Not console but I was at school in Moss Side round the corner from Manchester University's immense maths building when the very first computing GCE came out. We were learning basic and had to write out a sheet of programming for something like 8*4=. The teacher would drop these off at the uni and a week later we'd go round to pick up a whole box of punch cards that had been "typed up" from our little sheets. The room was upstairs and the computer was the size of a house! With those reel to reel tape thingies spinning around. I always remember laughing at how many cards I could generate from a bit of writing.
Many years later, at uni myself I accidentally walked into what was the first IT base - a room full of amstrad 1650s, I think. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. All beautiful dos-based word processors, white writing on beautiful blue screens with 5.25 floppy disc access.
Meanwhile, and not too long after, I'd progressed from my zx to an Atari 520 and paper boy and elite would keep us up all night.
My final seismic leap was when I saw then got my first pc . it had word on it. You could change the font without having to change printer settings. Man, forget 1mb ram, that was the future right there!
