SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM

SPECIFICATION CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 3.5MHz RAM: 16/48/128K GRAPHICS: 256x192 resolution, eight colors SOUND: CPU-driven single-channel onboard speaker STORAGE: Cassette and ZX Microdrive OS: Sinclair BASIC RELEASED: December 1981 LAUNCH PRICE: $220 16K, $350 48K PRODUCTION: 1982–1992 WORLDWIDE SALES: 5 million

The Speccy. It had an awful “dead flesh” keyboard, visually offensive colorclash, and truly disgusting audio, but it was cheap—real cheap. If you were a British kid in the ’80s, this was the machine to fight for, the blue-collared hero that ushered in $4 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-color 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.