Search found 29 matches

by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:18 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

So can we move on from talking about Amstrad... Mark It's inherently linked though because you have the one example of a company that made the right decisions, that made the right calls. We can sit here pontificating but throughout this period all you have to do is look at 1 - Company X who later w...
by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:28 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

@chinnyhill10, so tell us who you know of that has managed at least three good inventions say within the last 50 years or so. Mark Sinclair is as much a person as a brand name. Apple seem to be doing nicely as are Dyson. Both are run by the same kind of 'visionaries' that Sinclair was (or at least ...
by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:24 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

Sinclair found itself in a situation where it had a huge amount of money tied up in stock piled up in warehouses, with not enough money coming in to pay the large bills that were becoming due. Before the slowdown, this had not been a problem, as cash from sales always meant that there was money in ...
by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:13 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

Where is Commodore today? Where is Atari? Where is Amstrad? Amstrad the only company that continued to produce electronics and Alan Sugar sold up at a time of his choosing (IIRC his 60th birthday) and eventually it was all merged into Sky. Today they are now a division of Sky working a few doors do...
by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:07 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

If Sir Clive Sinclair hadn't existed, would the British home computing scene in the 1980s be a straight-up fight between Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC users? I'm sure it'd have been a bit more nuanced than that of course, but I do wonder if some of the 'second division' 8-bits would have had more vi...
by chinnyhill10
Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:04 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?
Replies: 51
Views: 11042

Re: Clive Sinclair: hero or zero?

At the time of the launch of the ZX Spectrum, all video monitors and TVs were CRT technology. LCDs were only used in watches, clocks, calculators, handheld computers, handheld game machines and some expensive portable computers. So a low cost portable CRT may have appeared to be a good idea. He was...
by chinnyhill10
Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:50 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

I didn't knew about Levy's involvement with Enterprise machine. Enterprise was technically a good machine, yet it turned out to be a commercial failure. Maker your own conclusions but for me it speaks about business skills of guys in charge. And now the history repeats. It arrived at a similar time...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:13 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

Levy was at it in the 80s too. The Register article on the mismanaged development and launch of the Elan Enterprise is a great read. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/24/elan_flan_enterprise_micro_is_30_years_old/ I'd forgotten the link to the Enterprise. A product so late it missed the boat to...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:49 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

The QL did turn up though. I have a rather nice example sitting in it's original box next to me. Innovation is a risk, and that's probably why he played poker in later life, but I for one am pleased he took those risks. Yes it did but look at the mess. Delays, broken promises, dongles on the back t...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:58 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

As the home computer market took off, Sugar then saw a market he could make money from. Hence entered the home computer market some years after the ZX Spectrum had been launched I have a nasty feeling there is still a lot of the story that we still don't know. When the original team split up, is wh...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:44 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

Imagine where he'd be if he just shrugged his prejudices and realised that the Spectrum was first and foremost a games machine. If he embraced all that, invested more into it (like Alan Sugar did when he got his mitts on the Sinclair range), he'd could swim in a reservoir of notes and coins like Sc...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:22 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

PeterJ wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:03 pm I won't ever be able to see anything bad about Sir Clive!
And this is why RCL made sure he was on-board. The friendly uncle image. Not the man who used to promise stuff that didn't exist and caused his company to go bust by spending all the profits on projects that went nowhere.
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:18 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

I have to say I am surprised that Sir Clive has not stepped in sooner (or his son on his behalf). To be quite blunt, Sir Clive Sinclair is not the hero of retrogaming that some make him out to be. He's really stubborn, HATES the fact that Spectrum was used for gaming and well, let's be honest, deci...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:12 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

I never backed it because there were always cheaper alternatives to the ZX Vega+, and if you've watched ChinnyVision, there's one of a cheap Android gaming tablet that doesn't just emulate the Spectrum, it does just about every system you could expect from the emulation scene these days. And that's...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:06 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

There you go then. 16 by Jonathan Cauldwell, 2 by Visions Software Factory. And on that point, I'm saddened by the conduct of some so-called journalists and supposedly independent commentators/podcasters. I'm not here to sling mud at particular people, and I certainly won't name names, but there ar...
by chinnyhill10
Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:58 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: ZX Vega+ Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 35710

Re: ZX Vega+ Discussion

Being careful here. Mods, I won't be offended if you scissor any or all of this! What is the point of this video? The users know there are no consoles, Indiegogo know there are no consoles. How come this video surfaces just after the adjourned board meeting? We know Clive has a proxy at these things...
by chinnyhill10
Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:43 pm
Forum: Other Retro Stuff
Topic: BBC micro differences and similarities
Replies: 33
Views: 8789

Re: BBC micro differences and similarities

I rescued my BBC Master from the Physics department of my 6th form college in 1995. Was minutes from going into a skip. I've only JUST got the final bits of dried chewing gum out of one of the expansion cartridge connectors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86s8cWfRso
by chinnyhill10
Sun May 27, 2018 11:15 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Decor Wreckers by Scorpio Software
Replies: 5
Views: 1527

Re: Decor Wreckers by Scorpio Software

I wouldn't feel swindled if I paid 3 spond for it these days, £1.99 was harder to come by BITD so I probably would have suffered buyer's regret in 1984. Got a video out of it and came out of the shop with something. But it ain't great. There's a self published title I got at the same time I need to...
by chinnyhill10
Tue May 08, 2018 12:43 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Brainache by Codemasters
Replies: 16
Views: 3828

Re: Brainache by Codemasters

PeteProdge wrote: Sun May 06, 2018 8:08 am
RMartins wrote: Sat May 05, 2018 11:01 pm From which game, is the character that seems to be Chinny Vision profile photo (on youtube) ?
Zub.
And it's Zub (or Zob as he was originally called until the Pickfords and Mastetronic found out that was a rude word in France) taken direct from an Amstrad CTM 644 monitor.
by chinnyhill10
Tue May 08, 2018 12:41 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Brainache by Codemasters
Replies: 16
Views: 3828

Re: Brainache by Codemasters

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 7:03 am I didn't knew this game.

It's got a short but interesting map:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/pub/sin ... inache.png
It's lovely to see it like that. All drawn by a school kid as well. Nice layout of the mine as you go down.
by chinnyhill10
Sat May 05, 2018 9:11 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Brainache by Codemasters
Replies: 16
Views: 3828

Re: Brainache by Codemasters

crash gave it about 30% and YS 5/10 which is probably why i didnt buy it back then Oddly harsh considering the price point and how well it stacks up against other budget releases at the time. I was trying to think of other games where you can climb the scenery in a similar way and the one that spri...
by chinnyhill10
Sat May 05, 2018 9:09 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Brainache by Codemasters
Replies: 16
Views: 3828

Re: Brainache by Codemasters

At full price Brainache would have been a rip-off, but was not bad for £1,99 (or Lit 5.000 as it was priced here). The large colored scrolling area, as Ast pointed, is a surprising novelty. Yes but you are looking at a difference between 1985 and 1987. In 1985 'full price' could have meant £5.95 de...
by chinnyhill10
Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:27 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: The rise and fall of Sinclair User
Replies: 11
Views: 3734

Re: The rise and fall of Sinclair User

1990's era of SU was grubby and horrible. Nasty paper (like the toilet paper at school), shoddy reviews (64% to Count Duckula 2!). Even the photos of the team members each month looked grubby. Looked as if they were shot on a cheap 35mm camera from Boots whereas YS always had nice photos which even ...
by chinnyhill10
Fri Nov 17, 2017 12:13 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: +3 was too expensive?
Replies: 11
Views: 3600

Re: +3 was too expensive?

Think the +3 was £249 when first released, which sailed a bit too close to A500 territory in my view. £199 would have been a nice initial price point, I agree. Amiga 500 was £499 at the time the +3 was released and had no software base. +3 was only at the higher price point for its first Christmas ...
by chinnyhill10
Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:45 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: +3 was too expensive?
Replies: 11
Views: 3600

Re: +3 was too expensive?

https://archive.org/stream/sinclair-user-magazine-082/SinclairUser_082_Jan_1989#page/n65/mode/2up Does the addition of a disc drive instead of casette really need an extra 100 quid? and this was in 1989 when the Megadrive was out for about the same price :D The +3 was NOT £100 more. What you are lo...