BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia: Motoring Non-motoring forum

Non-motoring > BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia	Computing Issues
Thread Author: zippy	Replies: 11

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Fri 18 Apr 25 11:50

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - zippy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8-54-9J9ns

When the BBC made good documentaries.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 12:21

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - martin aston

Nostalgia indeed. I then drifted across to another video in the sidebar about Company Car Men in the 90’s. It’s pre Alan Partridge but straight out of his worldview with men obsessed with the minutiae of company car specs and status…….imagined and real. Worth dipping into.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 14:03

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - zippy

>> men obsessed with the minutiae of company car specs and status…….imagined and real. Worth
>>dipping into.

"if they had put the 'i' on the back of the car" lol!!! And that tailgating!

When I first had a company car the fleet was run by the HR manager who was ex-RAF and an absolute dick. He got the lowest specification possible from his mate's garage a couple of towns away and we had to drive them until they died.

He didn't care that they constantly broke down meaning that sometimes we wouldn't get home until the morning. Said we should fix them at the roadside ourselves - in a suit - in the rain - right.

Our days were already long enough - often in excess of 14 hours with no overtime, so we started to take time off in lieu for any breakdowns.

When productivity fell because of the crappy fleet, he was ordered to get a proper car company in to look after the fleet and we were all upgraded to Rover 218s.

Last edited by: zippy on Fri 18 Apr 25 at 14:06

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Fri 18 Apr 25 14:26

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - zippy

>>Company Car Men in the 90’s. It’s pre Alan Partridge but straight out of his worldview with
>> men obsessed with the minutiae of company car specs and status…….imagined and real. Worth >>dipping into.

For those interested, this is one version of the video that I think MA is referring to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8KDYcDa8g

It's astonishing that some of these people were allowed to breed!

And probably explains the state of British industry.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 17:11

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - martin aston

That’s the one. Sorry for the thread drift but it was adjacent to your video.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 18:28

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - zippy

>> That’s the one. Sorry for the thread drift but it was adjacent to your video.
>>

Not at all!

I had seen it years ago and it was a welcome reminder of how things were.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 13:16

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - Manatee

This is terrific. Brilliantly illustrates the complexity behind and for me the wonder of everyday experience.

I still see cellphones as fairly miraculous because I know that the technology that enables them is hugely sophisticated.

My children of course grew up with computer graphics and my grandchildren came into a world with ipads which they just accept and use (much faster than I can).

I must try this video on the grandsprogs and see if it interests them to know how much effort was needed to make simple graphics happen

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Fri 18 Apr 25 13:43

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - Terry

I suspect our grandchildren can scarcely conceive of life without immediate worldwide connectivity, google, cameras, social media, on-demand music and video content, etc etc etc.

If I think back 60+ years to my childhood and reflect on the way my grandparents would have lived in the early 20th century I would have been equally perplexed - no car, no TV, no phone, no freezer, probably no fridge or washing machine, possibly no electricity, no air travel, etc etc.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 15:59

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - Manatee

I certainly didn't do air travel as a kid and I don't think we had a car until I was about 13. Washing machines had a mangle if they weren't a new fangled twin tub, although my granddad was an early adopter of a Bendix auto washer.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 17:09

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - Bromptonaut

>> I certainly didn't do air travel as a kid and I don't think we had
>> a car until I was about 13. Washing machines had a mangle if they weren't
>> a new fangled twin tub, although my granddad was an early adopter of a Bendix
>> auto washer.

My Father flew between UK and France for business for as long as I can remember but, other than going to the Scillies as a kid, it wasn't something we did as a family.

My maternal grandmother had no fridge until the very last years of her life after 1970 and had what must have been one of the last coal fired ranges installed in the UK - late fifties.

Cannot remember how washing was done but certainly no machine.

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Fri 18 Apr 25 18:40

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - zippy

Computer graphics....

30 years ago...(1995)
I remember ray tracing on my Amiga 1200. It was "souped up" - It had the 68030 upgrade. More ram and the maths coprocessor.

One frame could take a week to render. Now, GPUs can render output at 120 frames per second of superior quality images whilst the CPU manages game play in the background.

Goodness knows what will be here in 2055?

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Sat 19 Apr 25 07:38

BBC Horizon - Computer Graphics 1981 - Nostalgia - Crankcase

I’ve always had a soft spot for Horizon, or at least as it was before they ruined it. To see an older peak show, with a Paul Vaughn narrating was great, so thank you.

As to the content, well, there wasn’t more than one scene without a checked shirt in it. But it depicted “my” time for computer graphics. I was subconsciously twitching as they made the obvious wrong move in Defender, and that Scramble player was way too aggressive on the low attacks. The Super Cobra variant player had a better idea. The Pac-Man kids were a bit useless. Honestly, kids of yesterday.

I liked the drawing program where you swiped a short line through whatever you wanted to delete and redrew it. I don’t recall seeing that in modern software and it’s a good idea. And rotating a 3D object with a horizontal physical knob seems much more intuitive than a mouse, another great idea.

Great stuff, thank you.

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