COLLECTOR Q&A
Jake Warren owns every title Sinclair released for the Spectrum
What inspired you to start collecting Sinclair titles?
I can remember the date that I got my Spectrum: 18 June 1983, from Whsmith in Bristol. With the computer I also bought a copy of Flight Simulation, so that was my first Sinclair title. Over the next few years I acquired several more. I used to love browsing the Sinclair product brochures, planning my next purchase. When I got back into all things Speccy years later, I was able to fill many of the gaps in my collection through ebay. I’m a bit of an OCD collector and things like numbering schemes and design uniformity are important – they need to look good lined up next to each other on a shelf! The Sinclair range satisfies that urge. Many titles have fantastic cover art too.
What do you think it is about the silver box titles that make them particularly sought-after?
The later titles, including the Macman games, sold in very small numbers. The laws of supply and demand has meant that these rare titles always seem to fetch good prices. I’d be the first to admit that some of the titles aren’t very good, but that doesn’t matter when you are trying to complete a collection!
Which of your titles cost you the most to acquire?
The top three amounts I’ve paid are £129.45 for Macman In The Treasure Caves in August 2010, £92.97 for Oil Strike in February 2013, and £78 for Macman’s Magic Mirror in March 2010.
Do you think prices have peaked?
Sinclair fans seem to be focusing on other publishers at the moment, such as Hit Squad and Codemasters, so I think prices have peaked or possibly even dropped a little at present. However, the rarest titles become available so infrequently that it only takes a couple of people to get in a bidding war and push prices sky high.
Rumours surround the Sinclair tape release of Tranz Am. Do you think it was ever published?
I remember reading a forum post from someone who claimed to have seen a Tranz Am tape but as far as I’m aware no one has definitely seen a copy. I personally don’t think it was published, although it does seem strange as the other three Ultimate titles were. It would be great if a legitimate copy did surface and it could break records if it was sold. I live in hope.
Are there any other classic Spectrum ranges you collect?
I have a full collection of the Ultimate games, all of the single cassettes that Quicksilva produced, most DK’Tronics, Bug-Byte and Software Projects releases. I won a charity auction of all of Malcolm Evans’ New Generation cassettes a few years ago. They were all signed by him so I’m particularly proud of those.