All the Spectrum computers were awesome computers that somehow crammed a lot into a very compact package. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ was my first computer and I recently snagged one on eBay. With the right transformer and HDMI converter, I had it hooked to the living room TV in no time.
It took less than 30 mins for my 11-year-old daughter to figure out how to draw basic rectangles and circles in various colors on the screen. She was hooked. And I was transported back to my childhood. I saw the same joy I experienced as she discovered new ways to have the computer do her bidding.
Today’s computers can do amazing things, but they sort of miss out on the whole human user experience bit. Maybe they need to go back to basic ;-)
> Today’s computers can do amazing things, but they sort of miss out on the whole human user experience bit. Maybe they need to go back to basic ;-)
It's partly because in 8-bit computers the programming environment was the first thing you were exposed to. You weren't force to program though, you could limit yourself to LOAD "*",8 - but also you were free to experiment with more commands if you wanted to.
In newer computers, the programming interface was replaced by something else, and then completely removed from the system.
I'm an avid retro-enthusiast and have an extensive collection of computers, going back to the 70's. I've also kept every computer I've ever owned personally.
This year I'll be doing a retro-exhibit at the MQ in Vienna, putting the machines up and getting them running for folks to interact with and explore. The idea is to show people that, in fact - old computers never die, their users do!
The key thing is that, even if you don't have a use for that old computer - there are a hundred million other human beings out there that might, and to some of them it'll be just as useful as it was the day it was taken out of the box and turned on for the first time. Consumerism requires participation in the fallacy that 'old things have no use' - but as we can see from the resurgence in interest around the retro- scene, this is just a lie.
One of the things that has made this so interesting to me is the experience of having to set up each machine, again, with all its requisite tools. As a developer, to me this of course means having assemblers, editors, compilers, and so on - and it is quite a challenge. But once its up and running, there is no greater joy than hacking on an old machine, with no Internet and only the tools in front of me. It has been one of the coping mechanisms I use to get over the pain, suffering and misery of modern software development, where it seems every month some kid has re-invented the tools we old folks discarded years ago, and for it to become fashionable such that there is no choice, to be current, than to keep up with the rat race of compilers and libraries and editors and frameworks, oh my ..
If you've still got an old machine somewhere, do yourself a favour and get it set up again. It can really help with developer funk.
I realise the ZX Spectrum might not be the most important computer in the history of computing, but it is 100% the most important computer to me. That thing changed my life.
The Spectrum (and ZX81) had a big effect on a whole generation of Brits. I know my folks could not have afforded a C64 or BBC Micro but they did manage fifty quid in Currys to start my lifetime of coding.
I think the 8-bit generation of computers were very important to a lot of folks, and Sinclair was amazing for packing so much in such a low cost computer. A lot of folks wouldn’t be in computing without Sinclair.
Every single programmer I've known from the UK that was from working-class roots started on a Spectrum, so I'd argue that, at least for one country, it's among the most important in history.
Brilliant just finished watching micromen and loved it even though I was in the commodore camp myself. The spectrum next project is really cool for a 8bit remake computer. I hope to get one for the kids when it’s generally available.
Steve Vickers taught first year Java (and more) at the University of Birmingham and I was lucky enough to be taught by him, he was a great teacher, we'd learn Java by implementing parts of his larger Turtles application (similar to LOGO).
I remember there was a semester long competition that he held wherein you would have to write a turtles program to generate an interesting output, I thought my tesseract was quite good, and then a student who spent most of time in lectures playing LocoRoco had animated an entire movie, of a turtle enrolling at the university, I realised then that I was a very average programmer.
For those like me looking for a bit of retro nostalgia but with some modern conveniences, I discovered a laptop version of the spectrum being made now with new parts:
https://retroradionics.co.uk/omni-128-hq-laptop.html
That's very cool. I wish there was a Commodore 64 version. Running an emulator on a laptop isn't quite right because of keyboard differences. Plus there's the whole joystick port thing.
I am surprised at how many sub-contractors Sinclair used for his products.
He had quite a media profile at the time and one imagined that everything came out of a Sinclair building with all the magic happening inside that building, with Sir Clive very much hands on with his minions.
In reality though the product was as much about managing suppliers and contractors as much as it was about design.
The thing is that I would have thought that in those days writing your own ROM (all 8Kb of it) was core functionality and not something outsourced. Sinclair wasn't as 'vertically integrated' as I imagined.
Does anyone know if they outsourced the ULA design and even the printed circuit board layout?
The Complete Spectrum ROM Disassembly is a great book which I have had since those days. It is incredible how much they packed into that thing, and reading through for each function your reaction is going to be "is that it?". Available as a PDF with a quick Google. I have referred to it often to see the most economical way to do stuff.
Great article! I wonder why the "Related Items" list does not include the Timex 2068 Color Computer [1]? Is this because the Museum does not have one?
I cut my teeth on the 2068 and only just gave it up on eBay a year or so ago. I would have been glad to donate it to this museum had I known about it. Maybe a Wanted Items list could be posted?
Mainly because it was never available in the UK. There was a euro variant in Portugal and Poland, but it was incompatible with the UK Spectrum (both hardware and software), so didn't really have much point in the UK - where the Speccy was ubiquitous and easy to find software and peripherals for.
Speaking of ZX Spectrum ... you might want to check out the QEMU Advent Calendar disk image[1] for it from 2016. The blurb:
"ZX Spectrum was one of most successful 8-bit machines of all time -- with still an active community! Relive the experience with a selection of homebrew games, using the Free Unix Spectrum Emulator."
It's a pity Sinclair tended to make at least one bad design choice per device. Eg the Z88 was about the most amazing device of its time if only it had had something else than eproms for storage.
[+] [-] techbubble|7 years ago|reply
It took less than 30 mins for my 11-year-old daughter to figure out how to draw basic rectangles and circles in various colors on the screen. She was hooked. And I was transported back to my childhood. I saw the same joy I experienced as she discovered new ways to have the computer do her bidding.
Today’s computers can do amazing things, but they sort of miss out on the whole human user experience bit. Maybe they need to go back to basic ;-)
[+] [-] dvfjsdhgfv|7 years ago|reply
It's partly because in 8-bit computers the programming environment was the first thing you were exposed to. You weren't force to program though, you could limit yourself to LOAD "*",8 - but also you were free to experiment with more commands if you wanted to.
In newer computers, the programming interface was replaced by something else, and then completely removed from the system.
[+] [-] DEADBEEFC0FFEE|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtanworth|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] drinfinity|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mmjaa|7 years ago|reply
This year I'll be doing a retro-exhibit at the MQ in Vienna, putting the machines up and getting them running for folks to interact with and explore. The idea is to show people that, in fact - old computers never die, their users do!
The key thing is that, even if you don't have a use for that old computer - there are a hundred million other human beings out there that might, and to some of them it'll be just as useful as it was the day it was taken out of the box and turned on for the first time. Consumerism requires participation in the fallacy that 'old things have no use' - but as we can see from the resurgence in interest around the retro- scene, this is just a lie.
One of the things that has made this so interesting to me is the experience of having to set up each machine, again, with all its requisite tools. As a developer, to me this of course means having assemblers, editors, compilers, and so on - and it is quite a challenge. But once its up and running, there is no greater joy than hacking on an old machine, with no Internet and only the tools in front of me. It has been one of the coping mechanisms I use to get over the pain, suffering and misery of modern software development, where it seems every month some kid has re-invented the tools we old folks discarded years ago, and for it to become fashionable such that there is no choice, to be current, than to keep up with the rat race of compilers and libraries and editors and frameworks, oh my ..
If you've still got an old machine somewhere, do yourself a favour and get it set up again. It can really help with developer funk.
[+] [-] moomin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andymurd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] protomyth|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aidenn0|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevekemp|7 years ago|reply
(Largely because the tape-player in our bundle didn't work, so instead I was "forced" to read the manual(s) instead..)
[+] [-] Marazan|7 years ago|reply
It's cheapness and ubiquity turbo-charged the UK computer scene.
It's clones crossing the iron curtain also had a profound effect on Eastern European computing.
[+] [-] christkv|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sambeau|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codeulike|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leibnitz27|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unfunco|7 years ago|reply
I remember there was a semester long competition that he held wherein you would have to write a turtles program to generate an interesting output, I thought my tesseract was quite good, and then a student who spent most of time in lectures playing LocoRoco had animated an entire movie, of a turtle enrolling at the university, I realised then that I was a very average programmer.
[+] [-] mysterydip|7 years ago|reply
review here: http://markfixesstuff.co.uk/review/zx-spectrum-omni-laptop-r...
[+] [-] reaperducer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anjc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Theodores|7 years ago|reply
He had quite a media profile at the time and one imagined that everything came out of a Sinclair building with all the magic happening inside that building, with Sir Clive very much hands on with his minions.
In reality though the product was as much about managing suppliers and contractors as much as it was about design.
The thing is that I would have thought that in those days writing your own ROM (all 8Kb of it) was core functionality and not something outsourced. Sinclair wasn't as 'vertically integrated' as I imagined.
Does anyone know if they outsourced the ULA design and even the printed circuit board layout?
[+] [-] userbinator|7 years ago|reply
http://www.zxdesign.info/book/
(Incidentally, it's GFDL so you can also find a legal PDF of it, but only buying a physical copy will support the author.)
[+] [-] garganzol|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beardyw|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoeDaDude|7 years ago|reply
I cut my teeth on the 2068 and only just gave it up on eBay a year or so ago. I would have been glad to donate it to this museum had I known about it. Maybe a Wanted Items list could be posted?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_2068
[+] [-] memsom|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kashyapc|7 years ago|reply
"ZX Spectrum was one of most successful 8-bit machines of all time -- with still an active community! Relive the experience with a selection of homebrew games, using the Free Unix Spectrum Emulator."
[1] https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2016/#day-23
[+] [-] drej|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justatdotin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Angostura|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stewbrew|7 years ago|reply