In 1981 I bought a mail order ZX-81 kit in the U.S. for $100 and it worked after I assembled it! I was driving a truck at the time and my employer thought I might be interested in a computer operator job at a new data center they were opening. I worked there for 30 years before retiring. Thank you Sir Clive! You provided me with a career. The ZX-81 was a great introduction to the basics of computing.
@EgoShredder
7 жыл бұрын
That's a great story and I am glad things worked out for you.
@DavidHoshor
7 жыл бұрын
Thank you. It was a life changer for me.
@AnGhaeilge
7 жыл бұрын
Agreed - great story!
@fleecemaster
7 жыл бұрын
I learnt to code on a ZX too when I was a kid, beautiful machine! :D
@HinataHyugaWithtits
7 жыл бұрын
This man has a transparent beard!
@unlokia
7 жыл бұрын
You realise that beards are not uniform, solid objects, right?
@emuboy85
7 жыл бұрын
it's a transparent texture
@unxcqjyeezerdpn
7 жыл бұрын
beardControl.Renderer.Alpha = 0.25
@ASilentS
7 жыл бұрын
One might say he has a..... spectrum of Spectrums
@xPow-
7 жыл бұрын
Boooooooooooooo :)
@Nostalgianerd
7 жыл бұрын
He's talking about BRITISH computers whilst wearing an AUSTRALIAN shirt. I can't handle it. (seriously though, it's cool. I bloody love Sinclair machines, and Australians). Also, wizard beard.
@RonaldvanderPutten
7 жыл бұрын
Those were the good ol' days... oh, and the 'Turbo loader' border-flicker... fantastic!
@jamesosborne4567
7 жыл бұрын
Love the little ZX printer.
@KamiraXIV
7 жыл бұрын
Now I have to rewatch Micro Men again...
@Fiddling_while_Rome_burns
7 жыл бұрын
I still regard the ZX Spectrum as the best computer I ever had. Sinclair basic was an incredibly good version, and the auto completed programming command by the keyboard an amazing aid to learning. I taught myself basic quite easily at 14 years old and when went to college to learn COBOL was way ahead of the rest of the class.
@Skraeling1000
7 жыл бұрын
OMG, COBOL! I spent about a year writing COBOL programs on - get this - punched cards! Horrendous!
@hermaeus_jackson
7 жыл бұрын
This is the first time i've seen the Microdrive things, and try are actually pretty impressive. Very small.
@arfanmedni7294
2 жыл бұрын
RIP Clive Sinclair, gone to silicon heaven.
@JohnMichaelson
7 жыл бұрын
I can't hear 'Sinclair ZX-81' without thinking of Holly's line from Red Dwarf, "I was in love once. A Sinclair ZX81. People said, no, Holly, she's not for you. She's cheap, she's stupid and she wouldn't load, well, not for me anyway."
@Petertronic
7 жыл бұрын
Great stuff, I had a ZX81 then Spectrum, then upgraded that to the Spectrum+ (you could get a kit to do that). Then got the Spectrum +2, which was released after the Amstrad takeover. I was quite disappointed with the +2, the built in tape deck was crap, no tape counter or level controls and no external audio in/out jacks (I hacked those in myself). Also the picture quality was fuzzy from the +2 compared with the original Spectrum.
@SharpblueCreative
7 жыл бұрын
Oddly enough I have just inherited a whole box of Sinclair computers. Several Spectrums, 48, 128, QL, Plusses and micro tapes etc. Not sure if any of it works but I will try them at some point. Only thing I don't have is power supplies.
@zeusgb
7 жыл бұрын
The ZX Spectrum was and still is a awesome machine.
@kensmith5694
7 жыл бұрын
I still have a few ZX-80s kicking around here. They were the 4K integer basic version. You could get an assembler and write Z80 assembly language code. Your compiled code would live in the first line of the basic as a remark. This way you knew its address to run it. Somewhere, I still have the code for doing an FFT in ZX-80 basic. I used two integers to hold each number. It was a complicated mess but it worked.
@markdavies794
7 жыл бұрын
Good look back on history. I went ZX81, ZX Spectrum 48, Spectrum 128 then I went Atari ST. I still have three spectrums in my attic + a wafadrive, an interface one + microdrives. I also have an Alphacom printer which was a sort of clone printer but it used normal thermal paper.
@brum57
7 жыл бұрын
Same path as me Mark. I haven't got any in the loft tho but I do have a BBC Master, monitor and disk drive, might get them down and have a play one day.
@markdavies794
7 жыл бұрын
I bought an Amiga A500 whilst I had my Atari ST. I have an Amiga 1200 somewhere. I still have an Atari STe and Atari Falcon setup but have not turned them on for about 4 years.
@ZXGuesser
7 жыл бұрын
The microdrive doesn't have two 50K tracks, it has two 100K tracks which both contain the same data. I seem to recall it's something to do with synchronising the data coming in from the read heads as the motor speed isn't particularly constant. It's been a while since I had a working microdrive system though.
@05Rudey
7 жыл бұрын
I had the 48k ZX-Spectrum, I loved it to bits but I wished that it a proper interface to use 5 1/4 Floppy Disk and a A4 sized printer, because at school we used the BBC Micro and all of our Computer Studies home work was BASIC Programming and Plotting graphs, which the Speccy was more than capable of doing. Once the School upgraded to RM Nimbus machines and I got a hand me down Amstrad 1512, I was fully compatible with the school machines.
@scin3759
7 жыл бұрын
Thanks. Good video. The guy interviewing also needs a mic. That would make it much better.
@Martial-Mat
7 жыл бұрын
Still got my Spectrum 48 downstairs - Adventure Island FTW!
@Martial-Mat
7 жыл бұрын
Different game I think. The original version was a verb noun text adventure.
@AnGhaeilge
7 жыл бұрын
I played Wonderboy a lot in the arcade. Great game! They renamed it for Adventure Island for the home port for some reason.
@MarkHidden
7 жыл бұрын
Yes ZX81 was my first, but the TI-99/4A I picked up 6 mounth later for $20 when Sears was dumping the thing, So the first two computer I got for less then $100 bucks US. I never really got much out of the ZX81 the membrane keyboard drove me nuts.
@DaveScottAggie
7 жыл бұрын
Preselling items to finance production. That sounds kind of like Kickstarter. At least Kickstarter campaigns pretty much tells you that is what they are doing.
@code-dredd
7 жыл бұрын
Join us next week for our upcoming new episode: Typewriters & Paper! You can use them! To type! On paper! :O
@justice4g
7 жыл бұрын
loved that period from the Spectrum & Vic 20 to the Amiga - on switching to the PC I lost all passion for computers as a hobby.
@DrazenKlisuric
7 жыл бұрын
My first computer was ZX Spectrum 128
@CNCmachiningisfun
7 жыл бұрын
The ZX81 was my first computer. I still have it, and it stills works :) .
@Brascofarian
7 жыл бұрын
ah... I was hoping to see a bit of the plus 2/3.
@ThaVoodoo1
7 жыл бұрын
Hey Guys, Don't forget the Amstrad CPC range of computers in the mid 80's.
@wisteela
7 жыл бұрын
Excellent video
@mUbase
7 жыл бұрын
rampack wobble was definitely widespread. :)
@iAmTheSquidThing
7 жыл бұрын
Spencer: Sinclair collector and undertaker.
@KuraIthys
7 жыл бұрын
Not old enough to have been aware of this age. Although I did experience some of it in the early 90's by way of getting some secondhand Atari 800 XL's to play with.
@WaxingRadiance
7 жыл бұрын
I soo want my 16k spectrum back.
@spazmobot
7 жыл бұрын
My 1st computer was a Sinclair - still have it!
@sdragon21
7 жыл бұрын
Will you ever do a video on the Amiga???
@gollumondrugs
7 жыл бұрын
If he's such an avid collector I'm surprised he hasn't gone for the ZX80 by now despite the high price?
@sheffieldhoney
7 жыл бұрын
Exactly, think I've got 3 here - plus white 3kb ram pack
@gollumondrugs
7 жыл бұрын
ZX80's have been a higher second hand price since the 80's! lol
@mUbase
7 жыл бұрын
not everyone has loadsamoney.
@mUbase
7 жыл бұрын
I've got a speccy 48 with a Lo-profile keyboard. its nice!!
@skaruts
7 жыл бұрын
Still have my 128K+3 somewhere. Last time I checked, the keyboard looked like a half-pipe. I was a salty kid back then. :)
@bodnotbod
7 жыл бұрын
I remember the mono cassette deck I bought especially for loading my Spectrum games was advertised specifically as a "data" model. I wonder whether it was actually any different to other mono cassette decks or whether that was just a bit of canny advertising.
@SpeccyMan
7 жыл бұрын
They might've contained filtering circuits to limit the frequency response a bit. I did have one and it was always considerably more reliable for loading than your bog-standard cassette deck.
@bodnotbod
7 жыл бұрын
Nick B Interesting, thanks :)
@picobyte
7 жыл бұрын
I had the zx80 with internal memory hack and the extra 16k expantion.
@Larry
7 жыл бұрын
Since when was Clive Sinclair into Hi-Fi's? You're confusing him with Alan Sugar there mate!
@Computerphile
7 жыл бұрын
+Larry Bundy Jr Sinclair definitely did hi-fi too!
@AcornElectron
7 жыл бұрын
I think there's a reference to it in the BBC drama "micromen". Sir Clive was/is one of the greatest British inventors of all time.
@leighwiggin4139
7 жыл бұрын
I used to type "POKE USR 12345" on the demo machines instore. It used to drive the staff crazy.
@TheTurnipKing
6 жыл бұрын
Wouldn't POKE require an extra parameter? In addition 12345 is ROM space, so you shouldn't be able to POKE it even with the extra parameter. even randomize throws a wobbly, which is the traditional method for executing machine code. Interestingly Print seems to lock up the machine quite well though.
@winstonsmith478
7 жыл бұрын
ZX80's are $400 on ebay in the UK? There's one on US ebay right now for US$30. A ZX80 was my first PC. I built it from the kit version sold in the US. Commodore for a while ran an exchange credit for any computer. Turn in a computer and you got a discount (US$100, I think) on a C64. They got so many ZX80s that they used them in their offices for door stops.
@MartyGreenwell
7 жыл бұрын
But it's listed as untested (i.e. broken) and it looks like people have been resting a soldering iron on it. If you can find one in unassembled kit form, it'd go for a lot more than £400 on UK eBay.
@MartyGreenwell
7 жыл бұрын
"I didn't really look at it closely. I recall looking for one a few years ago and they weren't so insanely expensive" Condition is king with these units - boxed clean working examples go for silly money as you can see from the completed listings. Not sure how repairable broken units would be these days.
@AndyPayne42
7 жыл бұрын
I unplug my raspberry pi's without shutting them down, no problems so far :) In fact, I might have a problem when I just pull the SD card out but probably not...that's with the pi's under heavy load. It's just funny how different people treat their electronics...I like to test failure points
@jtsiomb
7 жыл бұрын
The hardware never has any problems at all with you removing the power. It's the software which fails miserably when you interrupt it in the middle of a non-atomic operation. On the Pi you're running GNU/Linux, which is written specifically to not corrupt anything when you cut the power. Windows would be another matter altogether.
@jtsiomb
7 жыл бұрын
***** my comment was based on the assumption that NTFS doesn't have journalling. It seems I'm misremembering.
@mikedench1110
7 жыл бұрын
What sold the Speccy to me was the ease of programming and the version of Basic which helped especially the error checking. The C64 was horrible in comparison
@BertGrink
7 жыл бұрын
Mike Dench Hey there fellow WOS'er :D I agree 100% about the superiority of the ZX entry system P.S. My WOS name is The_Bert - we have exchanged a few comments in the past, that's how i knew your name :)
@PrivateSi
6 жыл бұрын
The QL multi-tasked.. If only he'd released a dual processor z80 + 680xx QL that ran specky games and could use either processor as a multimedia co-processor. The 1985 model could have had a disk drive and GUI. What were they thinking.....
@titaniumdiveknife
7 жыл бұрын
YAY Australia!
@lanceflanagan
4 жыл бұрын
I had one! I remember Gulpman (clear pacman rip off) fondly
@ichabaudcraine2923
7 жыл бұрын
Can't you put the links to the videos at the end for those who can't click annotations e.g. on mobile?
@ichabaudcraine2923
7 жыл бұрын
* put them in the description I mean
@Computerphile
7 жыл бұрын
+Ichabaud Craine I think I did.... >Sean
@Supuhstar
7 жыл бұрын
if you're up to date on the official KZitem app, it has annotations now :D
@snotnosedlilkid
5 жыл бұрын
Remember the jet set willy coloured card to stop piracy?
@miketipping1583
7 жыл бұрын
VIC20... my parents decided we needed a real keyboard and WHSmiths had sold out of Spectrums.
@Thunderwolf666
7 жыл бұрын
I had a dragon 32 and then an Amstrad cpc 464
@samcoupe4608KB
7 жыл бұрын
there was multitasking BETA BASIC could play beep music and continue functioning!
@UltimatePerfection
7 жыл бұрын
The only thing I don't like about Speccy is palette clash that wasn't present in any other computer at the time.
@UberAlphaSirus
7 жыл бұрын
QVear I think the c64 had that on colour pictures.
@talideon
7 жыл бұрын
Only in hi-res graphics mode on the C64, and only if you weren't bothering with hardware sprites and were drawing them directly into the bitmap.
@matthehat
7 жыл бұрын
The MSX had this problem too, but since only one person outside of Japan ever bought one it's not surprising that it's not common knowledge
@mvl71
7 жыл бұрын
Matthew Harrison (matthehat) Ah, that'd be me. I had a Philips NMS 8250. Wonderful machine. Apart from the colour clash of course.
@SpeccyMan
7 жыл бұрын
Should've bought a Dragon 32, then you could've had any colour you liked, as long as it was green. ;-)
@Exaskryz
7 жыл бұрын
I think this guy was featured for his beard
@cykikvisage
7 жыл бұрын
Monitor is hanging off of the desk. LITERALLY UNWATCHABLE
@MrAntieMatter
7 жыл бұрын
Hello!
@ArnimSommer
7 жыл бұрын
So - has anyone tried to use an mp3 player as storage for a Sinclair?
@danielperestrelo3367
7 жыл бұрын
Arnim Sommer google .tap files for spectrum emulators
@ArnimSommer
7 жыл бұрын
Daniel Perestrelo I was thinking on a hardware level...
@unlokia
7 жыл бұрын
Sinclair products downfall was APPALLING built quality and being acutely unaware as to what consumers wanted or needed.
@AlaskaSkidood
7 жыл бұрын
A baby Rubik's cube!
@EgoShredder
7 жыл бұрын
I've got one of those but you have to be very careful when using it, or the individual cubes fall out. It is a fully working Rubik's Cube though.
@Wykesidefruitmachine
7 жыл бұрын
Man... Dizzy...
@jmm1233
7 жыл бұрын
C64 FTW , sorry Spectrum
@amh007dude
7 жыл бұрын
good to see some e waste still running .......... kinda !!
@g.f.w.parker5485
7 жыл бұрын
Beard.
@mqcapps
7 жыл бұрын
first computer
@bradburyrobinson
7 жыл бұрын
LOAD ""
@-min-hw9qw
7 жыл бұрын
Do not preorder!!!
@schitlipz
7 жыл бұрын
I dunno why there is such a rivalry between Commodore and Spectrum folk. Obviously the 64, even the Vic20, was light years ahead of this garbage.
@KuraIthys
7 жыл бұрын
schitlipz lol. what did you expect? the commodore 64 cost £399 at launch, the higher end 48k ZX spectrum cost £175. It's like asking why someone would buy a commodore 64 in 1985 when they could've bought an Amiga 1000. The Spectrum was way more powerful than the price difference would suggest. Not that I care, as I was too young to bother with either. besides, the only computer I owned from that era is an Atari 800XL - given that I got it in 1991 or so, or rather, two of them, 2 tape drives, joysticks, a plotter, about 20 games on cartridge and 400 on tape... For nearly nothing. Even so, to my young mind it was a frustrating mess to use, and I preferred my snes unless I felt like messing around with weird primitive looking stuff.
@schitlipz
7 жыл бұрын
The Amiga sucked. Esp. the 1000 with its 256k memory, no hard drive, disk-loaded Kickstart OS, no compatibility with 64, and expensive everything. Then the 500 came with its backward ports... Commodore DIED due to the Amiga. I hate that later era in computer history. Thankfully we're in a good age right now. Incidentally, my first job, after being a paperboy, was selling Amigas. The Atari wasn't _that_ bad, but more than twice the price of 64. The 80s were ruled by the C64. If ya bought a cheaper Vic20 they'd accept a switcheroo with an extra one or two hundred bucks (I forgot which). So it was marketed really well. I'm in Canada. I only remember using one of those Spectrum things. It had a membrane keyboard and output only black and white video. This was just after my Atari 2600 and before my Vic 20. Other than that, I don't think they really existed in North America other than in magazines, and I was a techno nut. Was the UK going through some kind of depression in the 80s?
@EgoShredder
7 жыл бұрын
Not really. Back in 1983 one of my friends had a VIC=20 and he was ashamed of people knowing he had one, and bemoaned that his dad was stupid and should have bought a ZX Spectrum 48K like I had. Also at school saying you had a VIC=20 was a recipe for disaster, and later on saying MSX was just as bad.
@schitlipz
7 жыл бұрын
Haha, I guess when we were kids it was about popularity... and easy access to games. But looking back today I'd definitely say the 64 was stellar. Today I use an emulator to play Gyrus and other little gems :) warm feelings.
@EgoShredder
7 жыл бұрын
I had a friend in the mid 1980s from Hackney, London and he was a total C64 fanboy. He mocked my Spectrum 48K but did enjoy some of my games. However once I got an Amstrad CPC464 his opinion changed, and he was often visibly and audibly pissed off because many of the games were far superior on the Amstrad that he liked. Many times I would visit his house and notice he had bought games which he had first played at my house on the CPC. Sometimes he would refuse to load them to show me, and angrily muttered bad things about the C64 conversion. I did get to see them eventually though and I could see why he was pissed off, e.g. glitchy, chunky badly drawn graphics, buggy coding and faults etc.
@andljoy
7 жыл бұрын
Pah , Sinclair computers , what a joke. Acorn for life !
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