Sir Clive Sinclair - RIP

[Smokin Joe]

Good ideas, briefly successful, never really driven with business acumen or long term investment, ended up being sold off on the cheap by Alan Sugar.

RIP.

Sugar made an opening offer of five million for the rights to the name and the computers thinking Sinclair would reject it as too low and Sugar was prepared to pay quite a bit more. He was astonished when it was accepted and he got it for what he considered a bargain price.

As you say, he was a great inventor but no businessman.

 

[lazybloke]

Ah, sad news. I've been teaching my 12 year old how computers work (at her request).
We had a quick look at the the Z80 instruction set just last weekend - I was trying to remember how to use LDIR to scroll the contents of ZX Spectrum video memory....

And now you know why I could never get a girlfriend.

 

[Sharky]

The ZX keyboard even played a staring role in the TV SciFi drama "Flipside of Dominc Hyde" as a console for a spaceship.
Showing now on YouTube

RIP

 

[Milkfloat]

I started off with a Spectrum 16K and eventually persuaded by parents that I needed the 32k upgrade that I fitted myself. Next on my list was a thermal printer, totally pointless but wow. I spent many a day copying code for games out of a magazine and then debugging the typos out. I owe my house, toys and pensions to the man. It put me on the path to working in technology, something I have done continuously since leaving university almost 25 years ago.

 

[Hacienda71]

I had the pleasure of driving a friends C5 as a 14 year old. As I couldn't even drive a moped at that age it was great fun. Not really practical though.
Had a ZX81 with the 16k ram expansion pack. I never had a Spectrum as my dad got a BBC B which was streets ahead.
Suspect most of Gen X experienced Sinclair products at some point.
RIP Sir Clive.

 

[Badger_Boom]

…I spent many a day copying code for games out of a magazine and then debugging the typos out…

Same here on our 48k Spectrum. We also bought a couple of those books of games which were equally full of errors. It was strangely enjoyable tracking them down. It’s a shame I didn’t see the benefit of keeping up with computing at the time.

My brother and I also spent far too long loading commercial games from cassettes and trying to beat each other’s high scores on classics like Harrier Attack (a Falklands war based 2d shooter which dates the technology nicely), Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner (escape the clutches of Scargill), and Horace Goes Skiing.

 

[DCLane]

+1 to the upgrade from 16k to 48k, taking an afternoon in my dining room. I remember tin foil and complex instructions.

Having learnt programming, playing lots of games, and other things it helped convince me I didn't want to work in technology as a career.

 

[lazybloke]

The ZX keyboard even played a staring role in the TV SciFi drama "Flipside of Dominc Hyde" as a console for a spaceship.
Showing now on YouTube

RIP

Loved that play, and the sequel. Have them on VHS somewhere.
The theme tune is a bit of an earworm for me.

 

[Sharky]

Loved that play, and the sequel. Have them on VHS somewhere.
The theme tune is a bit of an earworm for me.

Yep, I liked it as well and have the double vhs box as well, but not sure if I have a working vhs player anymore. but they're both on YouTube. I watched them again only last year.

 

[FrankCrank]

Fond memories of my Spectrum 48k back in the early eighties. Played ping-pong etc, and played around with some basic coding. The seed was planted that switched me from engineering to a long career in IT.
Many thanks Clive - RIP.

 

[Rocky]

I do think it is rather disrespectful of the Guardian and others to mock someone who was a real genius by relentlessly focusing on the unfortunate C5. Perhaps if we weren't so intent on knocking the successful, we would have a better economy and society.

I read the obit in the Guardian. I don’t see it as mocking anyone. It’s a good appraisal of his life and contributions.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...uting-pioneer-sir-clive-sinclair-dies-aged-81

RIP Sir Clive…..I was a fan

 

[Dirk]

A mate of mine had finally had a massive garage/workshop clearout a couple of months ago and sold 8 (yes 8!) Sinclair C5s that he'd been storing for years.
Maybe he should have held onto them for a bit longer?

 

[BrumJim]

I never had a Spectrum as my dad got a BBC B which was streets ahead.

and about 4 x the price, IIRC.

Being a late adopter, we had the Spectrum + , complete with useable keyboard.

I gave up my programing aspirations after failing to debug my elementary game "Return of the Slapheads", and getting laughed at by the class geeks for using BASIC rather than machine code. By the time I had been pushed back into programing with Pascal Turbo, I had already chosen a Mechanical Engineering degree and career.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Sinclair's focus and interest was not computers and he honestly did not have depth in it. His focus and interest was miniaturisation of electronic equipment. He started with transistor radios and went on to calculators, mini TV, digital watches and computers. He aimed to miniaturise PCB, transistors etc and sought manufacturers and finally the boxes and the assembly. So it was no surprise that he wanted a smaller version of a car.

Though 3 American companies, Commodore, Tandy and Apple had already launched personal computers. Commodore became the template for Sinclair to work on. Sinclair's ZX80 was 3 times cheaper and was immediately successful. And he approached it as teaching and educational tool. This allowed more people to learn about computers and programming, not just in the UK but across the World. His product made the PC and programming no longer a mystery. It also led to surge in students moving to take on computing as a subject. Universities rushed to provide computing as a discipline within year of the launch of ZX80. Talk about power of influence. The ZX80 changed the World, not the Commodore, the Tandy or the Apple.

ZX81 its successor became most heavily cloned PC behind the iron curtain. And part of it was political in nature. They trusted the British rather than the Americans.

 

[Blue Hills]

ZX81 its successor became most heavily cloned PC behind the iron curtain. And part of it was political in nature. They trusted the British rather than the Americans.

I was at a trade show once in communist hungary and saw a spectrum linked to some cutting or fabrication machine of some sort - can't remember what it was doing/cutting.