filled the Senate House basement to capacity and easily attraced high-power speakers from industry and commerce. Most of the membership was still curious about the oddities the home-brew boys came up with, but generally they just wanted to know how to drive the latest "killer apps", or to understand the peculiarities of the particular system they had. We spawned several splinter groups... the Apple club, the TRS-80 guys, etc., and eventually the IBM PC crowd (though these last obviously had insane amounts of money at their disposal!) The "mother" organisation seemed to be a breeding ground for these user groups; we consequently changed our name to Transvaal Associated Computer Clubs (retaining the TACC or TAC2 shorthand) to reflect our new role. We grew the Computer Faire to a point at which it became unmaneageably large and took on a life of its own, at which point we sold it.

In that era, so much was experimental. New technologies and approaches were tried, many good ideas falling by the wayside despite their technical merits, largely because of poor marketing. The Faire was a fascinating place to visit; at every corner you would find something new and unexpected to spark your imagination. But finding one's way was like wading through mined quicksand. I fell into the trap of buyng a lovely little system from Grundy, called the NewBrain. (You can imagine the jesting that erupted when I announced I had acquired a new brain!) Z80-based, this notebook-sized computer, smaller than a modern keyboard, was streets ahead in architecture, with impressive graphics and mathematical ability. Certainly it would have put the LEM on-board guidance system to shame. It was destined to be the BBC micro, but financial issues elsewhere in Grundy caused the Beeb to pull out, instantly sounding the death knell.

Eventually the instustry went through a big shake-down, as the benefits of standardisation and realistic roadmaps became apparent to those holding the corporate purse strings. It is a far more boring landscape now, with exhibitions typically having immense halls filled with essentially the same stuff. We get our kicks by having the fastest screamer of a PC we can afford, surfing the net and playing with digital imaging. We have come a long way, with the typical desktop being many millions of times more capable yet immensely more affordable than its progenitors, but the magic has gone. Now it is big business, ruled largely by the dictates of corporate requirements and the desires of the gaming fraternity, real technological progress being driven more by entertainment needs than real-world applications. A whole new generation has come into being, who have grown up with computers, and training is readily available. If people want to know something, they automatically turn to the Internet. Desk-top publishing, image processing, simulation, spreadsheets... always getting better, but somehow passe.

The original purpose of TACC is thus long gone, as is that of its second incarnation. Yet, we live on in the form of a supper club. We enjoy the company of friends both old and not-so-old and sometimes have really interesting speakers. I doubt any of us who are founder members could have forseen the way the industry actually played out, or imagined that the club would still be going strong a quarter century later. It's an institution, a part of our lives and - dare I say it? - a piece of history. And it's ours.

Standard disclaimer: the foregoing is the ramblings of my standard Mk I biological processor. Any errors, ommissions or mis-statements are probably the result of skipped refresh cycles and not enough alcohol. Correct it if you will.