Clive Sinclair RIP—a true genius

[Brian Boru]

Sad to see this today:

Sir Clive Sinclair: Tireless inventor ahead of his time

The prolific innovator invented the pocket calculator and the ill-fated Sinclair C5 electric car.

www.bbc.com

I followed his exploits back in the day. He wasn't a great businessman—failed to read consumer preference too often—but he was one of the great early heroes of innovation in gaming with his affordable ZX series. I remember lusting after the ZX Spectrum with its unbelievable 16K of RAM, probably his greatest success.

Oddly enough, he was averse to using some techs himself—eg email, internet, computer. Also a very decent poker player.

Thanks Sir Clive, I've no doubt you inspired many a kid to pursue tech innovation!

Clive Sinclair - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I was reading about this earlier, my first two computers were a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, followed by a ZX Spectrum +2. The loading sound from those cassette tape games are burned into my brain.

 

[Brian Boru]

The loading sound from those cassette tape games are burned into my brain

Yeah, they vie with the 9600 bit/s modem screams of agony.

My first personal computer was a Spectravideo, the whole machine packed into the keyboard housing. Programs loaded from cassette tapes via my own cassette player, and it plugged into my TV for output.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah, they vie with the 9600 bit/s modem screams of agony.

It was very similar to old dial up modem connection noise.

My first personal computer was a Spectravideo, the whole machine packed into the keyboard housing. Programs loaded from cassette tapes via my own cassette player, and it plugged into my TV for output.

Never heard of that one. Sounds very similar to the 48k ZX Spectrum I used when I was too small to understand really The 128K Spectrum '+2' I remember much better had a built in tape deck. Fancy.

 

[Brian Boru]

Never heard of that one

Spectravideo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was a nice machine, got it for £50 second hand

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Nice there was a version with a built in joystick, people really knew how to live back then!

 

[Zloth]

Another tribute with a video game view: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1039071081/remembering-the-man-who-made-tech-for-everyone

 

[Brian Boru]

Another tribute

Thanks, that a pretty good short summary.

 

[Flasido]

Sad news