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Rick Dickinson, Designer of Sinclair Spectrum Home Computers, Dies (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rest-in-peace dept.

New submitter Badger Nadgers quotes a report from the BBC: Rick Dickinson, the designer of Sinclair computers, has died in the U.S. while receiving treatment for cancer. The British designer, thought to be in his 60s, worked in-house for Sinclair Research and oversaw the creation of its home computers in the 1980s. He was responsible for the boxy look of the ZX80 and ZX81 and the Bauhaus-inspired appearance of the Spectrum. Mr Dickinson also helped to develop the technologies for the UK company's touch-sensitive and rubber keyboards. He was recently linked to a crowd-funded project by Retro Computers to turn the Spectrum into a handheld computer. Some of the early reference designs for the machine were drawn up by him.

49 comments

  1. 79.99 ZX81 kit by scottrocket · · Score: 2

    I still have delightfully frustrating memories of building and coding for a ZX81, right after the kit came out - 129.99 for the pre-built & I was young &poor!

    1. Re:79.99 ZX81 kit by cliffjumper222 · · Score: 1

      Yes, it was a game-changer. I remember the newspaper ad for the ZX-81 because my dad showed it to me. It was a full page in The Times (of London for US readers) and offered a fully functional computer for under 100 pounds! Wowza! Even at that price, I couldn't get one and had to hold out for a secondhand Video Genie, after which a few years later I graduated to a BBC Model B. As a result, I never got into the Sinclair side of things. I heard that if you zipped a ballpoint pen around each of the ZX-81 keys, you could get them to pop up slightly so they gave more tactile feedback.

    2. Re:79.99 ZX81 kit by emorning · · Score: 1

      I was a junior in college studying physics. I was putting myself through school so I bought the kit. I dumpster dived a TV and got a tape recorder at Goodwill. I coded solutions to numerical analysis problems on it before going to the lab to punch the code onto cards.
      It lasted just under a year and I really missed it when it was gone.

    3. Re:79.99 ZX81 kit by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      You were a bit more ambitious than I was! I wrote some lame rocket launch simulator (fast mode), re-wrote that blobby comet game, and some sinking fund calculator to tease me about how much money I could have with reinvestment, if I had any money to begin with. Good times! : )

  2. Cancer treatment in the US? by Nutria · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    If the NHS is so great, why was he here?

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:Cancer treatment in the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is great healthcare in the US - if you are rich enough to afford it, that is.

    2. Re:Cancer treatment in the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I came here to post a similar comment. I thought that even Cuba had better healthcare than the US!

    3. Re:Cancer treatment in the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fidel Castro didn't think Cuban doctors were good enough for him, so went right to the top for his doctors: Venezuela. Not only is Venezuela a people's paradise for the Venezuelans, they are blessed with the best healthcare on Earth. Bernie Sanders planned on making the USA a similar paradise until Hillary cheated him out of the nomination.

    4. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Using a man's death to score political points - nice.

    5. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by Nutria · · Score: 1

      I've already got enough karma.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    6. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 2

      He was in the US for complementary therapy as a desperate last resort after the cancer came back after his previous NHS treatment. Nothing to do with US medical care at all.

    7. Re:Cancer treatment in the US? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Maybe they do, it seems he didn't survive the treatment...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    8. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by Nutria · · Score: 1

      You and I both know that there's complementary pseudo-therapy in the UK.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    9. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      You realise your point is somewhat undermined by the fact he died right?

    10. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by Nutria · · Score: 1

      You missed the importance of pseudo-.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    11. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Nutria doesn't care that a man died, he has political points to score

    12. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      It's not available on the NHS now stop being a bellend

    13. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by Nutria · · Score: 1

      Men die on a regular basis. No amount of sympathy is going to change that.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    14. Re: Cancer treatment in the US? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      You don't have to be a dick about it though do you?

  3. Good riddance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spectrum sucked. Why didnâ(TM)t he design a smartphone instead?

    1. Re:Good riddance. by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      It was dirt cheap as far as computers go. I was put off from buying one because: no disk for storage, terrible membrane keyboard, and redraw the screen after every keypress...

    2. Re:Good riddance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're thinking of the ZX81, where the CPU was actively involved in drawing the display. The Spectrum had a custom chip (the ULA) to generate the display, so the CPU was no longer involved. No more screen flashes.

    3. Re: Good riddance. by UdoKeir · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of the ZX80 :-)

    4. Re: Good riddance. by lord_mike · · Score: 2

      The ZX81 still used the cpu to draw the display, it just did so during the vertical blank interval when nothing was being drawn on the screen. It slowed everything down by 75%, but it eliminated the flicker. The ZX computers seemed to be the only micros besides the Atari 2600 that required cpu to actively draw the screen. I'm sure ol' Clive saved a buck or two doing it that way.

    5. Re: Good riddance. by UdoKeir · · Score: 1

      Perhaps we're talking about something different. The ZX80 had a terrible screen flicker when a key was pressed. The ZX81 did not.

    6. Re: Good riddance. by lord_mike · · Score: 1

      No, we are talking about the same thing. The ZX-81 CPU would update the screen the same way as the ZX-80, but would only do non-screen related calculations when the screen was taking a break from drawing. The ZX-80 just shut off the screen until there was a pause for input. Both drew the screen in the same way, but the ZX-81 managed to find a way to do calculations during the vertical blank, which would keep the screen "alive". The ZX-80 did not. This made teh ZX-81 "slow", mode look good, but at the cost of significant speed.

  4. Newcastle Poly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He and Jony Ive went to the same, rather obscure, Northern UK Poly.
    Not a even a university back then and rather working class. UK Gov probably paid for it all.
    Perhaps a good reason to fund more education here in the US and not just bogus private degree mills.

    1. Re:Newcastle Poly by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Several of the polytechnics were well known for first-rate vocational engineering training. I don't know about Newcastle, but Bristol Poly's aerospace engineering course pretty much guaranteed a job at BAe or Rolls Royce. It was a tragedy when the government decided everyone should go to university and turned them from first-rate vocational institutions into third-rate universities.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  5. ZX Spectrum by bmimatt · · Score: 2

    I wrote my first lines of code on a ZX Spectrum, as a teenager. I still remember the rubber keyboard keys. This made me feel old.

    1. Re:ZX Spectrum by 4wdloop · · Score: 1

      My first coding was on ZX81, there was one in town in some technical high school...ca. 1983..When the ZX Spectrum come in later, I could only watch others having fun with it. Nostalgia...

      Apparently ebay still has ZX81 stuff
      https://www.ebay.com/p/Sinclai...

      --
      4wdloop
    2. Re:ZX Spectrum by neilo_1701D · · Score: 1

      My first coding was on ZX81, there was one in town in some technical high school...ca. 1983..When the ZX Spectrum come in later, I could only watch others having fun with it. Nostalgia...

      Apparently ebay still has ZX81 stuff

      Ditto; six ZX-81s were purchased at my high school in a rural town in Australia. It changed my life. My interest was electronics; this forces an abrupt change and now I'm living in the US and working as a principle technical consultant for Dynamics AX at a big consulting company.

      That machine literally changed the direction of my life.

      I know Rick designed the case and not the computer or BASIC. But he played a part; and for that I'm grateful towards Rick and sad at his all-to-young passing.

  6. Sad, but apropos by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

    Given the notoriously well-known saying at the time that the Spectrum keyboard felt like typing on dead flesh.

  7. Life Changer ... by kbahey · · Score: 2

    At least for me, it changed my life.

    The ZX Spectrum was my first computer ever. I used it to learn BASIC, programming, and all things computers.

    As a result, I switched careers from pharmacy to software, and never looked back ...

    Rest in peace Rick!

    --
    2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
    1. Re:Life Changer ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I switched careers from pharmacy to software, and never looked back "

      Sorry to hear about your troubles. Too bad life doesn't give us too many do-overs. If you're young enough maybe you can get your life back on track.

    2. Re:Life Changer ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had a TimeEx Sinclair ZX81 with a whopping 2K RAM
      It performed BASIC syntax correction on each input line.
      I wrote several stupid asteroid games with my own cheater codes.
      I used a tape cassette for my program backup/restore.
      This computer cost about $100 in about 1981 when an Apple ][ cost close to $2400

      It did change a lot of things for many people.

    3. Re: Life Changer ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn, sorry to hear that. Pharmacy is a dying career now but you would have made bank.

  8. Chiclets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I will consume an entire pack of Chiclets in his honor.

  9. Let's be clear.. by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 3, Informative

    He designed the box.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Let's be clear.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and those wonderful squishy keys that had BASIC functions printed on them.

  10. Yep, the timex sinclair 1000/ZX81 was my first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    computer too.

    ""The TS1000 was a slightly-modified version of the Sinclair ZX81 with an NTSC RF modulator, designed for use with North American TVs,
    a joint venture between Timex Corporation and Sinclair Research.""

    and it had 2k!

  11. Mystery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder why he came to the US for cancer treatment and did avail himself of the excellent free healthcare we always hear about in Europe?

    1. Re:Mystery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      cause he could afford it, unlike the majority of people in the US

    2. Re:Mystery by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Because Americans have great cancer specialists due to the unhealthy US lifestyle?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Mystery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering he didn't survive the treatment, you probably shouldn't talk smack about it. Now his family will be left paying the massive bills. That's what American healthcare gets you... massive bills and death.

  12. His ZX Spectrum Next design is awesome, too by neilo_1701D · · Score: 1

    I backed the ZX Spectrum Next on Kickstarter. Rick again designed the case, taking his ZX Spectrum 128 design and moving it forwards 35 years. It's beautiful. The case went into production last week, I believe. It's a shame he didn't live to see the project completed.

    1. Re:His ZX Spectrum Next design is awesome, too by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      It really looks great... image here > Spectrum Next

  13. Had too Google Sinclair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems like they were a small UK firm that produced some computers in England in the early 80s. Sound a bit like Oric in the US.

    1. Re:Had too Google Sinclair by mccalli · · Score: 1

      Oric were British too, and a direct (and later) competitor. But your search has given some true, but misleading results. They didn't "produce some computers", they essentially defined first half of the 80s. Between them and the BBC B, which cost a vast amount more, they set the scene for the home micro explosion. Their relative affordability was absolutely vital.

      My first home computer was a ZX Spectrum 48k, bought for me by my parents. It has defined my entire professional life, getting me interested in programming, in gaming, in reading about the technologies underlying things...all of it. It was a supremely influential machine that completely defined British geekhood at that time. Yes the BBC could do more, but it cost more than three times the price. The Spectrum was where it was at.

  14. Timex-Sinclair 1000 by HiloJoe · · Score: 1

    My first digital machine. IIRC it used cassette tape for storage. Could be wrong tho, it's been a long time..