The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is 40 and Eurogamer isn’t the only one celebrating the occasion. Such is the popularity of the iconic micro – particularly in the UK where it achieved sales of five million over a ten-year period – that its milestone anniversaries always attract mainstream coverage. Kay Burley is probably taking about the ‘rubber-keyed wonder’ right now.
So while we all wallow in pleasant nostalgia, how do those that were actually involved in the development of the computer feel about it 40 years on? What impact has it had on their lives – and from their perspective, the lives of others? We got in touch with six of the original team to ask them.
Richard Altwasser joined Sinclair in November 1980 and designed the Spectrum’s internal hardware, including the custom ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array) that sits at the heart of the computer. He later managed the design of the Spectrum Plus 2.
John Mathieson was involved in the launch of the Spectrum in April 1982, having joined Sinclair four months earlier. He supported the Spectrum throughout its production, working on the many PCB revisions, and designed the Interface 2 gaming add-on.
John Grant ran Nine Tiles, the small company that Sinclair contracted to create a version of the BASIC language for its computers. John wrote it initially for the ZX80 (in just 4Kb!) and this was later expanded for the ZX81 and Spectrum by Steve Vickers.
David Karlin was an electronic engineer and chief designer of the Sinclair QL, the 32-bit business computer that launched in 1984. He was heavily involved in the manufacturing side of the Spectrum.
Cliff Lawson was an Amstrad employee who worked on the CPC and PCW lines. Thanks to his familiarity of the Locomotive disk operating system he was involved in writing the disk drive code for the Amstrad-produced Spectrum Plus 3.
Rupert Goodwins joined Sinclair in early 1985 as a software engineer and developed the system software for the Spectrum 128. He moved to Amstrad following the Sinclair buy-out in 1986 and updated the ROMs for both the Spectrum Plus 2 and Plus 3.
Two notable omissions are Rick Dickinson, who conceived the singular look of the Spectrum, and Sir Clive Sinclair himself. Though both are no longer with us we remain greatly indebted to their contributions.
Touring the EGX retro area with Ian and Digital Foundry’s John Linneman Watch on YouTube
As the Spectrum celebrates its 40th anniversary, why do you feel that it’s so well remembered? It has to be more than just nostalgia hasn’t it?
Altwasser: I feel it’s well remembered for several reasons. It was the most successful of the many personal computers from that era and therefore created the home computing market in the UK. It became an icon. Many users wrote their first code on a Spectrum, and then went on to careers in computing, so it impacted not just individuals but created a whole generation of coders. Plus, many businesses grew on the back of the Spectrum selling software and peripherals. Many entrepreneurs arose out of the success. Of course many more will remember playing games and the Spectrum will have formed an important role in their experience of life in the 80s and early 90s.
Mathieson: Games. The Spectrum was the first widespread home computer for gaming. Computers and game consoles got better later – much better – but it really was the first system that was good enough for games in the UK. It changed everything for a lot of people.
Grant: If by ‘well remembered’ you mean lots of people being aware of it, well Clive Sinclair was a more newsworthy figure than [Acorn’s] Chris Curry or Hermann Hauser. We all remember the C5 don’t we? If you mean ‘remembered with fondness’ it must be the software. It was one of the biggest sellers mostly because there were more games available for it.