My programming carrier started at the tender age of ten when my parents smuggled a ZX Spectrum in 1985... good old days behind the Iron Curtain. As weird as the eighties were in Hungary, some of it were beneficial to me: in 1987, I attended a Z80 assembly course in one of the community centers every Sunday. From the second weekend on, it became a one on one education because all the other kids fled. But, because of how those years went, they didn't cancel. I wonder to this day whether he would have done the course to the empty room if I hadn't been there. Wouldn't have surprised me!
My first computer was a ZX Spectrum my uncle passed on to myself and my brother in the late 80s. The games took a ton of time to load from cassette, but some of them were great fun. My fondest memory is playing Silkworm in co-op with my brother. I always thought the Sinclair machines looked cool too, they had a certain mystique I can't put my finger on.<p>Personal anecdote aside, it's safe to say that without the work of Rick Dickinson and his colleagues at Sinclair Research the UK computing industry would have been much slower to take off. The ZX Spectrum in particular was hugely popular in the UK (alongside its main rival the C64), and did more to push forward the UK computing industry than any other computer I can think of (and I say that as an Amiga fan). Even with the passing of Mr Dickinson his legacy lives on.
My 34-year old ZX Spectrum still looks and runs like new!<p>Only after reading this news did I remember how much its external design and looks excited me and helped develop a deep interest in computers at a young age. I remember how its compact black form factor and silent keys made me want to switch it on three or four times every day and just type something or play something. Back then, to my young mind, it wasn't a mere tool to do something; it was much more - it was itself a source of satisfaction.<p>Although we had more powerful, more functional Apple IIcs and IBM PCs, their beige bulky looks never really had the same effect on me.<p>I had never heard of Rick Dickinson before but thank you very much for the beautiful ZX Spectrum.
This makes me rather sad, even though this is the first time I've heard of the guy.<p>My first computer was a ZX Spectrum, bought by my father shortly after he was permitted access to us again.<p>You see, my parents divorced a couple of years before the ZX81 was released, and my brother and I were constantly used as pawns by our (emotionally and physically abusive) mother against our father. She eventually relented and allowed him access, and so the ZX Spectrum he bought shortly after we moved back into his life became a symbol of the serious improvement in our lives.<p>I will always be grateful for those times.
"He was responsible for the boxy look of the ZX80 and ZX81 and the Bauhaus-inspired appearance of the Spectrum."<p>I'm a bit too young and outside the UK to have had any personal experience with the Sinclair Spectrum computers, but I do love watching YouTube videos about old PCs and technology - Ashens, Techmoan, and LGR are my favourites. And I've always that specifically the design of the ZX Spectrum was great.<p>I'm an instant photography fan thinking of getting a digital one to complement my traditional instant camera, and I really wish the Polaroid Z2300 (which I briefly owned) had better functionality as I love the design - the black one almost looks like a a ZX Spectrum in camera form. The Snap Touch, which I intend to buy, is close, but more rounded. I'm not sure whether there was any design influence or if the timeline on that would even make sense, but the point is that some elements of that design can even look good today - specifically I notice the angled corners and high-contract rainbow on black colouring:<p>Polaroid: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/qwrjL7V.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/qwrjL7V.jpg</a><p>Sinclair: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/hKVtpBu.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/hKVtpBu.jpg</a>
The ZX Spectrum 48k was the first computer that was 'mine'. We had a 'family' TI 99/4A before, and my brother had a C64, but the old Speccy was my favorite. I loved the 'sanity' of the Z80 instruction set way more than the 6502. I wasn't too keen on the rubber keyboard though, but still, good times were had.<p>Notible software: I
had a copy of 'Hisoft Pascal'[1] for programming, and my favorite game (of all time?) was Manic Miner [2] and the only hardware extention I had was a 'SpecDrum' [3] for music.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiSoft_Systems" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiSoft_Systems</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.crashonline.org.uk/27/specdrum.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.crashonline.org.uk/27/specdrum.htm</a>
Gosh - I was just reading about Rick the other day. He's interviewed in Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium, which I recently bought. The industrial design of the Spectrum was very interesting and, honestly, it's not an unattractive looking device. Sad to hear this news.<p>I never owned the original Bauhaus-ish rubber key version, although it was the first computer I played anything on (Jetpac, Manic Miner, Jumping Jack) because my cousin had one. Instead, a couple of years later my mum bought me my first computer: the plastic-keyed Spectrum 48K+.<p>Again, quite a nice looking device. I nearly picked up one, along with a box of tapes big enough that I'd have struggled to carry it, at the same retro event where I bought the above book. The only reason I didn't is that because although I loved my Spectrum it did break down <i>all the time</i> and I didn't particularly want to relive that part of the experience.
For those of you how would like to indulge in a little nostalgia at this sad time: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28</a>
Early in my career I was basically a Z80 assembly specialist and I think owning a Spectrum and buying a book that was an annotated disassembly helped pique my interest. I distinctly remember being very clueless when I first got the book - I was confused at the very first line of code - it was XOR A and I didn't immediately understand this trick to clear the accumulator in one byte not the two that MOV A,0 needed.
As I a small kid, I remember my grandmother gave me her ZX Spectrum, and my father helped set it up with a tape recorder so we I could make copies of games, and one of his friends gave me a book of programs you could write, and my neighbour's teenage son introduced me to some of the 'good' games (I was too young to be a discerning gamer), and other kids my age would come round to play it. That's a lot of inter-generational fun from this little computer. Sometimes also we just used it as a prop in make-believe adventures.
One of his last jobs was the Spectrum Next, the Spectrum for our time. <a href="https://www.specnext.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.specnext.com</a>
In the US, the Sinclair computers were marketed under the Timex Sinclair name [1]. One of these, a TS2068 color model, became my first computer on which I used a Basic compiler to program Conway's Game of Life at unprecedented (for me) speeds.<p>I just sold my TS on eBay for just under the price I bought it for in 1983.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair</a>
I have very fond memories of fiddling with the Z80 and the Spectrum, when I was 12-13. I remember typing in code from a book called “What you can do with 1k of memory” that’s how much you had with the Z80. Sinclair keys were prone to popping outandcould be used as erasers! The good times! RIP.
Very sad news, one of the companies I worked at (with a few ex-Sinclair folks) used Rick for our case designs in the early 90s.<p>Always seemed like a nice guy to me and I still remember the very nice BMW (early M6 IIRC) he was driving at the time.
My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum clone called HC-85 (presumably an acronym for Home Computer). These were very popular in Romania in during the last years of the Communist regime.<p>I remember seeing a Sinclair Spectrum and thinking how much more elegant it looked (the HC-85 was bulky and rather ugly).
Nine hours ago a post was made on HN about a bloke who designed a computer with a Z80 processor, a rubbish rubbery keyboard and came in 16Kb or 48Kb of RAM variants.<p>That post was about his passing.<p>Maybe people will notice later.
The title of this article is odd. It's almost as if it implies the US was somehow responsible for his death.<p>He was traveling to the US for cancer treatments and suddenly died between treatments while in the US. There's no indication as to what killed him, you would presume the cancer but the title of the article would imply it was by virtue of the fact that he was on US soil.<p>Did I miss something?