RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES 1981
Sinclair ZX81
[ Words Craig Grannell ]
W hat’s this abomination? The unholy offspring of a calculator and a home PC? It actually won a Design Council award. Still, your label’s appropriate, given that its creator spent the 1970s hawking hobbyist electronics until his calculators were clobbered by more capable Japanese fare. So Clive Sinclair and his boffins pivoted to home micros, including the ZX80 and this improved follow-up… which still only had 1KB RAM, came in kit form unless you paid an extra 20 quid, and turned the display off when it had anything strenuous to do.