Sinclair ZX81's 30th birthday

[JohnH]

On the 5th March, the Sinclair ZX81 turned 30...

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/03/04/s ... niversary/

 

[orange71]

I remember using one of these at school - it even had one of those thermal printers that printed on what looked like silver loo roll

 

[JohnH]

Who could forget the printer that could only print on silver bog roll???

Confession: I've still got my old Acorn Electron in a box somewhere, together with one of those WHSmith data recorders...

 

[zigzag]

ZX81 + Lunar Lander = A career in IT... True story

 

[velomaniac]

I suspect my dislike of computers stemmed from the ZX81 at school. I even remember using whatever preceded it, about an inch thick, same keyboard (hopeless touch sensitive rubbish). The teacher would make you copy down about 3 pages of sinclair basic into your jotter off an overhead projector image then punch that into the sinclair. If it worked a wee dot zig zagged down the screen. Usually it didn't as either you /the teacher/your computer partner missed out a tiny piece of basic code you could never find before the end of the lesson :x

Sinclair was/is a brilliant fellow, I just wish he wouldn't actually try to manufacture and market stuff himself. The technological foul ups he authored are legend :roll:

 

[BerthaPog]

Still got mine in it's box somewhere...don't know if it still works. Had the memorex ram pack (didn't fall off quite so readily as the Sinclair one).

Spent ages playing 3-D Monster Maze - which must have been one of the first "first person" 3-D games.

 

[big.eck]

i've still got my zx+ and half the box for it (missing the polystyrene bits inside)

 

[JohnH]

I even remember using whatever preceded it, about an inch thick, same keyboard (hopeless touch sensitive rubbish)....

One of these?

I know we laugh at how primitive these 8-bit machines seem now, but back in the early 80s, it felt to me as though the future had just arrived...

 

[Neil]

Still got mine in it's box somewhere...don't know if it still works. Had the memorex ram pack (didn't fall off quite so readily as the Sinclair one).

Think I've still got one, somewhere, too.

Ram pack wobble - kids these days, don't know they were born. All such a great home computing setup needed was the tiniest vibration to spoil 20 minutes loading some wierd adventure game (that I can't for the life of me, remember the name - but it should be burned in my memory...) from a cassette.

"Hoverboards? They were just a pipe-dream, son..."