ZX Spectum - 25 Years On...
Has it really been 25 years since the ZX Spectrum came out? I cut my programming teeth on that thing…
Anyhow, the Beeb has a nice little retrospective which includes an interesting video.
Man, I’m having flashbacks.
Many of today’s video game luminaries cut their teeth on Sinclair computers, among them Dave Perry, who runs Shiny Entertainment, and Tim and Chris Stamper, who founded Rare.
In 1967 Sir Cive Sinclair pioneered the miniature TV
“Sir Clive Sinclair gave so many British people an incredible step up into the videogame industry, which in a few more years will be bigger than the music industry,” said Mr Perry, who began writing games as a school child on the ZX81 and became a professional programmer thanks to the Spectrum.
“Clive is a national hero,” said Mr Dickinson.
“He loved looking for technology ideas and often had an idea and had to wait for the technology to catch up.”
I completely agree with this.
The fact that the three 3D graphics API outfits (RenderMorphics, Argonaut and Criterion) were based in London and that so many of the games companies in the eighties were from the UK (e.g. Rare) is completely due to the fact that as kids, we had access to a bunch of cool, low cost tech that other countries missed out on.
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and now I feel old...
I never got my Spectrum I wrote my 1st 6809 assembly in a Dragon 32.. and yes I wasn't the cool kid in class but it was the only one with a decent Donkey Kong port
Rare? They'll always be Ultimate Play The Game to me.
Giles - that always got to me too. After they joined MS, I was always (to no avail) saying that the Ultimate label should be resurrected...