"Once upon a time it was not easy to write and play games with computers. Back in the dim, dark past, it could cost you $80 to $100 an hour just to rent access to a time-shared mainframe via a terminal. And the only output you had was on the printout of a noisy, hard-to-read teleprinter. Think what those restrictions would have done to your current pattern of spending hours lovingly debugging, and improving, your latest masterpiece.

We, fortunately, do not have to suffer such medieval conditions. The luxury of having a computer of your own, driving a TV screen, with unrestricted access to the machine, allows you to work for as long as you like creating games and other programs"

Tim Hartnell, London, May 1983
Introduction to "Tim Hartnell's Giant Book of Computer Games"