Happy 25th birthday, ZX Spectrum

 

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Posted on 25 Apr 2007 at 17:39

The machine that whetted our appetites for personal computers and got developers developing - the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - marks its 25th birthday this week.

Even today, many gamers still spend hours playing games like Chuckie Egg, Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner on their old machines or using emulators.

Back in 1982, users could get their hands on the device with 16KB of RAM for £125 or 48 KB for an extra £50. Sinclair subsequently reduced the price tags to £99 and £129.

The Spectrum entered the market previously dominated by the green screen BBC Micro, which many of us remember being huddled around during our school days.

Rick Dickinson, founder of Dickinson Associates, was one of the senior designers responsible for creating what was to become a cult classic.

'We started selling kit computers to hobbyists and thought we would sell 1,000 machines a month. We went on to sell 200,000 a month and ran into supply problems,' he told the BBC.

He added: 'Everything was cost driven. The design was the face of the machine. Form does tend to follow function. We wanted a thin, elegant form. All the Sinclair products have a very minimalist, very Bauhaus approach - there's no unnecessary detail, or superfluous featuring. They are very elegant.'

Spectrum devotees, renowned for their loyalty, flocked to online communities to host a virtual birthday celebration.

'Happy birthday Speccy. 25 years, and still a hot classic, and very much alive. Very impressive. I doubt that PSX or XBOX will have fan sites and forums like this in 25 years from now,' said one poster on the World of Spectrum Forum.

Author: Maggie Holland