It's all computers these days, you know.

This was a fun purchase. I know what was in the box (or case…), but I thought you might enjoy opening this one up a bit at a time.

Back in the early ’80s, computers were available for home users, but not many people knew what to do with them. I knew what I was doing with my Speccy, but that was playing games which wasn’t “proper” computing. Everyone knew that home computers were important, but most people didn’t quite know why. One of my favorite phrases of the ’80s was “Well, it’s all computers now, isn’t it?”. The standard applications that tended to be trotted out were keeping a recipe book for Mum, and helping Dad with the home accounts (it was the eighties remember).

Frankly, I can’t imagine how you could make use of the early home computers for either of those tasks. I can’t imagine Mum with the Vic-20 and the portable telly on the kitchen table, or Dad trying to remember which C-90 his accounts were stored on. Just as long as the kids haven’t recorded an Adam & the Ants record over the top of it. I knew I should have gone to find a biro to write on the label. Etc.

Anyway, lots of people decided it was time to learn about computers because it was all computers in those days.

There were plenty of people willing to help you to learn about computers, and the National Education Corporation was one of them. Now if you were in the UK, you might think that this was a government organization, but despite the hoity-toity name, it was actually a company that ran vocational colleges around the US. The organization did start as the Malibu Archery company selling Japanese bows and arrows but soon aimed the business at some other targets. Sorry. in fact, the next target was to offer correspondence courses in forestry, which he modestly named the North American School of Conservation.

Anyway, for a mere $295 dollars, the world of computing could be yours. And that included the computer. And here’s what you got.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…..

They open strongly with a freakin’ briefcase. I’m feeling more professional already. I may start taking this to work. Now, it’s not a great, briefcase, in fact, it’s not even really a good briefcase, but I can let that one slide.

On opening the case you receive your mission briefing (sorry, the whole briefcase thing has me humming the Mission Impossible theme - spoiler: there’s even a tape recorder in here!).

And here it is, the Technical Literacy Series Computer Course from the National Education Corporation! Within these 11 (eleven!) volumes, the secret to the future is to be found.

These go to eleven!

In the next thrilling segment, we’ll finally uncover the mighty micro at the heart of this educational truth bomb.