SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
Specification
cpu: Zilog Z80 at 3.5MHZ
RAM: 16/48/128K
Graphics: 256x192 resolution, 8 colours
Sound: Cpu-driven single channel onboard speaker
Storage: Cassette and ZX Microdrive
os: Sinclair BASIC
Released: December 1981
Launch price: £125 16K, £175 48K
production: 1982-1992
Worldwide sales: 5 million
The Speccy. It had an awful ‘dead flesh’ keyboard, visually offensive colour-clash, and truly disgusting audio, but it was cheap – really cheap. If you were a British kid in the ’80s, this was the machine to fight for, the bluecollared hero that ushered in £2 gaming and earned Clive Sinclair a knighthood.
After losing the BBC contract to Acorn, Sinclair had to fight back and did so by targeting the budget market, this time with a machine that could hold its own with videogames. Originally the ‘ZX82’ (after the ZX80/81 predecessors), it was renamed to the ZX Spectrum to highlight its whopping eight-colour palette. The use of a simple cassette deck for storage meant a whole new indie development scene developed at which anyone could try their hand. Its list of games is utterly enormous and it’s impossible to do justice to the classics, but check out Ant
Attack, Head Over Heels, Skool Daze and Manic Miner – and it’s obligatory to play a Dizzy game at least once.
As the ’80s ploughed on, its real rival would be the Commodore 64. Although the Commodore was in most ways a better machine, the Spectrum still had some tricks up its sleeve, and its dirt-cheap price meant that in Britain it was in more grotty bedrooms of more spotty schoolboys (many of whom went on to be software developers). The Commodore looked and sounded better, but at least the Spectrum had a faster CPU and quicker tape drive.