When I was a kid, my parents sat through a whole day of timeshare sales pitches in order to score a “free home computer”. They came home with the Timex-Sinclair 1000. We goofed around with the dinky thing for a couple of hours and never touched it again. Thus, we entered the glamorous world of home computing.

“Your coffee maker probably has more computing power.” Well great, Ill be taking advantage of its timer and coffee making powers to fly myself too the moon.

"And due to their wedge-like shape, they make an excellent doorstop."

You could also buy the ZX80 in the US as a kit. It was my very first computer. I think the price for the kit version was $149. I still own mine and it still works flawlessly to this day.

remember reading about these in popular electronics back in the day. a priest friend had one at one time. he gave it to a missionary person to write his sermons with . nice vid .

Clive Sinclair was a genius, problem was he was years ahead with his ideas.

"the print equivalent of click-bait" SAVAGE

Whew. You had me there for a second with that Sinclair joke.

I had heard about them but the first time I saw a Sinclair 1000 was when I bought my first Amiga computer. I was walking out the door and told the sales guy "oh someone dropped their computer" Sales guy replied "That's just our door stop" they literally did make a door stop from it.

When we had our TS1000 we only had a black and white tv to use it on so I had no idea it could only do black and white until the 8-bit guy did a special on it. It still looks cool and makes a great display piece.

This is such a great video! I had a TS1000 in the early '80's! My uncle also gave me a number of related magazines that included gaming programs to use on it!

One of the best videos yet! Thanks! :)

Nice information. I heard about this computer before but I didn’t know specific things about it.

To a kid with no money, these were magic boxes.

I remember my Dad had one in attic back in the day. I never did see it actually do anything but take up space. 😆

Loved the little dig at the Sinclair broadcasting company ;) cheeky!

I enjoy your videos very much

I remember reading an overview of the long defunct 'BIG K' magazine where it was noted they used a review sample of an 8-bit computer as a doorstop... Not sure which one it was...

Wish I still had mine. Thanks for the memories.

I remember trying a Timex-Sinclair 1000 in the early 80's, maybe at a Sears. But I thought it was cheap and very toy-like compared to other USA computers. Now I've looked at videos and games of it from the UK and it was a impressive little PC. And the skills game designers had over there were very impressive at getting around the limitations of the hardware.

I had a TC2048 from Timex Portugal - They were sold also in Poland. It was a gift from my parents in the '86 Christmas, and the very first game to be played on it was Turbo Esprit. One concept that could be used again in today's computers is to build an entire PC on a keyboard. It would be very useful! It already exists but it is not very known.

Two things that ruined the game and basic programming experience. One was the output to TV was very unstable, the other was the keyboard.

1980: Computer deliberately broken in kit form but buildable 2024: Completely broken, needs updates often

I once succeeded in hard wireing a push button key board to a Timex Sinclair. Making the labels for the buttons was half the work!

Nice Doorstops

My very firrst computer... with a 16k ram pack, and a year later a proper clicky keybord, I learnt early basic, happy days..

You have a great channel

"Timex TC2068 A PAL variant of the TS2068 introduced to European markets not controlled by Sinclair Research by Timex Portugal. Visually identical to the TS2068 (apart from the "PAL" flash on the lower left of the machine) the TC2068 is internally quite different from the US-developed machine. The significant differences between these designs are the introduction of the ZX Spectrum compatible edge connector from the TC2048, an "official" ZX Spectrum emulation cartridge - a TC2048 ROM, a PAL video output, and extensions to Sinclair BASIC that provide access to the additional screen modes available on the machine from within BASIC programs. The enhanced BASIC is known as BASIC 64. Versions of the TC2068 were exported to Poland (with black cases, rather than silver), and imported to the US by Zebra Systems directly." Source: www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/hardware.htm "TMX Portugal also made a ZX Spectrum Emulator Cartridge (TC2068/TS2068) This was standard equipment and came with the TC2068 computer when purchased. A version planned for the TS computer by Timex, but never produced, was to be called the Chameleon. To use the TMX Emulator with the TS2068 you had to find one (they were not sold in the US) and then enlarge the dock port opening slightly by cutting away some of the plastic case so the cartridge would fit into the port (the TS2068 cartridges were much thinner, so the opening was not as tall). Third party suppliers in the US made various versions of the Spectrum ROM, mostly on dock port cartridges, that could be used to run Spectrum programs on the TS2068. Some of them were: EMU-1, EMU-2, and Omni-EMU. There was also a version installed directly on the TS2068 motherboard called the Romswitch, a version for the LarKen LKDOS cartridge (see the LarKen section below), and others." Source: www.worldofspectrum.org/timex/ Unipolbrit Komputer 2086: timex.comboios.info/ts2086.html

We should all have to mail order KZfaq videos on vhs, watch, send back in vhs with written comments. Wait till comments are compiled, have to order the comments and the video again so you can read the comments and watch the video and write comments back in. At this point if you want to continue, you can just send in further comments and wait for more compilment. Keep the vhs to the side. By the time this system really gets moving everyone in the world would have a great job and plenty of KZfaq videos still.

Nicely engraved styrofoam there, very classy

Found memories for me had the zx80, zx81 then had the spectrum , spectrum 128 then jumped upto Amiga 500 until I got a PC .I'm in the UK . sad when he sold it all to amstrad

I'll have to juxtapose: "Nothing so simple was ever so smart!" I live not far from VWestlife...we should compare notes on the old TS1000.

Awesomeness! Vintage classic computers! 😁.

great video...i wish you would show the demo tape for the 1500 .i really enjoy these computers regardless of what pepole think. ..i think i like hardware better than games sometimes....

i've always been interested in the sinclair zx81, and i've always seen this type of channel as the one to do a video on it. thank you! edit: also, that joke at the beginning LMAO

I've got a Sinclair 1000 but I've never been able to get a stable picture out of it over RF. Maybe all of my TVs are too new. Probably needs a composite mod.

I have like three of these damn things!

The sinclair c7 was a sort of robot cottage, the sinclair c8 was a type of liquid sausage, the sinclair c9 was his worst idea to date, it was a bee in a folder he slipped under your gate.

13 years ago, my high school used a Mac Classic as a doorstop. Now I feel bad about not putting that poor Mac out of its misery.

I'm playing Battlefield 5 on my Texas 1000 using an emulator. The graphics settings have to be turned down to 1 bit and it can only display 1 single pixel on the screen per second, but it is playable. It takes over five months to load the game from cassette. 🤓

I still have my ZX81 with the optional RAM module.

Could you not download MP3 copies of Spectrum software today and play them out through a desktop or laptop computer to the Spectrums cassette audio input? To be honest I haven't looked but I am sure I have seen them before. Would save buying those expensive cassettes.

Great review, thanks ! I own all of them (I have many doors in my house), except for the ZX80 really hard to find. You can improve a lot (a lot) the image on the ZX81-Timex 1000, Timex 1500 by replacing the TV modulator with a video chip. It is quite simple and not expensive, you get a nice and clear image and you can plug your Sinclair computer on a modern TV/monitor. I was doing the modification and selling them on Ebay USA a few years ago, I sold quite a lot of them, giving theses computers a second life. :o)

Fun, I have one of those! I couldn't get it to work though, because I don't have one of the RF box things in order to plug it in.

The 1500 was head of it's time. It was future proofed with a Facebook Poke button.

Don't forget the long U sound when you say the word 'popular' VWestlife. The way you pronounce it makes me think of the poplar genus of tree species! ;-)

So are you opening the Sinclair museum some time soon?

learning computer history on this channel:)

Timex was my first computer. I was able to scroll a sentence across my TV screen. That’s about it. I think I had the first model, smaller than these.

I think Sinclair could have still been around today if he hadn't forced his computers to be so, erm, "unique", yeah they had a nice compact design, which for average british homes being so tiny was a boon when it came to putting the thing away, but, I think Sinclair just cheaped out too much... :\

I'd love to see an actual doorstop in the shape of a ZX Spectrum.

I never knew about this. I only knew about a device called Franklin, it was a talking educational product that would teach spelling and math, then it was Vtech.

Oh man. That opening joke. Har har har

Do the Timex machines still run in 50 Hz video output?

i just got the timex & frogger on tape ❤

The ZX81 and 1000 had an interesting design flaw, it only showed up when you used the memory module. The connection for the edge card connector was not very good, and if you where using the memory module it would looose connection (this could be caused by even just typing on the computer) the machine would crash and you would lose everything. A common "Fix" was to take a small piece of wood and glue it to the computer case and to the memory module filling the gap at the top and providing support.

The tech book that they put out for the Spectrum ULA is actually pretty good. Random fact.

Got a few models of Sinclair

I would Love to see one make a call to a BBS or computer allowing the Use of a Text Browser . :) QC

16K is quite a lot, they had the 1k version for add-on, which would be the max amount of upgrade on many.

It's fun to watch the videos about the prehistoric computers, but I never want to get one and try it out.

Do you still have the ts2068?

More 1970s computers, in a way. The original ZX80 was designed in the 1970s, with a CPU from 1976.

I had some.sort of a Times Sincliar but it was much smaller then your 1000 ,it work with a cassette player ,I got one on sale for 19.99,if anyone remembers this one.

There was a competitor with a white version, only the keyboard size with the same key layout and I can not remember the name...

do a video on the midland er210 radio

Cool!

Last week I was considering buying a ZX81 with 16K mem expansion and no power or cables for $40. Then I saw a few videos showing the software. Slow as molasses and I would have had to spend $60 or $70 for the power and cables. These things regularly sell on eBay for $120 to $150 dollars with $70 shipping. Some deal.

Isn’t the Trs 80 model 100 considered a tiny computer for its time?

Great video did you know that zenith made computers too.

Even the russians had thier clone of zx spectrum .....i have one of them produced in 1993

Heh, do you have any Sinclair owned TV or radio stations in your area? Albany does sadly (WRGB, WCWN and IIRC a few radio stations)

Chalk it up to bad timing, I suppose. Sinclair might have performed better here in the US had the VIC-20, Atari 400, and TI-99 not released so soon afterward. Hindsight is 20-20, of course. In another reality where the ZX81 and Spectrum proper had gained success here, the demand of an additional overseas market might have forced Sinclair to sooner introduce a proper keyboard on these things and maybe rethink the design of the ill-fated QL.

Doorstop! Yes, yes indeed.

i live in nashua new hampshire what the fuck i never knew of this. i wanna find out where they were based out of, got any more info on it? id totally investigate this.

a priest friend of mine ( now deceased ) used his to run his business. he later gave his to a missionary for him to write his sermons .

I doubt they had a comfortable keyboard. But they are kinda interesting.

New car video when????

wonder how long until this youtuber gets his first sinclear c1 heh

These are great asmr videos.

Commodore was so confident but barely lasted 10 years after that ad.

9:38 Heck, even my HP 12C financial calculator has more computing power than those machines.

A computer with a rub out button, it foresaw pornhub . Had a spectrum myself, it was crap in many ways but it was all we had

me with a girlfriend from NZ... I just see ZX 81 and don't know the difference anymore. also, I'm in Nashua NH... don't look for me.

I used to like peeking and poking but I am a bit too old for that now.

I might be going out on a limb here and saying you might not be a fan of these.

"speed of light" lol or abot 3.5 mhz

This wAS MY firat computer a sinclair 1000 but it did not performed well as a commodore 16 that i have much more fun,

I bought a Timex / Sinclair that has a cassette for downloads ,at a drug store for 19.99 piece of crap.thank goodness for commadore 64 kinda of you could go broke buying stuff for it.

1500 known as the spectrum

Dammit vwestlife I had work to do, you should know better than to make a video about Sinclair machines.

There is still no point for computers. Even porn can be on a physical medium.

hrmm. Sinclair Broadcasting? They own Ring of Honor and works with New Japan Pro Wrestling and just helped The Young Bucks sell out a 10,000 seat arena. First time in 20+ years an independent wrestling company has been in an arena that big and sold out! Well then the other side is monopoly that Sinclair will have after the purchased Tribune Media Group.. Didn't this happen with Turner Broadcasting and AOL and Time Warner? Turner did run World Championship Wrestling, well I am seeing a pattern here. And Sinclair's " journlist responsibility promos" well that backfired.. whoa did know how deep SBG goes that deep! Will I am not watching much RoH Wrestling these days, Comet TV hasn't been very good, etc...

Portugal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ZeeeX81 pmsl

Last

Any chance of getting a quality upgrade soon? No offense, but 720p is really old and low quality by today’s standards?

You dont have a tk90.. .. blah

This was the high-tech in the early 80’s. It’s laughable in 2018.