From about 1983 onwards, home computers were commonplace in the UK. This was mainly the Sinclair Spectrum (a device that, perhaps, caused a mini industrial revolution in the UK by teaching a generation how to code (and how to hack hardware)), with a smattering of Acorns, BBC Micros (also an Acorn, really) and Commodore 64s.

I learned Z80 assembler and built some add-on boards on a Spectrum and never looked back.