25th Anniversary of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday April 23, 2007 @12:43AM from the never-even-seen-one dept.

Alioth writes "Twenty five years ago today, Sinclair Research launched Britain's most popular home computer of the 1980s — the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Costing about one third of the price of its rivals such as the Commodore 64 while having a faster CPU and a better BASIC interpreter, the machine sold well in many guises throughout the 1980s and had more than a staggering 9,000 software titles. The machine may well have done well in the US too, had Timex — the company building the machine under license in the US — not already been in financial trouble and about to fold. The machine was also extremely successful in Russia, although not for Sinclair Research — because the Russians made dozens of different clones of the machine, and did so right into the mid 1990s. The machine still has a healthy retro scene, including the development of new commercial software by Cronosoft, and new hardware such as the DivIDE, which allows a standard PC hard disc or compact flash card to be connected to the machine."

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And, as we all know... by BluhDeBluh · 2007-04-23 00:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

The Speccy was better than the C64. Obviously.
1. Re:And, as we all know... by Anonymous Coward · 2007-04-23 01:41 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  There were no CPC fanboys. Even a CPC owner would admit the systems were trash.
2. Re:And, as we all know... by rjshields · 2007-04-23 02:58 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Oops, should have used the preview button.
  
  --
  In this world nothing is certain but death, taxes and flawed car analogies.
Why is this in 'Games'? by aurelian · 2007-04-23 00:53 · Score: 3, Insightful

I learnt to program on my Spectrum - and a lot more besides. It wasn't just a gaming console, and it's significance for the industry was much wider also.