Cast your mind back, if possible to the year 1982. A year that saw millions of people over the world playing with Rubik's Cubes, Britain going to war over the Falkland Islands, the World Cup kicked off in Spain and of course Knight Rider burst onto our screens together with the iconic David Hasselhoff. Alongside all these important events something was stirring in the wings of successful British company Sinclair Research Ltd.

Having already released popular calculators and excellent value computers like the ZX80 and ZX81 onto an eager British public, the founder Sir Clive Sinclair released a new home computer like no other - the ZX Spectrum! The first model had a whopping 16K of ROM to hold the operating system and the BASIC interpreter, and also 16K of RAM to store any programs in memory. Eight different colours were available, although this could be increased to 16 using the BRIGHT command. High resolution graphics at 256x192 were possible and you could also produce sound using the trusty BEEP command. All this for £99!

Soon after this a 48k model was released and this was the one which my Dad proudly brought home to an overjoyed son in 1983 - I had guessed he was bringing one home but fully expected the 16K model! WH Smiths had bundled a free game also with the computer - Roadrunner by Protek, which I happily loaded up and used the then common 'cursor keys' to control the little car and try to cover the whole of the maze while avoiding the strikingly familiar ghost monsters.

Back in those days of course, the cassette inlays had the job of attracting a prospective buyer to the game on the shop shelves and some featured some astounding artwork - if only the actual game graphics matched up to the drawings! Bundled free with every Spectrum computer was the legendary 'Horizons' tape which consisted of introductory graphical tutorials and demonstrations of the inner workings of the computer, and also a few simple games. For many people that bought the ZX Spectrum this introductory cassette was the first tape to be loaded onto their shiny new computer and therefore the first game many people played was the included bat and ball game 'Thro The Wall'.

1983 proved to be an excellent year for Spectrum games and I eagerly saved up my pennies for a few big releases. Of course some games were also 'borrowed' from school friends which was an excellent way to try before you buy. Ant Attack by Quicksilva was a ground-breaking 3D game which featured a large walled city to explore while avoiding the giant killer ants, and you could also choose to be a boy or a girl!

The biggest release of 1983 proved to be Manic Miner by Bug-Byte, a jump and collect platform game which was so well written and polished featuring 20 screens and continuous music throughout - nothing had been seen like it before and at the time absolutely everyone was buying, playing or copying it!

I also spent some of 1983 catching up on games that I missed during 1982. Horace Goes Skiing by Psion and Melbourne House was one game that I borrowed from friends. On loading you were tasked with crossing a busy road to get your skis, then once safely back across you had to (funnily enough) ski down the slopes through the pairs of flags and avoiding the trees.

The Hobbit, based on the J.R.R.Tolkien book was an excellent adventure game featuring several 'intelligent' characters and scenes from the written novel. A few bugs made the game difficult to complete and adventure helplines were swamped with requests for years to come, but never the less many people did complete the game, myself not included!

Back to 1983 and no journey back to the ZX Spectrum years is complete without mentioning the Ultimate games. During this year alone we were graced with superbly fun, unique and highly professional games like Jetpac, Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Pssst and Cookie!

Jetpac was Ultimate's first entry into Spectrum gaming and it made an enormous impact for the company. The simple idea of collecting parts for a spaceship and then obtaining fuel so that you could take off was ingeneous. Similarly Pssst had you protecting a large flower from being eaten by various garden pests, Cookie had you baking a cake while avoiding the nasties, Atic Atac had you running around a spooky castle collecting artifacts and Lunar Jetman brought Jetpac a stage further giving you a large scrolling level to explore and giving you the chance to drive a lunar rover!

Other notable releases of 1983 were the world-renowned Cassette 50 by Cascade, featuring 50 very BASIC games and also a free digital calculator watch that was advertised in just about every single computer magazine at the time!

Also memorable were Durell Software's Harrier Attack featuring fast scrolling graphics as you bombed the ships and gun emplacements while battling rogue jets in the sky, and Scuba Dive which had you diving deep down into the ocean braving such nasties as giant octopus, fierce sharks and huge jellyfish to reach the treasures.

Quicksilva obtained the license to Raymond Brigg's famous Snowman book, and in turn created a pleasant little christmas game with you in control of the little boy. First you had to collect snow along the platforms so you could make the Snowman. Then you had to collect items of dress like a scarf, buttons etc, all while avoiding the ever-dangerous fire and nasties! Another game I recall playing was Firehawks by Postern. Warning - Lightning reflexes were required for this game so take heed!