I really miss these magical years. There was something exciting about home computing in Britain in the early 1980s... getting one's head inside programming for the very first time AND whilst one was a child. The games were all right too.
@@TheOneTrueSpLiT I bow most humbly to your expertise. My father has always been a technophobe, so I lacked such encouragement and learned what I could from books and experimentation. The only programming I've done in my work is extra-curricular, so to speak, using VBA (yuk!) to automate data analysis and presentation. I still enjoy messing around with Perl and Forth, though. But I love the thought that 8-bit BASIC led you on to such dizzying heights - well done!
Joyous Monkey It sucks how Encryption is banned now in the U.K.... I feel like setting up a Server to distribute Open Source Encryption Programs. Only to the U.K.. :)
I think this is why I like the Raspberry Pi so much. I am forcing it onto my kids, but they don't seem to care too much about it, unfortunately. Pity, I even miss the smell of the old software stores! Very unique times. Contemplating buying a "Pi-Top" just so I can play on the thing anywhere! Does anyone else have one?
True. These years really were magical. it also shaped my future career... and as a 14 years old kid living in Belgium, I had to learn english to be able to read the Your Sinclair magazine, and swap cassettes with penpals from all over the world :) What a wonderful era ... lost forever in the mist of time.
I agree and still remember my friends and their spectrums, 64s and others. Perhaps they remember our coco2!. I often wonder if my similar nostalgia to yours is a product not of the particulars of the physical (be it computers or first cars etc), but of our minds..... And will todays youth feel the same when their google brain port takes them back to todays products.... Your thoughts guys and girls.. Dan
@@cazsbricks2223 yeah I have two 48K's, sadly not working but well preserved; also keeping a CPC464 which I found (much later) collecting dust in some garage and picked it up
Same. Although I didn't jump on until the +3 so I guess I have to thank Alan as well ;) .....oh wait...I started Programming on my Electron.....so actually for me...."Thanks Chris" ;) :D
Forever thanks to Sir Clive! My first was ZX80, also the Cambridge calculator (still works). And then Spectrum. Love of my life. And I was eleven. Immediatelly, I`ve pressed my parents into a colour TV, then Interface I and a microdrive, also got a ZX printer "The burner" without even asking for it. And at the end I`ve fornicated with ample keys of SAGA I Emperor keyboard. Then, I saw what a crap Spectrum was, so I`ve: -added reset button, (then added anti bounce circuit, first heard of it then :D ) -added composite monitor output, (figured that myself) -made Interface II dimensioned to fit into a cassette casing, (not my design, and because of it worked beautifully) -stole some of my dad`s microswitches and made a joystick that still lives btw. (ugly but MINE) -had enormous fights with C64 owners, :D (spoiled wimps) -coded just about everything, -also made a different power supply and power jack to reduce internal voltage regulator heating , which was tremendous. I`ve had the time of my life. And then, went for an ATARI ST. P.S. To say the truth, I`ve done all that because the computer itself was really crap. But it was contagious. As an early teen, and without bothering adults you could figure out and fix most of those things. The biggest problems was not electronics, but lack of information. That piece of crap actually taught me how not to design things, although when I look at it it was brilliant in many regards. Right there, we, friends have split. The ones, smart enough to buy a (now I can say) better C64 now do whatever else. We that were stupid enough to buy a rainbow, we`re all in electronics now. :D We went the way of ATARI, and PC. They went for Amiga and Mac. We`re mostly engineers honestly earning our buck, they went to law, economics, or just plain went crooked. Some of them drive pretty expensive cars now. I drive a Škoda, not that I`m dissatisfied. Ahem. :D
back when different machines had their own flavour of feel from their games. Glorious times and a great proof that less is more. I had a C64 but my memories of the Spectrum are just as great. Phenomenal time and I feel very privileged to have been from this era
Being an American I didn't find out about Sinclair and the home micro market until I was in my late 20s. It blew my mind how different the gaming market was over in Europe during that time. Watching videos like this has broadened my knowledge and given me a lot of appreciation for what was going on at the time. And I've gotta say, the company that's always grabbed my attention the most, has been Sinclair. The spectrum is just such a snazzy looking piece of hardware. It'd probably be a huge pain to get into, but if I was going to expand my hardware collection to cover the micro computers, the Spectrum is where I'd start.
Start with emulation. Play a few classics and then try Gandalf, Manic Pietro and any Zosya Entertainment games (Rubinho Curacho is my face) and be amazed just how much better modern games are than anything released at the time. Is that the case for any other system? A top 50 all time would literally be 45+ modern homebrew and that's crazy
Gandalf and Manic Pietro use magic to break the systems colour rules. (Learn the colour rules or it won't be as impressive) As someone who had a Spectrum to play with from age 4 the colour magic was jaw dropping for me!
@@JohnTandy74 Bruce Lee is fantastic. Jet Set Willy is marmite, depends if you like exploration platformers. If you like console style then check out the homebrew Gandalf, I think that's the best console style platformer on Spectrum. Manic Pietro is the best Manic style platformer. Get Out of Mars is a great Metroidvania. Rubinho Curacho is my favourite racer.
These Videos of yours are wonderful. I don't simply mean in production values/quality, nor simply the informative breadth and depth historical content/analysis, no, they offer more. As a kid of the 80s, with an Amstrad, these videos demonstrate one thing. Whatever you of think Clive Sinclair, Alan Sugar, Jack Tramiel (and for me the guys at Acorn too) these fellas and their creations had a marvellous impact upon the lives of millions of young kids across the world. In short, all of those guys made a lot of us happy. I'd like to say thankyou, cheers. Also, to Tim Berners Lee, thanks for making it possible for me to play original, emulated versions of all the classics, plus multi-player Jet Set Willy, Elite etc, many many thanks. To Google, EA and the rest of the contemporary crowd... you're doing it wrong.
I think it was possibly borne from manual circuit board tracing with a ruler and pencil. A nod to Clive's love for electronic circuits, and the minimalist ethos.
Excellent depth of info and understanding! I thoroughly enjoyed this. Being American, I had no idea of how big an impact the UK market had on computing. I had a friend who had a zx81 but I had no idea it was a UK product. And I must stop saying "had" so much!
I never had 8-bit computer. My childhood were Amigas and I had my own A1200 in the late 90's. Now I'm playing with various emulators of 8-bit machines including Speccy, Commodores, Ataris, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Sam Coupe... And Speccy is my favourite. I totally understand all the love for this computer. The color palette alone is freaking vibrant and distinctive, the t-t-t-t-t sounds when you press the keys are so cool. The program loading sound is so creepy it's special. 😊
My first computer at the age of 6. Never will I forget classic games like all the Dizzys, Skool Daze & Back to Skool, Contact Sam Cruise, The Great Escape & many more. Load a game, eat your dinner, come back & it's crashed. Lol.
What a perfect way to spend Sunday Afternoon. chillin' in the garden and geekin out bout sinclair stuff :D Sorry neighbours. Thanks for letting me be a part of the vid matey :D
Super video! I wrote 2 business programmes on the Spectrum in the 80's, one to generate job cards and the other to record and report scientific data, that my work colleagues said were far more usable than the ICL mainframe programmes they were supposed to use! Great days !
My first computer! It was very popular in Italy as well - we even had dedicated magazines with a split cassette tape (Spectrum games on one side, C64 games on the other: all pirated, because of course)
Wonderful, well researched documentary worthy of the mighty Spectrum. I had a first generation 48K speccy and loved it. Never gave me any trouble and awakened a love of computing which lead to a 26 year long career in IT.
Sir Clive Sinclair sadly passed away today since he was 81 years old. What a shocker that we might love the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in Europe and the Timex Sinclair 2068 in America.
Loving all these vids. Every single one is coherant, thorough, interesting and professionally produced. A small nod of approval also to the "Sims" punch-up reconstruction: genius - the mark of a true geek.
I can remember it very clearly even though its a very early memory , it was Christmas morning , i was 6 years old , i came downstairs with my dad and under the tree was my first computer , a ZX spectrum 128k +2 , i jumped around with joy !! me and my dad played Gauntlet in 2 player mode all afternoon.
I bought my first 48K from an uncle for £1 way after it was unfashionable, but the joy I got from it shaped my life. I was with Spectrum all the way until the bitter end!
Well done, as usual. Your videos concerning vintage computers helps fill in gaps in my understanding of that era in a fun way. I remember when the Sinclair, Amiga, C64 etc were introduced, but now the internet allows me a view behind the scenes....finally.
Exactly. Thank you also for my part. For as much as I search for information about this era, your videos always contain stuff I never saw before. Good job!
far more fun visiting john menzies and programming in a basic random number loop with sound and video :D , of course first adding a long for loop so you could retire and watch while the staff panic trying to shut up all the display speccies :p
Fantastic video, it brought back lots of warm fuzzy memories from the early 80s when literally nearly every game you loaded into the Speccy had some kind of Wow value. Just like your fondness for your first car you never forget your first computer. Thanks for putting this together, a comprehensive and enjoyable watch.
Excellent video mate. Yeah, I first got a "Speccy" for Christmas 1983, 16K - eventually upgraded to 48K, tried out a speech synthesizer (anyone remember the name of that?) and the cartridge port, I think I had Lunar Jetman, loaded in 2 seconds flat! 1984 / 5 you could buy computer games EVERYWHERE, the paper shop, the garage, the sweet shop, Woolies, WHSmiths, John Menzies, I mean everywhere. Those were the days! I wrote my first programs on the Spectrum, had one published in a magazine! After many years I worked in the IT business as a programmer and still dabble today. Brings it all back, thanks for this.
This is the best tribute and contribution to ZX Spectrum history I have ever seen. Very, very well done: congratulations! Maybe the design role of Rick Dickinson could have been more emphazised, since he did the ZX81, Spectrum and QL designs. But at least you mentioned him once. I was getting worried you wouldn't. Again: very well done. Thank you so much.
I just love your documentaries and style. Wanted to watch something retro, the ZX Spectrum popped into my head, and here I am. You do not disappoint. Thank you.
I got agency work at Amstrad in 1988, 2 of us had to dismantle, compartmentalise and pack 500 Spectrum 128Mk3.s and we had a week to do so! There was a world shortage of chips apparently, We were done by 3pm on the friday. People asked why I didn't bring a piece home each day in my lunch box and got a free one! Ha ha! The 48K spectrum was very much part of my teen years and I look back fondly on those times. Thanks for a great documentary. Bravo!
In my humble opinion: you produce the best retro video game content on RUclips. Informative, articulate and the right splash of humour. Another excellent video.
Didn't think I'd watch the whole documentary, as British home computers aren't really my thing, but this was so well made (and interesting) I just couldn't stop watching. Well done and thank you.
really loved this video. no matter how many times I see this story told your videos always tell me something I didn't know before. thanks for this! look forward to part 2!
For me, the rubber keyed 48k speccy is the greatest home computer of all time. Yeah, by todays standards it's a calculator, but for the joy it gave me during the 1980s it's number 1. The amiga is number 2.
I have to agree....I was about 15 or 16 when i finally had begged and pleaded to mt mom to buy me one..and it was basically the center of my life....the games, the basic programming, then the deep dive into assembly language, learning only from the bloody thicker tech manual before i finally got a book on the subject ! All my school mates had one, and we'd go to each others places after school or on the weekends and and swap games, all pirated on cassette, we had literally hundreds of games from all over the world coming in...it was a high point in my younger days for sure...
I realize I'm two years late but I really enjoyed this video. It was a proper documentary. Being I'm in the US, hearing your English accent made it an even better documentary. All of the best documentaries are made by the British, or at least the ones I enjoy the most. Your channel is one of my favorites. Keep up the great work.
@@marksilgram80 There products were not oriented for home users, their pricing shows it. Apple II computers retailed for more than 1200 bucks (almost 6k in today's money) at the end of the 70s. Steve jobs did not care to bring computers in the household.
sinclair and then commodore... and even atari... obviously steve jobs work was more orientated to fat wallets... not best products but fat wallets... in 1985 when commodore amiga 1000 arise... it was much much better than anything apple... or IBM... funny... did not catch up only... only... when amiga 500 arised... and never to an level that could promote commodore to continue... the world is turning to an computers and mobile phones blocked not... serviceble... that is not good! ;) hope PCs will stay alive... forever... and apple disappears... it should had been apple to disappear not commodore!
@@marksilgram80 Steve jobs made expensive computers, he always aimed at the professional market and never cared about the home user. A better example would be Jack Tramiel of Commodore and later Atari, his slogan for the C64 was "Computer for the masses, not the classes". And here in Sweden, the Commodore 64 was the most popular Computer at the time. Jack Tramiel, Sir Clive Sinclair and Lord Alan Sugar are responsible for the achievement of getting computers into homes in many parts of at the time western Europe and I am grateful for that.🙂
This was recommended to me and am actually happy that RUclips recommended something great for once. I always had an interest in computers in the 'Bad Lands' 80's of 8-bit machine where you knew that some were going to sink or swim by mistakes, bad deals, faults or customers choice. Subbed, bell clicked and working my way thru this quality content!
When I was a kid playing games on a ZX Spectrum, I always got a feeling of the whole game arena being open world. Meaning games (even side scrolling platformers) had the availability to explore everywhere. Funny thing is that I still get that same feeling when playing using an emulator. Anyone else experienced this?
Excellent. Thoroughly researched. Great video support. Multitudes of reference material. An outstanding preservation of what may otherwise become forgotten history. Well done and thanks - I had a Sinclair spectrum 48k in the day and really appreciate this nostalgic lookback. Schaun.
Splendid video about a very important product. I learned to program on spectrum +, the restrictions on the programmer to be efficient with code really helped me in my future. Thank you for the undoubted effort you have put in to make this show. Paul
Ahh the ZX Spectrum... How many days I lost to that machine, I'll never know. It wasn't a "real" Spectrum but a clone - in the mid-80s the ULA had been reverse-engineered in the Eastern bloc (where I was born) and many local clones emerged. Often sporting improved hardware features. The one I had ( a Romanian clone called HC-91) had an optional Interface1 clone that allowed use of a 3.5" floppy drive, had 64K of RAM (including shadow RAM overlapping the ROM area) and because of these features it was able to run CP/M also. I didn't have an actual Sinclair machine until about 6 years ago when I acquired a +2A which I still use... And more recently I got 2 hardware emulators, both FPGA-based meaning that they actually reproduce the hardware at logic gate level; as well as various modern peripherals including an "interface 1bis" that allows for SD card storage, networking, serial and parallel ports, PS/2 mice and keyboards and even wifi. As you can tell, I never really got over the Spectrum. :)
your story reminded me of this article from Ars Technica about the Romanian underground industry of ZX clones, I found it fascinating : arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/the-underground-story-of-cobra-the-1980s-illicit-handmade-computer/ They are really impressive machines, for the ingenuity needed to made them and the sheer work to put them together in a country where computer parts where very hard to come by at the time.
Weird to think that at that time your country was part of the 'evil' empire and I was terrified that we were going to blow each other to smithereens, when all we wanted was to play with same cool stuff. Sad really.
My first computer was a ZX-81 clone, called TK-85, and it had 16KB of RAM. This was 1983. In 1985, the MSX arrived in Brazil and wiped out everything else in a year or so. The clones of Apple IIs, TRS-80 color and Spectrums just couldn't compete.
I grew up with a ZX Spectrum 128+A. It's an important part of my youth. It was my first video game system. It was the first system for which I wrote my own programs, first using Basic, and eventually using asm. (Incidentally Zilog asm is quite similar to that of Intel, which helped me quite a lot later.) I'm a professional programmer today, and I started with the ZX Spectrum. In retrospect, it's a huge pity that they didn't make some simple additions to the ZX Spectrum, which would have made it a ten times better gaming system than it was, without compromising efficiency in any way. These simple changes would have been: 1) Use 16 colors for the foreground and 16 for the background of each 8x8 tile, rather than 8+8+brightness+blinking. This would have allowed for more colors to be used at the same time. 2) Make the colors paletted, rather than fixed. The colors in the palette itself could have been, for instance, 3/3/2-bit RGB (ie. one byte per palette entry). Also, make the foreground colors independent from the background colors (meaning that there would be one 16-byte palette for the foreground colors and another 16-byte palette for the background colors.) This would have allowed up to 32 different simultaneous colors from 256 possible colors. 3) Allow the color layer to be shifted by up to 7 pixels horizontally and vertically (this could have been achieved by, for instance, outputting a byte containing a pair of 3-bit offsets to an out port). The last one of course would have raised the question of what should happen with the edge colors, but even a completely lazy kludge (eg. they just wrap around) would have allowed for much better games than the fixed system that the Spectrum had. None of these additions would have compromised the efficiency of the system in any way, but would have allowed making games that look 10 times better.
HC85 and Sintez 2 user, it was my childhood here in communist Romania. I spent so much time on the Spectrum that I eventually learn to program in Assembler using the Zeus editor. It was not until 1992 that I got my hands on a 386, and then 486, leaving my old Sintez to rest under the bed. I can still remember the smell of that plastic case when it started to heat up each time I hear the loading noises. Thank you for the video. I had no idea about the history of the machine that started my entire passion for coding and developing.
Ah those were the days, I started on a ZX81 then going on to nearly every home computer and games consoles now at 48 with a gaming pc and looking forward to the ps5 and the next Xbox. But you still can’t beat the good old days of the 80s.
Thank you for looking at the creator, not just the market. Where most of us live, have lived, understand and grow. Just glad more along for the ride :)
Watching this prompted me to grab out the old spectrum, haven't used it in years but also couldn't bring myself to part with such history. My ZX Spectrum 128 +2 still works perfect and I'm all the happier for it.... this comment made while waiting on robocop 2 to load up lol
You couldn't beat the feeling of getting a tape from a mate & not knowing exactly what games he'd recorded for you! Some wouldn't load & some would,got specky 128k with tape loader for xmas 86/87 was brilliant times fools n horses & spectrum for me was the 80's.does anyone remember the game plunder?
Love your work, Mr. Nerd. Those were magical times kids (such as myself) in the 80s. My mum bought me a C64 so I never had a Speccy, but my pal had several Spectrums over the years and so loved them just the same (almost). We both ended up with Atari ST machines, and both went from feeling smug to jealous as the Amiga range got better and better. Good times, brother!
You think one would acknowledge all of these comments praising the good work but alas one does not seem to care. Sad really. Seems like when a channel gets over a certain number in subscribers they simply quit caring.
30:38 Thanks for adding in old advertisements. I was finally able to identify the computer my family had when I was growing up. (TI-99/4A) Not knowing and only having a vague memory of the shape has been bugging me for years.
Just returned to this video 5 years later to commemorate the 40'th birthday of the ZX Spectrum, can't believe another 5 years have passed.
RIP pioneer Sinclair.
The 80s were magical years for computer fans, and Sinclair was our wizard.
Too bad where I'm from, IBM and compatibles have dominated even back then.
I was a depressed kit with autism and received the spectrum for my 14 th birthfay .My life changed forever.Thanks Clive,I think you saved my life
Thank you for all Sir Clive Sinclair! I will spend the next day playing Jet Set Willy to celebrate the Man.
RIP. 1980s icon and British genius.
I really miss these magical years. There was something exciting about home computing in Britain in the early 1980s... getting one's head inside programming for the very first time AND whilst one was a child. The games were all right too.
@@TheOneTrueSpLiT I bow most humbly to your expertise. My father has always been a technophobe, so I lacked such encouragement and learned what I could from books and experimentation. The only programming I've done in my work is extra-curricular, so to speak, using VBA (yuk!) to automate data analysis and presentation. I still enjoy messing around with Perl and Forth, though. But I love the thought that 8-bit BASIC led you on to such dizzying heights - well done!
Joyous Monkey It sucks how Encryption is banned now in the U.K.... I feel like setting up a Server to distribute Open Source Encryption Programs. Only to the U.K.. :)
I think this is why I like the Raspberry Pi so much. I am forcing it onto my kids, but they don't seem to care too much about it, unfortunately. Pity, I even miss the smell of the old software stores! Very unique times. Contemplating buying a "Pi-Top" just so I can play on the thing anywhere! Does anyone else have one?
True. These years really were magical. it also shaped my future career... and as a 14 years old kid living in Belgium, I had to learn english to be able to read the Your Sinclair magazine, and swap cassettes with penpals from all over the world :) What a wonderful era ... lost forever in the mist of time.
I agree and still remember my friends and their spectrums, 64s and others. Perhaps they remember our coco2!. I often wonder if my similar nostalgia to yours is a product not of the particulars of the physical (be it computers or first cars etc), but of our minds..... And will todays youth feel the same when their google brain port takes them back to todays products.... Your thoughts guys and girls.. Dan
The first real affordable PC. I loved mine.
Sir Clive Sinclair is a genius.
All the best,
Robin
I still have my ZX-81. Mine came with a 16kb RAM added onto the back. Typing games in line by line, syntax errors etc. Loved it.
I still have my ZX Spectrum circuit board!!
@@cazsbricks2223 yeah I have two 48K's, sadly not working but well preserved; also keeping a CPC464 which I found (much later) collecting dust in some garage and picked it up
Don't wobble that expansion pack!
I still have my Amiga 500.
The ZX Spectrum changed my life: It shaped my whole future career. Thank you SIR Clive!!!
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies I earn more than 95% of the population and it all started with the ZX Spectrum.
Same. Although I didn't jump on until the +3 so I guess I have to thank Alan as well ;) .....oh wait...I started Programming on my Electron.....so actually for me...."Thanks Chris" ;) :D
Very much the same. I developed and run my first simulations on a Spectrum
Forever thanks to Sir Clive!
My first was ZX80, also the Cambridge calculator (still works).
And then Spectrum.
Love of my life.
And I was eleven.
Immediatelly, I`ve pressed my parents into a colour TV, then Interface I and a microdrive, also got a ZX printer "The burner" without even asking for it. And at the end I`ve fornicated with ample keys of SAGA I Emperor keyboard.
Then, I saw what a crap Spectrum was, so I`ve:
-added reset button, (then added anti bounce circuit, first heard of it then :D )
-added composite monitor output, (figured that myself)
-made Interface II dimensioned to fit into a cassette casing, (not my design, and because of it worked beautifully)
-stole some of my dad`s microswitches and made a joystick that still lives btw. (ugly but MINE)
-had enormous fights with C64 owners, :D (spoiled wimps)
-coded just about everything,
-also made a different power supply and power jack to reduce internal voltage regulator heating , which was tremendous.
I`ve had the time of my life.
And then, went for an ATARI ST.
P.S.
To say the truth, I`ve done all that because the computer itself was really crap. But it was contagious.
As an early teen, and without bothering adults you could figure out and fix most of those things. The biggest problems was not electronics, but lack of information.
That piece of crap actually taught me how not to design things, although when I look at it it was brilliant in many regards.
Right there, we, friends have split.
The ones, smart enough to buy a (now I can say) better C64 now do whatever else.
We that were stupid enough to buy a rainbow, we`re all in electronics now. :D
We went the way of ATARI, and PC.
They went for Amiga and Mac.
We`re mostly engineers honestly earning our buck, they went to law, economics, or just plain went crooked.
Some of them drive pretty expensive cars now.
I drive a Škoda, not that I`m dissatisfied.
Ahem. :D
Let me guess: you were a binman.
back when different machines had their own flavour of feel from their games. Glorious times and a great proof that less is more. I had a C64 but my memories of the Spectrum are just as great. Phenomenal time and I feel very privileged to have been from this era
Being an American I didn't find out about Sinclair and the home micro market until I was in my late 20s. It blew my mind how different the gaming market was over in Europe during that time. Watching videos like this has broadened my knowledge and given me a lot of appreciation for what was going on at the time. And I've gotta say, the company that's always grabbed my attention the most, has been Sinclair. The spectrum is just such a snazzy looking piece of hardware. It'd probably be a huge pain to get into, but if I was going to expand my hardware collection to cover the micro computers, the Spectrum is where I'd start.
Start with emulation. Play a few classics and then try Gandalf, Manic Pietro and any Zosya Entertainment games (Rubinho Curacho is my face) and be amazed just how much better modern games are than anything released at the time. Is that the case for any other system?
A top 50 all time would literally be 45+ modern homebrew and that's crazy
Gandalf and Manic Pietro use magic to break the systems colour rules. (Learn the colour rules or it won't be as impressive)
As someone who had a Spectrum to play with from age 4 the colour magic was jaw dropping for me!
1983 it’s were I was lucky enough to start. Appreciate your appreciation🇬🇧🇺🇸
Play jet set Willy & Bruce Lee
@@JohnTandy74 Bruce Lee is fantastic. Jet Set Willy is marmite, depends if you like exploration platformers. If you like console style then check out the homebrew Gandalf, I think that's the best console style platformer on Spectrum. Manic Pietro is the best Manic style platformer.
Get Out of Mars is a great Metroidvania. Rubinho Curacho is my favourite racer.
These Videos of yours are wonderful. I don't simply mean in production values/quality, nor simply the informative breadth and depth historical content/analysis, no, they offer more.
As a kid of the 80s, with an Amstrad, these videos demonstrate one thing. Whatever you of think Clive Sinclair, Alan Sugar, Jack Tramiel (and for me the guys at Acorn too) these fellas and their creations had a marvellous impact upon the lives of millions of young kids across the world.
In short, all of those guys made a lot of us happy.
I'd like to say thankyou, cheers.
Also, to Tim Berners Lee, thanks for making it possible for me to play original, emulated versions of all the classics, plus multi-player Jet Set Willy, Elite etc, many many thanks.
To Google, EA and the rest of the contemporary crowd... you're doing it wrong.
I agree. The likes of Google, EA and Microsoft are choking the life out of intelligent computing, killing human inovation.
Always liked Sinclair's design aesthetic. And that 'Sinclair' logo is so clean and simple, yet so effective :)
I think it was possibly borne from manual circuit board tracing with a ruler and pencil. A nod to Clive's love for electronic circuits, and the minimalist ethos.
Excellent depth of info and understanding! I thoroughly enjoyed this. Being American, I had no idea of how big an impact the UK market had on computing. I had a friend who had a zx81 but I had no idea it was a UK product. And I must stop saying "had" so much!
I never had 8-bit computer. My childhood were Amigas and I had my own A1200 in the late 90's. Now I'm playing with various emulators of 8-bit machines including Speccy, Commodores, Ataris, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Sam Coupe... And Speccy is my favourite. I totally understand all the love for this computer. The color palette alone is freaking vibrant and distinctive, the t-t-t-t-t sounds when you press the keys are so cool. The program loading sound is so creepy it's special. 😊
Wonderful and very useful program. Thank you nostalgia nerd . RIP Clive Sinclair .
My first computer at the age of 6.
Never will I forget classic games like all the Dizzys, Skool Daze & Back to Skool, Contact Sam Cruise, The Great Escape & many more. Load a game, eat your dinner, come back & it's crashed. Lol.
What a perfect way to spend Sunday Afternoon. chillin' in the garden and geekin out bout sinclair stuff :D Sorry neighbours.
Thanks for letting me be a part of the vid matey :D
Sir Clive died today. Thank you sir for your legacy. A true Brit. It’s a sad day.
Super video! I wrote 2 business programmes on the Spectrum in the 80's, one to generate job cards and the other to record and report scientific data, that my work colleagues said were far more usable than the ICL mainframe programmes they were supposed to use! Great days !
My first computer! It was very popular in Italy as well - we even had dedicated magazines with a split cassette tape (Spectrum games on one side, C64 games on the other: all pirated, because of course)
same here, and even reading Alan Ford and Zagor lol (am from Montenegro, then Yugoslavia)
Same here in Croatia, former Yugoslavia in those days. Alan Ford also. :)
Wonderful, well researched documentary worthy of the mighty Spectrum. I had a first generation 48K speccy and loved it. Never gave me any trouble and awakened a love of computing which lead to a 26 year long career in IT.
Sir Clive Sinclair sadly passed away today since he was 81 years old. What a shocker that we might love the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in Europe and the Timex Sinclair 2068 in America.
Reminiscence of my childhood.. ;-)
It's currently a little bit over fourty years old... four decades worth of time!
Loving all these vids. Every single one is coherant, thorough, interesting and professionally produced.
A small nod of approval also to the "Sims" punch-up reconstruction: genius - the mark of a true geek.
R.I.P. Sir Sinclair
I can remember it very clearly even though its a very early memory , it was Christmas morning , i was 6 years old , i came downstairs with my dad and under the tree was my first computer , a ZX spectrum 128k +2 , i jumped around with joy !! me and my dad played Gauntlet in 2 player mode all afternoon.
I bought my first 48K from an uncle for £1 way after it was unfashionable, but the joy I got from it shaped my life. I was with Spectrum all the way until the bitter end!
Tigh azz could have just given it to you.
Well done, as usual. Your videos concerning vintage computers helps fill in gaps in my understanding of that era in a fun way. I remember when the Sinclair, Amiga, C64 etc were introduced, but now the internet allows me a view behind the scenes....finally.
Scott Lowell many thanks! The Internet is a beautiful thing
Exactly. Thank you also for my part. For as much as I search for information about this era, your videos always contain stuff I never saw before. Good job!
My first computer.
Still remember buying it from WH Smiths!
far more fun visiting john menzies and programming in a basic random number loop with sound and video :D , of course first adding a long for loop so you could retire and watch while the staff panic trying to shut up all the display speccies :p
@@amojak Oh God. XD
Sinclair ZXs were the greatest personal computers of all times. They not only changed computers History as they also changed my life.
astonishing in detail, an incredible insight into the birth of the microcomputer. amazing, very well done.
Fantastic video, it brought back lots of warm fuzzy memories from the early 80s when literally nearly every game you loaded into the Speccy had some kind of Wow value. Just like your fondness for your first car you never forget your first computer. Thanks for putting this together, a comprehensive and enjoyable watch.
EXCELLENT VIDEO. Great work man. This is the definitive recount of the evolution of Sinclair. Thanks and cheers!
Excellent video mate. Yeah, I first got a "Speccy" for Christmas 1983, 16K - eventually upgraded to 48K, tried out a speech synthesizer (anyone remember the name of that?) and the cartridge port, I think I had Lunar Jetman, loaded in 2 seconds flat! 1984 / 5 you could buy computer games EVERYWHERE, the paper shop, the garage, the sweet shop, Woolies, WHSmiths, John Menzies, I mean everywhere. Those were the days! I wrote my first programs on the Spectrum, had one published in a magazine! After many years I worked in the IT business as a programmer and still dabble today.
Brings it all back, thanks for this.
The Currah Microspeech.
This is the best tribute and contribution to ZX Spectrum history I have ever seen. Very, very well done: congratulations! Maybe the design role of Rick Dickinson could have been more emphazised, since he did the ZX81, Spectrum and QL designs. But at least you mentioned him once. I was getting worried you wouldn't. Again: very well done. Thank you so much.
I just love your documentaries and style. Wanted to watch something retro, the ZX Spectrum popped into my head, and here I am. You do not disappoint. Thank you.
I got agency work at Amstrad in 1988, 2 of us had to dismantle, compartmentalise and pack 500 Spectrum 128Mk3.s and we had a week to do so! There was a world shortage of chips apparently, We were done by 3pm on the friday. People asked why I didn't bring a piece home each day in my lunch box and got a free one! Ha ha! The 48K spectrum was very much part of my teen years and I look back fondly on those times. Thanks for a great documentary. Bravo!
Rest in peace, the great Sir Clive Sinclair. One of the most prominent visionaries of our time.
What a fantastic and well produced show!. I wonder why it hasn't been shown on BBC or Discovery.
Thank you.
In my humble opinion: you produce the best retro video game content on RUclips. Informative, articulate and the right splash of humour. Another excellent video.
Didn't think I'd watch the whole documentary, as British home computers aren't really my thing, but this was so well made (and interesting) I just couldn't stop watching. Well done and thank you.
really loved this video. no matter how many times I see this story told your videos always tell me something I didn't know before. thanks for this! look forward to part 2!
The video we were all waiting for, and you really did it justice. Nice work.
RIP Clive Sinclair, gone to silicon heaven.
The ZX81. The computer my dad bought me when I was 5 and got me started in my career/hobby. Thanks Dad.
What an incredibly comprensive video of computer history! You are setting new standards!
For me, the rubber keyed 48k speccy is the greatest home computer of all time.
Yeah, by todays standards it's a calculator, but for the joy it gave me during the 1980s it's number 1.
The amiga is number 2.
I have to agree....I was about 15 or 16 when i finally had begged and pleaded to mt mom to buy me one..and it was basically the center of my life....the games, the basic programming, then the deep dive into assembly language, learning only from the bloody thicker tech manual before i finally got a book on the subject ! All my school mates had one, and we'd go to each others places after school or on the weekends and and swap games, all pirated on cassette, we had literally hundreds of games from all over the world coming in...it was a high point in my younger days for sure...
Just watched this again. As someone who "was there" I really enjoyed it.
Me too. I have a shrinking stack of ZX spectrums awaiting repairs. I'm just gonna keep two for myself but the Spectrum will be forever in my heart.
I realize I'm two years late but I really enjoyed this video. It was a proper documentary. Being I'm in the US, hearing your English accent made it an even better documentary. All of the best documentaries are made by the British, or at least the ones I enjoy the most. Your channel is one of my favorites. Keep up the great work.
R.I.P Clive Sinclair. if it wasnt for you, computers would have never become so common in the household
not heard of Steve Jobs then?
@@marksilgram80 There products were not oriented for home users, their pricing shows it. Apple II computers retailed for more than 1200 bucks (almost 6k in today's money) at the end of the 70s.
Steve jobs did not care to bring computers in the household.
sinclair and then commodore... and even atari... obviously steve jobs work was more orientated to fat wallets...
not best products but fat wallets... in 1985 when commodore amiga 1000 arise... it was much much better than anything apple... or IBM... funny... did not catch up only... only... when amiga 500 arised... and never to an level that could promote commodore to continue...
the world is turning to an computers and mobile phones blocked not... serviceble... that is not good! ;) hope PCs will stay alive... forever... and apple disappears... it should had been apple to disappear not commodore!
@@marksilgram80 Steve jobs made expensive computers, he always aimed at the professional market and never cared about the home user. A better example would be Jack Tramiel of Commodore and later Atari, his slogan for the C64 was "Computer for the masses, not the classes". And here in Sweden, the Commodore 64 was the most popular Computer at the time. Jack Tramiel, Sir Clive Sinclair and Lord Alan Sugar are responsible for the achievement of getting computers into homes in many parts of at the time western Europe and I am grateful for that.🙂
Ah they would have eventually made their way into the home with or without sir clive
The best Sinclair documentary ever. 😀
Right up there with the BBC micro men
You are getting even better with each episode. Thank you for top programme. :)
My dad bought zx-81 ... I guess it might have started for many that way, but I love the story of others and, this! Cheers...
Brilliant work mate, amazing memories from my rubber key days that started my obsession with gaming and collecting!
Awesome vid about the machine that transformed my life back in 83, when I tried it for the very first time! Thanks for your hard work ;)
Cheers!
Love the way these mini documentaries are done. Just can't stop watching um!!!
This was recommended to me and am actually happy that RUclips recommended something great for once.
I always had an interest in computers in the 'Bad Lands' 80's of 8-bit machine where you knew that some were going to sink or swim by mistakes, bad deals, faults or customers choice.
Subbed, bell clicked and working my way thru this quality content!
When I was a kid playing games on a ZX Spectrum, I always got a feeling of the whole game arena being open world. Meaning games (even side scrolling platformers) had the availability to explore everywhere. Funny thing is that I still get that same feeling when playing using an emulator. Anyone else experienced this?
I had a similar feeling about specific games for other systems. F-Zero, Fester's Quest, and the LoZ series come to mind.
Excellent. Thoroughly researched. Great video support. Multitudes of reference material. An outstanding preservation of what may otherwise become forgotten history. Well done and thanks - I had a Sinclair spectrum 48k in the day and really appreciate this nostalgic lookback.
Schaun.
Splendid video about a very important product. I learned to program on spectrum +, the restrictions on the programmer to be efficient with code really helped me in my future.
Thank you for the undoubted effort you have put in to make this show.
Paul
Me: ZX80, 81, Spectrum.
Now I'm a pro developer for the world's biggest fintech company. Thanks Clive!
Ahh the ZX Spectrum... How many days I lost to that machine, I'll never know. It wasn't a "real" Spectrum but a clone - in the mid-80s the ULA had been reverse-engineered in the Eastern bloc (where I was born) and many local clones emerged. Often sporting improved hardware features. The one I had ( a Romanian clone called HC-91) had an optional Interface1 clone that allowed use of a 3.5" floppy drive, had 64K of RAM (including shadow RAM overlapping the ROM area) and because of these features it was able to run CP/M also. I didn't have an actual Sinclair machine until about 6 years ago when I acquired a +2A which I still use... And more recently I got 2 hardware emulators, both FPGA-based meaning that they actually reproduce the hardware at logic gate level; as well as various modern peripherals including an "interface 1bis" that allows for SD card storage, networking, serial and parallel ports, PS/2 mice and keyboards and even wifi. As you can tell, I never really got over the Spectrum. :)
your story reminded me of this article from Ars Technica about the Romanian underground industry of ZX clones, I found it fascinating : arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/the-underground-story-of-cobra-the-1980s-illicit-handmade-computer/
They are really impressive machines, for the ingenuity needed to made them and the sheer work to put them together in a country where computer parts where very hard to come by at the time.
Awesome story brother, I love that your country embraced this little machine and made it your own , very punk and very cool
Weird to think that at that time your country was part of the 'evil' empire and I was terrified that we were going to blow each other to smithereens, when all we wanted was to play with same cool stuff. Sad really.
This is a fantastic reminder that cool cyber punk interest was universal. Thanks for sharing.
Ai naibii bogați! Eu aveam clonă de la Electromagnetica - și mai nașpa ca HC-ul. HC era de top, cep vorbești.
My first computer was a ZX-81 clone, called TK-85, and it had 16KB of RAM. This was 1983.
In 1985, the MSX arrived in Brazil and wiped out everything else in a year or so. The clones of Apple IIs, TRS-80 color and Spectrums just couldn't compete.
Well, the MSX's were great machines, nevertheless... :)
I had a Spectrum 48K, then a Spectrum +3 and my dad had a QL... this brought back so many memories of my childhood in the 80s.. Thanks
great video, love your work! great stuff, I loved the spectrum back in the day and you've done it justice on many occasions
Brilliant! My first computer was a ZZ81 in 1982. Growing up in Cambridge Clive Sinclair was a bit of a local hero. Brought back many memories.
I grew up with a ZX Spectrum 128+A. It's an important part of my youth.
It was my first video game system. It was the first system for which I wrote my own programs, first using Basic, and eventually using asm. (Incidentally Zilog asm is quite similar to that of Intel, which helped me quite a lot later.) I'm a professional programmer today, and I started with the ZX Spectrum.
In retrospect, it's a huge pity that they didn't make some simple additions to the ZX Spectrum, which would have made it a ten times better gaming system than it was, without compromising efficiency in any way. These simple changes would have been:
1) Use 16 colors for the foreground and 16 for the background of each 8x8 tile, rather than 8+8+brightness+blinking. This would have allowed for more colors to be used at the same time.
2) Make the colors paletted, rather than fixed. The colors in the palette itself could have been, for instance, 3/3/2-bit RGB (ie. one byte per palette entry). Also, make the foreground colors independent from the background colors (meaning that there would be one 16-byte palette for the foreground colors and another 16-byte palette for the background colors.) This would have allowed up to 32 different simultaneous colors from 256 possible colors.
3) Allow the color layer to be shifted by up to 7 pixels horizontally and vertically (this could have been achieved by, for instance, outputting a byte containing a pair of 3-bit offsets to an out port).
The last one of course would have raised the question of what should happen with the edge colors, but even a completely lazy kludge (eg. they just wrap around) would have allowed for much better games than the fixed system that the Spectrum had.
None of these additions would have compromised the efficiency of the system in any way, but would have allowed making games that look 10 times better.
Great video. They were heady days that seemed full of optimism and opportunity. Thanks for making this.
I was fascinated by initial Sinclair products, eventually purchasing ZX81, ZX Spectrum and the Spectrum Plus. Great documentary.
Great nostalgia from a first time Speccy user. Well done on a great documentary
Wow - well done.. Imagine a hell of a lot of work/research putting that video together...
Keep uploading - much appreciated !
HC85 and Sintez 2 user, it was my childhood here in communist Romania. I spent so much time on the Spectrum that I eventually learn to program in Assembler using the Zeus editor. It was not until 1992 that I got my hands on a 386, and then 486, leaving my old Sintez to rest under the bed.
I can still remember the smell of that plastic case when it started to heat up each time I hear the loading noises.
Thank you for the video. I had no idea about the history of the machine that started my entire passion for coding and developing.
Very well put together!
My very first computer, and yet another superb piece of documentary from yourself.
RIP Clive Sinclair :(
Ah those were the days, I started on a ZX81 then going on to nearly every home computer and games consoles now at 48 with a gaming pc and looking forward to the ps5 and the next Xbox. But you still can’t beat the good old days of the 80s.
Brilliant documentary, really enjoyed seeing all the speccy magazines all over again
Thank you for looking at the creator, not just the market. Where most of us live, have lived, understand and grow. Just glad more along for the ride :)
Watching this prompted me to grab out the old spectrum, haven't used it in years but also couldn't bring myself to part with such history. My ZX Spectrum 128 +2 still works perfect and I'm all the happier for it.... this comment made while waiting on robocop 2 to load up lol
I always look forward to learning something new thanks for always making great content
You couldn't beat the feeling of getting a tape from a mate & not knowing exactly what games he'd recorded for you! Some wouldn't load & some would,got specky 128k with tape loader for xmas 86/87 was brilliant times fools n horses & spectrum for me was the 80's.does anyone remember the game plunder?
Love your work, Mr. Nerd. Those were magical times kids (such as myself) in the 80s. My mum bought me a C64 so I never had a Speccy, but my pal had several Spectrums over the years and so loved them just the same (almost). We both ended up with Atari ST machines, and both went from feeling smug to jealous as the Amiga range got better and better. Good times, brother!
I started with a ZX 81 with one external extra memory module and later to the ZX Spectrum 128K +2 , both still work perfect :D
Very interesting and superbly produced documentary.
I thought I knew everything about the Spectrum story. This video showed me all I know is that I don't know anything! Thanks, really enjoyable!
Really well produced presentation, and appreciated thanks.
really live the stuff your doing. well worth a watch for any age and forms a important part of our technologies history.
You deserve a huge like! That's an awesome production, very nice and easy to understand. A big shout out from Portugal!
A truly amazing,far sighted innovator, in the days before lawyers and "investors",and lawyers. And lawyers. Great video too,thank you.
This is amazing video. ZX Spectrum was wery first gaming computer for me and that video was bringing a lot old good memories back.
Ah the good old spectrum. I still have a spectrum 128+2 today with about 50 tapes for it.
Again a vid i keep rewatching. Such a great piece of history.
This is not just a RUclips video, this is a top class documentary. Thank you for all these videos, sir!
You think one would acknowledge all of these comments praising the good work but alas one does not seem to care. Sad really. Seems like when a channel gets over a certain number in subscribers they simply quit caring.
A brilliantly presented piece of 8 bit history.
30:38 Thanks for adding in old advertisements. I was finally able to identify the computer my family had when I was growing up. (TI-99/4A) Not knowing and only having a vague memory of the shape has been bugging me for years.
Great overview of my favourite computer. Got mine when I was 10 in '83.. amazing times.
I treasured my Sinclair 128. Fantastic vid mate.