THEY SOLD A MILLION In spite of the time and cost constraints, and some bugs that would have to be addressed later, the first production models of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum were prepared for launch, ready to be revealed at the 1982 Earl’s Court Computer Fair, which was heaving with anticipation “Throughout the morning, people were four deep
around the stand,” remembers Altwasser of the Spectrum’s unveiling. “Clive had made a statement, something to the effect that the first thousand customers to pay with cash - which was always good in business - would get a Spectrum within a certain limited timeframe... I’m not sure how accurately that was specified. “And I remember, it must have been late morning,
we were gasping for a cup of tea and Steve and I walked out and we’re going up this very wide staircase behind a couple of school boys, listening to them. They were talking about the Spectrum and they were going through every fine detail of the hardware that we’d laboured over for nearly a year. They’d only heard about it maybe an hour or two earlier and they understood and were enthused about every detail. That was rewarding. That was surprising.” Despite the immediate and lasting success of the ZX
Spectrum - it would sell more than five million units until it was discontinued in 1992, Vickers and Altwasser did not stay long in the employ of Sinclair Research and in fact within a few months had set themselves up in direct competition, releasing the unsuccessful Jupiter Ace computer towards the end of 1982. In Sinclair User magazine that year, Altwasser said “We had plenty of freedom working at Sinclair, but at the end of the day the company was run by one man and if a decision needed to be made, there was one man who took that decision.” In the same interview Steve Vickers was a little less guarded: “There is a definition of a deadline; that it is the date before which something should not be completed, but that is not the case with Sinclair.”
SCRATCH DAY Forty years on, after long careers in industry and academia, Altwasser and Vickers are clearly very proud of their contributions to early home computer industry and to Sinclair’s in particular, “When you look back, despite being just a games
machine, the Spectrum was hugely educational,” says Vickers. “One of the hardest things to teach is that programming is a creative activity. It’s not just about knowing the rules for the programming language and learning how to avoid compiler errors and all that stuff. It’s about how to have enough control over the computer so that you can get it to do creative things. And that’s what
people were learning with the Spectrum, which is the basis of the games that came out. “ Altwasser adds: “I’ve
worked in industry, electronics and software management and I’ve seen and recruited a huge number of people who cut their teeth as teenagers on the ZX Spectrum and have gone on to very rewarding careers. There was this virtual circle whereby because of the price point, lots of people bought it. Lots of people wrote games, and because they were good games, more people bought them.” While he understands the appeal of the Spectrum at the
height of it’s 80s success, Altwasser is at a loss to explain how it’s popularity has been sustained for more than forty years, with games still released in their hundreds each year. “I’m completely surprised and shocked,” he says. “Do I understand it? I don’t, I’m sorry.” Altwasser is more comfortable talking about the
Spectrum’s legacy, but rather than mention the obvious successor, the Raspberry Pi, he suggests Scratch as the successor to the Spectrum, in that like Sinclair’s machine, the popular MIT-created programming language succeeds in making learning accessible. “I’ve seen young people, five, six years old, become
completely addicted and I stand in awe of the MIT people that develop Scratch. If anybody of any age can enter a few keys and see something useful or interesting happening on the screen within a few minutes, before they know it they’re on the road to a career in computing.” Scratch will be forty on 15th May 2047. If I’m not in
a fit state to mark the celebration, can one of you please remind my successor of their obligation? Thanks.
“One of the hardest things to teach is that programming is a creative activity. It’s not just about knowing the rules for the programming language. It’s about how to have enough control over the computer so that you can get it to do creative things. That’s what people were
learning with the Spectrum” Steve Vickers
June 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 73
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