Sir Clive Sinclair has died.

One of my friends at school his dad was one of those odd wacky dads and he had one. I think i only ever saw him on it once or twice and spent most of the time under a cover on his back patio. I always tried to convince my mate we should take it out but we never did.

Owned plenty of Speccys myself. ZX81, 48K and +2(although that was a Amstrad and was hit or miss if the tape drive worked correctly, at least it had the little screw that helped with the head to play games that were.. errr maybe a little dodgy).

RIP Clive
 
The real problem for the C5 was that the UK was the wrong country.

Had it been released in the Netherlands or Denmark or similar with decent bicycling infrastructure, it might have fared much better.

Releasing it the UK whose Prime Minister had previously infamously said that anyone using public transport was a failure, was never going to work out well.
 
I bought a ZX81 for £50 in 1982, as I couldn't afford a Spectrum (I was a 16 year old, and my family were not well off), and that one purchase started my entire career in computers.
So I have Sir Clive (and later Jack Tramiel for the C64) to thank for the whole direction of my life.

The thing is a lot of people look down on the ZX81 (especially American retro computer enthusiasts), denouncing it as barely usable, and pitifully slow, without realising that in the UK the US computers like the PET, Atari 400/800 and Apple 2 were unaffordable to ordinary working class people.
Sinclair changed all that, bringing computers to the masses in the UK (echoing Tramiels later comment of 'Computers for the masses and not the classes'), and kickstarting a whole generation of software developers. This is almost certainly the main reason the UK has such a strong presence in software development and computer games.

I recently bought refurbished ZX81 and Spectrum 48k to re-live those old days, and the nostalgia I have for that era is immensely strong. Even though it was the C64 which really made my career, the ZX81, and to a lesser extent the Spectrum (because I shamelessly played on my friend's machines) were the start of it all.
So RIP Sir Clive!
 
10 PRINT "Hello, Heaven!"
20 GOTO 10

Remember my ZX81, 16K Ram expansion, Spectrum 48K, Spectrum 128K, 32 Column Thermal Printer. Typing in games from magazines for hours.

A friend had a C5, it didn't instil confidence on our roads with lorries passing you. Ahead of it's time like Sir Clive.
 
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Ravenger said:
denouncing it as barely usable, and pitifully slow, without realising that in the UK the US computers like the PET, Atari 400/800 and Apple 2 were unaffordable to ordinary working class people.
Sinclair changed all that, bringing computers to the masses in the UK (echoing Tramiels later comment of 'Computers for the masses and not the classes'), and kickstarting a whole generation of software developers. This is almost certainly the main reason the UK has such a strong presence in software development and computer games.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing a PET once in a lab or was it at school, can't remember either way it was an exotic beast looking like an alien had landed and probably cost about as much, naturally there was only one and we weren't allowed to touch it.

We had such a thing going on then with development shame its all gone now its lasting legacy was ARM of course pity that had to get sold off to line the pockets of comfortably off shareholders with bundles of cash.

RIP.
 
RIP Sir Clive. What a legend.

Many happy memories of my childhood owning a rubber keyed 48k Spectrum. Even if my programming heights were 10 PRINT "insert random insult about best mate here in WH Smiths"; and 20 GOTO 10.
 
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