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The UK market had a lot of "cheap" machines, perhaps compared to the US. They were of course more expensive than today's cheap machines, but you could get a ZX8
by timthorn 8y ago
The UK market had a lot of "cheap" machines, perhaps compared to the US. They were of course more expensive than today's cheap machines, but you could get a ZX81 for under £50 if you were prepared to assemble it yourself - £70 for a ready-built one.
- jhbadger 8y agoAs did the US market. In fact the ZX81 was available in the US as the Timex/Sinclair 1000 for under $100. It was briefly quite popular, although not useful for much other than learning BASIC. Later on, Commodore had a promotion where you could send in your TS 1000's in for a discount on the C64. Rumor has it that the people at Commodore's HQ used the sent machines as doorstops as their wedge design worked well for that.
- digi_owl 8y ago8-bit guy just posted a video in his Commodore history series that involved the Timex Sinclair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICiZbUypMlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICiZbUypMlQ
- jonhendry18 8y agoThe ZX81 was available in the US - I have one we bought as a kit way back then. I believe we bought by responding to this Sinclair ad in Byte magazine: https://imgur.com/a/lejUoz5 https://imgur.com/a/lejUoz5 The Timex branded version came out the next year.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoSo I looked back £175 launch price for Acorn Electron, which matched the previous years ZX Spectrum (which was £130 by then). That was about 25% of teachers salary, so about £500 now ... I rate that as pretty rich.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y agoI still have my ZX81. I fondly remember writing BASIC code in a notebook, on a bus, on the way to school.