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125 points by robin_reala 3 days ago | 19 comments

I remember seeing the ZX80 at my parents' friends house and realizing that this was a different kind of beast than the pocket calculator and the electronic dictionary we had at home: you could make this thing do.. well.. anything!

When the ZX81 came out I spent all my pocket money savings on it. First on the thing itself, later I would shell out for its 16K RAM extension.

Restoring software on the ZX81 using cassette tapes was so slow and cumbersome that it was quicker to restore it from my own memory. I had a little scrolling evasion game that I knew by heart, and I would type it in if I felt the need to play. Changing little aspects of that game (first different characters for the obstructions, then game mechanics) was what set me on the path of programming.

My brother somehow salvaged that first ZX81 from our parents' estate and it is now hanging framed on the wall next to me as I type this.

[–] lproven 1 day ago

The first privately-owned computer I ever used: my uncle Thom's ZX81. I had played with a couple of Commodore PET 4032 machines at school so I just about knew how BASIC worked and how to enter it.

On the ZX81, I knew from reading computer magazines that Sinclair BASIC had this weird single-key input method and it was mandatory. So, I managed to type in some very short program from the manual, SAVE it (I already knew how important that was!) and then RUN it. And it worked.

As this was more than my uncle had managed so far, in weeks or months or ownership, he was deeply impressed, and conveyed this to my parents, which as I type it very belatedly occurs to me is maybe why they bought me a ZX Spectrum the next year.

I don't think he ever used it much more. He was the son of Arthur Doodson, known for his work in tide prediction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Thomas_Doodson

Thom died 23 years ago. His wife was my auntie Valerie, a tiny bit famous in her own right for preserving Arthur's legacy. She remarried about 20 years later, and her husband David is still alive and still has that ZX81. I hope to get it off him some time.

[–] Lio 1 day ago

One of my friends had a ZX81 when we were kids.

If you went round this house he'd have to start it loading from cassette while you went out to play in the garden.

When you'd had enough pretending to be the A-Team you'd creep back, praying no one sneezed or farted lest the RAM pack wobbled and you have to start over.

I'd claim this was the Gen X equivalent of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch but if you told kids t'day they'd nare believe you.

Good times.

[–] flopsamjetsam 1 day ago

I remember seeing ads for the ZX80 in electronics magazines, and losing my mind as a little kid over them. Later on I did an electronics class as a teenager, and the tutor brought in his ZX80. It was amazing to see it in the flesh.

Later on, my friend's older brother had a Spectrum. All the local magazines had photos of the games, and it was incredible to play them and see them "for real". The rubber keyboard with pre-programmed BASIC keywords, later on a full-sized keyboard and some kind of expansion pack (with disk drives I think?). And his older brother showing me how crazy the memory layout for graphics was. Good times.

[–] throw98226 2 days ago

Took a course on programming the brand new ZX81 back in 1982. Bought one, fell in love with it. Just 15 years old at the time. Wrote lots of programs, stored on cassette using my Grundig cassette recorder. Hardly slept. Just kept learning. Retired early in 2020 after a fulfilling career in IT. Zx81 still is one of my favourite machines!

[–] stephbu 2 days ago

Yes, my dad bought me a ZX81 when I was nine, and got bitten by the thrill of creation. At 18 I dropped out of college, my then lecturer told me I’d never get paid to play games. I bullied my way into the industry, and ended up in the US working for the two of the Mag7, many AAA titles, and a couple of game console platforms.

I’m only a few months away from retiring. I still remember Z80 mnemonics and machine code equivalents even today.

[–] Scubabear68 1 day ago

I was able to talk my dad into getting the U.S. equivalent, the Timex-Sinclair 1000, which had double the RAM - 2K! It was only possible because it was only about $100, compared to every other computer at the time which was way out of our lower-middle class reach.

I spent a lot of time doing stupid animations using the character set and it set me on my path of software for life.

[–] neilwilson 1 day ago

Oh to C9 to those days...

[–] yoz 2 days ago

"Rob Manuel is a writer, curator of Fesshole, and co-founder of B3ta. He lives in London."

He also has a BlueSky account, where he posts lots of good links to new indie games: https://bsky.app/profile/robmanuel.b3ta.com

[–] spacedcowboy 2 days ago

I got the kit at 11 for Xmas. I still remember one of the jokes in the manual…

“How many legs has a horse ?”

‘6, 2 legs at the back and forelegs in front’.

[–] gonenyarom 20 hours ago

Same era, different machine: my 13th birthday present in 1982 was a Dragon 32. I learned BASIC from the manual and by trial and error, and loaded games from cassette, hoping the tape wouldn't fail halfway. Things like this bring it all back.

[–] mdp2021 1 day ago

> “Ridiculously niche but ridiculously joyful” ~~ Richard Herring

Could this be an opening to seeing author Rob Manuel interviewed by Herring in the RHLSTP Book Club?

(I must recommend the RHLSTP Book Club. It worked well in noticing important new titles I otherwise missed.)

Ah, also I see and want to notice:

> “Greatest book ever made and you win. Profound.” ~~ Joel Morris (Philomena Cunk co-creator)

Joel Morris has a great entry in his curriculum.

The initiative keeps on giving:

> [About "Spelk Press" publisher, near Newcastle upon Tyne:] A spelk is a North East word for a splinter: hard to ignore once it's under your skin.

[–] dcminter 1 day ago

I taught myself BASIC on a ZX81 (from the manual) at a tender age, and even I think this book is pretty niche. Amazing! I'm tempted...

[–] desireco42 2 days ago

Brings back childhood memories...

[–] Shorel 1 day ago

I can't upvote you more than once, therefore purchasing the book seems like the logical option.

I enjoyed a lot the small sample of jokes you have on the website.

Kudos to you!

[–] 7kago_yomi 2 days ago

The color count is so low it seems like it would be hard to see in this day and age, doesn't it? Isn't this effectively the pixel art that's popular right now?

[–] Lio 1 day ago

Well the ZX81 was black and white only so that's not too surprising.

[–] mrob 1 day ago

Most books are printed in black and white too. How does that make it hard to see?

The art style is "semigraphics", not pixel art. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semigraphics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art

[–] orac81 1 day ago

How do you double the value of a zx81? Buy a dust cover for it!