Back in the 80's we convinced my friend's mom that we could hack into banks over the power line using the ZX81. We wrote a little application that simulated transferring money between accounts, etc. We gave her a real fright and she started shouting that we should immediately switch it off before the police come fetch us. Was funny to us but the poor lady nearly had a heart attack. :D

I had a Timex Sinclar 1000. I got it from Montgomery Ward Catalog. It cost me $19.95 USD for the Comp. $19.95 USD for the 16K Expansion. Also another $19.99 for the Radioshack tape drive. So For $60 I had a Real computer.I loved it. For learning it was great.

I know I'm late in responding...only just seen this, and your later videos about the ZX81 series.... In this one you, you ask "who would want to run a business with this...?" Well, back in 1981, when I was a mere 20yr old, I was working a small privately owned computer shop in Banbury, Oxfordshire (England), and we sold these ZX81 computers, along with Vic-20's, and Atari 400's, and we were also a Tandy (UK distributor for Radio Shack) items... one of our regular customers was a rather eccentric gentleman who owned and ran a small health-food shop some 3 doors down from us, and was forever buying the silver-coloured thermal printer paper for the original ZX Printer that plugged into the back of the ZX81 (and later the ZX Spectrum). He was running his shop accounts using a ZX81 (with 16K RAM expansion Pak).... some commercially available software at the time was what he used; some basic spreadsheet and database programme:- it was either called Z-Calc, or ZX-Calc...can't remember now - too many years gone past!! So yeah! I knew of one rather eccentric person who was successfully (or so he told us!!) running his business accounts with a ZX-81!! Ah... good old days! :-) Thanks for these videos.... you've brought back some really old and long forgotten memories... :-)

My father bought a Timex Sinclair from a "job lot" store in Connecticut...more as a joke. Since we bought it in 1985-86 it came with the built computer, 16K expansion pack, various input wires, and four games on tape. It even had a few manuals.

a priest friend of mine ( deceased ) had one of these and gave it to a missionary so he could type his sermons on it . i remember these machines being advertised in electronic magazines of the time .

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair who passed away this week (17th September 2021). The ZX81 was the first home computer I had as a kid, but the downside was having to share the main TV with my folks who didn't like me using the TV too much.

have that same one it was my first computer 💻 got for my 14th birthday 🎂 back in 1984 still have it today😀

A friend brought me the TIMEX version of one of these that he got as a kit. He had built it right, but we never got it to work properly, the screen would freeze up. He switched over to an Atari computer that he enjoyed, while I stayed on the Commodore line (VIC, 64 and then 128). I always wondered how one of these was supposed to work. Thanks for sharing the video. After 30 years my question has been answered!

My first computer. So awesome. Thanks so much for the awesome video.

Good memories....I had this and I still have my ZX Spectrum in the attic with about 100 games.

I only subscribed to your channel a few weeks ago so I only just seen this video. I had a Sinclair +2 with the built in tape deck in 1988. Thanks for the upload.

Good review.. Here in the US, it had a tiny window where it made any economic sense at all, and on discount it was all I could afford, yet... its how I got my start and led to the living I make today. Me and a buddy still program assembly on it, and have been expanding our Sinclair collections lately. The Spectrum Next is driving a huge revival for other folks like me too.

Great video. Growing up in the UK in the early 80's was crazy , so many micro computers were coming out. Sinclair, Dragon, BBC , Acorn ,Oric. The list goes on and then you had Commodore and Atari . Great times .👍 All the best.

It was my first computer and had to wait till Christmas before I got my ram pack. Half a year on one K. Still I love it. 🙂

Boy that Timex Sinclair computer brings back memories. I bought one in the early eighties. Not many people out there remember these. I also bought an apple 2e at that time also. and had commodores too. I also got the extra 15 k memory for the sinclair. At some point I took it apart to see how it worked and it never got put together again. Eventually I joined the marines and left all that at my parents house, and never saw it again.

Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony in the background fits perfectly with the early British personal computer pioneering theme here

Although this cheap, "farty" little British computer with its annoying keyboard was never popular in the US, it at least got some American computer manufacturers to significantly drop their prices in order to compete with it, thus allowing many more ordinary Americans to purchase home computers during the 1980s.

believe it or not, there are replacement keyboard membranes available for these now 😊

It's making me crazy because you are saying Zee instead of Zed even though I'm an American

I kind of regret not asking my dad to get me the kit version of this, but he ended up getting me a Commodore 64 a year later.

I have/had the Timex Sinclair 1000.... should be the same thing. I got a few hours of fun out of it. Bought it at a yard sale for 5-10$

I love your channel. You review the most random interesting things in a very informative way. Keep up the great work.

A colored ZX81 manual. That is a thing I never had saw :) Thank you.

It's major pro was it's very low price, and thanks to that it got many young people interested in programming (making games, etc.) However I really detest the keyboard, as it makes it very difficult when typing lots of codes. The feel and longevity of a keyboard is essential for me.

The ZX80 was my very first computer gifted to me by my uncle. It was quite an experience typing in BASIC code from a handbook without knowing how it worked. I just wanted to run programs. Shame I don't know what happened to it afterwards.

That was fun to see, sure brought back memories, I remember well seeing the adds for these when they first come out. I waited a while and got a coco.

I had one when I was 17 got the kit because it was cheaper it was great fun to play with. 1K space invaders was the bench mark

My first computer was a ZX81 to which I added as peripherals: an I/O adapter that accepted the 16K Rampak piggybacked to a 32KMemopak, for a total of 48K; also a "stringy floppy" drive which loaded very small endless tape loops of 5', 10' 25' and 50' in wafer-sized cassettes of about 1.5" wide by 1" deep by 1/8" high (the tape was about 1/16" . It ran at 56,000 baud ( where the cassette recorder interface was 250 baud ). Also a 40 column thermal printer ( on white paper rolls ) instead of the ZX printer (which I also had, but because it burned the print output on aluminized paper it was expensive to run). With this system I learned "Sinclair Basic" and wrote a few simple programs, and purchased many pre-recorde programs on cassette at the time. I still have it in storage.

I did actually use mine as a door stop. But I wish I had kept it. So nostalgic. I can remember the shop I purchased it from and how much it cost. WHSmith in Canterbury Kent Uk, Price was £99 more expensive than US but still cheaper than anything else in UK at time. At the time there was nothing else to be honest. Believe it or not you could get very fast at typing the programs in after a while. Peek and Poke were the best as you could write machine code with this little beast very easily using those two key commands.

Ah, my first computer (1982). It had a decent Basic but very little great software or games. The ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum were manufactured by Timex for Sinclair at their factory in Dundee, Scotland.

i couldn't imagine using a computer with a flat membrane keyboard like that. would make me feel like i'm using a microwave rather than a computer!

I had this with the 16k expansion pack, I absolutely hated it and soon sold it and turned around and bought a CoCo 2.

I never knew about the 'hun-day' pronunciation of Hyundai. You learn something new every day!

I was tempted to buy the SInclair but I bought the Commodore Vic20 because it had color.

I can remember that Sinclair ZX81. But my first "real" computer was Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Beutiful mashine with color graphix and sound..... I have in my foggy memory, that Sinclari first makes the S80 model before ZX81 (?). Regards from Dalsbruk, Finland.

I just bought one in the box from a thrift store for $5 today. :-)

I love how old tech in some ways can be so much better than new (your tv working with pal). I never knew that you could get a pal signal to display on a ntsc tv. I suppose it helps that the pal signal is black and white to begin with. I learned something new today, Thanks. Now I'm off to watch your MC-10 video ;)

Saying ZX like 'Zee Ex' is like calling Sega 'Seega' Yeah, I stole an analogy from Lazy Game Reviews, but he has a point.

my parents had the sinclair 1000 which cost the same price but never had any acessories for it. they used a cassette deck that had mic jacks on it to be able to use tapes on it. i never played with it sadly but i wish i could get another one sometime.

I was given a Timex Sinclair 1000 back in the 90s. It suffered the same fate with the keyboard though and in my case the cable was broken to far to be salvageable. Also all of the screw posts broke off during disassembly. It ended up getting trashed.

My second computer, I still have mine. However I don’t have my ZX80 as I sold it to help buy this one.

The ZX Spectrum does have colour, only 8 true colours but there is a light/dark option so 16, the RAM (in the traditional rubber keyed versions) went up to 48K, they're great machines, I have 3, they have a much faster CPU than the commodore 64! Oh you can get replacement membranes, the new ones are UV proof so won't go brittle

I had the Sinclair Spectrum with the built in disk drive. I was addicted to it haha. I regret giving it away in 1996.

I have one of those at home and it was labeled as Timex/Sinclair brand computer and it was my first computer and it came with 3k of ram and the 16k ram expansion adapter and I had it too. I used it until the power cable broke on the inside of the computer.

Back in the 80s i had a sinclair zx81, it was my first computer, comes with a b/w tv from my dad. finally the computer was garbage.. often had problems to type in commands, some keys stopped working. i remember if the ram was almost empty, the sinclair was getting slower slower.. anyway nice to see it

Great review!. Replacement newly fabricated keyboard membranes can be bought on-line - I replaced the original one on my ZX-81 with one of the new membranes, now the keyboard will outlast the rest of the computer :-)

I've heard of the Timex selling for as low as $20 by 1983... but knowing Crazy Eddie's shady business practices, they probably did sell it for even less than that! And people did the same thing with software... they'd buy an old version of a program at a closeout sale price, just to use it to get the "competitive ugprade" discount on the new program they did want.

Great vid - didn't know sinclair sold micros there before Timex did.

I love your channel, I like HIFI but I have never really studied software development.

A lot of the modern LCD TV's support PAL standard, even ones sold in the USA, my 2007 Insignia and my 2010 Sony LCD's handle PAL RF video just fine, they switch automatically when it detects a PAL or NTSC signal.

The earlier ZX80 used no custom parts and could be upgraded to ZX81 spec. As a result, you can build your own ZX80/81 using standard off-the-shelf parts.

Our junior high school got a ZX1000 or ZX81 in 1980. We also had a TRS-80 Model I. The Sinclair computer did have a printer attached. It was a narrow thermal type on grey coloured paper, like one of the TRS-80 mobile printers of the day. Pretty useless. I guess those machines were fine for learning BASIC, but that's about it.

I like LGR, but he was wrong. Letters, words, and product names are pronounced differently in different countries. For example, in the USA, Hyundai is pronounced "hun-day", while in the UK, it's pronounced "hyoon-deye". In this case, Sinclair Research's U.S. division would clearly be using the U.S. pronounciation for their product names!

No. The Acorn Electron was never sold here. The BBC Micro was available in the USA, but very few were sold, and most of the U.S. models were shipped back to the UK, converted to European power and video standards, and used in schools there. I believe the Archimedes series was available in Canada, but I've never heard of it being sold in the USA.

That was my first computer in year 82 or 83. After that I did get Spectrum+ and its power did wreck so I did make power to it from zx-81 power. I have both in my storage :)

I imagine that the ZX81 would be quite rear over there. It was released to late to have an impact, if you had had it released a year before and the Specky in 82, it could have been quite different.

as for sound, add ons by 3rd parties were available, or even self build versions, using mainly the AY-3-8912 chip (giving it much better sound capabilities than the spectrum 😉) a 'semi clone' of the zx81, the lambda 8300/power 3000/'your computer' had an optional colour module, which i've read 'in theory' could be made to work with a zx81 but very awkward, you need to composite mod the zx81, and theres no default initialisation or commands to drive it within the zx81 rom, obviously,.... the lambda rom cannot be drop in fitted into a zx81 to make it work due to a few differences in lambda hardware, but i think 'may'/should be possible as an external rom, limiting it patching out the internal rom to below address 7680, (zx81 stores the font bitmap in its rom 7680 to 8191, lambda has it stored in an rom internal to its ula, using those addresses for the extra stuff) but then the keyboard functions/punctuation arrangement is different, so it would need an altered version of the rom to suit!! probably too much hassle overall 😁 the lambda also has limited sound capability, but i havent as yet seen any info how its done, presumably as no separate sound chip, single bit IO port....

Wow. I'm so happy I never received one of these for Christmas as a kid.

I remember Crazy Eddie selling the Timex Sinclair next to the C=64, so that people could use it to get a rebate offered by Commodore. I think the Timex cost ten bucks and the rebate was a hundred... but it was thirty years ago and hard for me to remember precisely. Anyone else remember?

Doh! Sorry I knocked the RAM expansion again!

Nice demo, but I wasn't impressed with the Sinclair back then. I remember checking out Timex Sinclair 1000 that was on display with a monitor at a department store around 1982-3. And compared to a Commodore Vic-20, C=64 and other American computers of the time, I thought the Sinclair felt too cheap and toy-like with the membaine keyboard. And the graphics and sound didn't impress me. I've since checked out Sinclair game demos and it looks like a fun computer despite it's limitations.

The ZX81 has a small but enthusiastic following in the UK; even today, geeks, retro gamers and eccentrics are developing home-grown software for it :)

I have one of those, plus thermal printer and a few games, frogger etc.

Jesus that keyboard dough

Outta try that with my Samsung LCD set I bought 4-5 years ago.

My father and I programmed on one here in Canada. It was brutal thanks to that hideous keyboard.

It can be zee or zed! Don't argue with a guy who has a spectral energy processor!

1 KB of ram! !!!!

I've always wondered what happens when you plug the power supply into a regular headphone jack, since the TS1000 power supply uses the same connector as an audio jack.

That has to be one of the cheapest computers I have ever even heard about. Not even a power switch! Were it any cheaper there would be no display of any kind.

Very nice video Kevin, thank you.

The other classic British home computer, the Amstrad CPC, was it ever sold in the United States ? According to wiki only the CPC 6128 saw the light of day in America. So i assume that to Americans it must be a pretty obscure computer

I just found mine on a shelf.

oh cool this one time at my high school i was asked with a bunch of other people in my computer class to clean out some old stuff in the basemen and we found like 150 of those things and screens for them two they all when to the recycling except for a few one went into a display cabinet at the school and two or three went home with a computer geek friend of mine

I like the explanation of the 'Zee'! Tee-Hee or perhaps Ted-Hed...

Who bought a ZX81 + a keyboard + a metalcase? For the price of these 3 items you could buy a real computer! Or two.

My first computer was the Timex Sinclair 1000, it was hard to learn but it did teach you how to program. It also was the best looking computer on the market. :-) In England the Spectrum is so popular today that a Kickstarter project designed and built a next generation ZX Spectrum called ZX Spectrum Next. This project raised over $1.7M in the first release and is already over another $1.5M in it’s second release. Funny there wasn’t the same community support for a next generation Commodore C64, why is that if that was the better computer?

Thta's a ribbon connector of sorts, isn't it? Couldn't that keyboard connector be replaced?

So you should be able to debug the onboard memory by plugging in the expansion?

there is nothing new really in computer input tool that was wad around 35 years ago chiplet keyboards to save and money, touch membrain keyboards for touch secitive controls, only a lot of refinment like chiplet keay on most laptops theses days and plastic or class touch screen. on modern microwaves sill uss soft membrain touch keypad which feel like to press the pad controls pushing finger totally right though the control panel

I had one,I also had a vic20,the vic20 was a lot faster.........Apple was just coming onto the scene..........Ah,the memories!!!

What about the Timex Sinclair 1000?

Commodore 64 , while loadimg cassette, makes desktop disappear. Not with the vic20, strangely

so strange to see a UK home computer in the USA, i thought that the USA back in the days shunde stuff from the UK. if your intrestered i have "bits" of ZX48 the more commonly known sinclair, i've no use for them i just simple save them from the rubbish

Wasn’t this computers onscreen weirdness when you load a cassette game the origin of the raster bars.

a friend of mine ran a travel business with that . he had all that and a okidata printer . he kater gave it to a misinary who wrote his sermons on it as did my friend . my rriend was a ordained priest in the episcopal church. ( now deceaced ) eggscllent video

There is a Timex Sinclair on shopgoodwill.com right now.

Well you're American, so you can call it "zee" if you want to :-) Not a bad little computer... this seems like something you'd buy if you were interested in computers, but not sure if you're ready for a big system. Also, cool little trick, connecting a PAL unit to a NTSC TV. If I ever come across a PAL computer, VCR, etc, I'll know what to do, because I have an appropriate TV. Nice CD too. I wonder who introduced you to his music ;-)

keep up with then video's man

Thank you

but its pronounced 'zed'x-81' because its british

Do you have any arcorn computers?

Hey, vwestlife, you still running that radio station of yours? :)

THe Vic 20 was better in every concievable way to learn basic on.

had one

Never heard anyone call on eof those a ZEE x81. You've obviously been told several thousand times it's not called that! Funny stuff. Nice bit of kit though. Like your vids

I dont want to be some kind of ass... but, it's a b/w signal only, so the difference is not really _between NTSC and PAL_, rather between the 525 lines/60Hz standard in the USA and the 625 lines/50Hz standard in Europe.

Hearing you say ZEE X does sound a bit wrong, probably because I always thought it was sold in the USA as the Timex Sinclair 1000. And isn't the ZX81 still a good looking machine, regardless of what you have to say about its (lack of) capabilities? Seriously, somebody get the moulds for the ZX81, the maker community would be all over this sticking every model of devboard they could lay their hands on! Didn't Timex release a version of the ZX Spectrum? So in the UK, computers came with entire BASIC courses, in the US you get a slim pamphlet. Either they didn't expect Americans to do anything with the unit, or they expected Americans to pay for the material we Brits got in the manual with the computer. Which is odd, as I remember getting the TRS-80 Color Computer as a kid (in the UK where we were could have got even the Dragon 32 or 64 which was a better version of the CoCo) and the manual was a gigantic tome with a full course in BASIC... as was the manual for the Commodore 64C that I got in 1989. Even the Amiga 1200 that I got in 1992, while it didn't have any dialect of BASIC (or indeed any programming language) it had a technical reference which carried pinouts of all the ports on it. Now you get a slip of A3 with two paragraphs in 72 languages (something Brexit won't change) and a diagram. Also, newer American TVs can't adapt to 625 line PAL? I have a CRT TV from the 1990s that can deal with PAL (obviously) and NTSC without rolling and in full colour (assuming the Raspberry Pi outputs proper NTSC by default over its composite jack) Why is it European TVs with SCART sockets can accept NTSC but an American TV can't even accept PAL (let alone SECAM)? Not that I expect a European TV to decode ATSC digital TV. Isn't the Micro Color Computer a size reduced Color Computer?

all zx81s (and zx80s) are adaptable for 50 or 60 hz frame rate, add a resistor to a uk 50hz model to turn it to 'ntsc' standard 60hz,, and remove resistor on a us one for 50hz! unfortunately with the faster scan, and interrupt rate, it 'computes' slower!

Why does it have a headphone and microphone jack if it doesn’t have audio?