The ZX81 was my first computer. I can remember losing hours of coding because the crappy card edge connector on the RAM expansion. A friend of mine and I spent weeks programming a Pacman clone (I use the term loosely. It was hackey and buggy) for it back in 1982. We gave everyone a copy of it at our ZX users croup. A few years ago, I was playing with a ZX emulator, and downloaded a ZIP file of a 100 programs. One of them was my Pacman clone. I was thrilled to see that it was passed around and survived.

@subscriber6181

5 жыл бұрын

Really? Wow!

@markjstradling

5 жыл бұрын

you needed to blutack the expansion on and then DON'T MOVE IT.

@GeoNeilUK

5 жыл бұрын

@@markjstradling "you needed to blutack the expansion on and then DON'T MOVE IT." I believe it has to be the length of a runner bean... ..I'll get me coat.

@m.k.8158

5 жыл бұрын

@@markjstradling Either that, or you bought the later version of the 16k pack that had the TIGHT connector-it had longer contacts-and they were thicker as well. when you plugged one in-it STAYED on without moving. No crashes with them!

@CatWeazle21

5 жыл бұрын

the dreaded rampack wobble!

Had to come here to pay my respects, as a tech enthusiast, to Sir Clive Sinclair, who died tonight at age 81. We lost a pioneer.

@niko5008

Жыл бұрын

:(

@samuel-rodriguez_

Жыл бұрын

F

@littlebiggame6916

10 ай бұрын

F

@danek_hren

10 ай бұрын

F

@tradingjack1555

10 ай бұрын

F :(

My family couldn't afford much when I was young. I really wanted a computer for Christmas and the zx81 seemed the accessible choice. £50 was a shit load for my parents to pay. I opened my present on Christmas morning and was elated. Then my dad got up and opened a cupboard and pulled out another present. I instantly knew what it was. I pulled the wrapping paper off - it was a 16k ram pack. That cost them another 30 quid! I burst into tears because it was a lot of money for them. 40 years on and I've been working in software development my whole life and have developed software in a range of industries ranging from art to safety in nuclear systems This is all because of that cheap and not very useful zx81 ☺

@vanhetgoor

Жыл бұрын

Wonderful parents.

@bruceyboy7349

Жыл бұрын

@@vanhetgoor Indeed. Selfless people.

@angeldejesussanchezgonzale9968

11 ай бұрын

Amen for your parents

@medes5597

9 ай бұрын

What wonderful parents. I remember realising my mother had gone into considerable debt to afford me a computer that was capable enough for me to do photoshop work. I'm still hugely thankful to this day. I can't imagine how much she had to go without in order to pay it off. It must have been *a lot*.

@bruceyboy7349

9 ай бұрын

@@medes5597 Let's hope we can be as good role models 🙂

The ZX81 was my pathway into computers when I was 12, my father bought me one for Christmas with his redundancy money, he figured he'd give his kid a chance. Here I am approaching 50 and a computer engineer. Great move dad. I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK these are iconic computers, writ large in our childhood memories and brilliant because it meant ordinary people could finally afford a 'real' computer. Learning Z80 assembler, losing hours of work because you breathed too close to the RAM pack, listening to tapes screeching at high volume while you waited 15 minutes for a program to load, these are rights of passage into the world of computers that younger generations will never know.

@harryjones5260

6 ай бұрын

the zx81 was the marketers dream back when everybody, especially us kids, knew we wanted a computer, but most of us knew precious little about them. We were sold on those pre christmas full page ads, promising things that looked so futuristic. But really it was the fischer price of computers, and even then we were aware how a future progression was eagerly anticipated. I spent a whole day back in 1982 fruitlessly hammering at that membrane keyboard to try and complete a 1k program, but my dads humble 'investment' (a rare occassion that he succumbed to the pressures of commercialisation) has at least resulted in my eventual proficiency in my chosen digital field. Thanks dad

Like many in the U.K. I wrote my first program in basic on a Sinclair. It was Battle Ships and took me months and months of design and hard thinking. As a result I got my first job at 16 as a computer operator. A career in programming analysis and management lead me to becoming a Director of Information in the NHS. All because of a £99 investment. Simply fantastic machine.

@bengineer8

4 жыл бұрын

Nice!!!

@kevinison5539

4 жыл бұрын

Similar story here. This machine was responsible for my career as a avionics hardware design engineer.

@SeaJay_Oceans

4 жыл бұрын

Exactly. The decades of income count as your Return on Investment of £99. Good Choice ! :-)

@Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

4 жыл бұрын

I do feel the NHS should budget for the purchase of a second ZX81 in 2020 though.

@SeaJay_Oceans

4 жыл бұрын

@@Tom_KZread_stole_my_handle Such gratuitous splurging !

I had a ZX81 back in the day. And then when I wanted a real keyboard, none was to be found commercially. So I ordered individual keyboard modules from a manufacturer - who found it very odd that an end user should want to build a keyboard from scratch. So they did this: they lent me a full design manual for their keyboards and told me to design the thing, printed circuit board layout and all, conditioning the sale to my proving that I knew what I was doing. I not only designed the PCB but also built it myself, from a blank double-sided fiberglass PCB. When I showed them my design (and the shiny new PCB for the future keyboard) they were so well impressed that they offered me a job (I declined because I was already working) and they even engraved every single "Run", "Dim", "For", "Print", etc, comand on all the keys. I went straight from the ZX81 to an IBM 4341 mainframe at work, returning to microcomputers, as we called them on those days, only a few years later when I finally bought a 386 PC.

@KairuHakubi

5 жыл бұрын

god, what a different time. th at's amazing.

@MrDuncl

5 жыл бұрын

Back in December 1981 I was an Apprentice working in a department in an Aerospace company where they had a top of the range TRS80 system; disc drives, printer etc. That system cost as much as a cheap car back then. I took my ZX81 in to show the engineer I was working for and he was so impressed that he immediately decided that was what his kids were getting for Christmas. After phoning around various shops and finding one that had a ZX81 in stock he took the afternoon off and bought it. Then having acquired the circuit of a 16K RAM pack he had me build one on strip-board to go with his kids/his present ! I never did get a RAM pack for mine moving on to a Texas TI99/4A when they were being sold off cheap.

@klskloss6459

5 жыл бұрын

That like the zx81 ?? Duh

@AcornElectron

5 жыл бұрын

Well done 🥇

@bsharpmajorscale

5 жыл бұрын

Dude, you should make a video or hit up 8-Bit Guy. That's hardcore.

In the UK, you have to remember that not everyone could afford a computer - the ZX81 made it possible for almost every one to have one. It moved computing from a niche nerd activity, to an household pastime. They were sold in Boots and WHSmith! They introduced an entire generation to computers, and their impact cannot be overstated.

These machines helped to create a generation of future programmers. Absolute educational gold dust.

@SilverSergeant

2 жыл бұрын

Agree. I first learned Basic on my Z81.....I loved that machine.

@eekee6034

2 жыл бұрын

Create or torture?! I'm joking, the tutorial I had was really cool.

@SoapinTrucker

2 жыл бұрын

@@SilverSergeant Me too! 1983, I bought the ZX81 for $100 used! Couldn't wait to get off work to mess around! :)

@NotGuilty93950

2 жыл бұрын

Funny that those kids who learned their first computer with this computer are now in their 50s and 60s. I remember a older version with a really rotten keyboard made on a printed plastic sheet. Worse than a chicklet keyboard.

@stevemichael8458

2 жыл бұрын

@@NotGuilty93950 60s in my case. That first ZX80 was a good investment - an investment which has paid my bills for 42 years now :)

These machines made it possible for millions of children to get into computing in the UK. I was one of them. At the time I was 10 years old and made money delivering newspapers. I delivered enough newspapers to finally buy the 81 and learn basic. It's limitations meant you had to be 'creative' and not just go with the flow. I did it on my own without troubling my parents, although they did help me go to night-class to study Computer Science as it wasn't even in the school curriculum back then. I was qualified in Computer Science at the age of 12. Yes looking back they were "calculators you can plug into a TV", but at the time they were so much more than that and they helped to changed a lot of peoples paths in life. Enjoyed the video by the way, just had to add a point of view. Thanks!!

@BCThunderthud

5 жыл бұрын

I bought mine with paper route money too, in the US. It was $150 from the back of Popular Science magazine, I could have saved by buying the kit. I was 12 and it was mostly a negative experience for me, I was never able to successfully load a program from tape meaning I had to write down and reenter anything useful. Prior to this a friend and I had been sneaking into a local university computer lab and using the Commodore PETs so I knew a little BASIC and had slightly higher expectations for the experience. It didn't help that the cheaper and more powerful Timex version came out soon after, I didn't really ever regret it but I wouldn't own another computer until 1995.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

@@BCThunderthud You guys are the kind of people I'd love to talk to some day for content for my web site about home micros of that era. The web is awash with tech info sites, emulators & suchlike, but I'm more interested in peoples' stories, how these machines affected their lives and future careers, funny stories, memories, etc. I've owned a suitable domain for a while, just waiting for family matters to calm down so I can get started properly.

3:30 Putting the power jack into the wrong port will NOT fry something. The MIC and EAR port circuits each contain caps that will block DC power entirely. In fact, the actual ZX80 manual itself puts you at ease: "if you do get it in the wrong jack socket you won't damage your ZX-80 even if you switch on the power. It won't work until you get the plug in the right socket, though!)"

@jensdroessler3575

5 жыл бұрын

Willem Alexander Hajenius Opposed to that, plugging in the power supply into any of those ports while already being plugged to the outlet will short out the supply.

@scythal

4 жыл бұрын

@@jensdroessler3575 Short out the outlet? Don't you Brits have a power switch next to your power outlets? You people are weird....

@McTroyd

4 жыл бұрын

The Timex variant says something similar. I wouldn't have believed it at the time, but now that I know something about diodes, it makes more sense they could do that. Wonder how much trouble the voltage drops caused with the tape recorder connections, though.

It would be easy to underestimate the impact these had in the UK, especially the ZX81. Disposable income was lower than in the USA at the time and the increased costs of the Commodore, Tandy and Apple computers were prohibitive even for "middle class" families. With the ZX81 most families could afford to buy one not only because it was cheap, but it hooked up to the regular TV and a standard cassette recorder which many households already had - or could buy much cheaper than the Commodore Datasette dedicated units. There were over 1.5 million sold, and the ZX81 was the beginning for a lot of programmers who would become important figures in the industry. The ZX81 in the UK came with a full manual and tutorial for Sinclair BASIC with the intention that owners would learn to program. Try programming a VIC-20 without investing in extra tutorial material! And even then the Commodore BASIC was full of pokes just to place a character at a specific point on the screen whereas SInclair basic had recognisable commands. The average 8 year old could knock up a simple game themselves with the '81. Everyone had a RAM pack after a few months too. For kids it was common to get the '81 for Christmas and a RAM pack for their birthday. Though there was even a full implementation of chess for the 1K machine! And 1K Breakout. Those after market keyboards and centronics interfaces for business printers were very popular in the UK and there were probably thousands of software titles available. There's still new software and hardware being made today in 2020. My original ZX81 is approaching it's 40th birthday (March 2021)...and now sports a modern 32K RAM pack with SD card slot.

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 2068 my dad bought for $100 when I was about 6. He was an electronic engineer, and he even made a RAM expansion for it himself. It's a pitty he passed away almost 20 years ago and I cannot him about that, because I now realize he was quite a hacker back then. I guess I'll have to dig around old boxes in my mother's house and plug back in the old silver machine and go through his notes.... It'll bring back memories and i'll probably learn a few things. I remember the 2068 was so much better than all the other computers my friends had, even if it had chiclet keyboard, it had a very high resolution in monocrome, an extended color pallette, and it even had joysticks and sound. And the case design was beautiful. I hope you'll make a video about it soon.

@andresmchesini-remic9758

4 жыл бұрын

Also, I learnt to code on that machine, and now I work as DevOps in a big company, so I guess in a way, I own my whole career to that 100 bucks investmentmy father made more than 30 years ago.

I made a successful career as a software developer starting out on a ZX81. Astonishingly capable machines all things considered - especially given a bit more RAM. You got a lot closer understanding about how computers *worked*. It's held me in good stead for nearly 40 years :-) In the UK there were a plethora of add-ons (some even stacking on top of one another to get round the single expansion port - very arduino ;-) ). You *could* get up to a decent coding speed on those keyboards, thanks to the 1 key-press keywords, but you'd never write a novel on it! (even though there were word processors written for it).

@KonoShunkan

5 жыл бұрын

I also pretty much had a career in IT starting with my personal ZX80 and later a ZX81 at one of my first jobs. I programmed the 81 to output specifications for the manufacture of custom contact lenses based on the formulae of an optometrist. At the same time I put together a network of Apple II's to manage an inventory database that I'd programmed. I think I did actually break down in tears one evening with the frustration of getting that to work!

@DKGCustom

5 жыл бұрын

I found some of my work on Spectrum.org archives and found people talking about it on other forums. It wasnt anything special, but nice that early 40 years later I did leave a small smudge on computer history

@zerobeat2020

5 жыл бұрын

Richard, I totally get you. I too can say with confidence that if it was not for the ZX81, I would not have have had a career in computing. Also, because you had to work with the limitations of it, you really learned to be a very canny programmer and I still benefit from that. Even today, when I get a chance to design and write software, my code is lean and fast and all thanks to a secondhand ZX81 and 1K ram. Without a doubt my all-time favourite computer.

I think the best way to sum up the ZX80 and its kin is 'proof of concept'. They served as demonstrations that computing could be brought down to a level where any old family could afford one. They handily showed that whilst the technology and fabrication wasn't there *yet* it wouldn't be long before cheap computers could be making their way in to the homes of people who wanted but couldn't afford one or could afford one but wouldn't try at their current price point. The result was enormous too, they basically started the huge microcomputer boom in the UK and Europe and created an entire generation of coders and gamers. As I recall in the mid to late 80s more households in the UK owned computers than any other country, though the competitors it attracted were global. The battle was fought between Amstrad, Acorn, Sinclair, Coleco, Commodore, BBC, Oric, Dragon, Orange, Tandy, TI, etc. and was so fierce that giants like Apple, Atari, IBM and Nintendo barely got a mention. Granted, Sinclair Research drowned in the very wave they created not long afterwards and Microsoft, Intel and the Big Blue eventually came around to affordable, gamer-friendly computing and took over...

@MrDuncl

5 жыл бұрын

Very well put. I also remembered the "computers per capita" statistic. Lets not forget the BBC computer education series kzread.info/dash/bejne/nKiBuaeic8fZlsY.html which was popular prime time TV, or the fact that Acorn designed the ARM processor family as used in about 99% of all phones including those from Apple.

As a machine that made it even remotely possible for a poor family to own a computer in the UK, It was amazingly important - for a while the UK had the highest computer literacy in the world, all thanks to one man thinking about affordability for normal people rather than marketing it as a middle class toy. It was a game changer, despite it's many, many shortcomings - great video!

@j0hnf_uk

2 жыл бұрын

A case of something being better than nothing. And, the novelty of being able to make your own programs/games and load/save them on a cassette made it feel quite special. It also introduced a lot of us to BASIC programming. It didn't have sound or colour, but we could write our own programs!

@johnd6487

2 жыл бұрын

And now the UK presents the world with the Raspberry Pi.. we’ve always been a bit more about the bang for your buck than the glitz and the padding

@Phenom98

2 жыл бұрын

I'm a computer enthusiast and I have to say I'm not sure if I would want a zx80 better than nothing even back then to be honest... It is fucking terrible. It makes me wonder if it scared more people away from computers compared to introducing new computer users. While I do recognize it helped pave the way for newer, more advanced computers, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't adopt a technology so early, especially if I was broke or with not much money to spend.

@henryokeeffe5835

2 жыл бұрын

@@Phenom98 Exactly, you're a computer enthusiast, as a computer enthusiast you (and I) want better, but to someone who has never seen a computer before this was a revolution. Either you were interested in programming, "got it" and had the patience to use it or you didn't. If you didn't you waited 10+ years until they were user friendly. At then end of the day: (people who could afford to buy this over other systems)/(people who couldn't) > (people who could program on this)/(people who could *only* stand to program on the better machines)

@BananaTV1978

2 жыл бұрын

@@Phenom98 I can answer that... It didn't (not overall, maybe a handful of people). But look, I'll grant you that the Z80 had many quirks and faults and for sure if you had the extra money available then absolutely you would have gone for a PET or TRS-80. Similarly with the ZX81, there was the Acorn Atom which was more of a "typical" micro.

The ZX81 allowed a couple of kids on a council estate,myself and my older brother, to get a computer; there were no shortcomings from our point of view. It was something we could code games into from magazines and poster games (large fold-out posters with some BASIC and lots of HEX to enter). It was also something that could allow us to buy games for a few quid. Playing 3d Monster Maze and Mazogs was an experience that few people can ever relive. It cannot be downplayed the affect that the ZX81 and Spectrum had on the market and accessible to those of us who would otherwise never be able to own anything like it. Providing a long-term career in programming to boot :-)

The reason Timex went into a partnership with Sinclair to bring the Sinclair machines to North America was Timex's factory in Dundee, Scotland built the ZX80 & ZX81, Timex even built the ZX Spectrum in Dundee until Amstrad bought Sinclair in 1986 and the Amstrad Spectrums were built in the far east. Timex Dundee closed in 1993 but the legacy continues. The game studio Rockstar North formerly DMA design created Lemmings and GTA began in Dundee and The University of Abertay in Dundee has a thriving range of Interactive & Video Game degree courses which began in 1997.

@joshuarosen6242

5 жыл бұрын

All of this is well-explained in the excellent McManus Museum and Gallery in Dundee. If you are ever in Dundee, I recommend a visit.

@RandomSmith

4 жыл бұрын

I remember having the ZX81 followed by several ZX Spectrum varieties and playing the Game Pub Crawl

I was really surprised to see the ZX81 compared to a cheap shopping cart. As a successful IT professional I can say that the ZX81 was where it all started for me. The fact that you did spend hours typing in programs and learning the basic language and machine code should be recognised as something positive. Yes, I had a Vic-20 and C64 eventually, but then it became too easy to load other people’s software and many of my friends never got beyond printing hello 20 times. They were glorified consoles with a keyboard which few people took advantage of. If you typed in pages of code and the program didn’t work, half the fun was in the debugging challenge. I didn’t care about sprites, colour and sound. Programming a game of Snakes from scratch using special characters was more rewarding. Coming from a low income family back in the day I will be forever grateful to Sinclair for enabling me to own a computer which put me on the career path which I love. One final point, when you had pages of code to type in, the shortcuts for the commands were really useful and saved hours of typing.

@gonzalo1972

5 жыл бұрын

Ian Osborne i still treasure those Sinclair User mags with the walls of text to type in (basic or even machine code programs).

@bucketlung61

5 жыл бұрын

Gonzalo Rasines I also used to spend bad weather lunch breaks at school in the library copying out programs to try at home. However, you are right, I kept the magazines and actually the ZX81 with its wobbly 16k RAM pack. It has a stick on raised keyboard and works as well now as it’s did when I got it for Christmas 36 years ago (I had to get it from the attic earlier to the amusement of my kids). My daughter - “Dad, what are they?” me - “cassette tapes” daughter “where do they plug in to ?” I’ll leave it there. ;)

@joinedupjon

5 жыл бұрын

Very superficial measures of 'goodness' are being used The assumption underlying these early home computers was that people were buying them in order to learn to code in BASIC and for that they were suitable- you're not really learning anything better by teaching yourself to sort an array of pseudo random numbers efficiently on a VIC 20 instead of a ZX81. back in the day it was a choice between ZX or nothing for most kids who's dads weren't in highly paying jobs.

@blahorgaslisk7763

5 жыл бұрын

What the ZX81 taught me was that every bit counts. The limitations was very real and though a particular program could be simple to write on paper you often had to get very inventive in order to make it all fit in the available memory, especially if you wanted more than one or two rows of text output. Something that wasn't mentioned in the video was how basic programs were stored in memory. Instead of being stored as text the commands were given a single byte value. So a "Print" command was stored as one byte instead of five. So having the commands mapped to individual keys wasn't to make writing a program easy, it was to save memory. There were a whole lot of other tricks you could use to conserve memory. I remember using strings to store small integer values instead of numerical variables as any numerical value was stored as a floating point value taking at least 4 bytes, probably more. It's been so long I don't remember exactly. Once you had been thoroughly indoctrinated saving every single byte or bit became second nature. The modern way of programming being to just throw more memory and CPU power on it still strokes me the wrong way. The last holdouts are probably to be found in the Demo scene. I'm not sure how much of the scene is still there, but some years ago they were going strong and making some pretty impressive stuff. What I'm most impressed by is the 4K demo competitions. In 4096 bytes they manage to create some very impressive graphical demos. I remember one group who had their competition demo disqualified as by the rules they were not allowed to include music in their 4K demo. Now just remember that they did include a 3D engine, a lot of textured surfaces, lava effects and I think bump mapping. And still they found the memory to include music in a program of less than 4096 bytes...

@speedbird737

5 жыл бұрын

Well said but your comments will be ignored by the 8 bit guy

"People realized they could buy the Sinclair unit for 50 bucks and then trade it in for a $100 credit on a Commodore" *s t o n k s*

@AllGamingStarred

4 жыл бұрын

so...they downgraded from a machine that has passable graphics to a machine that has no built in commands for said graphics,a slow disk drive and a shit ton of poke commands? Give me a speccy 128

@audiodood

4 жыл бұрын

stonccs

@Tahngarthor

4 жыл бұрын

@@AllGamingStarred I mean the units in question didn't have disk drives at all. And even the VIC-20 had more RAM than a stock ZX 80 or 81.

@jason50146

4 жыл бұрын

I recall Bil Herd saying there were Sinclairs all over the C= office. He pulled Z80 CPU's from them for the 128 prototype boards.

@AndrewHalliwell

3 жыл бұрын

@@Tahngarthor ah, but it only had 3.5k and cost 3x as much. Added to that, the 6502 was more memory hungry... Meanwhile, the spectrum had 16 or 48K and even the 48k model was cheaper than a Vic and a hell of a lot cheaper than the commode 64 on release. A year later it was even cheaper.

You should remember Sinclair designed the ZX80 with introducing children from poor family`s during a bad recession to computing and it did that

@nickfifteen

2 жыл бұрын

I was born in 1982, and my family... well, I won't say we were POOR, but rather my parents tried their best to be as efficient with what little money they had. That said, we didn't get a computer until 1993. .... I would've KILLED for something like the TIMEX Sinclair 1000 back when I was a kid, I can't imagine how different my life would've been if we even had something as simple as that.

@alankingvideo

2 жыл бұрын

I was one of those young adults not children who owe their entire career, and very comfortable livelyhood to the ZX80 and then the ZX81.

@AlexeyFilippenkoPlummet

Жыл бұрын

Looking at how limited technology has been at that era - having measly 200 bytes for your whole programs - I can't help but appreciate how good and cheap computing technology we have today. In fact, I have a fantasy of someone developing a super-efficient operating system for like cheapest Androids that would run at light speeds. I mean, if a computer in 1980s could boot the second you plug it in and do so many tasks, I'm sure a 10000x more powerful computer inside some crappy ultra budget phone could do so much more, if the operating system and software was created carefully enough. It's kinda like writing demos - they push the hardware to its limits, and I want such operating system that can turn a crappy cheapest 2023 computing devices into a space rocket, because it is possible.

Sinclair is why Britain has such a good computer game industry millions of kids learning to program on there machines

@Cole-ek7fh

5 жыл бұрын

Spamfitters learn to program, still can't pronounce words correctly.

@BenjiMordino

5 жыл бұрын

@@Cole-ek7fh Eh? They are the only nation that pronounces English correctly.

@sundhaug92

5 жыл бұрын

I think the BBC Micro is more the reason than the Sinclair, that was what was in the schools

@amirpourghoureiyan1637

5 жыл бұрын

@@sundhaug92 the bbc micro was used more for science, the spectrum's low cost and the ease of selling the ip of your game to a publisher at the time inspired millions of aspiring programmers to create really inspired and brilliant games

@macnerd93

5 жыл бұрын

sundhaug92 i have to agree the only good thing about the ZX Spectrum was its price. £125 for the Spectrum Vs £350 for the Cheapest BBC Micro. The BBC Micro had games like Elite which actually had 3D graphics. The Spectrums keyboard is pretty awful too compared to the Beebs. I love my BBC B, got one last week with the matching CUB Monitor and I couldn’t be happier with it. The spectrum only sold well because it was cheap that is all. Obviously, because of this it became a more popular choice for game developers. Reliability was an issue too, BBC Micros had a return rate of about 4%. The ZX Spectrum was significantly higher way into double digits of faulty units. Family members who were around at the time (I’m only 25 myself) all used the BBC at school and really liked it. If you had a BBC Micro instead of a Spectrum you were also seen as upper class apparently lol.

Now to put all this in (a European) perspective. Back in the 1970's and the early 1980's, computers were a new thing. Only a very limited part of the population had any idea what you could do with a computer. The idea of having something like that in your house was at first a dream to that small part of the population, and the others did not even think about it. Then came the time that you could build you own computer, this was very expensive and required knowledge. Then came some kit computers, even more expensive. Followed by the big three (Commodore PET, TRS-80, Apple II), these were also very expensive. Followed by the Atari 400/800 with revolutionary sound and colour graphics capabilities, equally expensive. There were others, also expensive. Then came the Sinclair ZX80/81 offering capabilities equal to earlier kit computers and with BASIC and a proper manual at 1/20th to 1/10th of the price of other contemporary computers. Now that was a REVOLUTION. Sinclair put programmable computers in to the hands of curious ordinary people who could have never dreamed of owning one otherwise. And it set an example and brought prices down across the line by opening up a huge market. Followed by the ZX Spectrum and VIC 20 and later the Commodore 64, cheaper and price reduced Atari's, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tandy's Coco and the Amstrad/Schneider CPC.

@cerveraoliver

5 жыл бұрын

Great analysis!

@crawfb

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed. The ZX81 was my first 'real' computer and was a huge deal in the UK at the time. I remember going to a computer mart/fair in London almost wholely based around the ZX81 and it was packed with people and with a huge queue outside the building too. For my sins I worked on a computer magazine at the time and we printed program listings that readers could type into their Sinclair home computers. Happy, innocent days. :)

@speedbird737

5 жыл бұрын

Well said and spot on (I’m in the UK) and was wowed when I first saw the zx81 and Sinclair spectrum in use. This got me into computing! However I wanted a proper keyboard and was fortunate to be bought a VIC20 for Christmas (later a 64). By the way the 8 bit guy will ignore your comment and not even bother to respond.

@soupdragon151

5 жыл бұрын

Its true that the ZX80/81 were the first to begin the home computing revolution in the UK at least it was still a specialist tool that appealed to enthusiasts (trying to avoid the word "nerd" at this point) but it was arguably the ZX Spectrum that was the game changer to almost every household having one or at least wanting one.

@collectivesartori

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, it was nothing short of a revolution and the sense of excitement these primitive machines generated in those people who had never used a computer before but were intensely curious about them is a feeling that will stay with one forever. The real difference is between those who discovered a passion for computing through such simple, but programmable machines, and those that simply bought the early Atari game platforms, that plugged one into far more sophisticated game experiences, but none of the joy of programming.

Well, this video is now in a whole different perspective. R.I.P. Sir Clive Sinclair (1940 - 2021).

@Azavar_Kul

2 жыл бұрын

Я не знал......жаль Сэра Клайва, мир ему пухом....

The Sinclair line were massively important in the UK in the early 80s. They were great machines for the time and opened up computing to so many of us. Personally, I learnt to code on the ZX81 and subsequently moved to the Spectrum. 40+ years later I am a professional developer who owes it all to Sir Clive Sinclair's vision and passion.

The ZX computers were what Ford Fiestas are to the car industry. Cheap, reliable, and often a first-time purchase. They're legendary here in the U.K.

@PHSPictures

4 жыл бұрын

The early ZXs were not reliable mate.

@jonhall3151

4 жыл бұрын

@@PHSPictures Neither were Fiestas LOL

@PHSPictures

4 жыл бұрын

@@jonhall3151 Hah. So true.

@Halbared

4 жыл бұрын

More like the Beetle I think!

@bluebull399

4 жыл бұрын

reliable?

I think these were *THE* most influential computers in history - not only did they introduce a lot of people to programming, but the designers soon left Sinclair and founded Acorn. There they used their Sinclair minimalistic mindset and designed the Acorn Risc Machine: ARM which is now in your mobile phone.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

Interesting to ponder just how many people from that era, because of Clive's machines and others, went on to careers which were a direct path to the globally influential UK games companies that came later.

@BOYD1981

5 жыл бұрын

You're missing something else important Acorn did: design the BBC Micro which paved the way for a generation of children in schools for computer literacy and most likely gave many children their first experience with a micro which would have then lead to more sales of computers like the Spectrum and VIC-20 (as the Acorn machine was a lot more expensive) for "homework" and birthed the bedroom coders that would go on to form a major part of UK game development. But yeh, what was started with these simple little machines in the UK was hugely influential and important and the echoes of the micro explosion can still be heard today.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

@@BOYD1981 Of course the Atom and Beeb A came first, the Beeb model B being the main one used in schools, but yes it was expensive. Btw, re programming, the book that came with the Electron was very good, I went right through it. S'funny, I own about Beebs now. :D It's a preference contradiction that although I'm glad it was the Beeb that ended up in schools (far better for programming, interfacing, etc.), the govt subsidies kept the pricing high for an insanely long time, it just didn't deviate from 400 UKP for years, long after normal competition would have knocked it down a peg or two, but with the edu market largely sewn up, Acorn didn't have to. I think this worked against them eventually though, as they priced the Arc too high, nowhere near as many sold to schools as the Beeb. Before a classroom might have 20 or 30 Beebs, but with the Arc typically a school would only have 2 or 3. The supply of affordable newer machines moved to Amiga and Atari, especially the Amiga 500 and lesser ST. I have about 70 Acorn machines total. Main thing I want to do though is repair my original Electron. Surprisingly the ULA is fine, probably a dud RAM IC. Prize Acorn item is an Electron with Plus 3, Plus 5 and the Music 500 addon.

@smorrisby

4 жыл бұрын

@NMOS FET I totally agree.

@MrDuncl

4 жыл бұрын

@@mapesdhs597 I don't think it was just subsidies that kept it expensive. The people I knew who did buy them (like my boss at the time) seemed to think getting one would guarantee their kids a place at Oxbridge. Therefore, Acorn had no need to reduce the price. History shows they got it wrong with the Electron though. By the time that came out most kids would prefer a Spectrum due to the huge range of games available for it.

"You might think 'slow mode' sounds like a disadvantage over something that's fast, at least in the world of computers." I see what you did there, David.

I owe my career to the ZX81!

@captainchaos3667

3 жыл бұрын

Me too. It was my first computer and it kickstarted my interest in computers and programming and my career in IT.

A friend of mine had a ZX81 when they were new. They are basic but back in the day it was amazing to be able to make things you created appear on your own TV screen. We were just kids and spent ages making a really simple picture. Before this you only saw things on your TV that were broadcast by TV stations, or if you were lucky you had a VCR.

@MrDuncl

5 жыл бұрын

You would have been really lucky to have a VCR back in 1981. Even in 1984 £300 was considered to be a bargain price.

@amirpourghoureiyan1637

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah VCR prices were immense in the early 80s! Sinclair really broke the glass ceiling, allowing kids to be creative without limiting to the more well-off people in England, the only thing in the way was the skill needed to take advantage of the low specs of the Sinclair.

@dotproductgames2771

5 жыл бұрын

Thats the key thing. Until pong consoles, you only WATCHED a TV, and never did anything interactive. Then with something like a Z80, you could actually define what happened, however crap it might appear by todays standards. That was the leap of these machines, first just watch, then interact and finally actually take control and CREATE

While you're not wrong about the criticism of their failings, I think it should be pointed out this is the context of their competitor products in the same price range. Of which there were none. You simply couldn't buy a computer as cheap as this. So, regardless of the limitations - these were absolutely the best machines in their class - and did help kick-start the home computer revolution in the UK. BTW _ I really do hope you manage to do a thorough look at the BBC micro range of computers - these were, perhaps, the UK equivalent of the Apple II - and were ubiquitous in UK schools throughout the eighties. - they're amazing machines in terms of their capabilities and expansion potential and deserve much recognition.

@katharakis

5 жыл бұрын

You are so right, I cannot agree more. But then it is understandable this kind of opinion from an American guy. The Sinclair computers did not succeed in the American market where Commodore ruled.

@Nikku4211

4 жыл бұрын

I think people were still not willing to buy a cheaper ZX81 over a VIC-20 or C64 because they thought they were a good deal for their price, especially with the C64's 64k.

@AiOinc1

4 жыл бұрын

Unless you bought something like a used pocket calculator which would have been dozens of times faster and actually been of use to literally anyone for even a single task

@dunebasher1971

4 жыл бұрын

By the time the C64 came out the ZX81 had already been replaced by the ZX Spectrum, which offered 48k, colour and sound. Indeed, the home computer market in the UK was dominated by the Spectrum and the C64.

@johnfrancisdoe1563

4 жыл бұрын

Dave F The BBC computer by Acorn has had a huge legacy. Typing this on an upgrade of their custom CPU, now dominating in smaller computers.

I remember when one of my school teachers started a computer club because he'd come across the ZX81. I wasn't quite sure what it meant, but somehow I knew it was my kind of thing. That moment when I saw that you could type in instructions and see the computer follow them was one I'll never forget. Needless to say, I work with code.

This was my first computer. Like the ZX80 the ZX81 was sold in the UK as either a bag of parts or a complete built machine. My dad bought the kit and I spent an agonizing 2 weeks waiting while he soldered parts to the mainboard, sticking my head around the door each night asking if he was nearly done. Eventually he finished and very quickly we realized that the 16k RAM pack was essential. So we bought one of those and like many others we struggled with wobbly RAM pack lockups. My dad's solution was to screw the ZX81 and the RAM pack to a piece of wood to hold them both still, which worked perfectly.

Any mature computer guy who knows about these computers and would acknowledge that it wasn't a joke. These computers were vital for putting computers in millions of Brits homes.thousands of British programmers started out on these machines. Britain didn't have the standard of living as most Americans back In the 80's. They couldn't afford expensive computers. Most working class Americans couldn't either ealry on. I think the zx81 is an ingenious device and amazed at what has been done with it. It was what it was and deserves respect for having an impact on the world computing stage.

@Spookspear

4 жыл бұрын

👏🏻

@joeganbogan270

4 жыл бұрын

british people have no rights

@NaokisRC

4 жыл бұрын

@@joeganbogan270 Americans have less rights than us. If you want to play that game. Or we could, y'know, be civil and not just insult others for no reason

@NaokisRC

4 жыл бұрын

@@SimonWoodburyForget The point wasnt that they were great, just accessable to many and even at the bare bones, it could let you program BASIC or machine code like better computers, which is far more usefull and career changing than sticking with toys. They did move on yes, but they may not have continued or even started if it wasn't for that initial kick start

@Tahngarthor

4 жыл бұрын

You all seem to be missing the credit that David indeed gave the machine for making computing more accessible. by all technical angles, the ZX80 was terrible, even for the time. But that wasn't the point, the point was, it was a computer and it was within reach of the common person.

The BBC film 'Micro Men' (2009) is worth watching. It covers Sinclair of this period.

@AcornElectron

5 жыл бұрын

Definitely, it dramatises quite a bit and its timeline is a bit skewed but it gives a real feel for the era.

@BlazeShorts820

5 жыл бұрын

Great film - Bilbo baggins before the Hobbit.

@crimsonlion100

5 жыл бұрын

can vouch, its a stellar film

@MrDuncl

5 жыл бұрын

Definitely. After watching this the bit that spring to mind is Clive Sinclair looking at the adverts for American computers and asking "Why so expensive ?". The infamous $£ didn't help. In 1981 a ZX81 was actually less money than an Atari 2600 which was £100 (source 1981 Argos catalogue), and that was before you started adding cartridges at £20 each.

@GeoNeilUK

5 жыл бұрын

@@BlazeShorts820 "Great film - Bilbo baggins before the Hobbit." And the balding bloke out of _Pointless_ before he was a game show host. I believe he's from Alnwick.

The ZX81 was my first computer. It set me up for a life in IT hardware and infrastructure. I did some assembly language programming, a submarine game that was a little buggy but fun to play. The computer ignited my interest in memory, CPU and interfaces at the core. Yes, like everyone else, fiddle with memory packs, joysticks, a keyboard and even their crazy printer. It was fun and simple compared to the IT world today.

The important thing for me with the ZX81, was that it was sold as a kit. It was my first computer, and I built it myself.

Clones of these were the most popular home computer in Brazil. They where made by a company called "Microdigital Eletrônica". They where the "TK" family. There were many models, most of them were the same computer, but with a different case, keyboard, or more ram...

@musashigundoh

5 жыл бұрын

Russia had a massive amount of ZX Spectrum clones, with the most advanced of them sporting 512K or more of memory, advanced sound synthesizers, high-density disk drives and so on.

@mtrivelin

5 жыл бұрын

TK is the initial of Thomas Kovari, if i remember correctly. The founder / director of Microdigital company.

@ronnylucas8857

5 жыл бұрын

You can see one at 18:15...

@wmoecke

5 жыл бұрын

Indeed, but he is incorrectly showing a TK-85 as an "aftermarket case / keyboard). Somebody should give Mr. 8-bit Guy a nudge.

@nosferadu

5 жыл бұрын

Same in Romania, as a kid I had a ZX Spectrum clone called the HC'91 (made by ICE Felix)

These two computers had a huge impact in the UK. My first computer was a ZX81 ( i still own one). This was a really interesting video. Extra credit for calling it the ZED-X-80.

ZX81 was my first computer, programmed it mostly in assembler for speed reasons. Had no assembler, just a small program pokeing hex values into memory. That was big fun... Many thanks for posting this great video!

@jaysinha0

2 жыл бұрын

My first computer too. Debugging assembly programs was a nightmare because of the lack of an assembler. Typing just one wrong character while POKEing would cause failure.

The Timex Sinclair was my first computer, and it changed my life. It was a great learning tool.

Last night my son picked up the Sinclair 1000 I have sitting in my office in a heap of old collectibles and he said, "What is this?!?!" Perfect timing! We're both big fans of yours. Keep up the great work :D

8-Bit Guy: "The ZX80 is a terrible computer." The UK: (๑°o°๑)

@TheCandoRailfan

4 жыл бұрын

ZX80 is the worst personal computer I've ever seen.

@martinhughes2549

4 жыл бұрын

@@TheCandoRailfan ....but it was very affordable.

@TheCandoRailfan

4 жыл бұрын

@@martinhughes2549 it doesn't mean anything if its completely useless.

@Tahngarthor

4 жыл бұрын

@@TheCandoRailfan hey a glorified calculator isn't that useless... you just need a TV to use it :p To be fair, as noted, it was useful for learning, such t hat when you could afford a more sophisticated machine you'd have some idea what to do with it.

@TheCandoRailfan

4 жыл бұрын

@@Tahngarthor I'm no stranger to programming in Basic, even if it is a more modern dialect. I can't program much of anything on a ZX80 (emulator).

😔 Condolences to Sir Clive Sinclair's Family and friends, may he RIP 🕊️

What about the "next episode" regarding ZX Spectrum? It was an amazing machine.

@Robert-nz2qw

4 жыл бұрын

Artyom Beilis still waiting :/

@ArcJupiter

3 жыл бұрын

And now we have it.

@Tahngarthor

3 жыл бұрын

@@ArcJupiter Sort of. :D

@WelshDave76

3 жыл бұрын

That was it..

The ZX81 was my first computer. I was 13 and dream't of having the 16k RAM expansion as all the cool games required it. Traveled alone down to Brighton some 50 miles by train to search the only computer shop in my area that stocked games for it. Unfortunately all required 16k. Needless to say I came home empty handed. :(

I remember building my ZX81 as it was yesterday. I remember the late nights, tuning in BBC on the radio and record the programs they where sending for the ZX81 over AM. I remember the hundred of hours typing in assembler and then lying in my bed letting the speech synth I've built read all hex codes while I validated to see if I've made some typos. ZX81 was my first true "computer love".

@valley_robot

4 жыл бұрын

Infinite loop fucking hell mate, you were a genius back then

@exidy-yt

4 жыл бұрын

The Beeb broadcast programs for the ZX81 over the air!!?!?! That's absolute genius forward thinking for the time! Even more impressive is that the BBC had their own PC, the BBC Micro I believe it was called? And they didn't stream programs for their own machine over the air, they did it for the far more popular Sinclar. THAT is more impressive then the entire Sinclair computer lineup.

@bsvenss2

4 жыл бұрын

Exidy YT Well, I bought my ZX81 kit in February 1981 directly from Sinclair in UK. The BBC Micro wasn’t released until December the same year.

@exidy-yt

4 жыл бұрын

@@bsvenss2 aaah, cool. Thanks for clarifying. Not being from the U.K. I don't have the system release times down pat. I wasn't sure if the ZX 81 came to market before the BBC Micro or not. Here in Canada our choices (from department stores like K-Mart and Woolco, or else Radio Shack) were pretty much the Atari 400, Texas Instruments TI 99/4a (which had the biggest, most badass floppy drive you've ever seen), TRS-80, Apple II (from more upmarket computer stores) or Commodore VIC-20 pre-1982, and add the C-64 and Atari 800 after that until the 16-bit era began.

Awesome. I was one of those people you mentioned who got into computing because of this machine. I got to teach myself BASIC, etc. It was the "gateway" PC! Thanks for making this. Lots of memories.

My first computer was a Timex/Sinclair 1000. It had 2KB of memory and my uncle bought me the $200 16KB plug-in extension. I had the Tandy/Radio Shack data tape drive too I got from my mom for my birthday. I loved that computer so much years later after becoming a professional programmer I bought a used one. One of my co-workers was fascinated with it and wrote a program that simulated a car driving and we displayed it on a tiny, old CRT TV in our programming den at work.

That board was laid out by hand on a mylar sheet using thin sticky black tape for the traces and black dots for the pads. It was usually laid out at 2x or 4x scale in order to make it easier for the board designer, then reduced to create the PCB negative.

@vcv6560

5 жыл бұрын

Quite common at the time, board layout systems (Futurenet comes to mind) we waaay beyond expensive.

ZX81 started me coding in 1983, i'm still doing it as a living 36 years later :) great video

@wobblyrampack9655

5 жыл бұрын

Terrific to hear! Me too, just the same - started with a ZX81 and still coding for a living! :)

@martinhughes2549

5 жыл бұрын

@@wobblyrampack9655 Love the name, remember the problem, remember the solution...blutac!

@wobblyrampack9655

5 жыл бұрын

@@martinhughes2549 Haha! Yes blutac, and plenty of it!! Combined with a Ferguson cassette recorder that rarely saved programs successfully, it all resulted in plenty of retyping! :)

@ChurchOfTheHolyMho

5 жыл бұрын

Yup! I started with a ZX80 my uncle (electrical engineer) purchased as a kit to assemble for fun. It was great to learn programming on.

@wobblyrampack9655

5 жыл бұрын

@@ChurchOfTheHolyMho Wonderful! That must have been amazing!!

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair, a fantastic engineer. He was (despite the C5 failure), also a resourceful businessman, and I can happily relay a story I heard from a former lecturer in the early 90’s. Back in the early days of the zx series, he bought faulty memory chips at a bargain price and printed circuit boards to take advantage of the working parts of the chips. This was done as they had 4 banks of memory per chip and several chips could be utilised making use of only banks 1 & 2, banks 3 & 4, and so on. Very impressive and quite an inspiring engineer… we need more of them.

Ah, 1981. I was 20 years old, working as a TV repairman and drove a custom van. I had built a tv into a cabinet with an icebox, and mounted the tuner controls back by thd bed. I put my Timex/Sinclair 1000 under the bed, and wrote a program that put a checkerboard border on the screen with my van's name, alternating with the van club name. People were amazed! I still have the TS 1000, as well as a TS 1500 "educational package" with special programs, docs, tape deck all in a custom case.

@MarcKloos

3 жыл бұрын

I have that 1500 educational briefcase too: beta.collectorsbridge.com/collections/sinclair-computers-and-clones/article/timex-sinclair-1500-2

This brings back memories. The ZX81 was my first home computer in 1982. I learned to program Basic and 10 years later I became a software developer.

I started with the Sinclair ZX 81 when I finished my military service and had my final salary in the pockets. It was a demanding task to program it and then save a program to cassette recorder. You forgot to mention in your video that it took ages to load or save a program. Unfortunately the 16-K expansion was not very stable. When you pushed too hard on the keys it bent the "motherboard" for a second meaning that your program immediately got lost. My brother just tried to type a chess program in that was printed in assembler code in a magazine. He spend hours before he could save it, a push too hard and his work for one hour got lost.... you will never forget your first computer. Before I could afford a Commodore C64 I used the ZX81 a lot, buying cassettes with commercial software, expanded it with a external keyboard. And of course I owned that strange "printer" which burned my listings and grafics on special metallic paper... However, this tiny little thing brought me into the addiction to approaching private computeering and paved my way into future professions.

I had an ZX81 in 82. A very important and fun piece of tech you had to be there for to appreciate. It started my "abilities" with computers which have helped me massively throughout my career. Computing skill is ubiquitous now I suppose but since 87 I have been promoted because I "knew computers" more than once. Thanks Mum and Dad! Oh and the 16K Ram Pack was a freaking nightmare - look at it and you loose your code!!

I'm in the US and my dad bought me a ZX81 kit for Christmas one year (I guess in '81). It must have been before Timex did the branded version because it definitely was the ZX81. I can remember doing a little assembly to get it all put together. I think there was a little bit of soldering involved, but mostly it was assembling the board into the case, etc. I recall coding a flight simulator landing approach simulation game into it. It was a lot of work for very little actual gaming!

My father had an US model ZX81 (still have it to this day). That's what started his computing career!

Very good. I spent my whole summer working in a strawberry field to save up for a ZX81. It was amazingly exciting at the time, and taught me about computing. I later went to work on IBM mainframes and ended up owning my own ISP!

Thanks so much for your videos! I started my computer career with at Timex Sinclair 1000 w/16K RAM pack. It was a slide back in time for me to see this. I learned their version of BASIC using the unit (how else to program anything one t?), moved on to a Commodore 64 then on to dozensof other computers over the years, including MS-DOS, Windows, CP/M, Linux, Unix, FreeBSD, OS2, all the Apple OSs, and more. But this little unit started it at a cost a young working fellow could afford. I'm retired now but I have fond memories of working with/on the computers you feature in your videos! Thanks again!

ZX81 was my first computer. My parents bought me it in 1981. They bought me the expansion pack too. Had to use a Ferguson Thorn tape recorder to save my files. It all began with a magazine advertisement for the ZX81. I cut it out and imagined I was using it. Then I joined the school's computer club and have been interested in computers ever since, sadly I couldn't take it up as a career as I chose to go down the finance route. All I have is fond memories of the Sinclair ZX81 and the school's computer club. Incidentally, I have fallen in love with your theme tune, Morning Dew (Anders Enger Jensen). Thumbs up for this video. You said there would be one on The Spectrum... I'm going to end now by asking if you saw the BBC docupic about Sir Clive Sinclair, played by Alexander Armstrong, on how he tried to win the bid against The Electron team to bring computers to schools? It's called Micro Men (kzread.info/dash/bejne/iox22rhvXd3HnbA.html).

From the British perspective, the importance of Sinclair on the home computer market was huge - not only for what Sinclair research were producing but also for time they were producing them as the miners strike was ripping UK society apart (plans were actually in place should a revolution have started to move the PM into a nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch- which is just down the road from me) let alone the employment shift from a manufacturing to a service employment market had started due to the Conservative Government at the time and the birth of the Yuppies. I received a ZX81 during Christmas 1983 and as much as I loved having a computer, I really wanted a Speccy and over the year I got increasingly frustrated with the bloody thing as the ram pack needed blu tack to hold the thing in place, if you typed too hard the thing would reset and mine was eventually thrown from my bedroom window into the garden, where it sank to the bottom of my brothers paddling pool - tad harsh maybe but it was soon forgotten when I finally got the system of my 11yr old dreams that Christmas - a Spectrum 48k and my love affair with home computers began with that speccy.

I owe a great deal to gratitude to the Sinclair ZX81. This little computer was my very first programming experience I had - which lead to my software engineering career that I have today.

I don't post too often, but this made me smile. I paused the video to go down to the basement to retrieve my Timex Sinclair 1000. It was my first computer, and yes it was pretty "basic" (I was struggling for a nice word). However it lead to computer science courses, a used XT and later 286, etc. I have for some reason, after multiple moves refused to part with the old Timex Sinclair. Sometimes it's nice to remember where you started.

I started with the ZX81 in 1983. Almost 40 years later, I'm still a programmer by trade (amongst other things.) Most vivid memory was typing in a 16 page hex listing for ZX81 defender style game. Took me about 3 days I think. I still have all my old Sinclair Programs and Crash magazines too ;-)

You weren't there man.... You wouldn't understand! Learning to code something meaningful in only 1k of RAM is the most frustrating, challenging and joyful things I ever did.

@mapesdhs597

4 жыл бұрын

My older brother had a ZX81, then somewhat later our Dad bought me an Electron. For all that the latter was a far more powerful and capable machine, I was amazed at what my brother was able to do with machine code on his ZX81 (he had to learn Z80 in order to be able to create anything significant), and as others have said the discipline of the limited RAM did enforce efficienct coding (though he did have the RAM pack, sans the occasional shout from his bedroom when a wobble would wreck what he was working on. :D) I did learn 6502 later and it led to my going to uni to do computer science, which led to the world of SGIs, but I can certainly understand why the ZX81 and its ancestor kick started the careers of thousands in equivalent ways. I remember my brother once wrote a game which had a simple sideways-view cityscape skyline, ie. columns of different height for the buildings. An "aircraft" graphic would come from the right and move across the screen, getting lower on each pass. I recall him working on how to detect when it would collide with a building. Something we did frequently was discuss and share ideas on how to solve problems like this, despite having different systems. And 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81 is awesome. :)

@whitesands928

4 жыл бұрын

paul smith I agree Paul, back then the hunger to be able to have a computer no matter what it could do or not was like needing another fix. 😂

@FormulaFanboy

4 жыл бұрын

I personally think restrictions/limitations are a blessing in disguise.

@pametnaradionica

4 жыл бұрын

ZX80 was my first computer, bought right away as it came out. When I laid my hands upon it`s majestic white casing I was EIGHT years old! I did not have a suitable cassette recorder at hand and I`ve jacked upt the family TV, coded in "brickout" from a computer magazine AND DID NOT LET ANYONE SWITCH THE BLOODY THING OFF for two days. While I played. I even slept keeping sentry over it. This immediatelly led to a "family decision" to purchase a small TV and a small, secretary type, cassete recorder, since no one could use a family HiFi too. (I`ve also jacked up a cassette deck too. For azimuth mismatch reasons, it did not work well, and my dad went ballistic whem I`ve approached the deck with a small adjusting screwdriver.) Two years later I got a 48K Spectrum, and the rest is history. I`m an EE now and I daily work with various laboratory test and measurement equipment, here in Belgrade, Serbia, what then was Yugoslavia. I pity my nine year old kid for not having that kind of challenge, so he`ll have to find another. :)

@thescreemregular5168

4 жыл бұрын

Comment

The expansion port on the ZX machines allowed access to the CPU bus so you could expand it to 64K, add a sound module etc. And allowed the user to control all sorts of devices. A british retailer Maplins sold expansion cards which included speech, sound and input/output. With an adaptor all devices could be used on a Jupiter Ace.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

Ah the Jupiter Ace! That's a rare item. Good condition units in the UK can sell for many hundreds of UKP.

The Timex Sinclair was used for robotic control experiments in farming equipment at the university of Saskatchewan in the 80's. There was eprom burners actually created to work with the Timex Sinclair that allowed you to override the on board eprom. It was far more of a functional computer then depicted here. It was the raspberry pi of the 80's for creators and builders.

@alynicholls3230

Жыл бұрын

yes i love his output, but his computer snobbery really shows here. they were far more capable and usable than credited here. i live in the uk but had an uncle who went to the usa for work, he brought me a timex 1500 for xmas to add to my zx80/81/spectrum collection, i loved it i put the 80 and 81 away and just used my spectrum and 1500, it took me 3 months to track down a 10in philco us tv for it, dad bought off the local us army base for 20 quid, still have them all in my collection.

@Tahngarthor

Жыл бұрын

I think perhaps David undersold the ZX81 a little bit, but not that much. I think people take offense at him calling them not great computers to work on, but he clearly recognizes the impact these machines had in making computers and comptuer education more accessible, particularly during a period of economic hardship in Europe. The ZX didn't need to and wasn't supposed to be great. It was supposed to be cheap and accessible. It succeeded in its mission. They certainly could have made the machine a lot better at the time, but it would have also cost a lot more too.

@medes5597

Жыл бұрын

​@@Tahngarthor I disagree. His car analogy, that the Sinclair machines were like a motorised shopping cart compared to commodore being a real car shows his snobbery and apparent lack of understanding. It'd be more like - a Sinclair machine is like buying a car that requires some maintenance. It might be a bit of work but at the end of it, you'll not only have a new car, but you'll also understand how a car works and how to make yours do exactly what you want. A commodore is like an automatic with two seats. You get from a to b. You'll look good doing it. It looks nice. But ultimately you'll just buy a new automatic in a few years time and never learn anything about cars except what comes up in general use. That isn't to say commodore machines weren't fantastic machines. But for most of their users they were a games console. That's why Sinclair had a larger industry division than commodore *ever* did, because a company could adapt a Sinclair machine almost infinitely because it was simple and could run all kinds of controllers and industrial devices very easily. It's fine that David grew up on commodore machines but it exposes his bias when he says nonsense like his car comparison or his "a lot of people probably saw their end in computing here too" comment. Sinclair machines were very simple and very flawed. But they were far more useful than he makes out. Commodore machines were brilliant and could do way more than they were ever made to, but they were also considered to be toys for children and never got any serious use outside of games and minor blips (which is why David can only ever show off games, it's all they had). David will acknowledge one, but is very reluctant to mention the other.

@Tahngarthor

Жыл бұрын

@@medes5597 With the motorized cart analogy, he was just exaggerating to make the point. I'd agree that it's on the harsh side given the actual impact the computer had in spite of its limitations, but the point of the analogy was to make those limitations clear. But just because the computer wasn't amazingly functional doesn't mean that it wasn't important or that it didn't have an impact or that it didn't achieve what it set out to do.

@medes5597

Жыл бұрын

@@Tahngarthor yeah but I feel like his analogy is overly harsh on one side and overly praising on the other. Like commodore machines were capable - but they were also seen as toys for children with too many limitations on their Os/bios to ever provide anything useful even if the "toy" reputation *could* be got past. If he was being realistic, it's more like Sinclair machines were motorised shopping carts, commodore machines were something like those Chinese electric cars you can purchase that look like toys but do a lot more than you expect them to even if you'd likely not want to be seen driving one, and what Apple and the clone manufacturers were putting out was a real car. Hes always very quick to overpraise commodore and under praise pretty much anyone else in the same way. Calling the apple one "a terrible computer" for example, whilst demonstrating he doesn't really understand what they were for. Claiming that apple 2 was competing against the 64 and losing (Apple 2 had a visicalc, there's a reason you have documentaries about apple and overnight millionaires and very few, if any, about commodore cutting costs so they can sell in toy shops). It's a bias he has that isn't annoying so much because he's biased but because he presents himself as knowledgeable and then time and time again demonstrates he isn't.

My first was a Sinclair 1000 and it changed my life. The 16k flight simulator was amazing at the time

Lovely video. Its worth mentioning perhaps that the whole experience at the time was far different to ours looking back from the 21st century. You made the machines do far more because its all there was (for many of us) - and it took you into a world of "what if". Spectrum was the same - the culture and atmosphere around it was as rich if not richer than the machine itself. A bit like box art on old games - it fired off the imagination and that was half the battle won. We didn't know they were "cheap". We only knew they were magic boxes of infinite possibilities!

Comparing the ZX81 to a shopping cart? Surely it would be the Sinclair C5!

@gonzalo1972

5 жыл бұрын

Howard Rose what did you expect from a Commodore fan? And comparing zx81 to C64 is totally unfair

Great video. I've just bought a ZX80 and have 2 ZX81s (1 boxed with a boxed RAM pack) and 2 additional keyboards. Am from the UK and really enjoyed how you put the historical perspective (even the US perspective was interesting); the practical limitations that you actually demonstrated; the amazing homebrew games and demos, and Red Dwarf and IT Crowd parts. Very well rounded and will give context to my missus or anyone in relation to those machines (especially as the ZX80 was quite expensive)

ZX-81 was my first computer. I assembled it from a kit. I learned how to solder as well as program with it. I grafted 96K on to it and I wrote a pseudo multi tasking OS for it. I had a Disk Drive as well as an Exatron stringy floppy for it. I had a 300 baud modem and both a full size printer using the memotech centronics interface and the ts2040 thermal printer. Mine lived in a suntronics keyboard and I had a real crt hooked up to it. I loved that machine. I have never felt that I knew as much about any other machine I have worked on since.

@MarcKloos

2 жыл бұрын

You spent quite a bit of money upgrading that thing! 👍🏼

4:41 - Chip? I believe they call them Crisps in the UK.

@IBrianrish

5 жыл бұрын

Yes they do mate and that's why I am commenting on this becasue I am from around that way :-)

@BertGrink

5 жыл бұрын

hahaha

@Cole-ek7fh

5 жыл бұрын

MontieMongoose we call them chips in the land of victory.

@MontieMongoose

5 жыл бұрын

@@Cole-ek7fh For sure.

@sentry4944

5 жыл бұрын

Microcrisps.

The Sinclair ZX80 is a real computer, I lost my original one, but I bought another back.

I’m absolutely loving your cable management!!

Thanks for sharing. It`s amazing to see this all back. My first was ZX81 and second Commodore64

I cut my teeth on Z80 assembler code on the ZX81, thank you, Clive Sinclair and Rodney Zaks. Happy days :)

@twincamspit

5 жыл бұрын

Same here. I moved onto 808x, 6502, 6809, 68000 etc. and ended up writing time-critical drivers for devices (UARTs, PICs, network drivers etc) mainly in C but occasionally having to revert back to assembler for when the optimising C compiler couldn't quite deliver. And there's not a chance I could have done it so efficiently without the excellent grounding that the Z80 gave me from the ZX81 as a teenager. So many guys I've worked with over the last 40+ years in I.T. are doing what they love because they discovered the joy of coding on a Sinclair ZX.

@HammerheadHal

4 жыл бұрын

Did you write it out by hand and input the hex or did it have an assembler?

@englishrupe01

4 жыл бұрын

@@HammerheadHal I did both....but the assemblers were not great in those days.

One correction... there was a thriving 3rd party software market for these machines, but only in the UK. American users were stuck with Timex titles or games ordered from the very few magazines available.

I didn't live in the UK, I lived in Portugal and there was no money available to even buy a 49$ computer in 1983. I was 13 and wanted it badly. The price in Portuguese Escudos (PTE) was 10.000. Well beyond what I could afford then. However, some of my wealthier friends got a few, and immediately got to bang on those membrane keyboards violently, trying to beat the machine in those early games. They would tipically take 2-3 weeks until they were more or less destroyed. I collected the scraps. Finally, with a soldering iron and lots of patience I was able to re-build one. That was probably one of the greater tipping points of my life. Evertything changed. I learned to code first, English came as a side effect. Basic, Machine Code and later many other languages. Yes, we may say the hardware on those machines was cheap, but without exaggeration it was one of the most important achievements of the 20th century. Putting computers in the hands of kids who have then proceeded to change the world. Entirely.

The ZX81 was the first computer I used. My dad worked for Timex Dundee where they were making them. He brought home an engineering sample and spent a bit of time trying to program it. I was fascinated. I eventually learnt to program on a spectrum engineering sample and I'm now a professional software developer. Spectrums and even ZX81s made Britain a beacon in programming and computing since the 80s. Tons of kids had a career laid out for them as a result of exposure to these cheap computers in the 80s. They were fantastic. Luv and Peace.

@MarcKloos

2 жыл бұрын

For some reason when I think of the workers at Timex Dundee, I always think of women assembling them, never men. Must've been the photos that I've seen, dotted around the internet.

if you ever used these... you'll understand this.. Dave : HAL, why did you kill the crew? HAL : RAMPak wobble Dave...

@vcv6560

5 жыл бұрын

Hilarious!

@martinhughes2549

5 жыл бұрын

"DAVE I'VE STABILISED MY RAM WITH BLUTAC"

Yeah, Americans don't get the Sinclair computers... The low price was the difference between a kid having a computer under the Christmas tree or a plastic rocket. "Proper" computers were simply beyond the means of all but the well-off minority in the UK at the time.

@davefiddes

5 жыл бұрын

Yep. The early 80s were pretty rough for a lot of people in the UK. The US seemed to be a massively richer country by comparison.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

@@davefiddes The ZX81 and others were a critical head start for many. Although I was an Acorn guy, the first machine I ever used was a Spectrum (well, technically a Pet, but that was a bit earlier and I was too young to grasp what it was). My brother had a ZX81, he did some amazing things with it, worked a lot with machine code later on. I had an Electron, ended up writing programs for my school, games, etc. The US market became dominated by the console wars, but the UK didn't really go down that route at all, it was much more about the battle of the home micro, where ordinary tapes were the main storage format. I only knew one person who had a floppy drive (a Cumana unit for his Beeb) because his parents were fairly wealthy. Everyone else had a mono tape deck (priced hiked of course with those stupid stickers that said, "Data Recorder", as if that somehow made them special). Price was king in the UK, that and not being released late or out of date compared to the other guy (which is what killed off what would otherwise have been the very awesome Enterprise 64/128). The strange part is I never really understood what people meant over the years by the 8bit crash of 1984, but from what people say it seems it was more a US phenomenon, I don't remember it being that bad in the UK in general. I think overall the video undersells these early Sinclair models somewhat, but I don't think one could really appreciate how important they were unless one was in the UK at the time and involved with it all. Schools may have had the expensive BBC Micro (ironic hurrah for idiotic govt subsidies stifling competition, though I'm still glad it was Acorn and not Sinclair that was chosen), but everyone I knew had a Spectrum, ZX81, C64, Dragon, Oric or various others. The range was etxraordinary. When I see articles/vids about the US market, the choice doesn't seem to have been as broad, and the console battle squeezed out what might otherwise have been a more interesting market. But then, maybe economies of scale in the US meant it was inevitable that choice would be narrowed much more rapidly than in the UK. Elsewhere in Europe it was similar to the UK but not quite the same, specific countries often had a certain brand that took off for whatever reason, eg. Amstrad in France did well IIRC.

@davefiddes

5 жыл бұрын

@@mapesdhs597 The video game crash of 83 does seem to have been more of a US thing. That said I had some experience of it. My uncle worked for Mattel building the electronics and games for the Mattel Intellivision in Nice. One day in the summer of 83 he showed up on the family doorstep in Edinburgh having been made redundant along with everyone else at that office.

@mapesdhs597

5 жыл бұрын

@@davefiddes Yikes!! Btw, I live in Edinburgh. :D

@DanaTheInsane

5 жыл бұрын

@@davefiddes Back in the 80's, we were.

There's a Computerphile episode where they ask all their guests, "What was your first computer?"; And a good portion of the answers was The Sinclair. A lot of smart people learned their first programming language (BASIC) on these things. Really cool video!

My father, back in 1982 took a mail order course on how to use a computer for business and was sent the study materials and a Timex Sinclair to work on. Afer his course was done I inherited the machine and used it to type in those long basic programs in the back of the magazines that were out at the time. I was amazed at the time what you could do. Now I look back fondly!

Please don't be too hard on the ZX computers, back in the late 70s early 80s the UK was not in a good place just getting them manufactured was a big deal and it did help a lot of people get into computing in the UK. And the ZX80 in kit form was trying to get people into electronics as well. When my weekly take home pay was just £30, the price ZX80 was just affordable.

@gonzalo1972

5 жыл бұрын

Stephen Rogers i didnt enjoy this video. He was complaining and making fun of this piece of art, all the time.. He didnt realize the important role of sinclair products in home computing history

@brookewestonctc

5 жыл бұрын

My first computer was a 48k spectrum, later I got a 128k +2A. It was an excellent computer, but was scuppered by not having hardware sprites, meaning the graphics were always worse on a spectrum than a C64 or Amstrad (the main 8-bit competition). The ZX81 was a very poor computer and was not up to the standard of its competition in any respect. I have no doubt that the video on the spectrum will be a lot more positive than this one.

@dlarge6502

5 жыл бұрын

@@gonzalo1972 I dont think the Timex machines had much the same effect in the US as the Sinclair ones in the UK. The US was totally hooked on games and consoles and the cooler (possibly richer) kids had the much more capable computers. In the UK the Sinclair machines started a whole revolution of average adults being able to afford a computer and younger kids jumped eagerly into the pool. Personally I wouldnt call the ZX80 a piece of art by itself. Its really pretty basic and nobody that bought one had any clue what it really was for, but the real achievement is in how the desire for computers was seeded by the ZX80/81 due to how cheap they were. It was made so cheap so that people on the street wouldnt need to think too hard about having one just because they have been told it will be good for them, even though it really didnt do much at all till the upgraded versions came out.

@MrDuncl

5 жыл бұрын

Apart from the Pong Type games, Games consoles didn't catch on in the UK because they were too expensive for what was thought to be nothing but a toy. As I have put in a different post at launch the ZX80 cost the same, or as a kit less than, an Atari 2600 which would then need £20 cartridges to be of any use. Looking at some 1980 adverts the next cheapest fully built computer I could find was a bottom of the range 4K TRS80 at £288. I don't recall the Vic20 being soid here until a around the time of the Spectrum. Later the C64 then the Amiga were a big success in the UK, for exactly the same reasons as the Sinclair Computers "Computing for the masses not the classes" as Jack Tramiel once said.

@makers_lab

5 жыл бұрын

@@gonzalo1972 Exactly, but 8BG presumably wasn't a kid in the 80's so can't appreciate how huge a deal the machines were at the time. I remember going with my mum to take out £80 from my TSB savings account to buy the ZX80 as a kit and learnt loads. Was soon writing Z80 code, non-flicker games, a stock control system for my neighbour to manage his business with on a ZX81, and lots more. Progressed to a BBC B a while later, but ZX80 was instrumental in getting me started and satisfying the passion to code.

ZX80 was a revelation when I saw the advertising in a magazine. That's when the dream of a real computer became more than just a dream. It had a really good manual, and you could learn to program on it. You could focus on that without the distraction of games and graphics. It was magic, so please don't dismiss it.

@brianlee2878

5 жыл бұрын

Peter Carlsson . Glad that you mention the good instruction manual. I got a really good grounding in BASIC on a ZX 81 and I think that enabled me to understand machine coding more easily. I shudder to imagine how far I wouldn’t have got if the manual had been a Chinese translation!

@AllGamingStarred

4 жыл бұрын

@@brianlee2878 Did any of them make it to china?

I still have my Timex Sinclair 1000, 1500, the 16 K RAM module for the 1000, several program tapes. I loved how I could type in the programs found in computer magazines to run them. Go over to my friend's houses where they would have an Apple or a an Atari or even a Commodore. We could learn from each other, try out our software on each other's computers, play some games, try to work out some programs of our own. There was a floppy drive developed for the Timex Sinclair but I don't know if it was for the 1000 or 1500 model. I also remember there was a pass through port design allowing people to stack different modules end-to-end vs being stuck choosing one expansion module or peripheral over another. I do have to wonder if your bias for the Commodore 64 hasn't colored your review of these marvelous little computers. I noticed how you spoke more favorably of the C-64 when using it in comparison to the Sinclairs. They are real computers. Just not the sort you obviously prefer.

I totally love this channel, Subbed!

The Raspberry Pi was produced to bring back the essence of the Sincliars. Kids coding again.

@psycosoft1

3 жыл бұрын

And the raspberry is fantastic to integrate into things. I've added then to cars, a motorcycle, home security systems, and even into a ps3 to improve its speed for online play.

@psycosoft1

3 жыл бұрын

@JonnySpeed what makes you think anyone stopped at basic? And cobalt has been around for years. Most started just typing basic, then advanced to writing basic, then went on to other programming languages. Same thing happens today. I know a lot of people, kids actually, that are learning to code today, and coming to us old farts for help. I know at least half a dozen kids programming for stacked raspberry pi's. That isn't all easy, but the kids love them.. our home automation system is on a quad raspberry and a six pack raspberry, and half the actions have been programmed for me by kids. (Under 25's).

you are getting close to the 1 million sub mark, and you deserve it, great content :)

@g-r-a-e-m-e-

5 жыл бұрын

Not that close! But an excellent channel.

@amiller112

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed, he's done a great job.

@UpcycleElectronics

5 жыл бұрын

@@g-r-a-e-m-e- That's more subscribers than Russia has soldiers enlisted in the military, and they are 5th in the world! It's so strange when you think about these things relative to real life instead of internet culture. I seriously couldn't care less about self promo. I'm not monetized, and have no intention of changing that. I have just under 900 subs which is absolutely nothing by YT standards. Even if I tried to recall every person I have ever known by name in my life, I don't think I'd make it to 900. IIRC There was a scientific paper in the last decade that showed people can only handle around 100 acquaintances that qualified as "friends" (by the study's definition) before the participants were unable to remain connected....or something like that...I think SciShow did an upload about it too.... anyways... if anyone posts public content on YT, it really changes how you see this kind of thing. You've really connected with more people than you'll ever be able to know directly. Some channels are connecting with more people than the population of many entire countries. That's simply amazing. The fact we're all here with almost 1 million people that are all interested in this same niche subculture is simply mindboggling. Congrats and thanks The 8 Bit Guy. -Jake

@AcornElectron

5 жыл бұрын

It’s true ... but my sub to video ratio is waaaaaaay higher. Of course, as soon as I post a video that ceases to be true ..... ah the power of Zero.

@GeoNeilUK

5 жыл бұрын

"you are getting close to the 1 million sub mark, and you deserve it, great content :)" Do you think he's saving the documentary on the ZX Spectrum for the million subscriber mark? Or is the BBC Micro (and Acorn Electron) going to get that honour?

Thanks to this (more importantly this fine comment section), I just bought a Timex Sinclair 1000 on eBay with the RAM expansion module and 2 games. Chess and something else. I plan to make my own cassettes of 3D Monster Maze, 1K Chess, etc. I have played the games on emulators and I am so excited to have the charm of playing them on a real machine and actually code in BASIC on the real machine.

@Sighman

3 жыл бұрын

Make sure you try Mazogs. Seriously!

ZX81 was my second computer and it was awesome at that time. I assembled it from a kit ordered from UK. It was easy to enter Basic instructions and files were kept in cassette tape. I had many hours of programming on it. It was a good intro to computing on a small budget. Those were the days when you learnt hex, machine code on the Z80.

No mention of the famous 1K chess for the ZX81? That's a hell of an achievement and somewhat well known among Sinclair fans in the UK

@bazza5699

5 жыл бұрын

1k chess was amazing, it would beat you as well.. incredible..

@medes5597

5 жыл бұрын

@@bazza5699 for its time, its not even a bad chess computer either. Some of the much larger and more expensive chess programs of the time had worse computer opponents. It's an amazing achievement for both how much was crammed into it, and how little he had to work with to make it.

@bazza5699

5 жыл бұрын

absolutely Terry..

@johankoelman2996

5 жыл бұрын

BOC is a fairly new game, but he forgot 1K Chess 2016 and these games... m.kzread.infovideos

@krisztiannemeth6148

5 жыл бұрын

Up you go. It is somewhat unbelievable that 1k Chess actually exists.

I am a Timex Sinclair 1000 (with 16K RAM module) user from back in the day. Awesome video, 8-bit Guy.

Wow! The ZX81 was my second computer (first was an RCA Cosmac VIP). I used a ZX81 for my final year engineering project. I used it to control stepper motors that I had attached to a telescope (cheap 4in Newtonian) and was able to steer it to aim at any chosen star. I devised an "expansion board" that had I/O ports that could switch some power transistors to energize the motor windings in sequence and also a real-time clock chip (so that the thing knew what time it was at any moment). I programmed all of the alignment software in floating point basic and then passed the results to the motor sequencing routines written in assembly. For a dirt cheap machine with limited capabilities, it suited me well and got the job done. Had many hours of frustrating fun! Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Just see this, and laugh alot! I startet with the zx81, which had 1024 bytes of RAM. I wrote a screen, and got an out of memory error! ;) I bought it for a 100DeutscheMark and had to solder it myself! I learned basic with it. Lovely to see you introducing it in your videos! Following your attempt to build a modern c64! This was the next computer i grew up with. Knew everything about it, repaired for friends, bought every peace i could grap. Love ur channel, and keep on watching!

Great episode, loved it. The ZX81 was my first! Thanks for also calling it the "zed ex" rather than the US centric "zee ex".

@anidnmeno

5 жыл бұрын

Zed ecks just flows better

@sentry4944

5 жыл бұрын

Zed just doesn't fit in with the rest of the alphabet. All other pronunciations of consonants have a single consonant sound. Bee, Cee, Dee, Eff, Kay, Ell, Pee, Arr, Ess... If you say Zed, you have two consonant sounds and it just sounds weird. Also I've heard "Heych" or "Hech" for H, but that can slide because if you're not paying attention you miss the initial H sound and it's not as...pronounced.

@garfieldepicmoments

5 жыл бұрын

Since the Z80 processor was designed in the US, I demand you refer to it as the "Zee 80" rather than the UK centric "Zed 80"

@subscriber6181

5 жыл бұрын

@@garfieldepicmoments It's funny how they're still used in TI84 calculators

@TheRealColBosch

5 жыл бұрын

@@sentry4944 This is the hill you choose you die on? Well, okay.

Glad you did an episode on the Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81, but disagree with your implying they were next to useless.

@gwishart

5 жыл бұрын

To be fair, he's clearly looking at it from the perspective of an American Commodore fanboy; it's hardly surprising his views are a little biased.

@Phobos_Anomaly

5 жыл бұрын

He had a lot of good things to say about it, in context to other computers of the day. He was simply being honest.

@gwishart

5 жыл бұрын

@@Phobos_Anomaly But ignoring that the "other computers" of the day were either unavailable in the UK at the time; or would have cost more than the average family earned in six months.

ZX Spectrum ruled the UK home computer market back in the 80's. Very nice video 8-Bit Guy, well put together M8.

I still have my 2nd hand ZX81, I was so pleased to find it again last Xmas after years of fearing it had been thrown out. Bog-roll printer and (gasp) external 48k RAM and proper external spring-based keyboard included :-)