I have been programming for a living for more than 20 years. And really it was all thanks to this man, who made personal computers affordable for me as a kid back in the 80s. I picked software engineering as my career path because I fell in love with it from the first moment I used the little ZX Spectrum 48k. I would have never been able to afford an Apple II, and my parents didn't see much value in computers back then. This man is a legend.
Even though Sinclair were "the enemy" as I was growing up with my CBM64 in the 80s, to my dying day I will hold Sir Clive up as the finest innovator in a generation. So what if the C5 failed? So what if it was treated with derision? The man dared to do it and now 30 years later, you can't get a C5 for love nor money. Courage, risk taking and forcing competition - the hallmarks of a true genius. May he live forever.
I bought a battered old C5 from a charity shop in Peckham many years ago. It's in bits in my garage. I will get it up and running again this winter and will be riding it through the streets of Peckham on xmas day to pay homage to Clive Sinclair.
This interview should be 2 hours long, presented by an old school interviewer without the mocking undertones, and also be compulsory viewing in every school across Europe.
I would never ever have got into home computing without the 48k spectrum...it was affordable to the common man...clive was a genius and a legend...rest well clive and thank you.x
Watch Micro Men (2009) if you want a blast from the past of the era of personal computing. It's not too flattering to old man Sinclair, but after watching this you can't help but feel for the poor bugger. :P
Sinclair's machines led to a golden generation of coders and coding culture in the UK - still more good quality programmers per capita of any nation in the world.
I think i miss the time of an instant boot up and the computer was there... you could load a program or 10 print "boo" 20 goto 10 RUN etc. The whole computer was open for you if you didn't want to program you didn't have to. but you could type in programs or that stuff, now computers are hidden behind the operating system they are different. A BMX to get to the shop £1.99 for a game from the shop and a speccy to play it on! A Raleigh Burner and a speccy..... childhood :D
i had 3 or 4 games published in computer magazines... remember zxProgramming etc. in the mid eighties there were 5 or 6 magazines, dedicated to amateur computer programmers.... great times.. i want my Spectrum back
we meet at list Sir Clive Sinclair... man i used to have a 128k in the early 90's, that was my first computer.. i really miss spending 20 minutes w8 for batman to load... good times!!
Yeah, have to agree with you. I grew up with British microcomputers (I'm Irish - the Republic) and I had great respect for the successful and unsuccessful British computer companies. Clive Sinclair may not always have produced the right product at the right time, but who can possibly do that anyway and the products he and his company did get right were important and they were fun. I had an Acorn Electron, but I understood the enthusiasm of ZX users for their machines.
The observation about the re-emergence of the bedroom programmer due to the app store is wrong, sadly. It may have been true for the first few months but now your average single-programmer, bedrooom-produced game is lucky to sell 100 copies at 99c. Sure there are exceptions, but the app store is dominated by big companies like EA, Gameloft, Capcom etc. Half of app store revenue goes to 25 companies, the other 350,000 developers fight for the rest and most don't even break even. 60% lose money.
I guess he was too much individual to figure out, how the will of communication and staying in touch with other people, will be the biggest driving power of electronics/computer technology. Nevertheless, he was great inventor and far ahead of his times. Live long and prosper!
i never was so adicted to any computer as to this one, it was my first and i brooke it out of stupidity (hey i was 10...) i was trying to load a pool game and it didnt work so i punched it lol and it left me heartbroken for 3 years without a any computer/console.. i used to dream my spectrum was working heheh
A great interview but also a wasted opportunity to have an in depth conversation with one of the pioneers of the home computer revolution. BBC soundbite journalism, unfortunately.
I'm almost certain he was autistic (sadly we need to use the past tense now), and that this fuelled his single-minded obsession with certain things. It also explains why he had a reputation for being hard to work with. Fascinating and gifted guy, though. I'm gutted I never met him. I own a ZX81, a Spectrum and a Z88 (his last computer), and I love them all.
+Oliver Cohen Acer didn't even exist at the time of first tablets. The first two tablets came out at the same time, in 1993, and were Apple Newton and AT&T EO 440.
