Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

I wonder how many IT careers he launched? Mine for sure. He definitely launched mine, I owe a tremendous amount to Sir Clive for setting me on the path to my computing career with the ZX81, and later to Jack Tramiel for boosting my career with the C64. I never properly met Sir Clive, but I did near...

Interesting to see that for a change the US NTSC computer ran slower than the UK PAL version. Most of the old consoles and computers running at 60hz had a definite speed advantage over the 50hz PAL machines, so much so that 50hz versions of games were considered inferior by gamers. Most developers d...

Hi, Me too - I did some freelance for Telecomsoft (Firebird) back in 1986/7 on the C64, but my first computer was a ZX81. I loved that era when every day brought new games, new computers and new concepts that we'd never seen before. Really happy to have been involved during that time. Fills me with ...

I agree. I wrote some very good 1k games in BASIC on the ZX81 (I wish I had them now, but they were lost years ago) and it did encourage you to write efficient code. Biggest problem with the C64 was the BASIC was far too primitive considering the advanced capabilities of the machine. To do anything ...

To be honest I like dot-crawl on the speccy from a nostalgia point of view, as all the speccys I used back in the day had that, so it feels like genuinely part of the experience. I also use my ZX81 and Speccy on old CRT TV, as I feel LCDs pictures can be too sharp and clean. Nice to know there's a s...

Hi, I've got a rather battered Issue 1 ZX81 that I'm considering restoring (I already have another fully-refurbed one I bought from Ebay) It powers up OK, but some keys don't work - HJKL and NEWLINE. I opened it up and checked the keyboard connectors and they look ok - no obvious breaks, so I'm not ...

Lardo Boffin wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 2:57 pm Sorry!

In my defence it was an auction and nobody else bid!

You're lucky, every one I bid on had loads of other bidders. I eventually managed to get a fully refurbed one for a bit more than I wished to pay, but it's a lovely machine and I've been having great fun re-living the old days.

Ah so you're the one who was buying up all the ZX81's on Ebay and making it hard for me to get a decent one.

Hi, I first got a ZX81 in 82 or thereabouts. I wanted a Spectrum, as that was due to be released, but I just couldn't afford it, being 16 years old, in sixth Form, and my family couldn't afforded to buy me one. So I scrimped and saved and bought a ZX81from WH Smiths, and taught myself BASIC programm...

Wow! That Chroma interface looks amazing. Unfortunately it's sold out otherwise I'd be buying one right now.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep looking out to see when it becomes available.