Easy to forget in the era of modern consoles just how big a deal the humble Speccy was when it first hit in the early 1980's, or how pumped I was as a kid in the U.K. every month to see the latest issue of Your Sinclair with its free demo tapes in the newsagent. Colour clash, insanely long (and screeching ) loading times ... who cared? For all its limitations, that primitive little 48k thing fired the imaginations of an entire 8-bit generation. "Colour clash? No idea what you're talking about, sorry." So just taking this opportunity to raise a hearty glass to Clive on the next stage of his journey through electric dreams. A man so much more than the comical image of modern media lampoonery pictured driving around in his slightly ludicrous C5, but a serious mind, a serious commitment.. a true founding father of everything that came after. I'd say he deserves respect as such. So THANK YOU, Clive - and rest in peace, you undisputed genius (and by all means, by way of tribute, share your antique ZX memories here! )
Sinclair is a criminally under appreciated legend of computing history and is one of the guys most responsible, albeit indirectly, for the existence of a huge gaming market and industry in Europe. Countless people owe him for the existence of their jobs and entertainment, even if they don't even know it. Spectrum was the first computer and gaming platform I ever had. While i'm not that interested in revisiting that now, i'm always grateful that I came into gaming through computers rather then consoles and that is where it started for me.
That's very true. I think kids today take it for granted that the graphics and processing speed on their playstation 4 and 5's are so good and nothing had to struggle to evolve or test those waters first. What you saw with the Spectrum early to mid-1980's was game designers pushing against the boundaries to produce some stunning innovations that essentially took us from basic (albeit addictive) 2D platformers like Jet Set Willy to 3D isometric worlds as imaginative and creative as this: That was quite the leap in terms what the thing was capable of, whereas now home gaming systems are basically put out to pasture when the next incarnation arrives in the marketplace before the gaming hardware is given that same decade-long gestation to evolve, or is ever really pushed. I know it was more about the Commodore 64 in the American market so this thread will connect less with a big chunk of this forum's audience, but hopefully a few more U.K. and European users will post here to remember Sir Clive and reminisce about the good ol' speccy! Unlike you, I am tempted by the occasional nostalgia trip with spcccy games to revisit old faves (Treasure Island Dizzy anyone?) and may be tempted by the crowdfundred Spectrum Next machine at some point. If not that then certainly the very cool looking handheld that was in the pipeline a few years back if that ever properly comes to market and they can resolve the licensing issues.
I think Chequered Flag is that first video game I remember playing. I think it's because of the explosive grass of death. EU had neverending arguments if it's ZX, Commodore or Amiga.
Couldn't say for sure but I think the first thing I played on there was either an Invaders clone, Horace Goes Skiing or Chuckie Egg.
Whilst, when we finally got a computer, it was the humble Commodore 16 (as advertised by the then-still-acceptable Rolf Harris), I am of that era... one of my neighbours had an Amstrad CPC 464 (both that and the C16 essentially riding on the coat tails of the ZX line), whilst another neighbour had a Spectrum 48k (I think my first knowledge of home gaming), one of my friends at the other end of the village had a Spectrum 128k, and another of my friends was dead-set on getting a C5 (which never happened...) After reading about it in an Amiga magazine (a few years later), my GCSE technology teacher (who had owned one for many years) was shocked when I pointed out that the air vents on his ZX80 were painted on to make it look more powerful than it actually was Not tempted by the Speccy, but I have ordered the A500 mini for when it comes out next year for some Amiga nostalgia As for Dizzy... the friend with the 128k got the original Dizzy on a cover tape from Crash magazine, after which we recorded a fake "radio show" under "Radio Crash FM" in which we either reviewed or did a play through of the game (30+ years ago... my memory is a little fuzzy...). Either way, we both continued with the Dizzy games after moving on to Amigas Amiga was Commodore Where rivalries were concerend, the 8-bit rivalries were ZX vs. Commodore 16/64/+2/Vic20 vs. Amstrad CPC vs. BBC Micro, the 16-bit/32-bit(ish) were Amiga vs. Atari ST (vs. Acorn Archimedes, which my C5 friend wanted to replace his BBC Micro )
The first computer I ever used was my dad's Sinclair ZX81, marketed in the USA under the joint Timex Sinclair branding, exclusively at Dillard's stores. Even the Spectrum had to evolve from somewhere too!
Mister Sinclair was sadly before my time. By the time the siren song of video games had taken me, we were at the Sega Megadrive era on consoles and the Pentium II in the PC space. By the sounds of though without the hard yards put in by this man and his company I’d not be enjoying it very much. Vale, Clive Sinclair.
@flamepanther, for sure! I missed out on the ZX81 (too young!) and progressed from using my best mate's rubber-keyed 48k model to me and my brother getting our own Spectrum + 2 as an xmas gift with built in tape recorder, which was released when Amstrad and Alan Sugar took over production of the later models. Quite a sexy looking beast really (even though we secretly pined for the superior graphics of the C64 when The Last Ninja was released. ) Lmfao @ painted air vents. The late 48k era seems to be the first golden gaming era for many. Jet Set Willy, the Ultimate classic trio of: Knight Lore, Sabre Wulf & Atic Atac and this little beauty spring to mind among many classic titles, usually with stunning cover artwork to match ... Had no idea there was a portable A500 in the offing, but a first time Google reveals it comes bundled with 25 games including Speedball 2 and Battle Chess, two of my faves so I may well have to bite! The Amiga port of Dizzy wasn't too bad at all iirc; I also had Head Over Heels on the Amiga but even with its superior colours and shading somehow it lacked the magic of the spectrum version. Crash was just superb, always epic cover art...
In the Polish neck of the woods you had Commodores used along their successors and as all those machines were available mostly in school classes... There was one computer magazine printed in the country and issues not always up to date in the school library. Let's say knowledge who manufactured was not given. This mix of "whatever was available" died really fast with PC.
Not to reignite the Chris Curry vs his old boss Clive debate that films like Micro Men made such a meal of, but in U.K. schools, the Acorn BBC Micro was the learning workhorse of choice (i.e: after Chris landed that golden handshake deal with the Beeb enraging Sinclair) -- and to say the "games" were primitive is an understatement. Even if he was more invested in it as a programming platform over the games he personally never played, the marketing fightback that followed definitely worked in Sinclair's favour though, and as a gaming platform the Spectrum looked positively new wave by comparison ...
