Sir Clive Sinclair Computing Pioneer Dies Aged 81

a reply to: Cymru
Nice 1 Bro
You were right,it was Cookie.
Cheers for the vid.

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

It wasn't easy to work with only 48K of memory for code and data.
I once made a recipes database program in assembly language that had to use compression to reduce the amount of memory used by the (very crude) database.
The ability of changing the code on the fly helped reduce the memory used by the code, but not by much.

Working only in memory and limited to 48K was a real challenge, and looking at what the programmers were able to do at the time we can see that they really had to work hard.

originally posted by: Cymru
a reply to: Silcone Synapse

This sums it up nicely ...

youtu.be...

I had all the games in that video, that brought back some more good memories.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
The comforting feel of those rubber keys after a hard day trying to avoid working at school..great times.

That reminded me that, if I'm not mistaken, my ZX Spectrum has a home made keyboard, as the keyboard membrane was not that resistant to constant gaming and programming, so when I had to replace it for a second time I decided to make my own, with a A4 sheet of paper cut in two and a few thin copper wires tapped to the paper.

It worked as well as the original.

Sinclair calculators somewhere squirreled away one of these from my youth. Made in England, plastics superb, PP9 battery from memory, then the actual display. I could be making this up yet it reads from the left and moves to the right unlike modern calculators. Very bright display. Did he do a scooter recently like 21C too

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

Same. RIP.

My first computer was a Dragon 32 my parents purchased at Boots.
(I wanted a Spectrum, but they were £399!)

Made me remember the non yellowed (or it was) ZX80 I have from….

A long time ago… in a childhood far far..

a reply to: andy06shake

My first computer was built from a kit for US$100: the Timex-Sinclair.

I learned about circuits, electricity, resistors, capacitors, power transformers, binary, BASIC, programming/debugging, and the wonders of cussing and caffeine!!!

A college degree and 20+ years in the biz later, welp… thank you Sir for the career that I have enjoyed!!

a reply to: aoi3610

Crazy huh? 400 quid in the eighties was a lot of frigging money.

I guess we should be grateful that the gaming industry hasn't really followed inflation.

My favourite game when I was 7 years old:

a reply to: andy06shake

Oh wow…I had a Sinclair. First “computer” I owned. The next year I got a TI-994A so the Sinclair was retired rather quickly. But I learned a lot from a years use. RIP Mr. Sinclair

Using an audio cassette deck to store programs and data. I got the 16k expansion module. Awesomeness! Wrote a simple bookkeeping program (practical). Wrote an orbital simulator (fun, but had to go to the library to find the formulas to use). Even did some machine language stuff (made a "starfield" scroll across the screen smoothly).

It cost 100$ and worth every penny.

a reply to: Phage

I remember those tape decks well.

And fiddling around with that wee screw that adjusted the azimuth in an endeavour to get programs to "Load".

Those were the days indeed and simpler times.

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Apparently £400 in 1980 is the equivalent of about £1,630 in 2017.

So by todays standards a C5 would cost about an average months wage +£320.

The battery technology back then was not quite up to task through and there were also safety and other performance issues, plus the vehicle failed to meet some of the manufacturer′s claims.

The timing was wrong and the market not researched enough for the C5 to take off in any sort of big way back then.

a reply to: andy06shake

If you put a detuned radio near the cassette deck you can hear the data. It will fade in and out until you adjust the azimuth correctly.
Now I feel old.

I'll take a note.

I found the listing on archive.org. Someone out there has digitized all the Sync and Syncware magazines! My first published article! It's got the cool string parser routine I wrote. So long ago. Totally forgot about the PEEK and POKE commands. lol.

a reply to: andy06shake

www.theregister.com...

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Apparently £400 in 1980 is the equivalent of about £1,630 in 2017.

So by todays standards a C5 would cost about an average months wage +£320.

The battery technology back then was not quite up to task through and there were also safety and other performance issues, plus the vehicle failed to meet some of the manufacturer′s claims.

The timing was wrong and the market not researched enough for the C5 to take off in any sort of big way back then.

So it's £1,630 for a today price C5 Andy06shake

Sounds about right for something made in England and using (I guess) at that time battery technology.

The C5 at that price is actually around £1,000 cheaper than a modern also made in England electric Brompton bicycle. Maybe a bargain at the time then

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

I seem to remember the first 100,000 units would have been sold under cost to try and gain a market or something like that.

They never managed to shift anything like that number all the same.

"Out of 14,000 C5s made, only 5,000 were sold before its manufacturer, Sinclair Vehicles, went into receivership."

I'll take a note.