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All computers of the 1980s were pretty poor, but that misses the point. The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64. It sold to households and

All computers of the 1980s were pretty poor, but that misses the point. The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64. It sold to households and children that couldn’t have afforded or thought about buying anything more expensive and had a profound impact on computer literacy https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spectrum-this-is-where-the-uk-games-industry-came-from/ https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/clive-sinclairs-zx-spec... >"You could buy a Spectrum at WH Smith's for £125, take it home -- it would take you two or three weeks to go through the programming manual, if you're that way inclined," Goodwins said. "Then start digging into the machine. You could, within two or three months, be writing little games that were actually pretty good, and in six months you could have something that was as good as the rest of the market. By yourself. While going to school. Kaboom! This is where the UK game industry came from." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_Ki... > This industry took off after the release of the ZX Spectrum in 1982: by the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies selling video games on cassette compared to 95 the year before. An estimated 10,000 to 50,000 youth, mostly male, were making games out of their homes at this time based on advertisements for games in popular magazines. The growth of video games in the UK during this period was comparable to the punk subculture, fueled by young people making money from their games.

rasz 4y ago
>The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64 not proportionally less to what you received, or rather didnt receive: rubber dead fish keyboard substitute, color clash, pc speaker beeps, no joystick ports, no floppy support, less ram, abysmal hardware quality (build using defective ram, failing ferranti ulas etc) >by the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies selling video games on cassette compared to 95 the year before While UK was spared from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 the market died in 1984. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron : >Hohenberg later noted that after the 1983 Christmas season, Electron deliveries had increased to meet a demand that was no longer there, with the market having "completely dried up" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research#Amstrad_acquisition_of_assets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research#Amstrad_acqu... >1985, but this offering was postponed, ostensibly due to turmoil in the microcomputer industry, with Acorn Computers undergoing refinancing, and other companies such as Sinclair's competitor Oric and distributor Prism entering receivership. Everything was crashing down and the only two winners were Amstrad (rock bottom prices and good grip on manufacturing cost) and Commodore (terrible management but great product).

rasz 4y ago

>The Spectrum was less than half the price of a Commodore 64 not proportionally less to what you received, or rather didnt receive: rubber dead fish keyboard substitute, color clash, pc speaker beeps, no joystick ports, no floppy support, less ram, abysmal hardware quality (build using defective ram, failing ferranti ulas etc) >by the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies selling video games on cassette compared to 95 the year before While UK was spared from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 the market died in 1984. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron : >Hohenberg later noted that after the 1983 Christmas season, Electron deliveries had increased to meet a demand that was no longer there, with the market having "completely dried up" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research#Amstrad_acquisition_of_assets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research#Amstrad_acqu... >1985, but this offering was postponed, ostensibly due to turmoil in the microcomputer industry, with Acorn Computers undergoing refinancing, and other companies such as Sinclair's competitor Oric and distributor Prism entering receivership. Everything was crashing down and the only two winners were Amstrad (rock bottom prices and good grip on manufacturing cost) and Commodore (terrible management but great product).