ZX Spectrum – 40 Years Old (1982-2022)

As it is the ZX Spectrums 40th Birthday, I wanted to also commemorate this Marvellous Piece of Engineering by the Late Sir Clive Sinclair (Age 81, 30 Jul 1940 – 16 Sep 2021)

For me personally, the ZX Spectrum brings back many memories, not only because it is so memorable for its Games and Programming Abilities, But for its looks, and also its Graphical Power which for its time was Top Class, along with the well known effect of Colour Bleed, which if I remember, I never actually mentioned or even noticed at the time

I remember getting it for Christmas, and unwrapping it, and being so impatient trying to get a Game loaded in, fiddling about with the Tape Deck so much, then when eventually I got it to work, hearing those Loading Tones, while it loaded a Game into its Memory, which seemed to take forever, and my patience which sometimes lasted, and sometimes did not last

Usually I would pop the TV on while waiting for it to load, or go and make a drink of Pop, then I would come back, switch over to it, and be greeted by the Game, all ready to play on its tiny keyboard

My brother once borrowed Turbo Esprit from his friend, loaded it up on the Spectrum, and I played it for hours, till it crashed, and asked my brother for the Tape so I could reload it – Sadly I could not, since he had given it back, so that quite upset me, so I ended up loading Manic Miner for a Play instead

I admire Sir Clive Sinclair and what he brought into our world, a really decent playable Games Computer which also allowed you to create some Games, while I never created any Games myself, I used to create daft scrolling programs, and even accidentally overwrote a Game once when saving it (Oops!) so ended up buying it again from the shop

Many Happy Times I had with the ZX Spectrum, and while I do not currently own one myself, I do play its Games via Emulation, which I know is not the same as owning the Real Hardware I know, But it is great Emulation exists for many systems, and also who can realistically store thousands of different computers in the house – Most people do not have the room to do that

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Please see Twitter for #ZXSpectrum40 Tweets, as well as see who Sir Clive Sinclair was and his lasting legacy, which sadly includes the “released too early” Sinclair C5 Electric Vehicle – which if I am honest, I thought was a Great Vehicle, But for me, I thought it was too low to the ground, and not visible enough to other motorists, But Sir Clive did a good job at creating it even though it had some flaws, and sadly cost Sir Clive dearly..

Rest In Peace Sir Clive, I will never forget the childhood memories of using the ZX Spectrum

THANKYOU FOR THE MEMORIES SIR CLIVE

Find out more about the ZX Spectrum on Wikipedia

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