Sad news - sure a lot of us got into computers via a zx
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Sad news - sure a lot of us got into computers via a zx
An utter legend who game me many happy memories with a ZX and learning to programme with it. RIP & thanks for the years of fun you gave to so many kids.
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I 'got' into pocket calculators by being awarded an Executive 1 by my first employer in my first year of employment, I couldn't imagine that any calculator could be more smaller or more cooler than that calculator! :acne:
R
RIP Sir Clive. I really wished if I had learnt programming on the Spectrum or the C64 in the 80s.
Very sad news. I was inseparable from my ZX-81 forty years ago. I used to spend long hours coding on it until I got my BBC Micro a year or two later. And without that early experience I doubt I'd have pursued a career as an IT specialist. I didn't even touch a computer at school.
i used to read all the computer mags in the late '70s and early '80s and Sir Clive was a regular feature.
About ten years ago the BBC made a dramatised account of the early days of the home computer, called The Micro Men. Sir Clive was played by Alexander Armstrong.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004mzh5
RIP - the ZX was my gateway many many years ago.
A Spectrum was my first computer and I spent many happy hours playing and experimenting with it.
Sad to hear this, never bothered with computers but bought a Grey Watch, created a lot of interest but really dreadful compared to a cheap mechanical watch. But, enjoyed it, while it lasted.
Really sad news, still remember getting my ZX81 at WH Smith. The world needs a whole lot more Clive Sinclair types. Way ahead of his time.
My first computer (ZX81) and my first self build LED watch.
RIP Sir Clive.
Sad news-from another (former) ZX owner.
I clearly recall receiving a Black Watch kit for christmas 1976 - as I teenager, I had a passion for taking electrical items to pieces, to see how they work.
The Black Watch was so cool, the start of the January 1977 school term was divided in to those that had the Sinclair watch, and thiose that didn't.
I think it's still in a shoebox, somewhere in the loft !
Ah, sad to hear this.
RIP Sir CLive.
I too enjoyed the ZX81, and every incarnation of the ZX Spectrum that followed.
They don't make 'em like they used to.
Sad news. A great British inventor.
RIP Sir Clive. He had a fantastic colourful private life. Really wanted one of his mini TV's when I was young but couldn't afford one.
I met him a few times through Mensa (he was active in the organisation and President), he was without doubt a bit of a one-off, and he was always interesting to listen to. RIP.
RIP indeed. Proper British Boffin with a pretty racy private life. Used a Sinclair Cambridge back in the day. Will raise a glass tonight in his memory.
Many happy hours in my youth were spent playing manic miner and atic atac on my ZX Spectrum. Loading games from tapes, I was trying to explain this to my kids recently and I was marvelling how things have advanced since my first computer. Much credit must go to sir Clive who was a visionary.
I'm not sure the ZX80/81 were really that great, but they certainly introduced a lot of people to computers.
As a newly employed Trainee Programmer, I felt I should have one and programmed it with a skiing game of my own design, but other than that it has sat languishing unused for many decades.
He was, undoubtedly, a bright chap, but some of his schemes (the C5?) seemed more madcap than practical or finanicially prudent.
M
RIP Sir Clive, a true Brit tech pioneer. I am another one who was introduced to programming on the ZX81. Spent way too much time on Football manager on the Spectrum
Old programmers with a sentimental / nostalgic bent may find this of interest: an online ZX-81 simulator.
http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/jtyone.html
Just knocked out a quick FOR loop. Works nicely.
Real (old) programmers on the other hand use a Science of Cambridge MK14.Quote:
Originally Posted by monogroover
http://www.dougrice.plus.com/dev/seg_mk14.htm
Worked in Upton's department store when the zx came out, we couldn't get them quick enough, then the Quantum Leap, ohhh.
What Quantum Leap?
These were powered by the batteries in a Polaroid film pack!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony-GB
Back in the late 80s We used to take passport photos with a special Polaroid camera , we would have several gents who would come in every week or so asking for the empty film cartridges so they could take the battery pack out [emoji1]
Sinclair QL was a higher end machine aimed more at the business user. It didn’t sell very well though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ventura
Ah, I see. I think I went to the Commodore 128. Should've waited and got an Amiga :)
Real programmers of any age don't eat quiche.Quote:
Originally Posted by petethegeek
I mostly went the Commodore route 64, then 128, then Amiga.
The Amiga was just a fabulous machine.
My first computer was a Spectrum +3 (I think it was called) it had proprietary 3 inch disks.
I remember my entire family all sitting in my bedroom (grandparents included) on Christmas Day (the day I got it) playing ‘sport of kings’ actually taking real bets based on the odds the game gave.
Weekends were spend going to WH Smith buying games with my pocket money.
He always sounded like a true English boffin in the press, a bit before my time but actually before everyone else’s as well.
RIP Sir Clive Sinclair.
Remember in the 80s getting the ZX81 for Christmas and spending many an HR programming. Upgraded to a spectrum with the inbuilt tap!
Still got a ZX81 in the loft with games, think I will dig it out this weekend.
A man of many firsts, and introduced many to something that was so new and interesting, they came with 1k of memory and you could extend to 16k (it wobbled in the port and you would lose all your work)🙂
I think one of his more impressive and genuinely useful machines was the excellent Z88 laptop computer. One of the very few (if any) computers that would still be useful today.
I dug an old copy of Personal Computer World out from a bookcase earlier; there's an interview with Sir Clive, from October 1990. He talks about his forthcoming bicycle product, which sadly didn't do much better than the C5.
"Bicycles are not particularly light and not particularly easy to fold. The lightest bike today weighs about 20lbs (9kg). No portable computer is as light as that and it's an interesting point that the lightest bikes have weighed 20lbs for a hundred years. The reason is that they are fundamentally metal"
Of his own design he says:
"The fact that it's Green is purely incidental. When I thought of it I thought of it as something to do, but I'm influenced by the Green movement rather than an influencer of it."
"The interest in electric cars? Really, it's hard to know. I mean, one knows how one rationalises things. I suppose now, looking back, I see electric cars as imperative because you can't go on pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."
Quite prescient for 31 years ago.
In the same edition of the magazine: PC compatibles with 2MB RAM and a 40MB hard drive - yours for only £2000.
From this week's popbitch....
>> Grand theft <<
How Dundee got the edge
Clive Sinclair was credited with revolutionising home computing in the UK and kick-starting the British video games industry with the ZX Spectrum in the 1980s. But his influence was especially pronounced in Dundee, where Sinclair sub-contracted the Spectrum's manufacture to the city's watchmaking factory, Timex.
At its peak, Timex was producing a new computer every four seconds – but not all of them made it to market. Some happened to find their way into the hands of light-fingered staff, who then moved them on cheap to their pals. This meant that, even with rampant unemployment elsewhere in the city, Dundee homes were still awash with Spectrums.
With nothing much else to do during the dole-dependent early 80s, coding games really caught on and the city consequently became a massive video game development hub. One that would later give the world a multi-billion dollar crime-flavoured franchise in the form of... Grand Theft Auto.
Timex also manufactured Sinclair products in the US, I clocked a Timex Sinclair 1000 at TNMOC at the weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by macdaddymac
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b3f55ddf_c.jpg
They have a large collection of Sinclair exhibits to browse through, it's a great place for a reminisce about wobbly RAM packs, self-build calculator kits and some of the less well known innovations.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b98d0202_c.jpg
I had a Memotech RAM pack for my ZX81. The Memotech RAM pack was an improvement over the Sinclair one since it was wider and came with a velcro sticker to help stabilise it against the XZ81 case.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Curta
Despite this, RAM pack wobble was still a problem. On one occasion, I remember that my friend came over and touched the RAM pack, wiping out a massive program I had typed in. I was not happy with him. Bloody furious, actually.
I never fully apologised to him for getting so cross. I regret that now. He died very suddenly a couple of years ago due an undiagnosed heart defect. I don't suppose he was overly fussed about my childhood temper from 30+ years ago but I do regret never really apologising to him.