10 PRINT “RETRO” – Usborne Makes Its 80s-era Computer Books Available For Free
If you’re old enough to have learnt programming with the aid of a BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 back in the day, then get ready for a major nostalgia kick, courtesy of Usborne. The publisher has made 15 of its vintage computer books for children available as freely downloadable PDFs from its website. […]
If you’re old enough to have learnt programming with the aid of a BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 back in the day, then get ready for a major nostalgia kick, courtesy of Usborne.
The publisher has made 15 of its vintage computer books for children available as freely downloadable PDFs from its website. The downloads cover introductions to programming, ‘First Computer Library’ books for younger readers using computers for the first time and guides on how to programme your own computer games.
Needless to say, the information they contain is largely outmoded and more for historical curiosity these days. Still, if you’re keen to take a walk down memory lane, or fancy setting your after-school computing club the (somewhat sadistic) task of programming an adventure game in BASIC, download one of the books, fire up an emulator of one of the machines of the time and have fun.
The giveaway is intended promote Usborne’s new computer books, Lift-the-flap Computers and Coding and Coding for Beginners Using Scratch. The former is an introduction to the basic principles of coding and networking aimed at KS1, with flaps on each page revealing what goes inside computers as they ‘think’. The latter meanwhile offers a guide to the basics of coding in the visual programming language Scratch, with step-by-step instructions for creating various games and animations.
