Happy birthday Uncle Clive..!

[Morkin]

81 today apparently...

What's everyone going to do to celebrate?

...I'm going to have another go at "Manic f*****g Miner".

[akeley]

I didn't know, but have finally decided to play one of my Holy Grail games, The Mystery Of Arkham Manor, around midnight yesterday - first time in 30+ years. Can't be a coincidence

[bluespikey]

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

[SteveSmith]

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

It would be good to hear his opinion on anything Spectrum-related. It's a real shame he doesn't do more interviews.

[FFoulkes]

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

Well, it wouldn't be the QL or the C5, would it? The Spectrum made him live a wealthy life, so if I were him, I wouldn't be dismissive about it.
Also, he wanted the Spectrum to be an educational device to introduce young people to the world of computing (not necessarily to be a gaming platform). And I have to say, it does this job (education) really well. It's such a nice and simple, comprehendable system.
Try to understand bank switching (on the C64) or ANTIC display lists (on the Atari 8-bit), then you know what I mean.
I could even recommend to use the Spectrum's system to introduce young people to computers today. Much better than passing a smartphone to a kid and letting it just click here and there, leaving it without a clue what computers are all about.

So, yeah, happy birthday, dear Uncle Clive!

[toot_toot]

I wonder if "a day in the life" of Clive Sinclair is still like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwd6isYu2A


No wonder the Sinclair company struggled if it was that difficult to do a days work back then, even his house was filled with things out to get him!

[Alessandro]

Happy birhtday to our common uncle!

[p13z]

Also, he wanted the Spectrum to be an educational device to introduce young people to the world of computing (not necessarily to be a gaming platform). And I have to say, it does this job (education) really well. It's such a nice and simple, comprehendable system.

It didn't win the BBC contract, and Clive was allegedly unhappy that his computer became a games machine.
But the Speccy ended up having a huge educational impact, just in unexpected ways, via games / bedroom coding. The legacy lives on - Clive's kids from the UK punched hugely above their weight as video games developed into a multi billion dollar worldwide industry.

It would be good to hear his opinion on anything Spectrum-related. It's a real shame he doesn't do more interviews.

He seemed quite happy, and surprised, to hear how popular the Spectrum still is, and how influential it is considered.
Going from a couple of mini-interviews he did for the Spectrum Vega crowdfunding hype machine a few years back.

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

In terms of computers/electronics I think I remember he was most proud of the ZX81 - in terms of minimal/optimised design, from some random interview.

[Bubu]

I wonder if "a day in the life" of Clive Sinclair is still like this?

This game is absolutely addictive, one of my best, I'm going to play it right now to celebrate my uncle's birthday!

[R-Tape]

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

^This^

But even more, I'd love to see him on twitch playing spectrum games (not kidding!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE CLIVE!!

[Daren]

Also the 60th anniversary of Sinclair Radionics: https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/30/ ... ionics_60/

[R-Tape]

I could even recommend to use the Spectrum's system to introduce young people to computers today. Much better than passing a smartphone to a kid and letting it just click here and there, leaving it without a clue what computers are all about.

I do hope that kids today that end up in IT do have some appreciation of the nuts and bolts of computers (though I've no idea either way), but love that the speccy was and still is close enough to said nuts and bolts to allow (or force!) the hoi polloi to have an understanding. It's why it's so great to see the Bearsden Primary project being so successful. If Clive is aware of that it should make his heart sing.

[toot_toot]

I'd love for someone to interview him and see what he considers his biggest success was. It wouldn't totally surprise me if he's dismissive of the Spectrum.

^This^

But even more, I'd love to see him on twitch playing spectrum games (not kidding!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE CLIVE!!

I was watching a video interview of him on the BBC (unfortunately it was for the original Vega launch), he openly says he never played any games on the Spectrum and it always felt, even back in the 80s, that he wasn’t interested in people playing games on the Spectrum. The QL always felt like it was aimed at the market Clive Sinclair truly wanted - the business market.

He also mentioned in the interview he hardly used technology and thought the colouring power was wasted on frivolous things like social media.

[akeley]

I'm quite content with the radio silence. Never meet your heroes, etc...