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Rick Dickinson, Designer of Sinclair Spectrum Home Computers, Dies (bbc.co.uk)
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.
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!
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...
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.
Given the notoriously well-known saying at the time that the Spectrum keyboard felt like typing on dead flesh.
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!
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You're thinking of the ZX80 :-)
He designed the box.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
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.
Using a man's death to score political points - nice.
I've already got enough karma.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
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.
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.
Maybe they do, it seems he didn't survive the treatment...
Ezekiel 23:20
Because Americans have great cancer specialists due to the unhealthy US lifestyle?
Ezekiel 23:20
You and I both know that there's complementary pseudo-therapy in the UK.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
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.
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You realise your point is somewhat undermined by the fact he died right?
You missed the importance of pseudo-.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
My first digital machine. IIRC it used cassette tape for storage. Could be wrong tho, it's been a long time..
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.
Nutria doesn't care that a man died, he has political points to score
It's not available on the NHS now stop being a bellend
Men die on a regular basis. No amount of sympathy is going to change that.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
You don't have to be a dick about it though do you?
Perhaps we're talking about something different. The ZX80 had a terrible screen flicker when a key was pressed. The ZX81 did not.
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.