Sir Clive Sinclair

[antonie]

Sadly Sir Clive Sinclair is no longer with us.

The ZX Spectrum was the only computer my parents could afford (and only just) and it set me on a great professional career.

A very sad day.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... es-aged-81

[akeley]

We knew it was coming, but it's still a tough thing to accept. An absolute legend, responsible for so many great memories. Thanks a million, mate.

I try to LOAD"' at least one game a day on my trusty 48k, today it's time for some true classics...

[MiSTer_Kirk]

Can't believe it, got a lump in my throat typing this. Was a major part of my childhood, he completely changed the home computer market.
RIP, Sir Clive Sinclair.

[FPGA64]

ZX81 started my Career. If i hadnt got one for Christmas 1981 I wouldnt be doing what I do today.

[lamarax]

From an antagonist in the early micro days,

Uncle_Claude.png (201.95 KiB) Viewed 7860 times

Here's to you uncle Claude Clive!

You've been very important to the world.

[Chris23235]

The first computer of my dad was a ZX81, my first own computer was a ZX Spectrum. I have both machines till this day.
Clive Sinclair brought so many young people into computers back in the day with affordable micros and he is the reason a british gaming industry exists today.
To me every of the 3 computer and gaming "homelands" (Japan, Europe and th US) had one company that represented their region. For Japan to me it was always Nintendo, for the US it was Atari and for Europe it was Sinclair.
Rest in Peace Clive Sinclair.

[SuperBabyHix]

Never had a Speccy as a kid, but love it all the same today. RIP

[thorr]

I had a Timex Sinclair 1000 for a short time as a kid. I was literally just thinking about this and how cool it would be to try to make a core for it and I saw this thread. So sad. My dad gave me the Timex as a gift and took it back a few weeks later because it was very unreliable. I was devastated because I was already programming stuff on it and loved it.

[rhester72]

@thorr No kidding! My dad also brought home a Timex Sinclair 1000 - he got it as some sort of gift from a customer at his work. Ironically, I never really got on with it, probably nearly entirely because of the keyboard...didn't really get going with computers until the TI-99/4A was so deeply discounted it was practically free, but came to recognize the genius of Sir Clive as an adult when I finally started to understand the vast differences in the computing worlds between the US and UK/EU in the 80s and 90s. RIP.

[thorr]

@rhester72 Thanks for sharing. I remember that keyboard being a total pain to type on and waiting forever for the cassette tape to load programs while the screen was going crazy. Often it would fail to load which is partially why my dad returned it. I found a video here and at 8 minutes, it really brings back memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f335dTBLg24

[bazza_12]

My parents bought me a ZX Spectrum 16k in 1983, I was 10. Like many people, getting the Spectrum changed my life. I loved the rubber keyboard, the design of it was so futuristic. Before I knew it I was typing out programs from the back of CRASH! magazine, making my own programs, obviously playing and copying games. I had one of those thermal printers for the computer too.
Every week at school I'd delibrately forget my PE kit - to get out of doing 'games' and every week the teacher would give me the same line to write out 100 times 'i will not forget my kit'. 'cept this one week I thought it would be funny to print out the lines on the thermal printer beforehand. So, when the teacher gave me the lines I could just hand over the print out. (yes I was that precocious 11 year old) anyway.. the time arrived..

'where's your kit?',
'i forgot it sir..'
'ok. sit over there. 100 lines... '
'i've already done them sir' and handed him the printout. He unfurled the roll of thermal paper and looked at me. after a few moments he creased up laughing.. then told me to go write another 100..

thanks Sir Clive for making my childhood..

[Ripper61]

Who remembers the drama Micro Men the battle to create a computer for the BBC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM