Back in 1979, if you wanted a microcomputer there were a few popular machines to choose from: the Apple ][, the Commodore PET, the Tandy TRS-80 and many types of CP/M system. However, if you couldn't afford a ready-built system, there was always a kit computer: the Science of Cambridge MK14, the Tangerine or the Acorn System One. These kits were very limited, having only a seven-segment LED display, a hex keypad and perhaps 256 bytes of RAM. You had to program them in machine code — not in assembler, but in raw hexadecimal machine code.

The UK101 was a kit computer that had a VDU, a full alphanumeric keyboard, 4k bytes of memory and a built-in BASIC interpreter. I bought one! Of course, you could still program it in hex if you wanted to...

For many people in Britain, the UK101 was their first computer. This was a time when computer clubs would meet to discuss the finer points of BASIC programming, and you could be sure to find somebody there who'd built and programmed a Compukit.

Magazines like Personal Computer World published programs for the Compukit alongside those for the PET and the Apple. Hardware add-ons were available, mostly as kits, from several suppliers. Comp Shop, who sold the UK101 kit, always had a full-page advert inside the back cover of magazines at the time.

After a while, new 8-bit designs arrived, like the BBC Micro, the Oric-1 and the Dragon 32. People began to see more and more of the strange new IBM PC. Then, Apple launched the Macintosh, Atari produced the ST and Commodore came out with the Amiga; all 16-bit machines based on the Motorola 68000.

People put their Compukits away and moved on to something bigger. I went for the Atari ST as a home machine, while work centred around the IBM PC and later on, Sun Unix workstations. Think of all the British fiftysomething software engineers, network analysts and Web authors who started their computing careers with a cardboard box full of chips carrying the name Compukit UK101!