6 ms·

In terms of ROI, the best £69.95 I ever spent (I still have the receipt from WH Smith). It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, but it’s the first one I ever

by nickt 6y ago

In terms of ROI, the best £69.95 I ever spent (I still have the receipt from WH Smith). It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, but it’s the first one I ever owned at age 9 and it led me down the path that’ll be familiar to many here... I’m glad I still have it, and the Spectrum and Amiga’s that followed. Incredibly, the ZX81 hardware and software scene is still alive. You can get parts for it quite easily, including keyboard membranes, molex connectors for the membranes, replacement jack sockets. SellmyRetro is a good place to start [1]. The composite video out is a simple and worthwhile modification. The ZXPand+ interface [2] is an expansion unit that has a 32k RAM upgrade, SDCard slot, AY sound, hi-res support and a 9-pin joystick interface. The zx-key is a replacement keyboard, and David Stephenson tells a great story about its creation [3]. And games too [4]. I always loved the design of the cassette covers, and cronosoft guys have done a great job reproducing them. I reminded how good an imagination you needed playing these games back in 1981! [1] https://www.sellmyretro.com/category/retro-computers/sinclair/sinclair-zx81 https://www.sellmyretro.com/category/retro-computers/sinclai... [2] http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/zx812.html http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/zx812.html [3] http://www.zx81keyboardadventure.com/search/label/ZXKey http://www.zx81keyboardadventure.com/search/label/ZXKey [4] https://cronosoft.fwscart.com/SINCLAIR_ZX81/cat5357733_4119465.aspx https://cronosoft.fwscart.com/SINCLAIR_ZX81/cat5357733_41194...

criddell 6y ago
I asked for a TI-99/4A because that's what my best friend had and we would make games and share them with each other. When I think back to the microcomputers of the early 80's, I'm kind of astounded that they sold in the numbers they did. They were pretty useless.
- bm98 6y ago
  1982 Atari 800 here (was 8 years old at the time). I remember thinking the same thing at the time. When we first bought the thing, there just wasn't much I/O beyond the tape drive (and later the disk drive), and therefore the things we could do seemed very limited. It wasn't until we got a printer (a Star Micronics SG-10 dot matrix tractor feed) and a 300-bps modem that the world really opened up!
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  They were imagination amplifiers. The computer itself didn't do much so you had to fill in the gaps by imagining the things it wasn't doing - often guided by some exciting cover art on books and games packaging. You could also expand your imagination by thinking of the things you might do if you worked hard at it, or if it was only slightly bigger/faster/better. Modern computing is the opposite. It does so much it doesn't leave any gaps for your imagination to fill - the creative equivalent of a distracting wall of noise for you to consume.
  - nickt 6y ago
    > imagination amplifiers Thank you for that, yes - that explains them perfectly. Probably explains why I've always felt more at home in the terminal.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    Great phrase! In my view, this is one of the appeals very low resolution graphics can bring to the table. Code does not have to do much, which helped the fun alone. See the blue ones? Yeah, collect those. Reds are baddies... Or, on a ZX81 or PET, it was just shapes. Still that was enough. Let the mind run wild!
  - criddell 6y ago
    > They were imagination amplifiers. That's a phrase that's always intrigued me. I think Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson said something similar and Steve Jobs is famous for saying computers are bicycles for the mind. I've always wondered what exactly these people were thinking of when they said that. Maybe I'm just spoiled from having computers within reach for the past 40 years, but I wonder if the phrase still means anything. Do we all have mind bicycles now and so it's just the default state?
- rootbear 6y ago
  I never had any of the classic 8-bit home computers. I built a CP/M system from an Ampro Little Board, connected to the Heathkit H19 terminal I put together. The downside of that was little commercial software, but I mostly used it for accessing the University VAX 11/780. I follow a bunch of retro-computing Youtubers now and I feel like I missed out on something. My best friend had an Apple II and was always suggesting I get one. He still has it.
- neilv 6y ago
  The TI 99/4A was great in some ways, especially because at one point TI was dumping or loss-leadering them, so, IIRC, a family eventually could pick up one for $50. Though, one of the big drawbacks of it, relative to some other home computers of the time, is that you couldn't really take advantage of the overpowered graphics processor using the TI BASIC that came with it. To use assembly language, you needed a rare add-on. IIRC, there was also an Extended BASIC cartridge, which was also rare. But the TI 99/4A wasn't useless -- you could do a lot with character set definition and sound from the stock BASIC, and it came with a great introductory book that taught you enough to get started creating with those. With some creativity, you could do a lot with that. (Flight simulator? So long as you didn't bank too fast for characters to be redefined for the horizon, maybe. :) I recall the family going to some dingy school-supply audio-visual store to look at their Apple computers. They had the //c and I think //e on display. Then my parents saw the price, and I could tell it was way too high. So, TI 99/4A it was, plugged into a portable little B&W TV that my dad bought from a guy at work. (Until I made enough money lawn-mowing and babysitting and various money-making schemes, and a kindly computer store owner gave me what had to be a below-cost deal on a semi-compatible PC.) Apple got some pre-Mac glory for microcomputer innovation, but I suspect that the non-Apple $100-$250 home computers reached more families at the time. Having a computer was infinitely better than no computer, and the TI 99/4A was a good little imperfect computer.
- vram22 6y ago
  >pretty useless Your opinion. Even the micros of the 70's, not just 80's, were useful. Not just for fun. Even for work. Just do some Googling. And check out recent HN thread about Don Lancaster's sites and work, for just one interesting example. There were many more. Heard of Steve Ciarcia? Jerry Pournelle? BYTE? SCSI? S-100? Z80? 6502? 6809? Acorn? VIC-20? Commodore-64? BBC Micro? Amstrad? Also, without those precursors, you would not even have the h/w and s/w stuff you may consider "useful" today. Because, evolution.
FabHK 6y ago
> Incredibly, the ZX81 hardware and software scene is still alive. Indeed. Here the German ZX81 User group: http://www.zx81.de/ http://www.zx81.de/ http://www.zx81.de/zxcms/English.html http://www.zx81.de/zxcms/English.html They’ve managed to turn a ZX81 into a web server: http://zx81-siggi.zx-team.org/ZxTeaM http://zx81-siggi.zx-team.org/ZxTeaM (I hope it survives being HN‘d…)
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  > (I hope it survives being HN‘d…) Looks like we sunk it.
  - nickt 6y ago
    Again! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25638936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25638936
    - Shared404 6y ago
      One of these times I'm going to get into this bandwagon fast enough to see the original site :P .
      - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
        Still seems to be down.
        Shared404 6y ago
        It appears to be up now, if you're interested in checking it out.
TacticalCoder 6y ago
> I’m glad I still have it, and the Spectrum and Amiga’s that followed. I wonder how many of us still have them all... I probably sound like a broken record at this time but I still have my Atari 600 XL, Commodore 128 (which I was only using in C64 mode) and Commodore Amiga. The 600 XL and 128 are still working and the Amiga is probably easy to fix.
- cesaref 6y ago
  I ditched almost all my old computers as I upgraded, but i've still got my ZX-81 with a dk'tronics graphics rom, that was a killer combination in 1982 or whenever! The ones that have left the building include C64, C128D, Amiga 1000, Amiga 500, before I got my first 'proper' computer, a Mac IIcx which I had for many years running Logic. I'd like to say those were the days, but actually i get much more done and have more fun with modern computers, it's really just nostalgia for simpler times...
  - vram22 6y ago
    I agree about the nostalgia, and will also add (differing), that at least in some ways, those were more fun times ... because the overhead of all this modern complexity (although it sure does confer greater features and power), does kill off some of the fun.
  - TacticalCoder 6y ago
    Oh totally: I'm not using them and much prefer my modern setup and its 3840x1600 monitor ; ) I just found these old machines of mine in a garage during the first Covid lockdown and decided to try them out and found out they were still working (still had an old CRT TV laying around).
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
spongeb00b 6y ago
Even Blu-Tack for holding on the RAM expansion is still available to buy (sorry, too hard to resist)
- nickt 6y ago
  Real coders use Velcro ;) [EDIT] actually, the Memotech units shipped with a piece of velcro to eliminate wobble. I think that Memotech kit had a great aesthetic. https://www.nightfallcrew.com/27/09/2013/memotech-memopack-16k-for-sinclair-zx-81/ https://www.nightfallcrew.com/27/09/2013/memotech-memopack-1...
  - UncleSlacky 6y ago
    Agreed. They carried it over to their own computers, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memotech_MTX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memotech_MTX
YZF 6y ago
ZX81 -> ZX Spectrum -> Atari 520ST It wasn't the first computer I used but it was the first computer I owned. I still have all the hardware somewhere (including minutia like the ZX Microdrive sitting on my desk right now), I have some books as well ;)
ChrisRR 6y ago
One of the benefits of designing of almost entirely off the shelf components

by nickt 6y ago

criddell 6y ago

I asked for a TI-99/4A because that's what my best friend had and we would make games and share them with each other. When I think back to the microcomputers of the early 80's, I'm kind of astounded that they sold in the numbers they did. They were pretty useless.

bm98 6y ago
1982 Atari 800 here (was 8 years old at the time). I remember thinking the same thing at the time. When we first bought the thing, there just wasn't much I/O beyond the tape drive (and later the disk drive), and therefore the things we could do seemed very limited. It wasn't until we got a printer (a Star Micronics SG-10 dot matrix tractor feed) and a 300-bps modem that the world really opened up!
TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
They were imagination amplifiers. The computer itself didn't do much so you had to fill in the gaps by imagining the things it wasn't doing - often guided by some exciting cover art on books and games packaging. You could also expand your imagination by thinking of the things you might do if you worked hard at it, or if it was only slightly bigger/faster/better. Modern computing is the opposite. It does so much it doesn't leave any gaps for your imagination to fill - the creative equivalent of a distracting wall of noise for you to consume.
- nickt 6y ago
  > imagination amplifiers Thank you for that, yes - that explains them perfectly. Probably explains why I've always felt more at home in the terminal.
- ddingus 6y ago
  Great phrase! In my view, this is one of the appeals very low resolution graphics can bring to the table. Code does not have to do much, which helped the fun alone. See the blue ones? Yeah, collect those. Reds are baddies... Or, on a ZX81 or PET, it was just shapes. Still that was enough. Let the mind run wild!
- criddell 6y ago
  > They were imagination amplifiers. That's a phrase that's always intrigued me. I think Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson said something similar and Steve Jobs is famous for saying computers are bicycles for the mind. I've always wondered what exactly these people were thinking of when they said that. Maybe I'm just spoiled from having computers within reach for the past 40 years, but I wonder if the phrase still means anything. Do we all have mind bicycles now and so it's just the default state?
rootbear 6y ago
I never had any of the classic 8-bit home computers. I built a CP/M system from an Ampro Little Board, connected to the Heathkit H19 terminal I put together. The downside of that was little commercial software, but I mostly used it for accessing the University VAX 11/780. I follow a bunch of retro-computing Youtubers now and I feel like I missed out on something. My best friend had an Apple II and was always suggesting I get one. He still has it.
neilv 6y ago
The TI 99/4A was great in some ways, especially because at one point TI was dumping or loss-leadering them, so, IIRC, a family eventually could pick up one for $50. Though, one of the big drawbacks of it, relative to some other home computers of the time, is that you couldn't really take advantage of the overpowered graphics processor using the TI BASIC that came with it. To use assembly language, you needed a rare add-on. IIRC, there was also an Extended BASIC cartridge, which was also rare. But the TI 99/4A wasn't useless -- you could do a lot with character set definition and sound from the stock BASIC, and it came with a great introductory book that taught you enough to get started creating with those. With some creativity, you could do a lot with that. (Flight simulator? So long as you didn't bank too fast for characters to be redefined for the horizon, maybe. :) I recall the family going to some dingy school-supply audio-visual store to look at their Apple computers. They had the //c and I think //e on display. Then my parents saw the price, and I could tell it was way too high. So, TI 99/4A it was, plugged into a portable little B&W TV that my dad bought from a guy at work. (Until I made enough money lawn-mowing and babysitting and various money-making schemes, and a kindly computer store owner gave me what had to be a below-cost deal on a semi-compatible PC.) Apple got some pre-Mac glory for microcomputer innovation, but I suspect that the non-Apple $100-$250 home computers reached more families at the time. Having a computer was infinitely better than no computer, and the TI 99/4A was a good little imperfect computer.
vram22 6y ago
>pretty useless Your opinion. Even the micros of the 70's, not just 80's, were useful. Not just for fun. Even for work. Just do some Googling. And check out recent HN thread about Don Lancaster's sites and work, for just one interesting example. There were many more. Heard of Steve Ciarcia? Jerry Pournelle? BYTE? SCSI? S-100? Z80? 6502? 6809? Acorn? VIC-20? Commodore-64? BBC Micro? Amstrad? Also, without those precursors, you would not even have the h/w and s/w stuff you may consider "useful" today. Because, evolution.

FabHK 6y ago

> Incredibly, the ZX81 hardware and software scene is still alive. Indeed. Here the German ZX81 User group: http://www.zx81.de/ http://www.zx81.de/ http://www.zx81.de/zxcms/English.html http://www.zx81.de/zxcms/English.html They’ve managed to turn a ZX81 into a web server: http://zx81-siggi.zx-team.org/ZxTeaM http://zx81-siggi.zx-team.org/ZxTeaM (I hope it survives being HN‘d…)

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> (I hope it survives being HN‘d…) Looks like we sunk it.
- nickt 6y ago
  Again! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25638936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25638936
  - Shared404 6y ago
    One of these times I'm going to get into this bandwagon fast enough to see the original site :P .
    - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
      Still seems to be down.
      - Shared404 6y ago
        It appears to be up now, if you're interested in checking it out.

TacticalCoder 6y ago

> I’m glad I still have it, and the Spectrum and Amiga’s that followed. I wonder how many of us still have them all... I probably sound like a broken record at this time but I still have my Atari 600 XL, Commodore 128 (which I was only using in C64 mode) and Commodore Amiga. The 600 XL and 128 are still working and the Amiga is probably easy to fix.

cesaref 6y ago
I ditched almost all my old computers as I upgraded, but i've still got my ZX-81 with a dk'tronics graphics rom, that was a killer combination in 1982 or whenever! The ones that have left the building include C64, C128D, Amiga 1000, Amiga 500, before I got my first 'proper' computer, a Mac IIcx which I had for many years running Logic. I'd like to say those were the days, but actually i get much more done and have more fun with modern computers, it's really just nostalgia for simpler times...
- vram22 6y ago
  I agree about the nostalgia, and will also add (differing), that at least in some ways, those were more fun times ... because the overhead of all this modern complexity (although it sure does confer greater features and power), does kill off some of the fun.
- TacticalCoder 6y ago
  Oh totally: I'm not using them and much prefer my modern setup and its 3840x1600 monitor ; ) I just found these old machines of mine in a garage during the first Covid lockdown and decided to try them out and found out they were still working (still had an old CRT TV laying around).

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

spongeb00b 6y ago

Even Blu-Tack for holding on the RAM expansion is still available to buy (sorry, too hard to resist)

nickt 6y ago
Real coders use Velcro ;) [EDIT] actually, the Memotech units shipped with a piece of velcro to eliminate wobble. I think that Memotech kit had a great aesthetic. https://www.nightfallcrew.com/27/09/2013/memotech-memopack-16k-for-sinclair-zx-81/ https://www.nightfallcrew.com/27/09/2013/memotech-memopack-1...
- UncleSlacky 6y ago
  Agreed. They carried it over to their own computers, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memotech_MTX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memotech_MTX

YZF 6y ago

ZX81 -> ZX Spectrum -> Atari 520ST It wasn't the first computer I used but it was the first computer I owned. I still have all the hardware somewhere (including minutia like the ZX Microdrive sitting on my desk right now), I have some books as well ;)

ChrisRR 6y ago

One of the benefits of designing of almost entirely off the shelf components