Sinclair Spectrum at 40 | Richard Altwasser & Dr Steve Vickers

If the 1980s put computers in the home, then Sir Clive Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum - which celebrated its 40th anniversary in April - put coding in the bedroom.
Sir Clive’s laser-like focus on cost efficiency and technical innovation yielded a system of such power and at such an incredibly low-price that a generation could turn their silicon dreams into digital realities. Yesterday’s coders became today’s entrepreneurs, creatives, technologists - and more.
The National Museum of Computing celebrated this legacy with an event on April 23rd 2022 where we heard from some of those behind the story.
We reunite two of the architects behind the ZX Spectrum’s success: hardware designer Richard Altwasser and Dr Steve Vickers, responsible for the ROM and user manuals of the ZX Spectrum and ZX81. Join Richard and Steve for a moderated chat and Q&A tackling all things ZX Spectrum and Sinclair.
Recorded 23rd April 2022 at TNMOC.

[@user-fg6ng7ej6w]

Thanks for ZX and this interview

[@PhillipEaton]

Great discussion! I started off with a ZX81, but then onto a VIC-20. Some years later I became a professional Forth programmer and I still use Forth today. The Spectrum is iconic, for sure, but the Jupiter Ace, with its native Forth, is far more special for me. I'd love to hear more of that story.

[@MattBrownbill]

Started on ZX81, moved onto Spectrum, then continued to write software till the present day.

[@pedromorgan99]

oh dear.. u reaching retirement with python.. and some Rust ;-)

[@MattBrownbill]

@@pedromorgan99 how did you know? C++ is my favourite.

[@BongWeasle]

Started with a Speccy went to work for Hewlett Packard , just retired. Thanks Speccy you got me this far.

[@junestorm]

I've great respect for these early hardware and software engineers. Same goes for chip developers.

[@andyr4941]

Interesting talk! My primary school had a ZX81 and my first computer at age 6 was the Speccy, followed by the Electron and then BBC Micro. Richard rhetorically asked why the Spectrum sold more than the BBC Micro despite Acorn having the exclusive backing of the BBC - well, cost, obviously. I learned to program on the Spectrum and found it quite hard work; discovering the BBC Micro at secondary school was like a breath of fresh air, it was so much more fun, easier and more intuitive - which you would expect considering the higher price.The Spectrum's keyboard was horrible and the multi-function keys pretty frustrating, but that's what designing for a low price point gets you. (The ZX81 keyboard was worse though!) It certainly had its place as a cheap home computer though, and I will never forget the sound of the Spectrum loading data from tape along with the iconic red, cyan and yellow/blue screen borders!

[@edgeeffect]

If only there had been a machine halfway between the '81 and speccy but programmed in FORTH... that would have been an experimenters' goldmine..... oh and there was!!! I loved my Jupiter Ace!!!!

[@mynewschannel3100]

I cut my teeth on the ZX81 and the Spectrum and used assembly language instead of Basic, thanks to Rodnay Zaks Programming the Z80

[@philipdurling1964]

Hi guys, just discovered you on KZbin. Thanks for this. Do you have anything by Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace?

[@FireballXL55]

I agree the Spectrum sold so many more units and did influence so many bedroom coders, but the BBC was 4 times the price and was easy to interface to and very expandable, so maybe influenced a different type of coder.

[@mynewschannel3100]

I extended mine with a Disciple 3.5" floppy interface and ended up writing an Acorn Archimedes-type GUI and a software magazine which I distributed by floppy disk. My last software project was a PCB designer using C Y Lee's auto-router algorithm which I found a description of in Wired Magazine. I also built an Atari trackball interface :)

[@eugenecruz3977]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

[@junestorm]

It's a pity that both Richard Altwasser and Steve Vickers left Sinclair Research to form their own company developing a home computer much inferior and more expensive than the ZX brand--and then went bankrupt. Technological knowledge alone is not sufficient to run a company. They were masterminds at their times but failed commercially. 🥲

[@adipm]

As Steve states early on, Steve Vickers never worked directly for Sinclair Research, he was employed at Nine Tiles who did the BASIC for the ZX80, 81 and Spectrum