1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:12,895 --> 00:00:15,035 Our object is to find people's real needs 4 00:00:15,175 --> 00:00:18,355 to develop products which have real benefit to people 5 00:00:18,975 --> 00:00:20,075 in whatever way. 6 00:00:20,295 --> 00:00:23,035 And to do that at a price that they can afford to do 7 00:00:23,035 --> 00:00:25,075 for Tempe, what anyone can do for a pound. 8 00:00:27,815 --> 00:00:29,675 My father was always thinking about the next 9 00:00:29,675 --> 00:00:31,555 invention, new ideas. 10 00:00:32,025 --> 00:00:34,075 They were pretty much constantly in his mind 11 00:00:34,135 --> 00:00:36,875 and always tinkering with the next big thing. 12 00:00:38,135 --> 00:00:40,075 He played poker and cards a little bit, 13 00:00:40,175 --> 00:00:43,075 but um, didn't have much hobbies outside 14 00:00:43,095 --> 00:00:44,915 of the inventing and the designing. 15 00:00:44,915 --> 00:00:46,995 So, uh, that was where his heart was. I think 16 00:00:46,995 --> 00:00:49,675 What drove Clive professionally was he's an ideas person, 17 00:00:49,735 --> 00:00:51,515 so he wanted to come up with something completely new 18 00:00:51,625 --> 00:00:54,355 that everybody would adopt, often price-based. 19 00:00:54,375 --> 00:00:56,075 So what really interested him was to come up 20 00:00:56,075 --> 00:00:57,595 with something really low price point 21 00:00:57,655 --> 00:00:59,395 and with really clever engineering. 22 00:00:59,735 --> 00:01:01,035 That's really what his goal was. 23 00:01:01,035 --> 00:01:03,475 To have a product that everybody wanted and everybody needed 24 00:02:08,235 --> 00:02:08,915 A precious, 25 00:02:29,635 --> 00:02:30,275 a precious, 26 00:02:43,505 --> 00:02:44,435 it's a precious 27 00:03:18,775 --> 00:03:20,455 Clive Sinclair we knew about 28 00:03:20,455 --> 00:03:21,815 because he would be on the news. 29 00:03:22,235 --> 00:03:25,375 You knew who he was, some great British inventor, 30 00:03:25,515 --> 00:03:26,575 but I don't think we sort 31 00:03:26,575 --> 00:03:28,655 of realized at the time the significance of 32 00:03:28,655 --> 00:03:31,775 what he was innovating in and what it would lead to. 33 00:03:32,115 --> 00:03:34,855 One of the strengths of Clive was that he was newsworthy. 34 00:03:35,075 --> 00:03:37,615 He could capture a lot of Colin inches. 35 00:03:37,675 --> 00:03:40,055 He was a personality, he was a bit of a maverick. 36 00:03:40,055 --> 00:03:42,175 People wanted to know what was he gonna say, 37 00:03:42,205 --> 00:03:43,255 what was he gonna do next? 38 00:03:43,435 --> 00:03:46,055 And people interviewed him, people wrote about him. 39 00:03:46,115 --> 00:03:47,575 And by attracting 40 00:03:47,575 --> 00:03:50,335 and absorbing that interest, of course he brought business 41 00:03:50,395 --> 00:03:51,575 to Sinclair Research. 42 00:03:51,795 --> 00:03:53,895 He sold the products through his own persona. 43 00:03:54,145 --> 00:03:56,575 Clive started in journalism, so he would write 44 00:03:56,595 --> 00:03:58,775 for practical electronics or practical wireless. 45 00:03:59,115 --> 00:04:01,015 And one of the first products he did 46 00:04:01,015 --> 00:04:02,335 was actually called the Micro Midget. 47 00:04:02,335 --> 00:04:04,815 That was like 1958, which was a predecessor 48 00:04:04,815 --> 00:04:06,335 to the Micro Matic, but it was a similar thing. 49 00:04:06,335 --> 00:04:07,335 It was a matchbox size radio 50 00:04:07,795 --> 00:04:09,815 and it took him a while to commercialize. 51 00:04:09,815 --> 00:04:12,935 But, um, this product was hugely successful by mail order. 52 00:04:13,395 --> 00:04:16,815 PLA always had a very strong preference for mail order. 53 00:04:16,945 --> 00:04:19,615 There isn't a lot of inventory sitting out there, 54 00:04:20,235 --> 00:04:22,615 and if you can advertise very effectively, 55 00:04:23,115 --> 00:04:25,535 you are giving up less of your profit margin than 56 00:04:25,535 --> 00:04:26,655 you are to a retailer. 57 00:04:27,405 --> 00:04:29,935 Part of the reason why this was so low cost was 58 00:04:29,935 --> 00:04:32,775 because he found out that transistors that were thrown away 59 00:04:32,895 --> 00:04:34,215 as rejects, you could test them 60 00:04:34,215 --> 00:04:36,135 and they're actually good enough to use in a radio. 61 00:04:36,235 --> 00:04:38,015 So he'd buy these transistors for next to nothing, 62 00:04:38,555 --> 00:04:40,735 And then hobbyists could buy those 63 00:04:40,875 --> 00:04:42,335 and you'd buy them by the thousand 64 00:04:42,335 --> 00:04:45,175 or something, separate them into little bags, test them, 65 00:04:45,195 --> 00:04:47,695 and then sell 'em as tested components. 66 00:04:48,135 --> 00:04:50,455 I think the strategy was to make things were small, 67 00:04:50,965 --> 00:04:53,655 make things that were appealing to an audience 68 00:04:53,655 --> 00:04:54,815 that we already knew, 69 00:04:55,435 --> 00:04:58,895 and make them have better margins built into them. 70 00:04:59,235 --> 00:05:00,295 So you had to make them 71 00:05:00,845 --> 00:05:03,015 with cheaper components if you could find them 72 00:05:03,115 --> 00:05:05,575 and make them in ways that would be easier 73 00:05:05,755 --> 00:05:06,855 for them to put together. 74 00:05:06,995 --> 00:05:09,655 So we didn't have too much to spend on repairing. 75 00:05:10,155 --> 00:05:12,495 So Clive used to do mail order amplifiers. 76 00:05:12,875 --> 00:05:15,375 So if you wanted to build a set a PA system in the, 77 00:05:15,375 --> 00:05:17,655 in the sixties, you could buy one of these electronics kits, 78 00:05:17,835 --> 00:05:19,615 get some speakers, and you've got a PA system. 79 00:05:19,715 --> 00:05:22,935 And one of his early customers, in fact was Alan Sugar. 80 00:05:22,935 --> 00:05:24,895 So Alan Sugar used to turn up at the Sinclair office, 81 00:05:24,915 --> 00:05:27,295 he would buy all the reject amplifiers, repair them, 82 00:05:27,365 --> 00:05:28,775 then sell 'em on the market stall. 83 00:05:28,875 --> 00:05:30,295 And that was quite something 84 00:05:30,295 --> 00:05:33,015 because obviously Alan Sugar did his own range 85 00:05:33,015 --> 00:05:34,375 of stacking Hi-Fi, 86 00:05:34,395 --> 00:05:35,575 and then obviously Amstrad 87 00:05:35,575 --> 00:05:36,815 became a competitor against Sinclair. 88 00:05:36,815 --> 00:05:37,815 Later on, 89 00:05:38,885 --> 00:05:42,215 When I first met Clive, it was obvious immediately 90 00:05:42,215 --> 00:05:44,815 that he was an incredibly bright guy. 91 00:05:45,385 --> 00:05:49,535 Clive always read an enormous amount of technical journals 92 00:05:49,535 --> 00:05:53,015 so he knew what was going on in numerous fields 93 00:05:53,155 --> 00:05:55,255 of electronics, display technology, 94 00:05:55,315 --> 00:05:57,325 semiconductors, et cetera, et cetera. 95 00:05:57,705 --> 00:06:01,045 All the technical stuff. He would read the the literature 96 00:06:01,105 --> 00:06:02,765 and could pick it up very quickly. 97 00:06:03,305 --> 00:06:07,245 But his bookcase at home was heaving with techie stuff. 98 00:06:07,365 --> 00:06:10,245 I know when he designed the square eel, which was one of the 99 00:06:10,805 --> 00:06:13,325 satellite dishes, he had a book on the kitchen table, 100 00:06:13,835 --> 00:06:18,445 four inches thick, something like, uh, the theory of 101 00:06:18,585 --> 00:06:20,285 of satellite dish design. 102 00:06:20,985 --> 00:06:25,005 And, you know, he could read that style of book like a novel 103 00:06:25,235 --> 00:06:28,085 Live Sinclair started his own company in the 1960s 104 00:06:28,625 --> 00:06:31,365 and his first breakthrough was the small pocket calculator 105 00:06:31,425 --> 00:06:32,805 in 1972. 106 00:06:33,185 --> 00:06:38,085 The executive calculator builders the world's slimmest 107 00:06:38,645 --> 00:06:40,605 lightest calculator. 108 00:06:41,195 --> 00:06:42,605 It's a really, really nice design 109 00:06:42,705 --> 00:06:44,365 and it's got this really clever way 110 00:06:44,505 --> 00:06:46,725 of just recessing these little round buttons 111 00:06:46,725 --> 00:06:48,885 inside a square recess there to give the feel 112 00:06:48,885 --> 00:06:50,125 that the buttons are bigger than they are. 113 00:06:50,225 --> 00:06:51,885 But actually the moving part is only 114 00:06:51,905 --> 00:06:53,205 the, the round bit in the middle. 115 00:06:53,385 --> 00:06:54,765 And it sold incredibly well 116 00:06:54,995 --> 00:06:56,445 From an engineering point of view. 117 00:06:56,445 --> 00:06:59,165 It was very interesting because they had to turn it on 118 00:06:59,185 --> 00:07:01,045 and off with a certain frequency 119 00:07:01,265 --> 00:07:02,485 and that would allow you 120 00:07:02,485 --> 00:07:04,965 to use it just operating from batteries 121 00:07:04,965 --> 00:07:06,645 and not, uh, power supply. You 122 00:07:06,645 --> 00:07:08,165 Were talking about calculators that sat on your desk 123 00:07:08,165 --> 00:07:09,325 plugged into the mains. 124 00:07:09,585 --> 00:07:11,245 So these things were quite big 125 00:07:11,505 --> 00:07:14,165 to have the pocket calculator like this one 126 00:07:14,345 --> 00:07:17,165 and such a thin pocket calculator of 127 00:07:17,165 --> 00:07:18,885 that other calculators at the time 128 00:07:18,955 --> 00:07:20,725 that would come out later were much deeper. 129 00:07:20,865 --> 00:07:22,285 You know, this was a, a real triumph. 130 00:07:25,085 --> 00:07:27,325 I think that if you had told Clive 131 00:07:27,435 --> 00:07:31,365 that all he could ever do was build calculators, 132 00:07:32,205 --> 00:07:36,045 albeit more advanced calculators, the thought of 133 00:07:36,045 --> 00:07:39,165 that would've been too terrifyingly boring to him. 134 00:07:39,465 --> 00:07:42,045 He was very interested in display technology. 135 00:07:42,515 --> 00:07:46,565 He'd had a small TV previously in the late sixties 136 00:07:46,715 --> 00:07:49,005 that had not been a commercial success. 137 00:07:49,545 --> 00:07:53,325 He had ideas about semiconductors, about televisions, 138 00:07:53,325 --> 00:07:54,805 about electric vehicles. 139 00:07:55,025 --> 00:07:59,245 So Clive was thinking about those things years, years ahead 140 00:07:59,785 --> 00:08:02,165 and was always anxious to take whatever 141 00:08:03,115 --> 00:08:06,045 financial success he had in any one area 142 00:08:06,545 --> 00:08:11,525 and start investing in his next projects. 143 00:08:13,955 --> 00:08:16,045 This is the newest way to tell the time 144 00:08:16,745 --> 00:08:20,005 the Black Watch developed in Britain by Sinclair. 145 00:08:20,665 --> 00:08:24,565 Its electronic, its moving parts digital 146 00:08:25,225 --> 00:08:29,005 to tell you the time precisely and quartz controlled. 147 00:08:29,105 --> 00:08:31,325 So you are sure that time is right. In 148 00:08:31,325 --> 00:08:33,005 Fact, well, the Black Watch had some issues 149 00:08:33,005 --> 00:08:34,605 with chip shortage problems at first. 150 00:08:34,665 --> 00:08:36,885 One of the suppliers pulled out, uh, which caused lots 151 00:08:36,885 --> 00:08:39,885 of issues, but also the very first black watch is if you 152 00:08:39,885 --> 00:08:41,605 went in there was static, it would reset the time 153 00:08:41,605 --> 00:08:42,645 and that was a major issue. 154 00:08:42,755 --> 00:08:44,005 Very unfortunate for Sinclair 155 00:08:44,085 --> 00:08:47,125 because they sold a huge amount and got a huge amount back. 156 00:08:47,305 --> 00:08:50,085 The black watch very easily got zapped 157 00:08:50,145 --> 00:08:51,605 by static electricity. 158 00:08:52,545 --> 00:08:55,725 So if you had too much nylon in your carpet, your watch 159 00:08:56,245 --> 00:08:59,205 suddenly would be, you know, not reading the correct time 160 00:08:59,385 --> 00:09:00,405 or any time at all. 161 00:09:00,405 --> 00:09:01,765 It is zero zero out. 162 00:09:02,245 --> 00:09:04,965 I think even getting too close to a television 163 00:09:04,965 --> 00:09:06,485 with the black watch could be a problem. 164 00:09:06,635 --> 00:09:08,325 There's a problem they fixed quite soon, 165 00:09:08,505 --> 00:09:10,565 but it caused major issues for the business. 166 00:09:11,245 --> 00:09:13,205 A design modification was made, 167 00:09:13,325 --> 00:09:15,645 which involved putting some sort of shield 168 00:09:16,465 --> 00:09:18,125 inside the plastic case. 169 00:09:18,385 --> 00:09:21,365 And this made it very, very difficult to assemble 170 00:09:21,365 --> 00:09:24,765 because the case had not been designed to have room 171 00:09:24,825 --> 00:09:26,845 for a a shield inside it. 172 00:09:27,025 --> 00:09:28,805 But again, when sold in kit form, 173 00:09:28,805 --> 00:09:30,725 that became the buyer's problem. 174 00:09:30,835 --> 00:09:33,245 That wasn't a Sinclair problem any longer. 175 00:09:33,505 --> 00:09:35,645 It was a story where somebody sent back a black watch 176 00:09:35,645 --> 00:09:37,485 and the song was, came with a letter that said, 177 00:09:37,485 --> 00:09:38,805 we've solved the problem on the black watch 178 00:09:39,225 --> 00:09:41,725 and had a great nail hammered straight through the 179 00:09:41,725 --> 00:09:42,725 Thing. I mean, I laugh 180 00:09:42,725 --> 00:09:44,805 about it and I don't feel guilty about it 181 00:09:44,805 --> 00:09:47,685 because I know from having talked to many, many people 182 00:09:48,315 --> 00:09:51,485 over the years who say, oh yeah, I I've still got one 183 00:09:51,485 --> 00:09:54,565 of your black watches waiting for me to finish work on. 184 00:09:55,365 --> 00:09:56,805 I know that they enjoyed it. 185 00:09:57,065 --> 00:09:58,845 If it was too easy to put together, 186 00:09:58,865 --> 00:10:01,405 they'd have got no satisfaction out of it at all. 187 00:10:01,705 --> 00:10:03,445 So the actual people were sort 188 00:10:03,445 --> 00:10:04,725 of happy putting them together themselves, 189 00:10:04,745 --> 00:10:06,725 but it was right at the end of Sinclair Radionics 190 00:10:06,725 --> 00:10:08,445 and they did have a lot of problems financially. 191 00:10:08,635 --> 00:10:11,365 That was when cl thinking about doing computers quite early 192 00:10:11,365 --> 00:10:13,725 on in the seventies, he decided if he was gonna do 193 00:10:13,725 --> 00:10:15,365 something, the next big thing it needs to be on, 194 00:10:15,465 --> 00:10:18,085 on a completely another level being the XX 80. 195 00:10:18,745 --> 00:10:22,205 So the Mark 14 I think was a sort of almost stopgap product 196 00:10:22,265 --> 00:10:23,525 to get a bit of turnover in. 197 00:10:23,625 --> 00:10:25,205 And there was a couple of other products around at 198 00:10:25,205 --> 00:10:27,165 that time, like the risk calculator watch again, 199 00:10:27,165 --> 00:10:29,285 it was a sort of quickly hashed together product 200 00:10:29,305 --> 00:10:31,325 to get some turnover in with 201 00:10:31,325 --> 00:10:33,485 what re limited resources they had at the time. 202 00:10:33,785 --> 00:10:36,205 But really what client had been planning for years is 203 00:10:36,205 --> 00:10:38,005 to do a, a low cost home computer, 204 00:10:38,325 --> 00:10:40,205 a very slick design, local cost home computer. 205 00:10:40,625 --> 00:10:41,965 And he'd been talking about it for some time. 206 00:10:42,465 --> 00:10:44,005 So back in the middle of the seventies, 207 00:10:44,005 --> 00:10:45,525 we didn't have computers at home, 208 00:10:46,025 --> 00:10:49,285 so Apple was doing their first things in us. 209 00:10:49,795 --> 00:10:52,325 Commodore Atari in Europe. 210 00:10:52,455 --> 00:10:55,245 Clive Sinclair realized he could, uh, try to, 211 00:10:55,425 --> 00:10:57,565 to do something in that field also. 212 00:10:57,835 --> 00:10:59,845 Well, it was a new market which was dominated 213 00:10:59,845 --> 00:11:02,525 by the Americans and where 214 00:11:03,915 --> 00:11:06,965 clearly if the cost could be reduced substantially, 215 00:11:07,425 --> 00:11:08,925 the the market could be expanded. 216 00:11:09,385 --> 00:11:12,965 It seemed to me that the prices then being charged were such 217 00:11:12,965 --> 00:11:16,525 that the appeal was the sales were going more 218 00:11:16,525 --> 00:11:18,565 to the small businessmen than to the, 219 00:11:19,185 --> 00:11:20,325 the man in the, in the home. 220 00:11:20,435 --> 00:11:22,365 They had been designed origin of the man in the home, 221 00:11:22,465 --> 00:11:24,485 but small businesses were proving the biggest market 222 00:11:24,885 --> 00:11:26,845 'cause they're really just too expensive for personal use. 223 00:11:27,625 --> 00:11:29,805 So I set about seeing if there was some way 224 00:11:29,805 --> 00:11:31,045 of really bringing the cost down 225 00:11:31,105 --> 00:11:33,405 by a major factor, and that's what we achieved. 226 00:11:33,425 --> 00:11:34,425 Of course, 227 00:11:41,345 --> 00:11:45,525 Let me tell you about the most exciting ad 228 00:11:46,265 --> 00:11:48,845 that's ever been printed anywhere in the history 229 00:11:48,845 --> 00:11:50,205 of the universe was 230 00:11:50,205 --> 00:11:53,965 that 39 pounds single board computer. 231 00:11:54,265 --> 00:11:57,845 And it was just like suddenly there was something that was 232 00:11:58,355 --> 00:12:00,405 like potentially within my budget. 233 00:12:01,025 --> 00:12:04,205 And as it happened, you know, it was a full six months 234 00:12:04,775 --> 00:12:07,525 after ordering it, before I actually had it in my hands. 235 00:12:08,185 --> 00:12:11,045 But this is Sinclair in a nutshell, wasn't he, uh, 236 00:12:12,005 --> 00:12:13,365 bringing us to the future early? 237 00:12:13,795 --> 00:12:17,085 Because there was this amazing chip 238 00:12:17,115 --> 00:12:20,365 that we used in the MK 14 that we knew that there was 239 00:12:20,885 --> 00:12:22,605 a greater level of interest in that 240 00:12:22,605 --> 00:12:24,125 because it was called a computer. 241 00:12:24,655 --> 00:12:27,125 Clive had a good idea of what was going on with some 242 00:12:27,125 --> 00:12:29,285 of those early computers, 243 00:12:29,585 --> 00:12:32,525 but basically his method of competing was 244 00:12:32,545 --> 00:12:34,885 to steer away from them, never 245 00:12:35,145 --> 00:12:37,125 to go head on against somebody. 246 00:12:37,825 --> 00:12:40,605 So his goal had been, well, I'm just gonna make something 247 00:12:41,265 --> 00:12:43,965 way smaller, way less expensive, 248 00:12:44,105 --> 00:12:47,245 and um, affordable to a much bigger mass market. 249 00:12:48,005 --> 00:12:49,845 I knew what computers were, I didn't understand 250 00:12:49,865 --> 00:12:52,645 how they worked, but there was something about 251 00:12:52,645 --> 00:12:53,685 them that I knew I wanted. 252 00:12:53,925 --> 00:12:55,965 I knew they could make decisions for you 253 00:12:56,705 --> 00:12:58,365 and that fascinated me. 254 00:12:58,745 --> 00:13:01,125 But how it was done wasn't clear to me 255 00:13:01,185 --> 00:13:02,565 how you would program a computer 256 00:13:02,665 --> 00:13:07,205 and that I didn't figure that out until I had an MK 14. 257 00:13:07,755 --> 00:13:09,245 That, that was my moment 258 00:13:09,305 --> 00:13:13,165 of enlightenment was following the manual for the MK 14, 259 00:13:13,435 --> 00:13:15,885 getting numbers to go in and stay in. 260 00:13:16,115 --> 00:13:18,245 Okay, that was the first part of it. 261 00:13:18,265 --> 00:13:19,965 And then discovering 262 00:13:19,965 --> 00:13:22,565 that those numbers could represent decision points. 263 00:13:22,835 --> 00:13:25,085 It's a very rudimentary design. 264 00:13:25,465 --> 00:13:27,645 So you've got this little display here, 265 00:13:27,735 --> 00:13:30,885 which is actually the same display as used in calculators. 266 00:13:31,345 --> 00:13:32,645 So that's where that comes from. 267 00:13:32,905 --> 00:13:34,405 And you have these little bubbles 268 00:13:34,405 --> 00:13:36,245 that go over the, the segments there. 269 00:13:36,265 --> 00:13:37,765 So they look bigger than they really are. 270 00:13:38,065 --> 00:13:39,845 The little magnifying glasses on each one. 271 00:13:39,845 --> 00:13:42,645 Little tiny touch keyboard, nice and cheap there. 272 00:13:42,745 --> 00:13:44,485 And it's based around this chip here, 273 00:13:44,485 --> 00:13:47,485 which is colloquially known as the scam chip, SEMP. 274 00:13:47,545 --> 00:13:48,885 And if you wanna program this thing, 275 00:13:48,945 --> 00:13:50,565 you're programming in machine code. 276 00:13:50,905 --> 00:13:54,085 So you were typing in hex codes here for the op codes 277 00:13:54,225 --> 00:13:55,245 and you only had 278 00:13:55,245 --> 00:13:57,965 that little tiny LED display there to get the results back. 279 00:13:58,265 --> 00:14:01,365 You got involved in the assembly process 280 00:14:01,665 --> 00:14:03,885 and you've got a much more intimate connection 281 00:14:03,885 --> 00:14:06,485 with the product that eventually arose from it. 282 00:14:06,925 --> 00:14:08,565 MK 14 was a, uh, 283 00:14:08,685 --> 00:14:11,125 a build it yourself fun thing with a difference. 284 00:16:06,725 --> 00:16:08,385 So I was born in 1969. 285 00:16:08,935 --> 00:16:13,225 What you without face, you look so young. Yeah, 1969. 286 00:16:13,725 --> 00:16:17,065 So I was like 1110 in 79 287 00:16:17,695 --> 00:16:20,065 when things like the Atari 2,600 were dropping 288 00:16:20,205 --> 00:16:21,345 and what we now consider 289 00:16:21,345 --> 00:16:24,065 to be the modern video gaming age was starting. 290 00:16:24,285 --> 00:16:27,305 And what you've gotta remember is this was completely new. 291 00:16:27,585 --> 00:16:29,465 I sort of envy my kids 'cause of their youth 292 00:16:29,805 --> 00:16:32,065 and the standard of the video games, the quality of 293 00:16:32,065 --> 00:16:34,825 what they get to experience now and the ease of multiplay 294 00:16:34,825 --> 00:16:36,665 and organizing your friends and all joining up 295 00:16:36,665 --> 00:16:38,265 and running around these incredible worlds. 296 00:16:38,325 --> 00:16:40,665 But I wouldn't change it for what we had, 297 00:16:40,665 --> 00:16:43,065 which was a perspective of no video games. 298 00:16:43,645 --> 00:16:46,105 And then that extraordinary change happening 299 00:16:46,105 --> 00:16:47,145 because it was just 300 00:16:47,725 --> 00:16:50,825 Insane, ho ho, ho. It's 301 00:16:50,955 --> 00:16:51,955 Magic. 302 00:16:52,925 --> 00:16:53,545 You know, 303 00:16:59,815 --> 00:17:00,985 it's magic. 304 00:17:05,475 --> 00:17:07,305 Never believe it's 305 00:17:12,555 --> 00:17:13,555 Never been away. 306 00:17:14,835 --> 00:17:19,505 Never seen A day winning on my pillow in the 307 00:17:19,775 --> 00:17:23,425 Morning, lazy day in bed. 308 00:17:24,435 --> 00:17:25,865 Music in my head. 309 00:17:26,715 --> 00:17:29,025 Crazy music playing in the 310 00:17:29,055 --> 00:17:30,055 Morning. 311 00:17:33,965 --> 00:17:38,585 Oh it's magic. You know, 312 00:17:57,745 --> 00:18:00,885 The 1970s was so analog in so many ways. 313 00:18:01,305 --> 00:18:02,445 It was so real. 314 00:18:02,545 --> 00:18:06,125 You know, g plan furniture and like very simple food. 315 00:18:06,545 --> 00:18:08,845 If your town had a cappuccino bar, 316 00:18:09,025 --> 00:18:10,445 it was like living on the Riviera. 317 00:18:10,545 --> 00:18:14,405 It was so unusual. From that came the kind of neon, 318 00:18:14,575 --> 00:18:18,165 crazy multicolored world of eighties and computer gaming. 319 00:18:18,585 --> 00:18:20,645 It, it's like being smacked in the face 320 00:18:20,705 --> 00:18:22,165 by the tango character. 321 00:18:22,165 --> 00:18:25,045 It's like, it was so vivid, multicolored 322 00:18:25,065 --> 00:18:28,045 and extraordinary both in terms of the features 323 00:18:28,045 --> 00:18:29,405 that the new world 324 00:18:29,405 --> 00:18:31,725 of consumer electronics were suddenly delivering 325 00:18:32,265 --> 00:18:33,325 in place of what? 326 00:18:33,325 --> 00:18:35,405 Nothing. It was it, it was like new 327 00:18:35,745 --> 00:18:37,045 but also the design, 328 00:18:37,065 --> 00:18:38,685 the product design that we were getting. 329 00:18:38,825 --> 00:18:41,885 So my first memory of owning, not just seeing 330 00:18:41,885 --> 00:18:44,205 but owning a personal computer was a ZX 80. 331 00:18:44,345 --> 00:18:46,685 And I bought option number two, the cheaper version 332 00:18:46,785 --> 00:18:49,605 or other than my dad did, which was a bag of parts 333 00:18:49,665 --> 00:18:51,205 and I assembled it with my dad. 334 00:18:52,795 --> 00:18:54,525 They needed to have a computer that was going 335 00:18:54,525 --> 00:18:56,005 to appeal to the masses. 336 00:18:56,225 --> 00:18:58,605 The X 80 is that step towards 337 00:18:58,995 --> 00:19:00,485 what would later to be the X 81, 338 00:19:00,985 --> 00:19:01,985 ZX 80. I remember 339 00:19:01,985 --> 00:19:05,005 by that stage he'd left Sinclair Radio ons 340 00:19:05,005 --> 00:19:08,005 and set up his own new company, Sinclair Research 341 00:19:08,145 --> 00:19:09,925 and moved to much smaller offices. 342 00:19:10,145 --> 00:19:12,205 So we're away from the big St I'S office 343 00:19:12,385 --> 00:19:13,885 and just in basically a couple 344 00:19:13,885 --> 00:19:17,125 of rooms in Kings Parade Center of Cambridge, he realized 345 00:19:17,195 --> 00:19:20,525 that the computer would be a huge hit if only it was 346 00:19:20,525 --> 00:19:23,885 affordable by just average normal families. 347 00:19:23,905 --> 00:19:26,045 If you can get that market, it's massive. 348 00:19:26,265 --> 00:19:28,685 So I think he was concentrating on, I know 349 00:19:28,685 --> 00:19:31,685 what the price needs to be then work backwards from there 350 00:19:31,685 --> 00:19:34,365 for on all of the components to get that price point. 351 00:19:34,685 --> 00:19:36,005 A proper computer. Uh, 352 00:19:36,005 --> 00:19:38,045 affordable prices. No one had done that before. 353 00:19:38,625 --> 00:19:40,245 The Z 80 chip was brilliant. 354 00:19:40,465 --> 00:19:42,645 Uh, XOG licensed the design, 355 00:19:42,705 --> 00:19:45,205 so it was available from multiple number of foundries. 356 00:19:45,265 --> 00:19:46,765 So there was competition in the market. 357 00:19:46,905 --> 00:19:49,805 You could get the Z 80 at really a quite reasonable price. 358 00:19:50,925 --> 00:19:55,085 Secondly, the Xog Z 80 did help pave the way certainly 359 00:19:55,085 --> 00:19:58,365 for Sinclair to reach the price points for the Z 80 360 00:19:58,625 --> 00:19:59,845 and ZX 81. 361 00:19:59,845 --> 00:20:02,245 And as you know, it was used by a lot 362 00:20:02,245 --> 00:20:03,885 of other home computer makers as well. 363 00:20:04,305 --> 00:20:08,605 The Z 80 was so general purpose that it was used in 364 00:20:09,125 --> 00:20:10,925 thousands and thousands of different applications. 365 00:20:11,045 --> 00:20:14,285 I mean the, you know, the ZX 80 was in those days one 366 00:20:14,285 --> 00:20:16,125 of thousands of different applications. 367 00:20:16,545 --> 00:20:18,045 So for us, the Z 80 368 00:20:18,585 --> 00:20:22,005 was using high volume in the first chess game 369 00:20:22,075 --> 00:20:24,085 players in 1980. 370 00:20:24,085 --> 00:20:28,325 When the ZX 80 came out, the highest volume application was, 371 00:20:28,385 --> 00:20:30,965 uh, chess game that that spoke to you, 372 00:20:32,185 --> 00:20:33,885 One C three number 373 00:20:34,765 --> 00:20:37,485 R two seven, you know, 374 00:20:38,585 --> 00:20:39,965 the computer voice. 375 00:20:40,625 --> 00:20:43,725 It was kind of fun. And they were making hundreds 376 00:20:43,725 --> 00:20:46,405 of thousands of those a quarter in those days. 377 00:20:46,405 --> 00:20:48,110 Those were high volume application. 378 00:20:48,110 --> 00:20:50,845 Today you laugh because, you know, with cell phones 379 00:20:50,845 --> 00:20:52,845 that you make, uh, millions a day. 380 00:20:52,985 --> 00:20:53,985 You know, 381 00:20:55,305 --> 00:20:58,045 CEX eight is a complete computer selling 382 00:20:58,045 --> 00:20:59,165 for just under a hundred pounds 383 00:20:59,225 --> 00:21:00,405 and it's applied with a manual. 384 00:21:00,825 --> 00:21:03,165 It plugs straight into a conventional television, 385 00:21:04,085 --> 00:21:05,125 straight into the aerial socket. 386 00:21:05,125 --> 00:21:06,605 There's no modification of the set. 387 00:21:07,105 --> 00:21:09,805 And if you wish to record your programs into 388 00:21:09,885 --> 00:21:11,205 a standard cassette recorder. 389 00:21:11,905 --> 00:21:14,685 And the great thing about the ZX 80 is that 390 00:21:15,005 --> 00:21:16,845 although there were computers before that were available 391 00:21:16,985 --> 00:21:19,805 to individuals to buy, they cost several hundreds of pounds. 392 00:21:20,095 --> 00:21:21,285 We've brought it down to a hundred, 393 00:21:21,365 --> 00:21:23,325 a hundred pounds without any sacrifice. 394 00:21:23,665 --> 00:21:25,085 You can learn the program on it 395 00:21:25,185 --> 00:21:27,805 and subsequently use it perhaps in your job or at 396 00:21:27,805 --> 00:21:28,805 Work. The ZX 80 397 00:21:28,805 --> 00:21:31,205 is certainly not a powerful machine, 398 00:21:31,465 --> 00:21:34,525 but it was a very influential one and a very popular one. 399 00:21:34,625 --> 00:21:37,285 It was also very influential on Jack Tramel. 400 00:21:37,315 --> 00:21:40,005 When Jack Tramel decided that he wanted to do the VIC 20, 401 00:21:40,585 --> 00:21:41,765 it was essentially 402 00:21:41,765 --> 00:21:44,525 because he'd had a trip to the United Kingdom 403 00:21:44,745 --> 00:21:46,285 and he'd seen the ZX 80 404 00:21:46,665 --> 00:21:49,365 and he'd seen that this computer was being bought by people 405 00:21:49,585 --> 00:21:52,085 and sold at a very affordable price 406 00:21:52,355 --> 00:21:53,725 that wasn't making a loss. 407 00:21:54,065 --> 00:21:56,045 So he went back to his people and, 408 00:21:56,105 --> 00:21:59,085 and that was his famous phrase, we want to produce computers 409 00:21:59,085 --> 00:22:01,885 for the masses and not the classes. It 410 00:22:01,885 --> 00:22:04,245 Was white with a white clean keyboard 411 00:22:04,665 --> 00:22:06,285 and white has a real 412 00:22:07,045 --> 00:22:10,045 seventies science fiction association XX 80 straight 413 00:22:10,045 --> 00:22:11,125 outta 2001. 414 00:22:12,005 --> 00:22:15,125 I got it. And I remember thinking it pretty futuristic 415 00:22:15,355 --> 00:22:17,925 that I remember showing it to a, a, a friend of mine saying, 416 00:22:17,925 --> 00:22:19,085 do you believe this is a computer? 417 00:22:19,675 --> 00:22:21,125 He's sort of looking at it going, uh, 418 00:22:26,265 --> 00:22:29,515 When I saw the ZX 80 for the first time, I was astonished 419 00:22:29,515 --> 00:22:31,315 because the computers I'd been used 420 00:22:31,315 --> 00:22:34,315 to from nearly 10 years earlier, you'd need 421 00:22:34,315 --> 00:22:35,715 to load up the programs 422 00:22:35,715 --> 00:22:37,715 with paper tape than you could run it. 423 00:22:37,715 --> 00:22:40,635 Whereas the ZX 80, you connect it to the tv, 424 00:22:40,815 --> 00:22:42,355 you plug it in and it just works. 425 00:22:42,455 --> 00:22:44,595 It sits there waiting for you to type things in. 426 00:22:44,595 --> 00:22:45,995 And I thought, well, you know, 427 00:22:45,995 --> 00:22:47,235 where's the paper tape reader, 428 00:22:47,295 --> 00:22:49,875 the punch card readers sort of things. I had 429 00:22:49,875 --> 00:22:51,875 A friend who had a ZX 80, that's 430 00:22:51,875 --> 00:22:54,075 where I first started dabbling with programming at home. 431 00:22:54,075 --> 00:22:55,955 That wasn't at the school or anything. 432 00:22:56,355 --> 00:22:59,395 I adored it, I covered it. I really, really wanted it. 433 00:23:00,575 --> 00:23:04,275 The ZX 80 is really something that change, uh, and 434 00:23:04,535 --> 00:23:08,435 and demonstrated to Clive Sinclair that he was right. 435 00:23:08,525 --> 00:23:12,395 There was a market, an opportunity for launching computers. 436 00:23:12,615 --> 00:23:16,515 But when we look at it even now from the 21st century, 437 00:23:16,665 --> 00:23:19,675 when we look at it and we realize we're talking about a 438 00:23:19,845 --> 00:23:23,795 black and white computer, no sound one k of memory 439 00:23:24,345 --> 00:23:27,155 with this very, uh, I wouldn't say annoying 440 00:23:27,155 --> 00:23:30,795 because I think it is fascinating feature when you press a 441 00:23:30,855 --> 00:23:32,795 key, the screen flickers. 442 00:23:33,055 --> 00:23:36,275 So all these kind of things show how limited it was 443 00:23:37,055 --> 00:23:41,635 and at the same time it shows you that if that had success, 444 00:23:42,475 --> 00:23:44,555 anything that you could evolve on top 445 00:23:44,555 --> 00:23:46,845 of it would have a huge potential. 446 00:23:46,845 --> 00:23:47,845 Obviously the journey 447 00:23:47,845 --> 00:23:50,165 of computing has been about the cost coming down, 448 00:23:50,345 --> 00:23:52,245 the size coming down and the power going up. 449 00:23:52,265 --> 00:23:54,085 That's been something that has been iconic within 450 00:23:54,225 --> 00:23:55,365 the journey of computing. 451 00:23:55,505 --> 00:23:57,045 And no other industry really does that. 452 00:23:57,225 --> 00:23:59,645 So the importance of the processes, 453 00:23:59,675 --> 00:24:01,805 because it was the microprocessor revolution 454 00:24:01,905 --> 00:24:04,725 that's kickstarted this entire industry. 455 00:24:04,825 --> 00:24:07,045 So having AZ 80 processor that you could buy 456 00:24:07,045 --> 00:24:09,485 for a few pounds enabled this. 457 00:24:09,985 --> 00:24:12,285 Now Richard, you divided what's available on the market 458 00:24:12,395 --> 00:24:14,005 into three broad sections. 459 00:24:14,025 --> 00:24:15,165 So where does the newcomer, 460 00:24:15,165 --> 00:24:17,205 who knows nothing at all about computers start? 461 00:24:17,595 --> 00:24:19,805 Well, for the newcomer, I'd recommend this first category, 462 00:24:19,805 --> 00:24:21,645 which really covers machines from 50 463 00:24:21,705 --> 00:24:23,805 to a hundred pounds and far and away. 464 00:24:23,805 --> 00:24:26,165 The best example here is the Sinclair's XX 81. 465 00:24:26,395 --> 00:24:28,445 Over half a million of them have been made and sold. 466 00:24:28,545 --> 00:24:29,565 Now, uh, I'D 467 00:24:29,565 --> 00:24:31,965 Really, the X 81 was designed to be sold 468 00:24:32,185 --> 00:24:33,805 to your average person on the street 469 00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:35,325 that had an interest in computers 470 00:24:35,545 --> 00:24:37,645 but didn't necessarily know what they wanted from it. 471 00:24:37,785 --> 00:24:40,925 So this term home micro computer was out there, 472 00:24:40,925 --> 00:24:42,005 it was in the news all the time. 473 00:24:42,545 --> 00:24:43,845 So this had to appeal to them. 474 00:24:44,065 --> 00:24:46,165 And the way this was packaged in the small box 475 00:24:46,165 --> 00:24:48,525 with this manual, everything you needed just plug it into 476 00:24:48,525 --> 00:24:50,565 your tv fitted that bill the case. 477 00:24:51,425 --> 00:24:54,485 Now we've got something that looks actually really nice. 478 00:24:54,875 --> 00:24:57,405 It's still small, it's still got the same kind of keyboard, 479 00:24:57,905 --> 00:24:59,525 but this fills a bit more finished, 480 00:24:59,755 --> 00:25:02,325 more like a general product that you would buy in the shop. 481 00:25:02,435 --> 00:25:04,205 This thing was sub 100 pound. 482 00:25:04,415 --> 00:25:07,205 Other things out there were 200, 300, 400 pound. 483 00:25:07,475 --> 00:25:09,205 It's not like they just saved a few pound off. 484 00:25:09,715 --> 00:25:12,165 This thing was really, really cheap in comparison. 485 00:25:12,295 --> 00:25:15,005 These were in boxes on the shelves in W eight Smiths 486 00:25:15,185 --> 00:25:16,685 and Boots and places like that. 487 00:25:17,145 --> 00:25:18,685 And people were picking up those boxes 488 00:25:18,865 --> 00:25:20,245 and saying, I'd like to buy one of these. 489 00:25:20,595 --> 00:25:22,165 That hadn't really happened before. 490 00:25:22,505 --> 00:25:23,645 You know, this was one of the 491 00:25:23,645 --> 00:25:24,685 first machines to be doing that. 492 00:25:25,345 --> 00:25:27,805 So when you opened that box, you wanted to see something 493 00:25:27,805 --> 00:25:29,245 that looked the part like a piece 494 00:25:29,245 --> 00:25:30,805 of consumer electronics and you 495 00:25:30,805 --> 00:25:34,285 Did And you could code it 496 00:25:34,665 --> 00:25:36,005 and to begin, there was no software. 497 00:25:36,005 --> 00:25:37,085 You just wrote your own. 498 00:25:37,585 --> 00:25:39,445 And an awful lot of people have started 499 00:25:39,445 --> 00:25:43,205 to buy these weak computers in order to learn to program, 500 00:25:44,345 --> 00:25:46,085 not to play games or anything like that. 501 00:25:46,145 --> 00:25:50,125 The same with Spectrum. And the point was the price point 502 00:25:50,945 --> 00:25:53,845 was accessible to core a families 503 00:25:53,945 --> 00:25:55,885 who could never have afforded hundreds 504 00:25:55,885 --> 00:25:57,685 of pounds on a personal computer. 505 00:25:58,055 --> 00:26:01,605 Clive Sinclair, I didn't really know anything about him, 506 00:26:01,905 --> 00:26:04,245 but all I knew about was that in the magazines 507 00:26:04,245 --> 00:26:05,285 of these little adverts 508 00:26:05,285 --> 00:26:07,605 for a ZX 80 little advert for E ZX 81. 509 00:26:07,665 --> 00:26:11,375 So eventually I went, yeah, okay, that I can afford. 510 00:26:11,755 --> 00:26:12,975 We were all in our mid-teens. 511 00:26:13,955 --> 00:26:18,375 So we were all just beginning to get into this whole idea 512 00:26:18,375 --> 00:26:19,895 of home computing. 513 00:26:20,365 --> 00:26:21,695 When I started, I started 514 00:26:21,695 --> 00:26:23,135 with the Sinclair Aesthetic City one. 515 00:26:23,135 --> 00:26:25,735 I like to talk when I give speeches about what that meant 516 00:26:25,735 --> 00:26:28,135 to be, trying to make a game in one K of memory 517 00:26:28,395 --> 00:26:31,335 and then show how we went from one K to 16 K 518 00:26:31,755 --> 00:26:33,855 and how mind bending that was 519 00:26:33,875 --> 00:26:36,975 to go 16 times more in one leap. 520 00:26:37,035 --> 00:26:38,255 It was such an enormous leap 521 00:26:38,255 --> 00:26:40,775 that people started making things like flight simulators 522 00:26:40,835 --> 00:26:42,575 and I shield them screenshots 523 00:26:42,575 --> 00:26:46,045 of the sign on flight simulator running in 16 K. 524 00:26:46,465 --> 00:26:48,085 But then I show them the eBay logo 525 00:26:48,265 --> 00:26:51,165 and I go, this eBay logo takes more than 16 K. 526 00:26:51,585 --> 00:26:53,765 And so in the space of that eBay logo, 527 00:26:53,765 --> 00:26:55,565 they wrote an entire flight simulator. 528 00:26:55,585 --> 00:26:57,165 It starts to put it all into perspective 529 00:26:57,185 --> 00:26:58,285 and people go, I get it. 530 00:26:58,465 --> 00:27:00,645 It was such an amazingly different time. 531 00:27:00,905 --> 00:27:02,405 We looked at what everybody else was doing 532 00:27:02,425 --> 00:27:04,645 and what had gone out there and we would try to figure out 533 00:27:04,645 --> 00:27:06,845 how it was done, but we didn't know whether something was 534 00:27:07,045 --> 00:27:08,685 possible or not possible until we actually 535 00:27:08,755 --> 00:27:09,805 went and and did it. 536 00:27:09,825 --> 00:27:13,485 So we were never stymied by can't be done. 537 00:27:13,825 --> 00:27:15,525 It was always how can we do it? 538 00:27:15,985 --> 00:27:19,245 XX 80 and the XX 81 gave rise to that scene 539 00:27:19,335 --> 00:27:22,285 where you could create your own gaming invention, 540 00:27:22,545 --> 00:27:23,725 record it and distribute it. 541 00:28:08,385 --> 00:28:09,965 So when the ZX 81 was launched, 542 00:28:10,025 --> 00:28:11,565 of course we read the reviews. 543 00:28:11,785 --> 00:28:13,645 Um, we knew that sales were going well, 544 00:28:13,745 --> 00:28:16,405 but we were very much focused on 545 00:28:16,515 --> 00:28:17,885 what was gonna be the next machine. 546 00:28:18,105 --> 00:28:20,125 And you have to remember that we'd launched two 547 00:28:20,125 --> 00:28:22,205 machines in two years running. 548 00:28:22,865 --> 00:28:26,525 We knew that in 12 months time, the whole world, the market, 549 00:28:26,745 --> 00:28:29,725 all the zx 80 81 fans would expect a new model. 550 00:28:29,785 --> 00:28:31,405 So yeah, we were very much heads down 551 00:28:31,505 --> 00:28:33,685 and I was starting to think together with Jim 552 00:28:33,685 --> 00:28:35,845 and Clive, what sort of a machine would this be? 553 00:28:35,905 --> 00:28:39,125 So we knew we had to launch something at the 1982 554 00:28:39,375 --> 00:28:40,405 April exhibition. 555 00:28:40,505 --> 00:28:42,605 We knew that it had to be better for games players 556 00:28:43,025 --> 00:28:45,405 and also better for those that wanted to learn programming. 557 00:28:45,465 --> 00:28:47,165 So we decided we needed color, 558 00:28:47,345 --> 00:28:49,805 we needed high resolution graphics, we needed sound 559 00:28:49,905 --> 00:28:52,165 and we needed something of a moving key keyboard. 560 00:28:52,425 --> 00:28:55,645 So those were the basic specifications regarding the name. 561 00:28:56,045 --> 00:28:58,525 I think probably everybody assumed it would be ZX 562 00:28:58,525 --> 00:29:00,205 82, you know, one a year. 563 00:29:00,425 --> 00:29:02,925 But we quickly realized that we were making a rod 564 00:29:02,925 --> 00:29:04,885 for our own backs as soon as that was launched, 565 00:29:04,985 --> 00:29:06,485 of course then we'd be expected 566 00:29:06,485 --> 00:29:08,365 to make another one 12 months later. 567 00:29:09,185 --> 00:29:11,725 So we needed a name that would 568 00:29:12,245 --> 00:29:14,845 describe the product rather than the year of its launch. 569 00:29:14,945 --> 00:29:16,605 So Steve and I came up with Rainbow. 570 00:29:16,745 --> 00:29:18,525 We loved the idea, we wanted to call it the rainbow. 571 00:29:19,055 --> 00:29:22,485 Clive came up with a much more scientific technological 572 00:29:22,485 --> 00:29:23,725 sounding name of spectrum 573 00:29:23,985 --> 00:29:26,165 and of course that's the one that stuck. But 574 00:29:26,165 --> 00:29:29,245 The other thing you need to understand about Clive was 575 00:29:29,245 --> 00:29:32,565 that he was fiercely, fiercely patriotic. 576 00:29:33,025 --> 00:29:36,285 He would do anything he could not 577 00:29:36,305 --> 00:29:38,925 to be dependent on Japanese technology. 578 00:29:39,425 --> 00:29:40,925 And he would try to buy 579 00:29:41,855 --> 00:29:44,925 chips from the few British manufacturers 580 00:29:44,945 --> 00:29:48,525 who were still making chips like Ferranti 581 00:29:49,165 --> 00:29:52,005 Ferranti were really benefiting from the success 582 00:29:52,065 --> 00:29:53,205 of the ZX 81. 583 00:29:53,205 --> 00:29:55,725 You know, they were selling their ULA in in volumes 584 00:29:55,725 --> 00:29:56,925 that they'd never appreciated 585 00:29:56,925 --> 00:29:59,445 before they'd got into the consumer market. 586 00:29:59,785 --> 00:30:02,645 And they were determined to bend over backwards 587 00:30:02,645 --> 00:30:04,405 to roll out the red carpet to give us 588 00:30:04,925 --> 00:30:06,965 whatever help we needed to ensure 589 00:30:06,965 --> 00:30:08,565 that the ZX spectrum was a success. 590 00:30:09,065 --> 00:30:13,605 He wanted to do something for high technology in Britain. 591 00:30:13,905 --> 00:30:18,525 He wanted manufacturing to be done in Scotland, which it was 592 00:30:18,625 --> 00:30:20,565 as long as it possibly could be. 593 00:30:20,905 --> 00:30:22,365 It was only with reluctance 594 00:30:22,365 --> 00:30:24,565 that he gave into commercial pressures 595 00:30:24,565 --> 00:30:28,165 and realized that global economics dictated 596 00:30:28,165 --> 00:30:30,565 that assembly jobs got done elsewhere. 597 00:30:36,465 --> 00:30:37,765 The spectrum compared 598 00:30:37,765 --> 00:30:40,565 with the ZX 81 right from the off it was going 599 00:30:40,565 --> 00:30:45,565 to be color for games. 600 00:30:46,055 --> 00:30:48,525 Color seemed essential and better graphics. 601 00:30:48,865 --> 00:30:52,765 So that needed different hardware, it needed extra software 602 00:30:52,785 --> 00:30:54,005 to deal with the fact 603 00:30:54,005 --> 00:30:57,205 that pixels had colors associated with them. 604 00:31:00,745 --> 00:31:01,925 So that meant 605 00:31:01,925 --> 00:31:05,405 that it certainly needed extra memory allocated 606 00:31:05,465 --> 00:31:06,605 to the color information 607 00:31:07,145 --> 00:31:09,685 and it needed some extra code for dealing 608 00:31:09,795 --> 00:31:10,965 with the different colors. 609 00:31:11,675 --> 00:31:14,525 That was a big thing. It was gonna be the colored ZedX 81. 610 00:31:15,065 --> 00:31:16,605 So one of the reasons that we decided 611 00:31:16,625 --> 00:31:18,645 to have high resolution pixels 612 00:31:18,645 --> 00:31:21,045 and lower resolution color was based on 613 00:31:21,105 --> 00:31:22,205 the way the human eye works. 614 00:31:22,255 --> 00:31:24,205 Human vision can resolve 615 00:31:24,205 --> 00:31:27,085 to much finer detail brightness luminance, if you like, 616 00:31:27,085 --> 00:31:28,405 than we can resolve color. 617 00:31:28,745 --> 00:31:32,845 And the PAL TV system took advantage of that so that the, 618 00:31:32,865 --> 00:31:35,005 the bandwidth of the luminance signal was three 619 00:31:35,005 --> 00:31:36,285 or four times greater than the 620 00:31:36,285 --> 00:31:37,405 bandwidth of the chromate signal. 621 00:31:37,625 --> 00:31:39,805 And we also knew at that time that the Oracle 622 00:31:39,945 --> 00:31:43,165 and CFAs TeleTech standards also followed a similar pattern. 623 00:31:43,235 --> 00:31:45,125 They set color per character, 624 00:31:45,145 --> 00:31:47,685 but of course you could address individual pixels. 625 00:31:47,745 --> 00:31:49,045 So that was the background 626 00:31:49,225 --> 00:31:52,885 and the reasoning behind choosing high resolution pixels, 627 00:31:52,885 --> 00:31:54,405 but lower resolution color. 628 00:31:54,495 --> 00:31:56,765 We've got the color clash. You know, why did you do that? 629 00:31:57,145 --> 00:31:58,725 So why did we make that compromise? 630 00:31:59,425 --> 00:32:00,685 We had to meet a price point. 631 00:32:00,905 --> 00:32:02,805 The spectrum was made by some, 632 00:32:02,805 --> 00:32:04,445 within a different kind of mos entirely. 633 00:32:05,185 --> 00:32:08,205 It was, um, what would give our features in a minimal sort 634 00:32:08,205 --> 00:32:09,525 of way, rather than doing color per 635 00:32:09,525 --> 00:32:10,725 pixel, it was color per block. 636 00:32:11,265 --> 00:32:14,205 And that's, that's okay, but it's, it's a hack. 637 00:32:14,795 --> 00:32:17,405 It's kind of will get us to the end cheaply kind of way. 638 00:32:17,785 --> 00:32:20,085 We could have gone for hardware sprites, 639 00:32:20,105 --> 00:32:22,525 the chips were available, we could have put special chips 640 00:32:22,525 --> 00:32:23,685 and additional memory in so 641 00:32:23,685 --> 00:32:25,685 that we could have multicolored sprites, 642 00:32:25,705 --> 00:32:28,725 moving invisibly across a background without 643 00:32:28,745 --> 00:32:29,925 any degradation of color. 644 00:32:30,105 --> 00:32:32,565 We could have gone for something that approximates 645 00:32:32,565 --> 00:32:34,245 to much later computer standards 646 00:32:34,245 --> 00:32:36,165 where every single pixel on the screen has 647 00:32:36,185 --> 00:32:37,325 its own color palette. 648 00:32:37,325 --> 00:32:39,605 But again, think of the additional memory that's needed. 649 00:32:39,605 --> 00:32:41,845 Think of the additional chips that would be needed 650 00:32:41,905 --> 00:32:44,285 for all the address mapping, all of the video buffering. 651 00:32:44,335 --> 00:32:46,085 Again, we needed to meet a price point. 652 00:32:46,145 --> 00:32:47,285 So that was the compromise. 653 00:32:55,385 --> 00:32:59,085 So it used cassette tapes for storing programs 654 00:32:59,305 --> 00:33:02,205 and that had been a bit crude on the ZX 81. 655 00:33:02,345 --> 00:33:04,965 So on the spectrum that was much improved. 656 00:33:05,065 --> 00:33:07,885 You had headers so that the programs had names 657 00:33:08,105 --> 00:33:09,925 and you could look for the one you wanted. 658 00:33:10,465 --> 00:33:12,925 And when you're loading from Tate, there are lots 659 00:33:12,925 --> 00:33:14,005 of signals coming through. 660 00:33:14,305 --> 00:33:16,965 And the spectrum we found, if you fed that through 661 00:33:16,985 --> 00:33:19,525 to the TV display, you know, pretty patterns 662 00:33:19,525 --> 00:33:21,365 but you, you could also see what was going on. 663 00:33:21,605 --> 00:33:22,885 Sinclair didn't wanna sell you a 664 00:33:22,885 --> 00:33:24,005 cassette deck that you didn't need. 665 00:33:24,285 --> 00:33:25,725 'cause again, it's a huge piece 666 00:33:25,725 --> 00:33:27,005 of money on the end of the price. 667 00:33:27,105 --> 00:33:28,925 So let's use something that's already out there. 668 00:33:29,105 --> 00:33:30,965 The home cassette recorder that everybody had them. 669 00:33:31,155 --> 00:33:33,645 This was all about getting into the hands of people 670 00:33:34,195 --> 00:33:35,725 that may have been on the fence 671 00:33:35,825 --> 00:33:37,805 and may not have got into computers at 672 00:33:37,805 --> 00:33:39,645 that's fine by keeping it cheap. 673 00:33:39,905 --> 00:33:42,085 Our object is to find people's real needs 674 00:33:42,225 --> 00:33:45,405 to develop products which have real benefit to people 675 00:33:45,985 --> 00:33:47,085 in whatever way. 676 00:33:47,265 --> 00:33:49,845 And to do that at a price that they can afford to do 677 00:33:49,905 --> 00:33:52,045 for Tempe, what anyone can do for a hand. 678 00:33:52,335 --> 00:33:55,165 Steve and I joined Clive for the launch. 679 00:33:55,545 --> 00:33:59,085 And I have to say I was blown away by the popularity. 680 00:33:59,325 --> 00:34:01,365 I knew that we had something special for the whole morning. 681 00:34:01,505 --> 00:34:03,765 The crowds were four deep around our stand. 682 00:34:03,815 --> 00:34:05,725 Clive had offered that first thousand people 683 00:34:05,825 --> 00:34:06,845 to order a spectrum 684 00:34:07,065 --> 00:34:08,685 and offer cash would get it, uh, 685 00:34:08,685 --> 00:34:10,085 with an accelerated delivery time. 686 00:34:10,105 --> 00:34:12,445 People were just queuing up with money to spend. 687 00:34:12,625 --> 00:34:15,165 But it wasn't just the volume of interest, 688 00:34:15,165 --> 00:34:16,525 it was also the level of detail. 689 00:34:16,745 --> 00:34:18,525 We were behind a couple of teenagers and, 690 00:34:18,525 --> 00:34:19,525 and we just listened. 691 00:34:19,525 --> 00:34:21,725 They enthused about the Zuck 692 00:34:21,845 --> 00:34:23,005 spectrum, you know, which was great for us. 693 00:34:23,065 --> 00:34:25,125 But what amazed us was they knew 694 00:34:25,735 --> 00:34:27,885 every single detail of the spec. 695 00:34:28,185 --> 00:34:29,605 It had only been launched that morning. 696 00:34:29,705 --> 00:34:31,525 It had been a secret the day before, 697 00:34:31,525 --> 00:34:32,765 but they'd absorbed everything 698 00:34:32,765 --> 00:34:33,885 and they were interested in it. 699 00:34:36,905 --> 00:34:40,165 The release of the spectrum changed the nature 700 00:34:40,345 --> 00:34:42,485 of the UK games industry 701 00:34:42,635 --> 00:34:46,725 because with the ZX 81, it was still a little bit geeky 702 00:34:46,905 --> 00:34:48,285 and a little bit hobbyist. 703 00:34:48,785 --> 00:34:51,925 But with the spectrum, all of a sudden you had kind 704 00:34:51,925 --> 00:34:53,285 of mass market products. 705 00:34:53,545 --> 00:34:56,365 The look of the spectrum really was driven by necessity 706 00:34:56,715 --> 00:35:01,045 because the whole drive behind it was to create a computer 707 00:35:01,105 --> 00:35:02,765 as cheaply as possible for the masses. 708 00:35:03,345 --> 00:35:06,605 So the Commodore 64, which did look like a proper computer, 709 00:35:07,075 --> 00:35:08,245 obviously retailed 710 00:35:08,245 --> 00:35:10,205 for a lot more than the spectrum ever did. The 711 00:35:10,205 --> 00:35:14,405 Commodore 64, remember it costs less than two 30 pounds. 712 00:35:14,625 --> 00:35:17,365 And don't forget it has the enormous memory. 713 00:35:17,945 --> 00:35:21,725 And I think as a result of this necessity, they actually, 714 00:35:21,725 --> 00:35:22,885 whether you call it by accident 715 00:35:22,885 --> 00:35:25,645 or design, they actually created something 716 00:35:26,155 --> 00:35:27,685 that became uniquely iconic 717 00:35:27,795 --> 00:35:29,885 because it did look different from everything else. 718 00:35:30,285 --> 00:35:32,005 I remember just being really struck 719 00:35:32,145 --> 00:35:34,645 by the form factor and the design. 720 00:35:35,155 --> 00:35:38,365 I've always loved things that look like the future, 721 00:35:38,905 --> 00:35:42,285 but I remember the BBC micro just being this chunky, clunky, 722 00:35:42,335 --> 00:35:44,485 noisy sort of beige 723 00:35:44,485 --> 00:35:46,605 but yellow by the time it hit our classrooms, 724 00:35:46,725 --> 00:35:48,085 machines that weren't attractive. 725 00:35:48,225 --> 00:35:50,765 So the ZX spectrum for me was a revelation 726 00:35:50,765 --> 00:35:53,845 because it was so slim I couldn't understand how it was 727 00:35:53,845 --> 00:35:57,885 so slim and sleek, the little rainbow on the side. 728 00:35:58,365 --> 00:36:00,085 I sort of never understood what that was for, 729 00:36:00,225 --> 00:36:01,325 but I presumed it was 730 00:36:01,325 --> 00:36:04,045 because then the games would be in color, you know, 731 00:36:05,065 --> 00:36:06,805 and the buttons just felt nice. 732 00:36:07,105 --> 00:36:08,445 So I felt like it was something you 733 00:36:08,445 --> 00:36:09,645 could probably put in your school bag. 734 00:36:10,195 --> 00:36:13,925 Five worried a great deal about how things looked. 735 00:36:14,185 --> 00:36:15,925 The external appearance was always 736 00:36:16,155 --> 00:36:17,405 very, very important to him. 737 00:36:17,545 --> 00:36:20,525 And he surrounded himself with very, very good designers. 738 00:36:20,635 --> 00:36:23,685 Rick Dickenson that came on to design most 739 00:36:23,685 --> 00:36:27,445 of the computers was just a brilliant guy at translating. 740 00:36:27,475 --> 00:36:28,885 What, uh, Kai wanted, 741 00:36:30,985 --> 00:36:32,925 And this is one of the things that I think people miss 742 00:36:33,345 --> 00:36:34,805 for me, Sinclair, 743 00:36:35,035 --> 00:36:38,005 it's not about his knowledge of electronics. 744 00:36:38,205 --> 00:36:41,325 I relate to him because of his talent for product design. 745 00:36:41,585 --> 00:36:43,045 The product design that he brought 746 00:36:43,185 --> 00:36:45,885 to everything he did was something that 747 00:36:46,375 --> 00:36:47,725 until Apple came along 748 00:36:47,725 --> 00:36:50,405 and Steve Jobs, I can honestly say I'd never seen. I 749 00:36:50,405 --> 00:36:53,085 Thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. 750 00:36:53,505 --> 00:36:54,725 And in a way I still do. 751 00:36:54,825 --> 00:36:55,925 The more I look at this, 752 00:36:56,625 --> 00:36:58,565 the more I can sort of smell my bedroom. 753 00:36:59,885 --> 00:37:01,245 I don't mean that in an unpleasant way. 754 00:37:01,365 --> 00:37:02,765 I mean the, the, the atmosphere, 755 00:37:03,045 --> 00:37:05,085 although I was a teenage boy, I just mean that kind of, 756 00:37:05,625 --> 00:37:08,645 you know, sort of red curtains there. 757 00:37:09,665 --> 00:37:11,485 Ano style bookshelf over there full 758 00:37:11,485 --> 00:37:14,445 of my James Herbert collection bunk beds over there. 759 00:37:15,145 --> 00:37:17,565 Little white MFI computer desk here 760 00:37:17,565 --> 00:37:18,925 with a black and white tell there. 761 00:37:18,925 --> 00:37:21,245 And then this little thing here like that I can, yeah, 762 00:37:21,405 --> 00:37:22,445 I mean that is mad. 763 00:37:22,785 --> 00:37:25,965 That's where Sir Clive Sinclair's understanding of form 764 00:37:26,985 --> 00:37:30,085 the emotional connection we have to objects. 765 00:37:30,085 --> 00:37:33,085 There is something in our genes that, uh, 766 00:37:33,225 --> 00:37:34,885 brings an emotional connection 767 00:37:34,885 --> 00:37:36,365 to certain shapes, objects, and colors, 768 00:37:36,845 --> 00:37:38,645 Regardless of what goes on under the bonnet. 769 00:37:38,645 --> 00:37:40,525 That must be one of the most iconic 770 00:37:41,475 --> 00:37:42,885 designs of the 20th century. 771 00:37:43,465 --> 00:37:45,245 And it is, isn't it? I mean in terms of its impact, 772 00:37:45,245 --> 00:37:47,775 but just in terms of its, yeah, I, 773 00:37:47,855 --> 00:37:49,375 I I shall use the B word I think. 774 00:37:49,495 --> 00:37:50,495 I think it's beautiful. 775 00:37:53,895 --> 00:37:57,455 I think it's a timeless design, what the spectrum gave us. 776 00:37:57,755 --> 00:37:59,855 So I think the work of Rick Dickinson 777 00:37:59,855 --> 00:38:03,695 and his team was amazing from a cosmetic point of view, it's 778 00:38:03,975 --> 00:38:06,415 A balanced, subtle approach. 779 00:38:06,885 --> 00:38:09,735 Nothing shouts at you, it's not fighting for attention. 780 00:38:10,115 --> 00:38:12,775 The famous rainbow in this colored text here, 781 00:38:13,315 --> 00:38:16,095 it just starts singing, it starts coming alive 782 00:38:16,635 --> 00:38:19,215 and that rainbow is synonymous with the product. 783 00:38:19,235 --> 00:38:20,895 People seem to really like it. 784 00:38:21,315 --> 00:38:24,455 The rainbow stripe on the bottom right, it's a thing 785 00:38:24,455 --> 00:38:25,535 of absolute beauty. 786 00:38:25,835 --> 00:38:29,135 And the Sinclair logo itself, the font get out of town. 787 00:38:29,635 --> 00:38:31,735 It was obviously decided for the next iteration, 788 00:38:31,795 --> 00:38:34,895 the color one that we need to up our game slightly 789 00:38:35,105 --> 00:38:36,805 and get some tactile feedback. 790 00:38:37,385 --> 00:38:39,525 And that tactile feedback comes in the form 791 00:38:39,525 --> 00:38:40,765 of an elastomeric 792 00:38:40,785 --> 00:38:43,765 or a rubber keyboard, we'll call it rubber shall we, is not. 793 00:38:43,905 --> 00:38:47,005 And then you've got that popping, that tactile feedback 794 00:38:47,025 --> 00:38:50,845 and you can engineer tune it to get the right feed to it. 795 00:38:51,065 --> 00:38:53,805 But it's still made at a cost. 796 00:38:54,145 --> 00:38:56,245 But clearly it was an improvement over the 80 797 00:38:56,345 --> 00:38:59,605 and the 81 of course it got famously 798 00:39:00,715 --> 00:39:05,685 described in one early review as having all the feel 799 00:39:05,745 --> 00:39:07,165 of dead human flesh. 800 00:39:07,445 --> 00:39:08,845 I think were the words that were used. 801 00:39:11,145 --> 00:39:13,085 I'm one of those that loved the 802 00:39:13,725 --> 00:39:14,885 touching the, the rubber key. 803 00:39:14,945 --> 00:39:18,205 So I don't refer to it as the dead flash experience. 804 00:39:18,525 --> 00:39:20,885 I really enjoyed it because it's what I had. It was magical. 805 00:39:21,185 --> 00:39:24,525 So even if it was not perfect, you don't remember that 806 00:39:24,585 --> 00:39:26,245 and you forget those details very easily. 807 00:39:26,525 --> 00:39:29,725 I found the tactile sense of them really nice, kind 808 00:39:29,725 --> 00:39:31,725 of like rubbing my finger on the edges 809 00:39:31,725 --> 00:39:33,685 of the keys was just really nice for some reason. 810 00:39:34,105 --> 00:39:36,045 But to use not so great. 811 00:39:36,105 --> 00:39:39,925 But obviously Clive Sinclair's little shortcut keys 812 00:39:39,985 --> 00:39:42,965 for programming helped reduce the amount 813 00:39:42,965 --> 00:39:44,085 of keys you had to press. 814 00:39:44,525 --> 00:39:45,965 I had friends with the original rubber 815 00:39:46,055 --> 00:39:47,365 keyed 48 K spectrum. 816 00:39:47,625 --> 00:39:50,125 Um, most of them had trouble loading games 817 00:39:50,125 --> 00:39:51,605 because the J key had gone 818 00:39:51,625 --> 00:39:53,885 and you had to press the J was the shortcut for the load. 819 00:39:54,225 --> 00:39:56,645 And as it was the key that was pressed by far the most. 820 00:39:56,905 --> 00:39:58,485 And when that one went, you were in trouble 821 00:39:58,705 --> 00:40:01,085 and the quotation marks were the next thing to go as well 822 00:40:01,085 --> 00:40:04,245 because to load from tape on the 48 k, it was load, uh, 823 00:40:04,245 --> 00:40:05,725 quotation mark, quotation marks. 824 00:40:05,745 --> 00:40:07,885 So those were the keys that went first. So 825 00:40:08,005 --> 00:40:09,645 There was a whole learning curve with learning 826 00:40:09,665 --> 00:40:12,285 to program using all these shortcut operations. 827 00:40:12,305 --> 00:40:14,885 But at the same time it was a really nice 828 00:40:14,975 --> 00:40:16,365 experience 'cause it was new. 829 00:40:16,605 --> 00:40:18,605 I think the spectrum as a piece of design, 830 00:40:18,755 --> 00:40:20,685 it's unparalleled in what it is. 831 00:40:20,785 --> 00:40:23,845 You see a 48 K ZX spectrum, you immediately know what it is. 832 00:40:24,105 --> 00:40:25,725 In fact with all the different spectrum models, 833 00:40:26,025 --> 00:40:27,485 you know from the design, what they 834 00:40:27,485 --> 00:40:30,325 Are and unusually the Sinclair products were black 835 00:40:30,745 --> 00:40:33,005 and most of the other contemporary products were 836 00:40:33,055 --> 00:40:34,325 beige, weren't they in the day? 837 00:40:34,905 --> 00:40:38,845 The beige kind of dominant aesthetic of computing it is 838 00:40:38,845 --> 00:40:39,965 for the business community. 839 00:40:39,965 --> 00:40:41,965 Whereas Sir Clive wasn't held back by that. 840 00:40:42,105 --> 00:40:45,045 He wanted to make an impact. He understood his market. 841 00:40:46,575 --> 00:40:49,245 There were so many computer companies in the UK 842 00:40:49,265 --> 00:40:51,085 during the early mid eighties 843 00:40:51,585 --> 00:40:52,765 and they all wanted to slice 844 00:40:52,765 --> 00:40:56,205 of the same pie machines like ARI 800. 845 00:40:56,705 --> 00:40:58,645 The revived versions came a bit too late. 846 00:40:59,025 --> 00:41:01,085 The Acorn electron obviously had supply problems 847 00:41:01,085 --> 00:41:04,245 and that arrived about a year too late to make an impact. 848 00:41:04,645 --> 00:41:08,165 BBC Micro was great machine but incredibly expensive 849 00:41:08,225 --> 00:41:10,645 and not many games were available for it. 850 00:41:10,645 --> 00:41:13,365 Very much an educational orientated machine. 851 00:41:13,505 --> 00:41:16,645 So the spectrum just had a clear path, I think, to the home 852 00:41:16,705 --> 00:41:19,085 and the games industry and cut, cut straight through it. 853 00:41:19,505 --> 00:41:22,725 By that time we'd missed out on the BBC contract. 854 00:41:23,055 --> 00:41:24,285 Acorn had got it with 855 00:41:24,285 --> 00:41:26,685 what I considered a much more boring computer. 856 00:41:27,145 --> 00:41:29,685 The government hopes to have a computer in every secondary 857 00:41:29,685 --> 00:41:31,005 school by the end of the year. 858 00:41:32,065 --> 00:41:35,325 But it was classic, it was more boring 859 00:41:35,325 --> 00:41:36,685 because it actually worked. 860 00:41:37,625 --> 00:41:39,245 It could sit in a classroom. 861 00:41:39,785 --> 00:41:41,325 The keys were more reliable, 862 00:41:41,905 --> 00:41:43,645 the whole thing was more predictable. 863 00:41:43,865 --> 00:41:46,125 The BBC was a competitor to it 864 00:41:46,185 --> 00:41:47,965 and Clive was always disappointed 865 00:41:47,965 --> 00:41:52,085 that Acorn had won the rights for the BBC Micro 866 00:41:52,465 --> 00:41:54,605 and the education programs. 867 00:41:54,745 --> 00:41:58,845 But the reality is we sold several times more aesthetic 868 00:41:59,285 --> 00:42:01,925 spectrums without the support of British government. 869 00:42:02,105 --> 00:42:03,645 On the BBC micro side, 870 00:42:03,865 --> 00:42:05,685 I'd say the spectrum was the big one. 871 00:42:06,165 --> 00:42:08,845 Spectrum made the market, whereas BBCB never really had 872 00:42:08,845 --> 00:42:10,325 that same kind of vibe. 873 00:42:10,505 --> 00:42:12,765 The spectrum was a bit more mass markety really. 874 00:42:12,945 --> 00:42:15,725 And the BBB was still a bit kind of, um, snooty. 875 00:42:16,545 --> 00:42:21,165 And this machine is credited as the machine, uh, that sort 876 00:42:21,165 --> 00:42:22,445 of kickstart our games industry. 877 00:42:22,585 --> 00:42:24,805 And people that are working in the games industry now cut 878 00:42:24,805 --> 00:42:27,245 their teeth programming games on the spectrum. 879 00:42:27,905 --> 00:42:30,525 I'm sure the, the spectrum did start the British 880 00:42:30,945 --> 00:42:32,325 gaming and compute scene. 881 00:42:32,625 --> 00:42:35,805 It because it was just so successful. 882 00:42:36,525 --> 00:42:38,885 I think it just came about at exactly the right time. 883 00:42:39,305 --> 00:42:41,285 The spectrum really was the one 884 00:42:41,285 --> 00:42:42,485 that sparked the game scene. 885 00:42:42,625 --> 00:42:44,485 It was affordable. There was a Christmas 886 00:42:44,485 --> 00:42:46,445 where everybody just seemed to get one. 887 00:42:46,445 --> 00:42:47,805 They were selling out everywhere. 888 00:42:48,145 --> 00:42:49,605 You went downstairs on Christmas morning 889 00:42:49,605 --> 00:42:51,245 with your fingers crossed, hoping your parents 890 00:42:51,265 --> 00:42:52,965 had managed to get one as well. It was 891 00:42:53,845 --> 00:42:56,725 December, 1983 when I was surprised at Christmas 892 00:42:57,195 --> 00:42:59,365 with a brand new Spectrum, 48 k. 893 00:42:59,385 --> 00:43:00,845 It was mine and my brother's. That's 894 00:43:00,845 --> 00:43:01,845 where everything really kicked off. 895 00:43:01,945 --> 00:43:03,565 It was in color, it was on your TV 896 00:43:03,565 --> 00:43:04,925 screen and it was beautiful. 897 00:43:05,765 --> 00:43:09,525 I badged my parents who said I might be able to get a, a, 898 00:43:09,605 --> 00:43:10,805 a spectrum for my birthday, 899 00:43:10,905 --> 00:43:12,885 but there was a definite emphasis on the might be. 900 00:43:12,905 --> 00:43:15,405 But then I remember coming home from school a couple of days 901 00:43:15,405 --> 00:43:17,645 before my birthday and my mum said, look down 902 00:43:17,645 --> 00:43:20,005 between the two, between the sofa and the chair 903 00:43:20,145 --> 00:43:23,005 and their in a Boots carrier bag was a brand new ZX 904 00:43:23,125 --> 00:43:24,525 spectrum, 48 k as well. 905 00:43:24,925 --> 00:43:27,085 I did one of these kids go mad things, 906 00:43:27,145 --> 00:43:28,165 you know, like it was mine. 907 00:43:28,185 --> 00:43:30,125 And there it was and I couldn't believe it. 908 00:43:30,225 --> 00:43:32,725 And I was like, wow. And then I set it up then obviously, 909 00:43:32,725 --> 00:43:35,525 and then was on it off until my dad came home from work 910 00:43:35,525 --> 00:43:36,965 and said, right, I wanna watch the TV now. 911 00:43:37,085 --> 00:43:38,645 I really wanted to get the Sinclair spectrum. 912 00:43:38,865 --> 00:43:40,965 And so I had a very strange thing happen to me. 913 00:43:41,225 --> 00:43:43,445 My grandmother, I was at her house one day 914 00:43:43,445 --> 00:43:44,765 and she said, I wanna talk to you. 915 00:43:44,825 --> 00:43:47,525 And I'm like, okay. And she goes to me, you know, 916 00:43:47,825 --> 00:43:49,125 I'm getting pretty old now 917 00:43:49,425 --> 00:43:53,285 and someday I don't wanna think I left you like some pea 918 00:43:53,335 --> 00:43:54,525 Potts or something like that. 919 00:43:54,825 --> 00:43:57,685 And so I want to give you some money just so I know 920 00:43:57,685 --> 00:43:58,845 that you're not gonna end up 921 00:43:58,845 --> 00:44:00,445 with silverware or that kind of thing. 922 00:44:00,705 --> 00:44:04,005 And so she gave him like a hundred pounds or 150 pounds. 923 00:44:04,345 --> 00:44:07,085 And at that time that was a really big deal 924 00:44:07,085 --> 00:44:08,845 because that was my Sinclair spectrum. 925 00:44:09,105 --> 00:44:11,005 And so by buying that computer, 926 00:44:11,515 --> 00:44:13,045 that was the knee in the curve for me. 927 00:44:13,205 --> 00:44:15,885 'cause suddenly I was able to, to take off, difficult 928 00:44:15,885 --> 00:44:17,445 For me to have an insight into 929 00:44:17,555 --> 00:44:19,045 what it meant to other people. 930 00:44:20,265 --> 00:44:24,765 To me it just made it possible for me 931 00:44:24,765 --> 00:44:29,365 to get into computing probably four years, 932 00:44:29,675 --> 00:44:31,605 five years before I might 933 00:44:31,605 --> 00:44:33,365 otherwise have been able to afford it. 934 00:44:33,945 --> 00:44:38,885 It was cheap, it was color and my brother liked it as well. 935 00:44:39,105 --> 00:44:42,925 So did I like the design? Yeah, great. 936 00:44:43,185 --> 00:44:46,485 But I think the first thing I did was open it up. 937 00:44:46,885 --> 00:44:49,525 I had probably in all honesty, more interested in 938 00:44:49,795 --> 00:44:51,765 what was under the hood than anything else. 939 00:44:51,995 --> 00:44:54,325 Like, um, into hardware. The 940 00:44:54,325 --> 00:44:58,125 Machine seemed impossibly small, like how can you pack all 941 00:44:58,125 --> 00:45:02,045 of this power, this obscene amount of ram, 942 00:45:02,495 --> 00:45:04,285 these bitmap graphics and all of 943 00:45:04,285 --> 00:45:06,205 that into this tiny little box? 944 00:45:06,825 --> 00:45:08,005 It was very understated. 945 00:45:08,405 --> 00:45:11,445 I mean, at that time when the leaflet was doing the rounds, 946 00:45:11,445 --> 00:45:14,965 nobody knew just how rubbery those keys would feel. 947 00:45:15,705 --> 00:45:16,965 So it still looked amazing. 948 00:45:17,625 --> 00:45:22,205 So for me it was really, this is an arcade capable machine 949 00:45:22,315 --> 00:45:25,805 that you can have at home at a ridiculous price, which meant 950 00:45:26,595 --> 00:45:30,925 that it was a perfect blank slate for new people coming in 951 00:45:31,225 --> 00:45:33,085 to do things that had never been done before. 952 00:45:43,105 --> 00:45:44,885 The spectrum was incredibly important 953 00:45:44,885 --> 00:45:47,325 because up until that point, whether it's the ZX 80 954 00:45:47,345 --> 00:45:50,205 or the ZX 81, they were black and white. 955 00:45:50,235 --> 00:45:52,805 They didn't have proper keyboards and so on. 956 00:45:52,805 --> 00:45:56,005 And here we had this product in either 16 K form 957 00:45:56,005 --> 00:45:58,805 or 48 K form that had memory to go with it. 958 00:45:58,945 --> 00:46:02,125 So we had for the first time in the spectrum, uh, 959 00:46:02,125 --> 00:46:04,965 products which you could actually do something with. 960 00:46:05,665 --> 00:46:07,125 And what most 961 00:46:07,145 --> 00:46:09,805 of the software developers decided here 962 00:46:09,805 --> 00:46:10,965 was a games playing machine. 963 00:46:11,105 --> 00:46:13,725 So the ZX spectrum became the doan 964 00:46:13,725 --> 00:46:15,885 of the developers of computer games. 965 00:46:16,305 --> 00:46:18,605 And it was the games playing 966 00:46:18,675 --> 00:46:21,725 that really made the spectrum the success that it was. 967 00:46:22,065 --> 00:46:26,805 The spectrum was there at the time when it was affordable 968 00:46:26,825 --> 00:46:28,285 for parents to say, okay, 969 00:46:28,385 --> 00:46:30,405 as a main Christmas present or whatever. 970 00:46:31,275 --> 00:46:32,535 Yet we can stretch to that. 971 00:46:32,875 --> 00:46:35,655 And I think that was the opening for many, many kids 972 00:46:36,115 --> 00:46:37,455 to get not into just games, 973 00:46:37,515 --> 00:46:40,375 but into fiddling about with basic programming. 974 00:46:41,075 --> 00:46:44,175 And it meant because of the limitations of of the spectrum. 975 00:46:44,715 --> 00:46:47,255 The programmers had to be really, really creative 976 00:50:23,385 --> 00:50:25,805 For an aspiring games developer for, 977 00:50:25,905 --> 00:50:28,100 for someone who's interested in that sort of thing. 978 00:50:28,145 --> 00:50:30,645 The spectrum was ideal. You go to a shop, you pick it up, 979 00:50:30,785 --> 00:50:33,765 you unbox it, it's there, you plug it in, 980 00:50:34,045 --> 00:50:36,525 Plugging it in, and then you telly 981 00:50:36,525 --> 00:50:38,485 and then you'd just be sitting there with this in your hand. 982 00:50:42,385 --> 00:50:43,885 It was absolutely nuts. 983 00:50:43,905 --> 00:50:46,165 The notion that this screen would do things 984 00:50:46,165 --> 00:50:47,565 that you'd only seen on films 985 00:50:47,595 --> 00:50:50,685 that you'd only seen on Star Trek was, uh, 986 00:50:50,765 --> 00:50:52,885 I mean it must just have been absolutely mind 987 00:50:52,885 --> 00:50:54,205 blowing, but of course you're there. 988 00:50:54,205 --> 00:50:56,365 You don't realize your mind is being blown. 989 00:50:56,365 --> 00:50:57,885 You just know that you don't wanna look away. 990 00:50:58,565 --> 00:51:01,845 I just became absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. 991 00:51:02,305 --> 00:51:05,965 And I remember like type a small piece of Caribbean 992 00:51:06,505 --> 00:51:08,405 and seeing the result on the screen, 993 00:51:09,165 --> 00:51:10,885 I was absolutely gob smugged. 994 00:51:10,965 --> 00:51:13,485 I couldn't believe it. I thought, wow, this is amazing. 995 00:51:14,025 --> 00:51:17,445 You know, I just like typed in a few lines of something 996 00:51:17,505 --> 00:51:19,565 and this happened on the screen. 997 00:51:20,205 --> 00:51:23,285 I think the best thing about the spectrum was it was a 998 00:51:23,285 --> 00:51:24,365 big box of bites. 999 00:51:24,465 --> 00:51:25,645 You can do anything you want with it. 1000 00:51:25,645 --> 00:51:27,525 Uh, you didn't have to know anything particular. 1001 00:51:27,665 --> 00:51:29,045 And you can make simple basic games 1002 00:51:29,145 --> 00:51:31,285 and then as you progress, you can learn assembly language 1003 00:51:31,705 --> 00:51:33,125 and make more complicated games, 1004 00:51:33,625 --> 00:51:35,045 but you can start making them yourself. 1005 00:51:35,545 --> 00:51:36,885 It was so accessible 1006 00:51:37,075 --> 00:51:39,485 that everyone could make their own games. 1007 00:51:40,625 --> 00:51:43,685 And it came with a very good programming manual, 1008 00:51:43,695 --> 00:51:46,125 which at the back had a reference section 1009 00:51:46,315 --> 00:51:50,125 regarding programming in machine code, which I understood 1010 00:51:50,125 --> 00:51:52,245 that programming in basic alone, 1011 00:51:52,265 --> 00:51:54,205 you couldn't really create decent games. 1012 00:51:54,265 --> 00:51:57,165 It was too slow. So I had to learn machine code 1013 00:51:57,665 --> 00:51:59,645 and that's when I started dabbling 1014 00:51:59,645 --> 00:52:01,125 and trying to get as much information 1015 00:52:01,425 --> 00:52:04,365 as I could about programming in machine code. 1016 00:52:06,255 --> 00:52:08,365 Steve was the author of the manual. 1017 00:52:08,765 --> 00:52:10,445 I edited it, made a few comments. 1018 00:52:10,665 --> 00:52:12,725 It wasn't just aimed at showing people how 1019 00:52:12,725 --> 00:52:14,165 to plug the device in and load games. 1020 00:52:14,265 --> 00:52:16,125 We really wanted it to be an instruction manual 1021 00:52:16,125 --> 00:52:18,725 to help people to learn to program in basic. 1022 00:52:19,945 --> 00:52:22,165 So the Spectrum manual, I approached it more 1023 00:52:22,165 --> 00:52:24,965 or less the same as with the ZX 81 Manual. 1024 00:52:25,105 --> 00:52:26,445 No, no special differences. 1025 00:52:26,625 --> 00:52:28,645 And in fact, some of the material was 1026 00:52:28,975 --> 00:52:30,045 valid for both of them. 1027 00:52:30,345 --> 00:52:33,685 So I I more or less lifted it from the ZX 81 manual and, 1028 00:52:33,745 --> 00:52:34,925 and reused it. 1029 00:52:35,305 --> 00:52:38,565 It reads as though a human being is writing to you. 1030 00:52:39,285 --> 00:52:40,525 I, I wanted to try 1031 00:52:40,525 --> 00:52:42,925 and anticipate what the reader needed to know 1032 00:52:43,705 --> 00:52:45,005 and address that. 1033 00:52:45,705 --> 00:52:47,405 And clearly history has shown that a lot 1034 00:52:47,405 --> 00:52:49,165 of people learn basic through that manual. 1035 00:52:49,385 --> 00:52:51,045 It had a lot of humor in it. 1036 00:52:51,475 --> 00:52:52,925 Steve's particular brand of humor, 1037 00:52:53,445 --> 00:52:55,565 I know Clive wasn't completely happy 1038 00:52:55,565 --> 00:52:57,205 with my style of writing. 1039 00:52:57,545 --> 00:53:01,765 All sorts of completely flaky, extraneous ideas coming in 1040 00:53:01,945 --> 00:53:04,205 and trying to get across the serious ideas 1041 00:53:04,265 --> 00:53:05,365 of how you would use it. 1042 00:53:05,905 --> 00:53:07,165 Bit Monty Python ish. 1043 00:53:07,165 --> 00:53:10,085 Sometimes from time to time I get emails saying I 1044 00:53:10,085 --> 00:53:11,205 so much enjoyed the manual. 1045 00:53:11,345 --> 00:53:12,485 You know, sort of one or two 1046 00:53:16,795 --> 00:53:18,285 Popular computing weekly. 1047 00:53:18,965 --> 00:53:21,085 I think it was one of the best magazines ever. 1048 00:53:21,345 --> 00:53:22,885 It was like a tiny little thing. 1049 00:53:23,265 --> 00:53:25,245 And it was a weekly magazine, which was amazing. 1050 00:53:25,345 --> 00:53:28,245 So we didn't have to wait too long for the next issue. 1051 00:53:29,195 --> 00:53:31,895 And they also covered the machine code. 1052 00:53:31,895 --> 00:53:34,415 They, they used to have a small section about machine code. 1053 00:53:34,515 --> 00:53:39,255 And, and I, I read this article in one issue where it said, 1054 00:53:39,555 --> 00:53:41,855 if you wanna become a really good programmer, 1055 00:53:41,855 --> 00:53:43,015 successful programmer, 1056 00:53:43,315 --> 00:53:45,335 you must forget about the basic language 1057 00:53:45,635 --> 00:53:49,335 and learn machine code without even knowing the difference. 1058 00:53:49,775 --> 00:53:51,055 I said, well that's what I'm gonna do. 1059 00:53:51,355 --> 00:53:53,215 And it was that kind of what people were doing 1060 00:53:53,965 --> 00:53:55,335 with the spectrum and stuff 1061 00:53:55,335 --> 00:53:57,335 that actually got me into doing a little bit of coding. 1062 00:53:57,495 --> 00:53:59,175 I was never good enough or bright enough 1063 00:53:59,175 --> 00:54:02,935 and in mathematics at all to do anything proficient. 1064 00:54:03,835 --> 00:54:06,855 But as a hobbyist, you could explore, you could play around, 1065 00:54:06,995 --> 00:54:11,535 you could take some of the very early computing magazines 1066 00:54:11,535 --> 00:54:14,415 and with their endless long forever pages of listings, 1067 00:54:14,595 --> 00:54:15,975 you would type 'em, they'd never work. 1068 00:54:15,975 --> 00:54:17,415 They would never ever work first time. 1069 00:54:17,415 --> 00:54:19,455 But if you were inquisitive enough, you started playing 1070 00:54:19,455 --> 00:54:20,895 around with that bit of code 1071 00:54:21,035 --> 00:54:22,495 and working out what was going wrong 1072 00:54:22,635 --> 00:54:24,095 and fixing it as you went along. 1073 00:54:24,275 --> 00:54:25,455 And eventually slowly, 1074 00:54:25,615 --> 00:54:28,415 I wrote the most horrendous space invaders again one day. 1075 00:54:28,415 --> 00:54:30,055 And it was just appalling pretty much. 1076 00:54:30,635 --> 00:54:33,815 But, you know, that was, that was my genesis of, of gaming. 1077 00:54:34,235 --> 00:54:35,295 It was an iterative process. 1078 00:54:35,385 --> 00:54:37,215 You'd type it in, then you'd suddenly figure out, 1079 00:54:37,215 --> 00:54:38,695 well it won't run what I done. 1080 00:54:38,955 --> 00:54:40,535 Missed out a piece of punctuation 1081 00:54:40,535 --> 00:54:42,575 and it was scanning down the page trying to find 1082 00:54:42,765 --> 00:54:43,895 what you'd missed and and 1083 00:54:43,895 --> 00:54:44,975 putting it in and getting it working. 1084 00:54:45,235 --> 00:54:47,295 And when you did it, it was a real sense of achievement. 1085 00:54:47,595 --> 00:54:49,375 And so it literally was something that had 1086 00:54:49,375 --> 00:54:51,135 that we had never seen anything like before. 1087 00:54:51,135 --> 00:54:52,415 You know, you sat in front of a TV 1088 00:54:53,075 --> 00:54:54,895 and you know, you just basically consumed the 1089 00:54:54,895 --> 00:54:55,935 output that came at you. 1090 00:54:56,315 --> 00:54:57,695 And that was fun for many decades. 1091 00:54:57,875 --> 00:54:59,815 But the, but the ability to really kind of turn 1092 00:54:59,815 --> 00:55:01,535 that output into input 1093 00:55:01,535 --> 00:55:03,255 and to type in even just a basic program 1094 00:55:03,395 --> 00:55:04,815 or just kind of waggle the joystick 1095 00:55:04,815 --> 00:55:07,335 and see the character move around on, on the screen. 1096 00:55:07,515 --> 00:55:09,295 Arthur C. Clarke has this great quote about 1097 00:55:09,295 --> 00:55:11,495 how any sufficiently advanced technologies 1098 00:55:11,495 --> 00:55:12,775 indistinguishable from magic. 1099 00:55:13,275 --> 00:55:17,415 And at that time when we were doing those basic programs 1100 00:55:17,415 --> 00:55:18,975 and playing those basic games, we'd literally 1101 00:55:18,975 --> 00:55:20,095 never seen anything like it. 1102 00:55:20,095 --> 00:55:22,295 And so it really did feel like a form 1103 00:55:22,295 --> 00:55:23,335 of digital magic to us. 1104 00:55:23,455 --> 00:55:24,455 I think 1105 00:55:24,845 --> 00:55:29,685 Sinclair was still at the stage of the product lifecycle, 1106 00:55:29,855 --> 00:55:33,365 which all products have, where it was still being 1107 00:55:34,225 --> 00:55:36,045 really targeted at the people 1108 00:55:36,305 --> 00:55:38,485 who don't really mind if it works. 1109 00:55:38,955 --> 00:55:41,365 They just like to tinker around until it does. 1110 00:55:41,505 --> 00:55:43,805 And this stage of product lifecycle 1111 00:55:44,545 --> 00:55:46,765 is early adopters, innovators. 1112 00:55:47,385 --> 00:55:50,005 And when he was targeting those people, 1113 00:55:50,375 --> 00:55:51,765 Clive, he was happiest. 1114 00:55:52,055 --> 00:55:55,165 Developing gamers on the Sinclair spectrum in the early 1115 00:55:55,165 --> 00:55:57,045 days was a little bit difficult, 1116 00:55:57,245 --> 00:55:58,725 a little bit uh, unreliable. 1117 00:55:59,085 --> 00:56:03,565 I has a 48 K spectrum with dual ZX micro drives 1118 00:56:03,905 --> 00:56:07,205 and these were amazingly primitive devices. 1119 00:56:07,355 --> 00:56:09,485 Yeah, these little micro drive cassettes which had this 1120 00:56:09,635 --> 00:56:11,805 endlessly of tape going inside them. The 1121 00:56:11,805 --> 00:56:14,565 Micro drive was inexpensive attached to the spectrum. 1122 00:56:14,825 --> 00:56:16,845 It had the right capacity, it had the right speed, 1123 00:56:16,875 --> 00:56:18,565 essentially it was a cassette head 1124 00:56:18,565 --> 00:56:20,205 and that was one of the beauties of it, is 1125 00:56:20,205 --> 00:56:22,805 that Clive had taken some readily available components, 1126 00:56:22,805 --> 00:56:24,520 which were high-tech in themselves 1127 00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:26,020 and leveraged it in his concept. 1128 00:56:26,235 --> 00:56:28,285 It's actually surprising how reliable they were, 1129 00:56:28,645 --> 00:56:30,885 considering how basic the technology was. 1130 00:56:31,425 --> 00:56:33,605 The carts he put in, either you got a, 1131 00:56:33,725 --> 00:56:35,445 a reliable one which you could use a lot, 1132 00:56:35,445 --> 00:56:37,445 or you got an unreliable one, which you really had 1133 00:56:37,445 --> 00:56:38,805 to throw away after a while. 1134 00:56:38,985 --> 00:56:40,405 It was that hit or miss. 1135 00:56:40,725 --> 00:56:43,285 I didn't have too many problems developing. 1136 00:56:43,465 --> 00:56:45,325 It wasn't very fast, but it did work. 1137 00:56:46,085 --> 00:56:48,685 I dunno how well the micro drive did fare in the market. 1138 00:56:49,075 --> 00:56:50,925 It's a very, very flimsy piece of tape. 1139 00:56:50,985 --> 00:56:52,725 If it doesn't go from one reel to another, 1140 00:56:52,785 --> 00:56:54,725 it goes round in a spiral on itself. 1141 00:56:54,725 --> 00:56:57,125 So it has to slip past itself so that there has 1142 00:56:57,125 --> 00:56:58,565 to be some wear and tear. When 1143 00:56:58,565 --> 00:57:00,805 I saw the adverts for micro drive, they seem to be, oh, 1144 00:57:00,805 --> 00:57:02,205 the answer for the spectrum. 1145 00:57:02,565 --> 00:57:05,245 'cause it seems to take ages loading and saving tapes. 1146 00:57:05,375 --> 00:57:07,845 There were these little gizmos which were going 1147 00:57:07,845 --> 00:57:09,085 to be like disc drives 1148 00:57:09,145 --> 00:57:12,005 and they had tiny little cartridges that you could put in, 1149 00:57:12,345 --> 00:57:15,125 but I had so much frustration in trying to make them work. 1150 00:57:15,365 --> 00:57:18,005 I really got near to crunching it with a hammer. 1151 00:57:18,445 --> 00:57:19,845 I really did feel like doing it. 1152 00:57:19,845 --> 00:57:21,645 But they went back to Sinclair 1153 00:57:21,705 --> 00:57:23,325 and I actually got my money back for those 1154 00:57:23,325 --> 00:57:25,045 and I said, they're not for purpose. 1155 00:57:25,425 --> 00:57:26,765 One of the other problems we used 1156 00:57:26,765 --> 00:57:28,925 to have was spectrum overheating all the time, 1157 00:57:28,925 --> 00:57:31,605 especially when you had your gizmos on the back. 1158 00:57:31,885 --> 00:57:34,045 I heard of people kind of standing a glass 1159 00:57:34,105 --> 00:57:35,805 of ice water by them. 1160 00:57:36,145 --> 00:57:38,685 We used to use fans in the office for a while, 1161 00:57:39,225 --> 00:57:41,125 but we used to find that switching on 1162 00:57:41,125 --> 00:57:44,205 and off the fans sometimes could make your machines crash. 1163 00:57:44,305 --> 00:57:46,245 So those weren't terribly popular. 1164 00:57:46,785 --> 00:57:49,565 In the end, I bought another keyboard for the spectrum 1165 00:57:50,065 --> 00:57:52,285 and threw the rubber keyboard away and, 1166 00:57:52,305 --> 00:57:55,365 and the circuit board from the spectrum can of lay right 1167 00:57:55,585 --> 00:57:58,445 inside the other keyboard, which gave it a lot of room. 1168 00:57:58,465 --> 00:58:01,005 And that's how I spent most of my time programming. 1169 00:58:01,185 --> 00:58:03,365 So the rubber keys didn't last sort 1170 00:58:03,365 --> 00:58:04,565 of more than a few months. 1171 00:58:05,315 --> 00:58:08,325 This is the spectrum that an attack, zombie. Zombie. 1172 00:58:08,425 --> 00:58:10,205 And if the mask was written on 1173 00:58:10,865 --> 00:58:13,605 and conveniently the top will come off 1174 00:58:13,785 --> 00:58:17,725 and there's my little modifications 1175 00:58:17,755 --> 00:58:20,165 that allowed mapping the softie in. 1176 00:58:20,275 --> 00:58:24,325 That was a way for me to connect the softie to the spectrum. 1177 00:58:24,865 --> 00:58:28,005 So the advantage of having your work on another machine 1178 00:58:28,055 --> 00:58:32,405 where it'll stay pristine even if this crashes. The beauty 1179 00:58:32,405 --> 00:58:34,245 Of the spectrum in regards to 1180 00:58:35,035 --> 00:58:37,165 that experimental approach was 1181 00:58:37,165 --> 00:58:39,645 that it was a beautiful blank slate. 1182 00:58:40,065 --> 00:58:42,885 It was a block of memory, a block of screen memory, 1183 00:58:43,095 --> 00:58:44,325 block of attribute memory. 1184 00:58:44,465 --> 00:58:47,485 Here's a fast processor, off you go. That was it. 1185 00:58:47,485 --> 00:58:48,605 That's all you had to work with. 1186 00:58:48,745 --> 00:58:51,885 So you had to fashion everything from those raw 1187 00:58:51,885 --> 00:58:53,245 ingredients, especially 1188 00:58:53,245 --> 00:58:55,365 On the spectrum because you didn't have anything. 1189 00:58:55,425 --> 00:58:58,325 No hardware, sports, no nothing. You have to do everything. 1190 00:58:58,385 --> 00:58:59,685 You have to be really creative. 1191 00:58:59,835 --> 00:59:03,765 Technically, all those limitations allowed people like me 1192 00:59:03,905 --> 00:59:05,645 to try unlimited things. 1193 00:59:06,565 --> 00:59:09,885 I always knew the computers for, for having fun 1194 00:59:10,065 --> 00:59:11,085 and entertaining people. 1195 00:59:12,845 --> 00:59:15,705 By the time the Sinclair Spectrum arrived, 1196 00:59:16,205 --> 00:59:17,385 it was Peyton the obvious. 1197 00:59:17,775 --> 00:59:18,825 They were for only one thing 1198 00:59:18,825 --> 00:59:20,785 and that was making interactive movies. 1199 00:59:21,225 --> 00:59:24,845 Of course, not only did we have moving stuff on a little 1200 00:59:24,845 --> 00:59:26,205 screen, it had color. 1201 00:59:26,475 --> 00:59:29,925 This was a toy shop just like Austin Wells must have felt 1202 00:59:29,925 --> 00:59:31,005 when he had Free Reign. 1203 00:59:31,185 --> 00:59:33,365 And if this was gonna be my Austin Wells moment, 1204 00:59:33,615 --> 00:59:34,765 let's make Citizen Kane. 1205 00:59:34,925 --> 00:59:38,885 I thought, yeah, we can do this now We've got a Sinclair 48 1206 00:59:39,165 --> 00:59:42,085 K ZX spectrum, let's go make Citizen came. 1207 00:59:42,265 --> 00:59:46,765 So I feel I could make movies in 1982. Oh boy. 1208 00:59:50,065 --> 00:59:53,685 Now I'd seen a couple of three D games on the ZX 81, 1209 00:59:53,805 --> 00:59:55,725 A little Game with a Tyrannosaur Rex Running 1210 00:59:55,725 --> 00:59:57,685 through a maze was one that I remember. 1211 00:59:58,105 --> 01:00:00,205 And I thought you could do this with the kind 1212 01:00:00,205 --> 01:00:02,765 of shoot 'em up if you kind of had spaceships 1213 01:00:02,785 --> 01:00:04,085 and you were flying into the game. 1214 01:00:04,785 --> 01:00:07,365 It was about the time Star Wars was very big. 1215 01:00:07,365 --> 01:00:10,485 And I thought, ah, if I do a game that's like Star Wars, 1216 01:00:10,485 --> 01:00:11,525 people are bound to love that. 1217 01:00:11,525 --> 01:00:13,285 And I have spaceships flying out the game. 1218 01:00:13,465 --> 01:00:17,325 So three D Space Wars was the concept from the start. 1219 01:00:17,385 --> 01:00:20,525 And to make it feel like a scene in Star Wars 1220 01:00:20,525 --> 01:00:23,125 where you're flying into a crowd of fighters 1221 01:00:23,145 --> 01:00:24,525 and they're all flying around you. 1222 01:00:24,745 --> 01:00:27,045 At that time, no one had done a 1223 01:00:27,045 --> 01:00:28,205 three D game on the spectrum. 1224 01:00:28,305 --> 01:00:30,365 So I thought, right, I'm coming up with something new. 1225 01:00:30,685 --> 01:00:32,285 I think there were a couple that came out 1226 01:00:32,345 --> 01:00:33,645 by the time it was published, 1227 01:00:33,695 --> 01:00:36,725 there was a three D motorbike game where motorbike was kind 1228 01:00:36,725 --> 01:00:38,845 of riding through a forest of trees, 1229 01:00:39,025 --> 01:00:41,565 but there certainly wasn't any around when I started. 1230 01:00:41,745 --> 01:00:43,645 So that gave me a feeling that, yeah, I, 1231 01:00:43,805 --> 01:00:44,845 I was onto something new. 1232 01:00:45,105 --> 01:00:47,405 The sound on the ZX spectrum was really very simple. 1233 01:00:47,425 --> 01:00:49,245 We had a, what we called a little beeper, 1234 01:00:49,355 --> 01:00:52,605 ingenious programmers could develop square waves to drive it 1235 01:00:52,605 --> 01:00:54,405 and create something that approximated 1236 01:00:54,425 --> 01:00:55,965 to different tones of music. 1237 01:00:56,025 --> 01:00:57,645 It, it was very, very simple. 1238 01:00:57,835 --> 01:01:00,165 Well all you can do with a spectrum is um, 1239 01:01:00,385 --> 01:01:03,845 switch the speaker on and off, you know, as one bit 1240 01:01:04,625 --> 01:01:09,365 and an attack just you have to generate a frame of graphics 1241 01:01:09,865 --> 01:01:12,285 and then make some kind of a click. 1242 01:01:12,545 --> 01:01:14,725 You could maybe do a tiny little bit of a beep 1243 01:01:14,785 --> 01:01:15,805 or a little bit of noise 1244 01:01:15,865 --> 01:01:17,725 as you can hear footsteps in anti-tax. 1245 01:01:17,745 --> 01:01:19,245 So it draws a frame of graphics, 1246 01:01:19,995 --> 01:01:22,125 does a tiny bit of white noise. 1247 01:01:24,715 --> 01:01:26,815 I'm often asked whether I can make music as well 1248 01:01:26,815 --> 01:01:28,695 as graphics and code and I can't. 1249 01:01:28,805 --> 01:01:31,015 Someone else supplied the music for Saboto 1250 01:01:31,395 --> 01:01:34,535 and I always wanted to get the music playing 1251 01:01:34,535 --> 01:01:36,415 during the game, but I was new to this. 1252 01:01:36,675 --> 01:01:39,215 So in the game I played some beeps. 1253 01:01:39,275 --> 01:01:40,455 No music, no interrupts, 1254 01:01:40,525 --> 01:01:42,175 just an occasional white noise sound. 1255 01:01:42,245 --> 01:01:43,245 When you kick someone, 1256 01:01:44,355 --> 01:01:47,595 Spectrum sound basically involved, you could 1257 01:01:48,195 --> 01:01:49,195 directly move the speaker, 1258 01:01:49,935 --> 01:01:51,595 but you can only move it in or out. 1259 01:01:51,595 --> 01:01:52,995 You don't have any fine control. 1260 01:01:54,075 --> 01:01:57,695 Now bear in mind that sound continues continuously, 1261 01:01:58,555 --> 01:02:00,895 but you have to do other things like the graphics, 1262 01:02:01,025 --> 01:02:04,245 which take rather more time up than everything else. 1263 01:02:05,535 --> 01:02:09,795 So on the spectrum, any music I played, I had 1264 01:02:09,795 --> 01:02:11,075 to do little bursts of. 1265 01:02:11,255 --> 01:02:15,395 So at each intra, which occur 50 times a second, 1266 01:02:16,075 --> 01:02:18,315 I put some sound out, just a little burst 1267 01:02:18,375 --> 01:02:19,975 of sound at whatever frequency 1268 01:02:19,975 --> 01:02:21,095 it needs to be at that moment. 1269 01:02:25,665 --> 01:02:28,965 So there's this distinct 50 hertz hum 1270 01:02:29,035 --> 01:02:31,285 because the whole sound was being broken up 1271 01:02:31,285 --> 01:02:32,445 into these little chunks. 1272 01:02:32,445 --> 01:02:35,485 Every 50th of a second, which rung 1273 01:02:35,485 --> 01:02:37,805 through everything was never gonna sound that a commodore, 1274 01:02:40,745 --> 01:02:43,765 the color, the sound limited though it was, 1275 01:02:44,425 --> 01:02:47,565 and the memory of the spectrum compared to the 81. 1276 01:02:47,565 --> 01:02:48,725 And the 80 meant 1277 01:02:48,725 --> 01:02:51,525 that there were some really terrific games developed 1278 01:02:51,705 --> 01:02:53,125 for it very quickly. 1279 01:02:53,665 --> 01:02:56,245 And that took off like wildfire 1280 01:02:56,865 --> 01:03:01,165 and Clive's attitude was that it would take care of itself. 1281 01:03:01,345 --> 01:03:03,725 He hadn't set out to develop a machine 1282 01:03:03,725 --> 01:03:05,125 for people to play with. 1283 01:03:05,665 --> 01:03:08,685 He acknowledged that that's what they did do with it. 1284 01:03:08,685 --> 01:03:11,125 And that drove sales and that was all well and good, 1285 01:03:11,625 --> 01:03:16,085 but he let the software people take care of the software. 1286 01:03:44,585 --> 01:03:46,885 So I think for a lot of people, their first experience 1287 01:03:46,885 --> 01:03:48,645 of video games was going into the arcade. 1288 01:03:49,065 --> 01:03:51,725 And the arcade was such an exciting place. 1289 01:03:51,765 --> 01:03:54,485 You've got explosions, grabs, loads of colors, 1290 01:03:55,025 --> 01:03:58,605 but they wanted to recreate that into their home computer. 1291 01:03:58,715 --> 01:04:00,285 Growing up in the early eighties, 1292 01:04:00,505 --> 01:04:01,805 it was all about the arcades. 1293 01:04:01,805 --> 01:04:04,765 That was where the best games were. These amazing games. 1294 01:04:05,135 --> 01:04:07,165 You'd go to the arcades, it would just be rows 1295 01:04:07,165 --> 01:04:09,085 and rows of brilliant arcade games. 1296 01:04:19,065 --> 01:04:21,045 And I was always pestering my parents to go 1297 01:04:21,045 --> 01:04:22,165 to the Seasides or wherever. 1298 01:04:22,265 --> 01:04:24,325 So the opportunity to have a machine 1299 01:04:24,855 --> 01:04:28,805 which could replicate this experience in some form at home 1300 01:04:29,315 --> 01:04:32,765 cheaply and easily was obviously very attractive to me. 1301 01:04:37,705 --> 01:04:39,725 The arcades were incredibly important. 1302 01:04:39,915 --> 01:04:41,325 When you go back to the early eighties, 1303 01:04:41,355 --> 01:04:43,525 it's the golden age of the arcades. 1304 01:04:43,525 --> 01:04:46,205 There are so many games that are so popular. 1305 01:04:46,745 --> 01:04:49,805 And already on the ZX 81, there were versions 1306 01:04:49,825 --> 01:04:51,925 of Space Invaders, very crude, 1307 01:04:52,025 --> 01:04:55,805 but playable versions of games as well as original games. 1308 01:04:55,855 --> 01:04:57,485 Games like three D Monster MAs 1309 01:04:57,485 --> 01:04:59,285 that had their own momentum. The 1310 01:04:59,505 --> 01:05:01,205 ZX 81 died off very quickly. 1311 01:05:01,465 --> 01:05:02,725 The spectrum was coming out 1312 01:05:02,985 --> 01:05:05,405 and Arctic immediately bombed me a spectrum 1313 01:05:05,785 --> 01:05:07,845 and I taught myself how it worked 1314 01:05:07,905 --> 01:05:11,685 by writing an unbelievably bad Space Invaders Clone, 1315 01:05:11,695 --> 01:05:14,525 which was never released, but it taught me how to use it. 1316 01:05:14,625 --> 01:05:17,245 And I went on to writes Cosmic Debris, 1317 01:05:17,335 --> 01:05:20,445 which was Asteroid's claim, all claims in most days. 1318 01:05:21,075 --> 01:05:24,725 Totally unimaginative really, which Arctics sold again. 1319 01:05:24,865 --> 01:05:27,085 But this time on a pretty good royalty deal, 1320 01:05:27,405 --> 01:05:30,485 I was pretty much on 25% verb, all the early games. 1321 01:05:31,065 --> 01:05:33,205 So almost as soon as the spectrum came out, 1322 01:05:33,425 --> 01:05:36,485 you started seeing immediately lots of versions 1323 01:05:36,485 --> 01:05:40,045 of games like Space Invaders, Pacman Asteroids, 1324 01:05:40,155 --> 01:05:41,805 missile Command Logger. 1325 01:05:42,025 --> 01:05:43,445 We ripped off arcade games 1326 01:05:43,515 --> 01:05:46,965 because Arcade Games were the only games that served 1327 01:05:47,025 --> 01:05:48,325 as reference pieces. 1328 01:05:49,065 --> 01:05:50,325 We all went to the arcades 1329 01:05:50,905 --> 01:05:53,285 and we wanted to copy what we saw. 1330 01:05:53,835 --> 01:05:56,165 It's how you learn anything, right? You imitate. 1331 01:05:56,505 --> 01:05:58,325 And you'd have that instant connection 1332 01:05:58,325 --> 01:05:59,365 because you'd see a game 1333 01:05:59,365 --> 01:06:01,045 and you'd go, oh, it's just like Space Invaders, 1334 01:06:01,055 --> 01:06:02,885 which was like Spectral Invaders. 1335 01:06:03,105 --> 01:06:05,645 Or you'd have Defender except instead 1336 01:06:05,645 --> 01:06:07,485 of er on the end it would be a on the end, 1337 01:06:07,485 --> 01:06:09,005 just subtle little changes like that. 1338 01:06:09,145 --> 01:06:11,605 So they did realize early on 1339 01:06:11,605 --> 01:06:13,645 that these games could be replicated, 1340 01:06:13,745 --> 01:06:16,805 but they also realized that the game should be different 1341 01:06:16,915 --> 01:06:19,805 because the way in which we played them was a lot different. 1342 01:06:19,805 --> 01:06:21,165 Instead of being in an arcade 1343 01:06:21,425 --> 01:06:23,565 and shoving coins in a machine to keep going, 1344 01:06:23,905 --> 01:06:26,325 we were at home and the game should be able 1345 01:06:26,325 --> 01:06:28,645 to involve us a little bit more than those arcade games. 1346 01:06:32,505 --> 01:06:36,005 The game design for Chucka came about mostly nicking ideas 1347 01:06:36,005 --> 01:06:37,845 from what I loved playing in the arcades. 1348 01:06:38,075 --> 01:06:40,925 It's a cross between Space Panic, which is a platform, 1349 01:06:40,925 --> 01:06:42,845 letters game and Donkey Kong. 1350 01:06:42,985 --> 01:06:45,125 And then a few ideas that I just chucked in myself. 1351 01:06:45,205 --> 01:06:46,205 A bit of a mishmash really. 1352 01:06:46,645 --> 01:06:49,285 I realized that you could do pixel movements on the 1353 01:06:49,485 --> 01:06:51,845 spectrum, even though the received wisdom was that you, 1354 01:06:51,865 --> 01:06:53,685 you couldn't, everything had to be character movement. 1355 01:06:53,865 --> 01:06:56,725 And so I wanted to do a game, which was pixel movement. 1356 01:06:56,895 --> 01:06:58,525 Pixel movement was an advantage just 1357 01:06:58,525 --> 01:07:00,045 because it was technically superior. 1358 01:07:00,185 --> 01:07:02,165 It would be better to play, it would look better. 1359 01:07:02,425 --> 01:07:03,445 You could make a better game. 1360 01:07:06,085 --> 01:07:08,005 Everyone that owned a ZX Spectrum played Jet Pack. 1361 01:07:08,085 --> 01:07:10,885 There's something about Jet Pack I think that made you feel 1362 01:07:10,885 --> 01:07:14,605 that you were emulating the archaic experience that most 1363 01:07:14,605 --> 01:07:16,045 of us were having in the early eighties. 1364 01:07:16,705 --> 01:07:18,845 And it was an important thing though. 1365 01:07:18,865 --> 01:07:20,885 Can I take that arcade experience Home with Me 1366 01:07:21,365 --> 01:07:22,645 Ultimate or Ultimate Play? 1367 01:07:22,645 --> 01:07:24,325 The Game as they were often known back then, 1368 01:07:24,395 --> 01:07:25,805 were an incredible company. 1369 01:07:25,805 --> 01:07:27,765 Obviously the two stampers behind them, 1370 01:07:27,985 --> 01:07:29,005 The Stamper Brothers, 1371 01:07:29,115 --> 01:07:30,805 they had Arcade experience themselves. 1372 01:07:30,805 --> 01:07:33,445 They had created their own minor arcade games. 1373 01:07:33,705 --> 01:07:36,485 So when they started to make ZX Spectrum games in the home, 1374 01:07:36,675 --> 01:07:39,325 they were really able to bring that experience 1375 01:07:39,325 --> 01:07:41,445 of already making arcade games through to create 1376 01:07:42,085 --> 01:07:43,525 a game in Jet Pack Lap. 1377 01:07:43,525 --> 01:07:46,005 To me, even if it's only in 16 K, 1378 01:07:46,505 --> 01:07:48,725 it feels like not just an arcade game, 1379 01:07:48,725 --> 01:07:51,885 but a superb arcade game that has all the qualities 1380 01:07:52,225 --> 01:07:53,645 that's an arcade game should have. 1381 01:07:53,745 --> 01:07:55,525 And so when Ultimates came out with that, 1382 01:07:55,605 --> 01:07:57,885 I think especially in terms of going 1383 01:07:57,885 --> 01:08:01,445 beyond perhaps Arcade clones, that was a game changer 1384 01:08:01,585 --> 01:08:02,765 for original software. 1385 01:08:03,245 --> 01:08:04,725 Ultimate Play of the Game brought out a load 1386 01:08:04,725 --> 01:08:07,365 of games at once, which worked on the 16 K Spectrum as well. 1387 01:08:07,365 --> 01:08:09,285 Like Trans Am was amazing 1388 01:08:09,285 --> 01:08:12,445 because you had this whole world of driving round America 1389 01:08:12,705 --> 01:08:14,645 and just being able to explore this entire 1390 01:08:14,675 --> 01:08:16,205 land was brand new. 1391 01:08:16,365 --> 01:08:19,685 I I loved that. TransAm, which was a driving game, 1392 01:08:19,685 --> 01:08:22,645 very similar to the Arcade game Rally X by Namco. 1393 01:08:22,665 --> 01:08:24,125 So they weren't exactly original, 1394 01:08:24,225 --> 01:08:25,805 but the games they made were brilliant 1395 01:08:26,065 --> 01:08:27,485 and they looked good as well. 1396 01:08:27,815 --> 01:08:29,205 Attic Attack, I played for hours. 1397 01:08:29,395 --> 01:08:33,125 That was just a simple Maze game with repeating graphics 1398 01:08:33,545 --> 01:08:34,685 and doors in different places 1399 01:08:35,065 --> 01:08:37,285 and that occupied me for just as many hours. 1400 01:08:37,845 --> 01:08:39,765 I never finished it. I think I got pretty 1401 01:08:39,765 --> 01:08:41,005 close, but I never finished it. 1402 01:08:46,365 --> 01:08:48,365 I think Ultimate was the one that you went for for Quality. 1403 01:08:48,705 --> 01:08:51,165 Jet Pack, Luna, jet Man, a Sable Wolf. 1404 01:08:51,345 --> 01:08:53,925 It wasn't just the game, it was the box. It came in as well. 1405 01:08:54,025 --> 01:08:55,485 And they were the ones that you wanted. 1406 01:08:55,485 --> 01:08:57,365 They were a little bit more, but they were worth waiting 1407 01:08:57,425 --> 01:08:58,605 for and worth saving up for 1408 01:08:58,785 --> 01:09:01,325 To really kind of justify the nine pound 99 1409 01:09:01,325 --> 01:09:02,445 that these games were selling for. 1410 01:09:03,925 --> 01:09:05,465 You really got to kind of up your game, 1411 01:09:05,465 --> 01:09:07,145 kinda the beautiful artwork on Night Law 1412 01:09:07,145 --> 01:09:08,505 and Alien eight, et cetera, 1413 01:09:08,805 --> 01:09:11,545 and the kind of expensive looking black box. 1414 01:09:11,925 --> 01:09:13,105 Is this something you wanted to own 1415 01:09:13,205 --> 01:09:14,785 and touch as well as the game itself? 1416 01:09:14,895 --> 01:09:15,785 Plus as well as that 1417 01:09:15,785 --> 01:09:16,945 you knew you were buying a quality game? 1418 01:09:17,185 --> 01:09:18,105 'cause it's ultimate play. The Game 1419 01:09:23,115 --> 01:09:24,985 Night law was an amazing game 1420 01:09:24,985 --> 01:09:28,265 because it suddenly brought cartoon style graphics 1421 01:09:28,605 --> 01:09:31,065 to the spectrum and also in another dimension as well. 1422 01:09:31,145 --> 01:09:32,545 I know Antech had already done it, 1423 01:09:32,605 --> 01:09:34,105 but this was on a different level. 1424 01:09:34,135 --> 01:09:36,105 This was, I think some people compared it 1425 01:09:36,105 --> 01:09:37,465 to a Disney cartoon back then, 1426 01:09:37,465 --> 01:09:39,025 which maybe might have been a bit fanciful, 1427 01:09:39,085 --> 01:09:40,825 but it did really look that good. 1428 01:09:40,845 --> 01:09:42,505 It was a completely different type of game. 1429 01:09:42,765 --> 01:09:45,105 By the time I got a Spectrum, which was about a year 1430 01:09:45,105 --> 01:09:46,665 after night, Laura had come out, a lot 1431 01:09:46,665 --> 01:09:49,385 of other people had worked out how Night Law worked 1432 01:09:49,765 --> 01:09:51,545 and they'd done a lot of similar games. 1433 01:09:51,885 --> 01:09:53,625 So as usual, there were a lot of games 1434 01:09:53,625 --> 01:09:54,745 that were very similar to that 1435 01:09:54,805 --> 01:09:56,705 and a lot of clones of night law. 1436 01:09:57,005 --> 01:09:59,985 But it stands out as the original and also the best 1437 01:09:59,985 --> 01:10:01,825 because it was the game that basically created 1438 01:10:01,825 --> 01:10:03,425 that whole style of gameplay. People 1439 01:10:03,445 --> 01:10:05,785 Who started making games 1440 01:10:05,885 --> 01:10:07,945 and experimenting with the hardware 1441 01:10:07,945 --> 01:10:11,185 that then became available, like the ZX spectrum, you know, 1442 01:10:11,185 --> 01:10:13,505 you were always trying to do something a bit more 1443 01:10:13,825 --> 01:10:15,425 interesting and trying to push the boundaries 1444 01:10:15,445 --> 01:10:17,745 and that is what characterizes the video 1445 01:10:17,745 --> 01:10:19,145 games industry even today. 1446 01:10:19,445 --> 01:10:21,305 So always sort of pushing on those different ways 1447 01:10:21,305 --> 01:10:23,665 of telling stories or different ways of having fun. That's 1448 01:10:23,665 --> 01:10:27,465 Why we had such a wave of creative games in the eighties, 1449 01:10:27,465 --> 01:10:30,425 which probably haven't seen since some of these games were, 1450 01:10:30,805 --> 01:10:32,105 if you had them now, they would be 1451 01:10:32,105 --> 01:10:33,305 groundbreaking at the time. 1452 01:10:33,765 --> 01:10:36,545 It just meant an entirely new world was opened up. 1453 01:10:47,355 --> 01:10:48,825 Manic Minor when that came out. 1454 01:10:48,825 --> 01:10:51,305 Definitely felt like a level ahead of a lot 1455 01:10:51,305 --> 01:10:53,105 of the other games that had come out the spectrum. 1456 01:10:53,505 --> 01:10:56,305 I mean, it wasn't quite inspired by minor 2049 1457 01:10:56,305 --> 01:10:58,225 or a game that Matthew Smith really loved. 1458 01:10:58,285 --> 01:11:00,345 But the way that the game was created, 1459 01:11:00,845 --> 01:11:03,225 it was created in a way to appeal to everybody. 1460 01:11:03,565 --> 01:11:08,105 The reason I find manic miner being such a classic is the 1461 01:11:08,105 --> 01:11:09,745 fact that you are always in peril. 1462 01:11:10,205 --> 01:11:11,585 All the bodies are on screen at once 1463 01:11:11,805 --> 01:11:13,990 and there's about eight of them on most screens. 1464 01:11:14,425 --> 01:11:18,445 So in that little bit of screen real estate, there's peril. 1465 01:11:18,475 --> 01:11:19,805 Like at every point. 1466 01:11:19,955 --> 01:11:21,445 Manning Miner was a genius game. 1467 01:11:21,445 --> 01:11:22,685 Matthew Smith was a legend. 1468 01:11:23,295 --> 01:11:26,125 First level, the perfect entry into any platform game. 1469 01:11:26,335 --> 01:11:27,125 First of all, when you 1470 01:11:27,125 --> 01:11:28,165 played it, you didn't know what you were doing. 1471 01:11:28,165 --> 01:11:29,525 It was a very, very hard level. 1472 01:11:29,625 --> 01:11:31,005 But then eventually you knew where to jump. 1473 01:11:31,385 --> 01:11:33,965 You knew where the floors that collapse were, 1474 01:11:34,225 --> 01:11:36,125 and you could eventually work your way to the top, 1475 01:11:36,125 --> 01:11:38,165 pick up the item, go back down 1476 01:11:38,165 --> 01:11:39,645 to the bottom, get to the next level. 1477 01:11:39,675 --> 01:11:41,245 What it really did well, it kind 1478 01:11:41,245 --> 01:11:42,525 of prepared you for the rest of the game. 1479 01:11:43,015 --> 01:11:45,925 Manic Minor was, you know, probably the the one first game 1480 01:11:45,925 --> 01:11:47,445 that really got me 1481 01:11:47,705 --> 01:11:48,765 and we played it, 1482 01:11:48,965 --> 01:11:51,405 I can't remember like an all summer holiday, you know, 1483 01:11:51,405 --> 01:11:54,645 forever a mother Shane up the stairs, get down, get outside. 1484 01:11:55,365 --> 01:11:57,285 I was like, where your other, including guns. 1485 01:11:58,825 --> 01:12:00,205 For me, I think one of the best games 1486 01:12:00,205 --> 01:12:02,205 of all time is Jetset Willie by Matthew Smith, 1487 01:12:02,345 --> 01:12:04,645 who made the original manic minor, Jetset Willie expanded. 1488 01:12:05,015 --> 01:12:07,605 There was a lot more rooms you could go up down. 1489 01:12:07,665 --> 01:12:09,045 You could change rooms rather than being 1490 01:12:09,045 --> 01:12:11,325 stuck in one room all the time. It was impossibly hard. 1491 01:12:11,975 --> 01:12:13,685 Jesse Willy was the big one, wasn't it? 1492 01:12:13,765 --> 01:12:15,165 A seminal platform game. 1493 01:12:15,355 --> 01:12:18,605 What those platform games did was take the page turning 1494 01:12:18,605 --> 01:12:21,325 element of an adventure, which was obviously my big thing. 1495 01:12:21,325 --> 01:12:23,525 Like what happens next? I get through to the next stage 1496 01:12:23,955 --> 01:12:26,005 with the more basic arcade element. 1497 01:12:26,325 --> 01:12:28,045 I mean, crikey, I played that for hours 1498 01:12:28,145 --> 01:12:29,605 and tried all the pokes as well. 1499 01:12:29,625 --> 01:12:32,125 The little pokes you'd used to do, 'cause it had a bug in 1500 01:12:32,125 --> 01:12:33,125 It. Ingested was a 1501 01:12:33,125 --> 01:12:34,805 very well known bug called the Attic Bug. 1502 01:12:35,065 --> 01:12:37,005 And basically if you entered the attic room, 1503 01:12:37,465 --> 01:12:39,565 it would corrupt many other screens in the game. 1504 01:12:39,985 --> 01:12:42,005 So if you hadn't collected the things you had 1505 01:12:42,005 --> 01:12:43,405 to collect from those screens, the game 1506 01:12:43,405 --> 01:12:44,565 became un completable. 1507 01:12:44,915 --> 01:12:47,485 Also, there was a infinite death routine, a thing 1508 01:12:47,485 --> 01:12:49,205 where if you stepped off a ledge, 1509 01:12:49,265 --> 01:12:50,285 you would fall down a screen 1510 01:12:50,285 --> 01:12:52,125 and then when you died, you would go back to the top 1511 01:12:52,125 --> 01:12:53,645 of the screen and fall down and down 1512 01:12:53,665 --> 01:12:55,045 and down again and lose all your lives. 1513 01:12:55,585 --> 01:12:57,485 So basically the game was incredibly hard, 1514 01:13:02,945 --> 01:13:03,945 Really. It gave 1515 01:13:03,945 --> 01:13:07,485 the tools of production to the hands of millions 1516 01:13:07,665 --> 01:13:09,165 and you made your own fun 1517 01:13:09,505 --> 01:13:12,365 and it enabled you to kind of get your head around, okay, 1518 01:13:12,365 --> 01:13:14,005 well this is a set of instructions 1519 01:13:14,005 --> 01:13:15,125 that I need to give this machine. 1520 01:13:15,175 --> 01:13:18,645 Let's see what I can do. It just fed that curiosity again, 1521 01:13:18,645 --> 01:13:20,525 that creativity, that creative spark, 1522 01:13:20,705 --> 01:13:21,845 that's what drives innovation. 1523 01:13:21,845 --> 01:13:24,965 It's what drives curiosity and creativity. There 1524 01:13:24,965 --> 01:13:27,525 Was a massive variation in the type of games we had. 1525 01:13:27,585 --> 01:13:31,165 So instead of one company making 10 games that everyone had 1526 01:13:31,165 --> 01:13:33,165 to play, there was so many different things, 1527 01:13:33,305 --> 01:13:34,605 it appealed to so many different people. 1528 01:13:34,865 --> 01:13:36,285 So someone who likes football games 1529 01:13:36,545 --> 01:13:38,045 or football would like football games. 1530 01:13:39,125 --> 01:13:41,445 Somebody who likes maths might like a puzzle game. 1531 01:13:42,265 --> 01:13:44,005 So it cater for everyone. 1532 01:13:44,455 --> 01:13:47,805 Other computers have as well, but this was cheap. 1533 01:13:47,945 --> 01:13:51,085 It was in everyone's houses, it was color. It's beautiful. 1534 01:13:53,865 --> 01:13:58,205 The spectrum for me opened my eyes to art in computer games. 1535 01:13:58,645 --> 01:14:00,325 I found it fantastic and amazing. 1536 01:14:00,545 --> 01:14:02,205 The color, the things you could do on screen, 1537 01:14:02,385 --> 01:14:04,005 it was really basic at the time and, 1538 01:14:04,025 --> 01:14:06,685 and the way the colors worked on the spectrum meant you 1539 01:14:06,685 --> 01:14:08,605 couldn't have individual colors or individual colored 1540 01:14:08,625 --> 01:14:11,005 pixels, but it kind of almost made it like a challenge 1541 01:14:11,185 --> 01:14:13,925 to create things that did work within those boundaries. 1542 01:14:14,305 --> 01:14:16,765 So if you've got two colors moving in front of each other, 1543 01:14:16,955 --> 01:14:20,405 then you could still only have those two colors on one 1544 01:14:20,405 --> 01:14:22,565 square, where really you should have three, 1545 01:14:22,905 --> 01:14:24,245 but that is impossible. 1546 01:14:24,505 --> 01:14:27,485 So you'd have all these, uh, graphics changing color 1547 01:14:28,025 --> 01:14:30,005 and taking on the color of the background. 1548 01:14:30,665 --> 01:14:31,965 Um, but we just got used to it. 1549 01:14:32,065 --> 01:14:33,285 It wasn't, it wasn't that bad. 1550 01:14:33,465 --> 01:14:36,125 You couldn't do graphics on the spectrum without knowing how 1551 01:14:36,125 --> 01:14:37,525 to work around tribute clash. 1552 01:14:37,705 --> 01:14:40,965 It started the great video games C Crash I never even knew 1553 01:14:40,965 --> 01:14:43,125 about until I watched YouTube five years ago. 1554 01:14:43,385 --> 01:14:45,925 But I'm telling you what color clash really 1555 01:14:46,115 --> 01:14:47,525 what I don't know what you're talking about. 1556 01:14:48,545 --> 01:14:49,645 And, and I don't care. 1557 01:14:50,365 --> 01:14:52,565 I mean, I was just discovering girls break 1558 01:14:52,565 --> 01:14:54,565 dancing and computer games. 1559 01:14:54,785 --> 01:14:56,605 Do you think I'm gonna care about a color clash? 1560 01:14:57,075 --> 01:14:59,725 This is awesome. It was my opportunity to do 1561 01:14:59,725 --> 01:15:01,965 what I couldn't afford to continue to do in the arcade. 1562 01:15:02,245 --> 01:15:03,805 I could spend all day and all night doing this 1563 01:15:04,175 --> 01:15:05,445 color clash be damned. 1564 01:15:10,305 --> 01:15:12,245 The amount of games that we used to get 1565 01:15:12,245 --> 01:15:13,525 through was just incredible. 1566 01:15:13,535 --> 01:15:15,685 There were so many that we played for five minutes, 1567 01:15:15,915 --> 01:15:18,325 some we played for hours, some we played for days 1568 01:15:18,325 --> 01:15:19,645 and days and days and days and days. 1569 01:15:19,735 --> 01:15:21,685 There was a whole genre around that time 1570 01:15:21,705 --> 01:15:25,485 of things like Jet Set, Willy Manic, minor Monte on the Run 1571 01:15:25,635 --> 01:15:27,405 that were just so good at gameplay. 1572 01:15:27,405 --> 01:15:29,525 They had so much in them, so much 1573 01:15:29,525 --> 01:15:31,085 to look at while you're playing as well 1574 01:15:31,225 --> 01:15:33,245 and could be so frustrating to just get 1575 01:15:33,245 --> 01:15:34,885 that jump pixel perfect 1576 01:15:35,735 --> 01:15:36,735 Daily. Thompson's 1577 01:15:36,735 --> 01:15:38,805 good at track and field daily. 1578 01:15:39,165 --> 01:15:41,525 Thompson's good at track and field daily. 1579 01:15:41,925 --> 01:15:43,925 Thompson's good at track and field daily. 1580 01:15:44,205 --> 01:15:46,245 Thompson's good at track and field, everybody. 1581 01:15:46,245 --> 01:15:49,565 Come on just me then. Yeah, and that's a real thing. 1582 01:15:49,565 --> 01:15:50,965 And I remember that from the playground. 1583 01:15:51,095 --> 01:15:53,205 Daily Thompson's decathlon to me, 1584 01:15:53,725 --> 01:15:56,165 I was a massive athletics fan as well. 1585 01:15:56,625 --> 01:16:00,005 So Daily Thompson was a bit of a hero of mine. 1586 01:16:00,105 --> 01:16:02,485 So when, when there's a game of your hero, 1587 01:16:02,915 --> 01:16:04,405 it's always quite nice Daily 1588 01:16:04,685 --> 01:16:07,565 Thompson's decathlon, that finger bashing exercise 1589 01:16:07,565 --> 01:16:11,005 and that pixel perfect jump to get the long jump right 1590 01:16:11,065 --> 01:16:12,845 or throw the javelin at the right point. 1591 01:16:13,075 --> 01:16:17,125 Fantastic games that that, that really did grab you and, and 1592 01:16:17,125 --> 01:16:18,925 and, and keep your attention for hours. 1593 01:16:19,345 --> 01:16:22,245 One of the most amazing games I ever played was Antech. 1594 01:16:22,425 --> 01:16:23,645 In the early days of the spectrum. 1595 01:16:23,815 --> 01:16:25,725 First of all, I was completely stunned. 1596 01:16:26,325 --> 01:16:28,645 I remember unloading it up where you were given the choice 1597 01:16:28,665 --> 01:16:30,245 of either playing a boy or a girl. 1598 01:16:30,475 --> 01:16:33,365 Obviously these days we we're kind of used to that sort 1599 01:16:33,365 --> 01:16:35,605 of thing, but it was very unusual back in 1983. 1600 01:16:35,865 --> 01:16:38,765 And then you had this really creepy city, 1601 01:16:38,895 --> 01:16:41,525 which is very evocatively shown on the cover, 1602 01:16:41,625 --> 01:16:43,005 and it's full of these giant ants 1603 01:16:43,075 --> 01:16:44,765 Looking at other games that are around, 1604 01:16:44,965 --> 01:16:46,565 I I I really hated things 1605 01:16:46,715 --> 01:16:49,005 that appeared on screen that didn't do anything. 1606 01:16:49,005 --> 01:16:50,165 They were like decoration. 1607 01:16:50,465 --> 01:16:54,085 So I kind of wrote a, a consistent little universe 1608 01:16:54,775 --> 01:16:58,405 where if you could see it, it was there and really worked. 1609 01:16:58,505 --> 01:17:00,005 If it was there, you could climb on it. 1610 01:17:00,095 --> 01:17:01,605 There was no decoration in that. 1611 01:17:01,665 --> 01:17:03,925 It was like a complete little universe 1612 01:17:03,995 --> 01:17:06,645 with a miniature version of physics. So 1613 01:17:06,745 --> 01:17:08,765 Antech was the first isometric game I saw. 1614 01:17:09,125 --> 01:17:10,445 I remember that vividly 1615 01:17:10,675 --> 01:17:15,005 because I found it super confusing when you could rotate the 1616 01:17:15,005 --> 01:17:18,205 camera and you had to, to see things from the other angle 1617 01:17:18,205 --> 01:17:20,285 because the ants could be coming from anywhere. 1618 01:17:20,455 --> 01:17:23,645 Characters were behind things because that never happened 1619 01:17:23,645 --> 01:17:25,485 before with any other game that I knew of. 1620 01:17:25,585 --> 01:17:27,805 And you have to avoid these giant ants 1621 01:17:27,805 --> 01:17:30,045 that are stalking you at every term while you're trying 1622 01:17:30,045 --> 01:17:31,445 to find the boy or the girl. 1623 01:17:31,585 --> 01:17:33,645 So for its time, it's an amazing game 1624 01:17:33,825 --> 01:17:35,365 and I think, I think, yeah, it's, 1625 01:17:35,395 --> 01:17:37,165 it's quite rightly revered today as well. 1626 01:17:40,035 --> 01:17:43,335 One of the games I left a big imprint on me was saboteur. 1627 01:17:43,555 --> 01:17:45,095 And the main reason for that, 1628 01:17:45,195 --> 01:17:47,695 it was the first time I saw environmental 1629 01:17:47,695 --> 01:17:49,415 storytelling in action. 1630 01:17:49,675 --> 01:17:52,255 If you remember, the spectrum was a lot about text. 1631 01:17:52,255 --> 01:17:54,095 Adventure games were very descriptive. 1632 01:17:54,195 --> 01:17:56,495 You will be someone telling you where you are, 1633 01:17:56,915 --> 01:17:58,415 why you're there, where do you want 1634 01:17:58,415 --> 01:17:59,975 to go now, or you have arcade games. 1635 01:18:00,115 --> 01:18:04,135 But Aire was about telling a story without actually 1636 01:18:04,135 --> 01:18:05,175 saying out loud. 1637 01:18:05,515 --> 01:18:07,015 You are certainly up for no good 1638 01:18:07,015 --> 01:18:09,295 because you are getting into a company in the middle 1639 01:18:09,315 --> 01:18:11,295 of the night using a dinghy. 1640 01:18:11,675 --> 01:18:14,775 And then once you are in there, you are killing guards and, 1641 01:18:14,775 --> 01:18:16,015 and there are these dogs around. 1642 01:18:16,075 --> 01:18:18,975 And then you figure out this is an underground facility 1643 01:18:18,975 --> 01:18:21,695 because there is a a, a tube system going from A to B. 1644 01:18:21,715 --> 01:18:24,335 So all these things start to play with my mind. 1645 01:18:24,595 --> 01:18:27,495 And I was building a story of why I was there, 1646 01:18:27,795 --> 01:18:30,615 and that told me so much about game design 1647 01:18:30,955 --> 01:18:34,655 and how to make people get sucked into a universe. 1648 01:18:35,435 --> 01:18:37,805 This is why I hold saboteur in such high esteem. 1649 01:18:38,475 --> 01:18:41,365 Your mission in saboteur is to break into a building, 1650 01:18:41,675 --> 01:18:44,605 find a disc, plant a bomb, and then escape by helicopter. 1651 01:18:44,865 --> 01:18:46,685 If you read the instructions, you'd know that, 1652 01:18:46,745 --> 01:18:47,845 but no one reads the instructions. 1653 01:18:47,845 --> 01:18:49,165 They'll get pirate copies of their friends. 1654 01:18:49,225 --> 01:18:51,125 The number of people who said, oh, it's really easy, 1655 01:18:51,125 --> 01:18:54,405 you just go to the helicopter and, oh, I, I only had a copy. 1656 01:18:54,565 --> 01:18:55,605 I didn't read the instructions. 1657 01:18:56,025 --> 01:18:57,645 One of the things I should have done is say, 1658 01:18:57,985 --> 01:18:59,765 you have failed your mission if you just go 1659 01:18:59,765 --> 01:19:01,885 to the helicopter, but I didn't. 1660 01:19:02,145 --> 01:19:04,965 It says mission successful and it shouldn't. It's a bug. 1661 01:19:05,265 --> 01:19:07,925 The spectrum had a very high resolution for the time. 1662 01:19:08,165 --> 01:19:09,645 I don't think any other computer had 1663 01:19:09,645 --> 01:19:10,885 as high resolution as a spectrum. 1664 01:19:11,305 --> 01:19:14,325 So it did mean that in the hands of talented artists, 1665 01:19:14,705 --> 01:19:17,205 you had some amazing pictures on the spectrum 1666 01:19:17,345 --> 01:19:20,365 and graphics, most notably loading screens, 1667 01:19:20,365 --> 01:19:22,085 which have become an art form in themselves. 1668 01:19:22,265 --> 01:19:23,805 And you had to watch these 1669 01:19:23,865 --> 01:19:25,525 for several minutes while the game loaded 1670 01:19:25,785 --> 01:19:28,085 and the artists often went to town on them 1671 01:19:28,085 --> 01:19:29,885 and made sure that these were absolutely brilliant. 1672 01:19:29,885 --> 01:19:30,885 These loading screens, 1673 01:19:43,435 --> 01:19:45,605 Well a loading screen would be for someone 1674 01:19:45,625 --> 01:19:47,285 to watch while the game loaded. 1675 01:19:47,505 --> 01:19:49,165 If you loaded a game without a loading screen, 1676 01:19:49,165 --> 01:19:50,605 you're sitting there staring at a black 1677 01:19:50,705 --> 01:19:52,285 screen for five minutes. 1678 01:19:52,825 --> 01:19:54,725 And even though it did add to the loading time, 1679 01:19:55,145 --> 01:19:56,165 it was part of the package. 1680 01:19:56,305 --> 01:19:58,885 Uh, I always try to base my loading screens on the artwork, 1681 01:19:58,985 --> 01:20:00,645 so I'd interpret the artwork 1682 01:20:00,665 --> 01:20:02,565 of the game on the screen of the spectrum. 1683 01:20:03,105 --> 01:20:05,165 So I always think it was just like a little bit 1684 01:20:05,165 --> 01:20:07,330 of extra detail that didn't have to be there, 1685 01:20:07,625 --> 01:20:09,805 but gave you just something to look at. 1686 01:20:09,825 --> 01:20:12,125 And so something that looked pretty while you waited 1687 01:20:12,265 --> 01:20:14,005 for three or four minutes for the game load. 1688 01:20:14,785 --> 01:20:17,085 Now what happened with me, I was still at school at the 1689 01:20:17,085 --> 01:20:20,365 time and an early sort 1690 01:20:20,365 --> 01:20:22,125 of proper video game developer in 1691 01:20:22,125 --> 01:20:23,365 Manchester Co binary design. 1692 01:20:24,085 --> 01:20:26,485 I came in work experience for a week 1693 01:20:26,985 --> 01:20:29,845 and now as I could draw graphics a little bit, they said, 1694 01:20:29,845 --> 01:20:32,565 oh, draw a loading screen for this game. 1695 01:20:32,985 --> 01:20:36,285 So I sat down and sat on the spectrum, plug it away, 1696 01:20:36,285 --> 01:20:39,645 drew a loading speed, and he said, oh, that's quite good 1697 01:20:39,645 --> 01:20:42,085 that, um, this is like Wednesday now. 1698 01:20:42,305 --> 01:20:43,965 You ate till five. Could you do another one? 1699 01:20:44,085 --> 01:20:45,165 We've got this other guy. Could 1700 01:20:45,165 --> 01:20:46,205 you do a loading screen for that? 1701 01:20:46,315 --> 01:20:48,765 Yeah, okay, got to Friday. 1702 01:20:50,375 --> 01:20:52,115 Do you think you could stay for another week? 1703 01:20:52,285 --> 01:20:53,755 We've got a load of loading screens. 1704 01:20:53,775 --> 01:20:55,355 And I said, well, I'll ask my mom, 1705 01:20:55,495 --> 01:20:56,755 you know, follow the school up. 1706 01:20:57,175 --> 01:21:00,955 Stayed for for two weeks. I just did loads of graphics. 1707 01:21:01,625 --> 01:21:03,675 Some of the loading screens were beautiful art, 1708 01:21:03,785 --> 01:21:05,035 like, like the covers of crash. 1709 01:21:05,195 --> 01:21:07,715 A loading screen would come up, which served no purpose 1710 01:21:08,335 --> 01:21:11,915 at all except the aesthetic pleasure in the six minute 1711 01:21:11,935 --> 01:21:13,395 or seven minute pause waiting 1712 01:21:13,415 --> 01:21:14,835 for the actual game to kick in. 1713 01:21:15,215 --> 01:21:16,875 And again, it was on your telly 1714 01:21:16,875 --> 01:21:20,355 and you'd put it there, you'd put it on your telly and 1715 01:21:20,355 --> 01:21:21,515 and there it wasn't glorious 1716 01:21:21,515 --> 01:21:23,395 technicolor winking back at you. 1717 01:21:23,415 --> 01:21:25,755 It was, it was like nothing else before or sins. 1718 01:21:32,915 --> 01:21:35,995 Magazines were an easy way of finding an echo chamber 1719 01:21:36,335 --> 01:21:37,515 for people that were like-minded 1720 01:21:37,935 --> 01:21:41,315 and to find out what you should be saving for, maybe how 1721 01:21:41,315 --> 01:21:42,675 to complete a particular game 1722 01:21:42,695 --> 01:21:44,355 or cheat codes, that sort of stuff. 1723 01:21:44,385 --> 01:21:46,355 They had a role to play that well. 1724 01:21:46,355 --> 01:21:47,675 It was impossible to ignore. 1725 01:21:47,885 --> 01:21:50,515 There was a real kind of window shopping thing as well, 1726 01:21:50,645 --> 01:21:52,675 being able to understand what was coming, 1727 01:21:52,675 --> 01:21:54,075 when it was gonna be available, how much it was 1728 01:21:54,415 --> 01:21:55,715 to fantasize about having 1729 01:21:55,715 --> 01:21:57,075 that put it on your Christmas list, 1730 01:21:57,095 --> 01:21:58,435 on your birthday list, whatever. 1731 01:21:59,035 --> 01:22:00,075 Magazines were the only way of doing that. 1732 01:22:00,185 --> 01:22:02,835 They were almost sort of like game of porn, weren't they? 1733 01:22:02,835 --> 01:22:04,835 They, they were so necessary. 1734 01:22:05,115 --> 01:22:08,035 I relied on those magazines as my lifeblood 1735 01:22:08,035 --> 01:22:09,275 to teach me some techniques 1736 01:22:09,275 --> 01:22:13,155 that I wasn't gonna pick up on my own, your computer crash. 1737 01:22:13,655 --> 01:22:16,195 And also to some extent personal computer world. 1738 01:22:16,195 --> 01:22:18,435 They were doing some game reviews quite early on 1739 01:22:18,575 --> 01:22:21,315 and they were small pieces, but they were important 1740 01:22:21,815 --> 01:22:22,815 For me. The amazement 1741 01:22:22,815 --> 01:22:24,115 I got from looking at magazines 1742 01:22:24,115 --> 01:22:25,235 and looking at all the graphics 1743 01:22:25,335 --> 01:22:27,195 and all the ideas that people were coming up 1744 01:22:27,195 --> 01:22:29,155 with was the thing that I looked at back then. 1745 01:22:29,155 --> 01:22:31,875 And even today I'll be drawn to a game on how it looks, 1746 01:22:32,255 --> 01:22:33,595 not necessarily how it plays. 1747 01:22:34,025 --> 01:22:35,995 Getting one of these magazines once a month. 1748 01:22:36,065 --> 01:22:38,675 That was our gateway to find out what was happening. 1749 01:22:38,745 --> 01:22:40,155 They shared lots of tips as well. 1750 01:22:40,175 --> 01:22:41,995 You could write in, you could ask them how 1751 01:22:41,995 --> 01:22:43,235 to expand your spectrum. 1752 01:22:43,415 --> 01:22:45,755 You could ask them what upgrades to get, how 1753 01:22:45,755 --> 01:22:47,035 to plug a joystick in. 1754 01:22:47,035 --> 01:22:48,915 And that was crucial for spreading 1755 01:22:48,915 --> 01:22:50,555 knowledge to the user base. 1756 01:22:50,895 --> 01:22:53,235 And they expanded that into the letters pages. 1757 01:22:53,375 --> 01:22:55,395 So we would write letters. You couldn't go on the internet 1758 01:22:55,395 --> 01:22:56,755 and write a comment on anything. 1759 01:22:56,755 --> 01:22:58,475 You had to write an actual letter 1760 01:22:59,055 --> 01:23:01,595 and send it off to Lloyd Mangram at crash. 1761 01:23:01,735 --> 01:23:03,755 And he would reply in some pithy manner. 1762 01:23:04,205 --> 01:23:06,725 There was a regular feature in Sinclair user 1763 01:23:06,775 --> 01:23:08,325 where people would send in a list 1764 01:23:08,325 --> 01:23:10,005 of all the adventures they'd completed 1765 01:23:10,145 --> 01:23:11,725 and people would solve your problems for you. 1766 01:23:11,745 --> 01:23:14,125 And I called myself the Perlin goblin 1767 01:23:14,465 --> 01:23:16,565 and a list of adventure games that I'd solved 1768 01:23:17,185 --> 01:23:18,845 and you had to send me 20 pence 1769 01:23:18,955 --> 01:23:20,245 with a stamps addressed envelope 1770 01:23:20,245 --> 01:23:22,885 and I would send back a solution by return of posting. 1771 01:23:23,025 --> 01:23:25,645 So the magazines gave you this sense of being part 1772 01:23:25,645 --> 01:23:27,045 of a much broader community. 1773 01:23:27,345 --> 01:23:29,525 It felt like you were at the frontier of something 1774 01:23:29,545 --> 01:23:32,205 and you were in a way, you were the first generation ever 1775 01:23:32,225 --> 01:23:33,805 to be doing this kind of thing 1776 01:23:33,825 --> 01:23:36,205 and interacting with technology in this kind of way. 1777 01:23:36,205 --> 01:23:37,965 And the magazines almost had a kind 1778 01:23:37,965 --> 01:23:40,125 of a uniting theme to them. 1779 01:23:40,545 --> 01:23:42,685 And I remember inhaling them, 1780 01:23:42,805 --> 01:23:44,365 I remember reading them cover to cover 1781 01:23:45,055 --> 01:23:48,765 Quite a few, um, magazines, computer and video games, 1782 01:23:48,785 --> 01:23:51,125 and a few others had art tools about me. 1783 01:23:51,325 --> 01:23:54,405 I remember one about sto the gist of the article was 1784 01:23:54,405 --> 01:23:57,045 that there was this guy from used to be a seeding fixer 1785 01:23:57,265 --> 01:23:58,445 and now he's running games 1786 01:23:59,155 --> 01:24:01,805 with sophisticated ai Bingo trick. 1787 01:24:01,805 --> 01:24:02,805 Yeah, 1788 01:24:03,435 --> 01:24:06,765 Well it's fantastic fun for a start off to do an interview 1789 01:24:06,785 --> 01:24:08,925 and then see, oh, I did an interview 1790 01:24:08,925 --> 01:24:10,845 and then, you know, the first time you do that, it's like, 1791 01:24:10,845 --> 01:24:12,165 there's me in a magazine. 1792 01:24:12,265 --> 01:24:15,165 Hey mom, look here I am. You know, it was always pleasant. 1793 01:24:15,365 --> 01:24:17,765 I don't think I read a bad review or anything like that. 1794 01:24:20,445 --> 01:24:22,685 I spotted something that looked a bit wilder, 1795 01:24:22,745 --> 01:24:25,125 had this incredible bright, colorful, 1796 01:24:25,255 --> 01:24:27,365 crazy fantasy almost cover 1797 01:24:27,905 --> 01:24:29,925 and it was just called being Bold crash. 1798 01:24:30,825 --> 01:24:35,205 And suddenly I found a spiritual home from me 1799 01:24:35,305 --> 01:24:39,205 and my spectrum in a magazine that celebrated games 1800 01:24:39,225 --> 01:24:40,325 and brought them to life. 1801 01:24:40,825 --> 01:24:44,165 And the interesting thing was that was I think probably the, 1802 01:24:44,225 --> 01:24:46,085 the genius that Roger 1803 01:24:46,185 --> 01:24:49,565 and Ollie had then in that they actually got teenagers in 1804 01:24:49,565 --> 01:24:51,725 after school to play those games 1805 01:24:51,825 --> 01:24:52,885 and give them their comments. 1806 01:24:52,985 --> 01:24:54,285 But you had this injection of 1807 01:24:54,395 --> 01:24:56,885 what people your age actually thought. 1808 01:24:57,425 --> 01:25:00,925 So it talked absolutely directly to the audience 1809 01:25:00,925 --> 01:25:02,525 and it made it so different to everything else. 1810 01:25:03,225 --> 01:25:04,725 But we were also a very small unit. 1811 01:25:04,755 --> 01:25:09,685 It's only me, Oliver, Franco, Matthew Del. And that was it. 1812 01:25:10,205 --> 01:25:12,885 Handling 15 to 20, 14 1813 01:25:12,945 --> 01:25:15,485 to 16 year old school boys as the reviewers. 1814 01:25:15,745 --> 01:25:17,125 It would've been very difficult for us 1815 01:25:17,185 --> 01:25:20,125 to have taken on a multi-format magazine at the time. 1816 01:25:20,505 --> 01:25:22,805 We were aware that the spectrum was doing well. 1817 01:25:22,865 --> 01:25:25,285 It was definitely establishing a, a good sales base. 1818 01:25:25,385 --> 01:25:26,645 So it was all we cared about 1819 01:25:26,655 --> 01:25:28,565 until the 64 came along. They could 1820 01:25:28,565 --> 01:25:29,885 Quite easily make or break a game. 1821 01:25:30,025 --> 01:25:31,525 You had to play the game with them 1822 01:25:31,585 --> 01:25:33,445 and make sure they had early shots 1823 01:25:33,545 --> 01:25:34,925 of the games you were developing. 1824 01:25:35,025 --> 01:25:36,805 You got them involved as much as you could. 1825 01:25:37,105 --> 01:25:38,605 And yeah, it was part of it. 1826 01:25:38,605 --> 01:25:40,445 We got to know these people very well. 1827 01:25:40,745 --> 01:25:42,085 As soon as Saboteur was on sale, 1828 01:25:42,135 --> 01:25:43,725 there was no feedback, there's no internet. 1829 01:25:43,835 --> 01:25:46,165 Gradually people started to write in saying, 1830 01:25:46,185 --> 01:25:48,645 we love your game and Crash loved it as well. 1831 01:25:49,105 --> 01:25:53,205 So the reviews were the main feedback at the time. 1832 01:25:53,625 --> 01:25:55,405 And the great thing about Newsfield, 1833 01:25:55,465 --> 01:25:56,925 it was like a big family. 1834 01:25:57,135 --> 01:25:59,525 Roger Ley took the business very seriously 1835 01:25:59,525 --> 01:26:01,285 of making very good magazines. 1836 01:26:01,285 --> 01:26:03,405 That's what they were super bash at at in terms of 1837 01:26:03,405 --> 01:26:04,845 what it was covering and what it was doing 1838 01:26:04,865 --> 01:26:06,085 and how it was speaking to its 1839 01:26:06,285 --> 01:26:07,285 Audience. And the cover 1840 01:26:07,285 --> 01:26:08,645 had to reflect that it had 1841 01:26:08,645 --> 01:26:10,605 to attract the readership that we wanted. 1842 01:26:10,745 --> 01:26:13,325 And the only way to do that was to be as dramatic 1843 01:26:13,705 --> 01:26:17,085 and in a sense, realistic as possible to attract them. 1844 01:26:20,445 --> 01:26:24,845 I think art was terribly important to burgeoning video games 1845 01:26:25,445 --> 01:26:28,965 industry because given the fact that the, the actual pixels 1846 01:26:29,305 --> 01:26:31,365 and the moving sprites didn't live up 1847 01:26:31,385 --> 01:26:35,365 to whatever the game's title was at all, you needed art 1848 01:26:35,425 --> 01:26:38,445 to create the make-believe in the Player's 1849 01:26:38,445 --> 01:26:40,165 mind was the game. 1850 01:26:40,345 --> 01:26:44,165 So Little Blob here was actually Indiana Jones or whatever. 1851 01:26:44,805 --> 01:26:49,565 I think that governed my entire work with Crash. 1852 01:26:50,185 --> 01:26:51,805 You were sort of carried along on a wave 1853 01:26:52,075 --> 01:26:53,485 because the reviewers 1854 01:26:53,785 --> 01:26:57,285 and the readers who wrote in, they were all enthusiastic. 1855 01:26:57,345 --> 01:27:01,485 So you suddenly felt part of this exciting new thing. 1856 01:27:01,985 --> 01:27:03,325 And to me it was exciting 1857 01:27:03,325 --> 01:27:07,925 because I'd always wanted to make movies and I didn't. 1858 01:27:08,465 --> 01:27:11,685 But this felt a bit like that being part of 1859 01:27:12,205 --> 01:27:14,045 a whole new segment of entertainment 1860 01:27:22,245 --> 01:27:24,765 Spectrum was like a big bang really. 1861 01:27:25,065 --> 01:27:26,885 It really took off from every point 1862 01:27:26,885 --> 01:27:28,685 of view really from the number of games coming out, 1863 01:27:28,685 --> 01:27:30,165 the quality of those games coming out, 1864 01:27:30,345 --> 01:27:31,925 the companies that were getting started. 1865 01:27:32,145 --> 01:27:34,885 And those companies were smarter in terms of knowing about 1866 01:27:34,885 --> 01:27:36,565 how to get their games reviewed, wanting 1867 01:27:36,565 --> 01:27:38,765 to get their games reviewed, advertising 1868 01:27:38,765 --> 01:27:40,005 and marketing their games and 1869 01:27:40,005 --> 01:27:41,285 improving the quality of their games. 1870 01:27:41,465 --> 01:27:42,685 So it really was a big bang. 1871 01:27:49,385 --> 01:27:51,365 So of course you had people creating their own games, 1872 01:27:51,625 --> 01:27:55,165 but we didn't have the means of distribution as we have now. 1873 01:27:55,545 --> 01:27:56,765 Uh, because we didn't have the internet. 1874 01:27:56,945 --> 01:27:58,565 You had to actually physically put, 1875 01:27:58,785 --> 01:28:00,285 put games in people's hands 1876 01:28:00,545 --> 01:28:03,085 In the early days before you had the likes of WH Smith 1877 01:28:03,085 --> 01:28:04,245 and Boots taken on games, 1878 01:28:04,585 --> 01:28:07,005 you had these little tiny independent computer game shops 1879 01:28:07,025 --> 01:28:08,845 and they were just the only real way at the time. 1880 01:28:08,975 --> 01:28:11,125 Apart from mal order, we could go into a shop, 1881 01:28:11,555 --> 01:28:14,685 look at the game, get to know the guy who runs a shop, 1882 01:28:14,755 --> 01:28:16,125 play the games on the computers, 1883 01:28:16,465 --> 01:28:19,165 and really sort of get into the world. The 1884 01:28:19,365 --> 01:28:20,485 Computer shops would've godsend 1885 01:28:20,485 --> 01:28:24,045 because if it wasn't for the computer shops, 1886 01:28:24,165 --> 01:28:25,245 I wouldn't be in the games industry. 1887 01:28:25,305 --> 01:28:26,365 Now, when I went in 1888 01:28:26,365 --> 01:28:29,365 and said, do any computer companies commit into the shop? 1889 01:28:29,555 --> 01:28:31,525 Yeah, I said, can you get me a phone number? 1890 01:28:32,525 --> 01:28:34,525 I went in the next week and he got me a phone number 1891 01:28:34,585 --> 01:28:36,525 and phoned up, said, can I have an interview? 1892 01:28:36,545 --> 01:28:38,725 And basically I was working the next Monday 1893 01:28:39,155 --> 01:28:41,445 They did become beehives of activity. 1894 01:28:41,465 --> 01:28:44,005 Places like Just Micro in Sheffield, 1895 01:28:44,375 --> 01:28:46,525 which eventually became Gremlin just 1896 01:28:46,525 --> 01:28:47,645 Micro stood out to me. 1897 01:28:47,985 --> 01:28:50,005 It looked like a fun shop to be in. 1898 01:28:50,005 --> 01:28:51,125 They were interested in the games. 1899 01:28:51,125 --> 01:28:52,685 They would let me know what was coming out. 1900 01:28:52,685 --> 01:28:54,285 They would let me know what was good, what was 1901 01:28:54,305 --> 01:28:55,305 Bad. We spoke about, 1902 01:28:55,305 --> 01:28:56,405 you know, what it was he 1903 01:28:56,405 --> 01:28:57,485 was making, et cetera. 1904 01:28:57,665 --> 01:28:59,325 And it soon become apparent 1905 01:28:59,325 --> 01:29:01,820 that there was an opportunity there to use this talent 1906 01:29:01,820 --> 01:29:04,605 that was coming into the shop to start summing of our own. 1907 01:29:04,705 --> 01:29:06,285 As well as Pete coming into the shop. 1908 01:29:06,305 --> 01:29:08,965 We had, uh, Tony Crower coming into the shop. 1909 01:29:09,435 --> 01:29:11,445 He'd already been producing some games 1910 01:29:11,505 --> 01:29:13,085 for Alligator Software. I 1911 01:29:13,245 --> 01:29:14,685 Remember the shop quite well 'cause I used 1912 01:29:14,685 --> 01:29:17,045 to have a sat job selling computers just up the 1913 01:29:17,045 --> 01:29:18,085 road in another shop. 1914 01:29:18,145 --> 01:29:19,885 And I just used to go down to the shop 1915 01:29:20,025 --> 01:29:22,885 and load it up on their computers, see what people thought 1916 01:29:22,885 --> 01:29:24,725 of my games before they were released. 1917 01:29:24,785 --> 01:29:26,525 So it was quite fun for that 'cause it was 1918 01:29:26,525 --> 01:29:27,925 before the ages having qa. 1919 01:29:28,505 --> 01:29:31,365 So the QA was going into the shop and letting people play it 1920 01:29:31,365 --> 01:29:32,845 and see what they think or other, 1921 01:29:32,845 --> 01:29:35,045 it was me playing it, you know, how good it is. How did 1922 01:29:35,045 --> 01:29:37,085 We go about building Gremlin? 1923 01:29:37,425 --> 01:29:38,685 I'd already watched the, 1924 01:29:38,745 --> 01:29:40,765 the guys at Imagine Software in Liverpool 1925 01:29:40,865 --> 01:29:41,925 do exactly the same. 1926 01:29:41,945 --> 01:29:43,565 Matter of fact, a guy that used to work 1927 01:29:43,565 --> 01:29:44,765 for Alaska, it's the same as I did. 1928 01:29:44,765 --> 01:29:45,885 A chap called Mark Butler 1929 01:29:46,015 --> 01:29:48,845 where some other guys started Imagine Software. 1930 01:29:49,185 --> 01:29:51,805 And I think it was too good an opportunity to miss. 1931 01:29:51,905 --> 01:29:53,845 And then it was a case of convincing Pete 1932 01:29:53,845 --> 01:29:55,765 that he didn't need to go to university. 1933 01:29:55,915 --> 01:29:57,605 He'd be far better working with us 1934 01:29:57,985 --> 01:29:59,805 and creating computer games. 1935 01:30:00,185 --> 01:30:02,325 One day I went in and Ian Stewart was there 1936 01:30:02,325 --> 01:30:03,765 and he called me over and said, uh, 1937 01:30:03,945 --> 01:30:05,005 can you actually write games? 1938 01:30:05,255 --> 01:30:07,045 Don't know. I'm thinking about writing one. 1939 01:30:07,185 --> 01:30:08,365 And he gave me the idea 1940 01:30:08,465 --> 01:30:10,405 of we're wanting this character Monte Mo. 1941 01:30:10,465 --> 01:30:12,325 So Monte Moley is his, what he looks like. 1942 01:30:12,325 --> 01:30:13,325 He's, he's down to me 1943 01:30:13,325 --> 01:30:15,285 and my mother trying to decide what he should look like. 1944 01:30:15,525 --> 01:30:17,885 I think Pete would've started this when the minor strike 1945 01:30:17,985 --> 01:30:21,045 was first kicking off and Arthur Scargill 1946 01:30:21,045 --> 01:30:23,485 and obviously Sheffield right in the middle of everything, 1947 01:30:23,795 --> 01:30:27,405 just set my brain running as to what this game could be. 1948 01:30:27,585 --> 01:30:29,685 And I suppose we were a little bit brave putting, uh, 1949 01:30:29,905 --> 01:30:31,565 an effigy of Arthur Scargill 1950 01:30:31,565 --> 01:30:32,845 and the product to put, uh, 1951 01:30:32,945 --> 01:30:34,485 it seemed appropriate at the time 1952 01:30:34,745 --> 01:30:37,045 and it gained us an amazing amount 1953 01:30:37,045 --> 01:30:38,685 of coverage with Local Press. 1954 01:30:38,845 --> 01:30:41,085 I think we've got in total about 13 minutes 1955 01:30:41,185 --> 01:30:44,365 of prime news time, including, and finally, 1956 01:30:44,945 --> 01:30:47,245 And finally the latest thing in computer games. 1957 01:30:47,785 --> 01:30:50,645 It may be politically biased, but it is highly topical. 1958 01:30:51,105 --> 01:30:52,205 The villain of the piece, 1959 01:30:52,845 --> 01:30:56,605 a minor called Arthur Scargill, the hero. 1960 01:30:56,815 --> 01:30:58,925 Monty Mole has to get his coal for the winter 1961 01:30:59,025 --> 01:31:02,125 and run a gauntlet of flying pickets and cans of Hairspray. 1962 01:31:02,575 --> 01:31:04,925 Monty winds using a ballot paper. 1963 01:31:05,665 --> 01:31:08,565 Now, once that happened, we started getting demos coming 1964 01:31:08,565 --> 01:31:11,605 through the Post people calling us, people coming 1965 01:31:11,605 --> 01:31:14,325 to Sheffield to bring their demos in, et cetera. 1966 01:31:14,425 --> 01:31:17,605 But what we were quite good at was identifying people 1967 01:31:17,715 --> 01:31:21,445 that had an ability and the skills to join us 1968 01:31:21,585 --> 01:31:23,765 and to start making more products. 1969 01:31:23,995 --> 01:31:26,085 Gremlin used to make some of my favorite games. 1970 01:31:26,185 --> 01:31:28,325 It was really a hotbed for UK games. 1971 01:31:28,595 --> 01:31:30,645 Gremlin Graphics had a great reputation. 1972 01:31:30,795 --> 01:31:31,965 They were a great bunch of people. 1973 01:31:32,035 --> 01:31:33,965 Melbourne House were also a publisher. 1974 01:31:34,075 --> 01:31:36,685 They produced some amazing games throughout the eighties. 1975 01:31:37,585 --> 01:31:40,445 You may have noticed I'm actually wearing a classic Spectrum 1976 01:31:40,515 --> 01:31:42,365 game T-shirt, which is why 1977 01:31:42,365 --> 01:31:43,805 of the Exploding Fist Melbourne House. 1978 01:31:44,365 --> 01:31:47,965 A very early street fighter esque game for the Spectrum. 1979 01:31:48,225 --> 01:31:51,445 It was just a really fun kung fu style game. 1980 01:31:52,675 --> 01:31:55,485 Quicksilver were a very big publisher early on. 1981 01:31:55,485 --> 01:31:57,885 They produced a game called Four D Time Gate, 1982 01:31:57,885 --> 01:32:00,405 which was a very fast space. 1983 01:32:00,405 --> 01:32:03,045 Shoot 'em up. And that was an amazing game for the time. 1984 01:32:03,105 --> 01:32:05,845 And I think that helped establish certainly Quicksilver 1985 01:32:05,845 --> 01:32:07,645 as one of the early Runners Bug Bite. 1986 01:32:07,645 --> 01:32:09,405 They published Matthew Smith's Manic Minor 1987 01:32:09,625 --> 01:32:12,925 and you also had the quirky publishers like Ulta Mater. 1988 01:32:12,925 --> 01:32:15,245 There were a lot of publishers like that, smaller publishers 1989 01:32:15,245 --> 01:32:18,205 that struggled once the spectrum became a 1990 01:32:18,205 --> 01:32:19,285 real commercial concern. 1991 01:32:20,025 --> 01:32:22,685 The real game changer was a company called Master tro 1992 01:32:22,685 --> 01:32:24,725 because Master Tro did a deal 1993 01:32:24,775 --> 01:32:28,605 where their games would be distributed into places 1994 01:32:28,605 --> 01:32:31,325 where you wouldn't normally find video games, for instance, 1995 01:32:31,425 --> 01:32:33,925 the little corner shop where you buy a newspaper. 1996 01:32:34,145 --> 01:32:36,605 So to have these budget games, which retailed 1997 01:32:36,605 --> 01:32:40,045 for 1 99 was a real boon to any spectrum owner. 1998 01:32:47,115 --> 01:32:49,685 There's your classic Master TRO game, 1999 01:32:50,075 --> 01:32:53,765 this is called Tank Tracks one pound 99 for a place called 2000 01:32:54,425 --> 01:32:56,605 Top Fair, which I don't remember, I'm sure 2001 01:32:56,605 --> 01:32:57,645 that's gone by the wayside. 2002 01:32:58,545 --> 01:33:02,565 And a very basic cassette tape instructions 2003 01:33:04,185 --> 01:33:07,485 on Pound 99 Who Caress Brilliant. 2004 01:33:07,875 --> 01:33:10,565 More importantly, the games actually got good as well. 2005 01:33:11,145 --> 01:33:14,445 So what you could buy for 1 99 changed a lot. 2006 01:33:14,745 --> 01:33:17,965 And it changed in 1985 with the release 2007 01:33:17,965 --> 01:33:20,405 of a game called Finders Keepers, which was the first game 2008 01:33:20,405 --> 01:33:22,605 of the Magic Night trilogy coded by David Jones. 2009 01:33:22,875 --> 01:33:25,645 Finders Keepers were so good that Master TRO realized 2010 01:33:25,675 --> 01:33:27,125 that they were doing themselves in a bit 2011 01:33:27,125 --> 01:33:28,925 by retailing these games for 1 99 2012 01:33:29,025 --> 01:33:30,645 and they should create a special label 2013 01:33:30,645 --> 01:33:32,405 where they could charge an extra pound 2014 01:33:32,405 --> 01:33:33,685 because the games were that good. 2015 01:33:33,685 --> 01:33:35,605 And when David Jones produced Spellbound, 2016 01:33:35,695 --> 01:33:36,925 which had the wind motion 2017 01:33:37,055 --> 01:33:38,965 where you could select different things from the menu 2018 01:33:38,965 --> 01:33:40,805 that dropped down, that was another game changer. 2019 01:33:41,125 --> 01:33:43,485 'cause people just realized that you could get a lot more 2020 01:33:43,485 --> 01:33:46,085 value for money for just three pounds. Bell 2021 01:33:46,165 --> 01:33:47,605 Bound was a lot more a eventually than, 2022 01:33:47,605 --> 01:33:51,125 than Fineness Keepers and enabled you to select things and, 2023 01:33:51,125 --> 01:33:53,045 and build up more complicated commands 2024 01:33:53,345 --> 01:33:55,285 and enabled me to input stranger 2025 01:33:55,345 --> 01:33:56,685 and more interesting puzzles. 2026 01:33:56,685 --> 01:34:01,285 In Storm Ringer finished the first 2027 01:34:01,395 --> 01:34:03,565 trilogy of the actual proper venture games. 2028 01:34:03,655 --> 01:34:04,725 Storm Ringer. Sold well 2029 01:34:04,785 --> 01:34:07,685 and had very good previews, very good reviews. 2030 01:34:08,155 --> 01:34:10,645 Even with Storm, I was still a bedroom coder, 2031 01:34:10,905 --> 01:34:13,325 but it was a bedroom in the house I bought from the profits 2032 01:34:13,325 --> 01:34:14,485 of the previous games. 2033 01:34:14,705 --> 01:34:16,965 And all of a sudden I think people realized 2034 01:34:16,965 --> 01:34:19,605 that you could produce these games on a budget, 2035 01:34:20,035 --> 01:34:21,965 sell them on a budget, and make a lot 2036 01:34:21,965 --> 01:34:23,005 of money, sell a lot of units. 2037 01:34:23,345 --> 01:34:25,125 And the games could actually crucially 2038 01:34:25,125 --> 01:34:26,285 be quite decent as well. 2039 01:34:26,515 --> 01:34:28,285 That when Code Masters formed, 2040 01:34:28,395 --> 01:34:30,005 they pretty much made it a wall. 2041 01:34:30,005 --> 01:34:32,005 You know, we'll, we're just going to sell budget games 2042 01:34:32,005 --> 01:34:35,005 because turns out a lot of people are interested in that 2043 01:34:35,225 --> 01:34:37,565 and we can make a lot of money doing that. 2044 01:34:37,625 --> 01:34:41,085 And they did games like Dizzy Professional Ski Simulator, 2045 01:34:41,335 --> 01:34:45,605 grand Prix Simulator, BMX, actually very playable games just 2046 01:34:45,625 --> 01:34:46,805 for a couple of quids. 2047 01:34:47,025 --> 01:34:49,085 And eventually the big labels kind 2048 01:34:49,085 --> 01:34:50,245 of cottoned onto that as well. 2049 01:34:50,545 --> 01:34:53,085 And so you end up with the likes of the hit squad 2050 01:34:53,225 --> 01:34:55,725 and kicks where studios like Ocean 2051 01:34:55,725 --> 01:34:58,085 and US Gold are re-release in their old games. 2052 01:34:58,545 --> 01:35:00,885 So the budget market ends up becoming, again, 2053 01:35:01,005 --> 01:35:03,325 a pretty big thing that helped sustain the spectrum. 2054 01:35:03,905 --> 01:35:05,965 As the night got darker, so to speak, 2055 01:35:13,305 --> 01:35:17,885 It did become obvious to me that software was so important 2056 01:35:18,185 --> 01:35:19,565 to the spectrum 2057 01:35:19,955 --> 01:35:22,405 that we shouldn't just leave it up to other people. 2058 01:35:22,985 --> 01:35:24,965 And I hired someone 2059 01:35:25,345 --> 01:35:29,725 to work at Sinclair whose job was to act as a liaison 2060 01:35:29,725 --> 01:35:31,285 with software developers. 2061 01:35:31,425 --> 01:35:33,885 Uh, and Clive was very, very opposed to that. 2062 01:35:34,005 --> 01:35:35,565 I had a real fight with him over that. 2063 01:35:35,865 --> 01:35:38,525 It was one of the few times that I dug my heels in 2064 01:35:38,525 --> 01:35:41,765 and said, Clive, we are hiring her or I'm leaving. 2065 01:35:42,105 --> 01:35:44,965 The interview with Clive was completely bizarre. 2066 01:35:45,155 --> 01:35:46,325 Well, it was at he's flat 2067 01:35:46,625 --> 01:35:49,725 and he is not a very easy person to talk to. 2068 01:35:49,865 --> 01:35:52,965 He doesn't say anything who have to start going, gab, 2069 01:35:52,965 --> 01:35:54,765 go Gab, which I did nervously. 2070 01:35:54,985 --> 01:35:57,085 He then offered me a cup of coffee 2071 01:35:57,465 --> 01:36:00,885 and I made a huge mistake in accepting 2072 01:36:01,195 --> 01:36:02,605 because he looked furious 2073 01:36:03,425 --> 01:36:05,325 and he then had to make me a cup of coffee. 2074 01:36:05,665 --> 01:36:07,805 And during making me a cup of coffee, he said nothing. 2075 01:36:08,145 --> 01:36:09,405 And I sort of stood in the kitchen 2076 01:36:09,865 --> 01:36:13,605 and then we went into the drawing room, an enormous room, 2077 01:36:14,305 --> 01:36:15,565 and he still said nothing 2078 01:36:15,705 --> 01:36:20,205 and sat at the far end from me miles away, me and my coffee 2079 01:36:20,745 --> 01:36:21,925 and my shaking hand. 2080 01:36:23,625 --> 01:36:28,205 And uh, we sat there and I said, it's lovely room. 2081 01:36:28,685 --> 01:36:30,965 I said, nervously. Hmm. 2082 01:36:31,425 --> 01:36:32,685 He said, and then 2083 01:36:32,685 --> 01:36:34,965 after a bit, I said, do you have much 2084 01:36:35,525 --> 01:36:36,805 software for the spectrum? 2085 01:36:37,185 --> 01:36:41,765 And he said, no, it was peripheral. 2086 01:36:42,235 --> 01:36:46,205 What he was interested in was the hardware and lab 2087 01:36:46,905 --> 01:36:47,925 and the engineers. 2088 01:36:48,465 --> 01:36:52,605 Almost every time the subject of software came up, 2089 01:36:52,685 --> 01:36:57,245 particularly if the software was games, Clive was always 2090 01:36:58,025 --> 01:37:00,565 likely to question the value of doing it. 2091 01:37:00,945 --> 01:37:04,125 It was not our core mission to sell software 2092 01:37:04,625 --> 01:37:07,125 or even to encourage the development of software. 2093 01:37:07,265 --> 01:37:09,605 Our business was to sell computers. 2094 01:37:10,305 --> 01:37:13,685 So I'd say that he accepted the software 2095 01:37:13,745 --> 01:37:15,765 and he accepted the role of the Spectrum 2096 01:37:16,505 --> 01:37:18,805 as a predominantly games playing machine. 2097 01:37:19,225 --> 01:37:21,805 But it wasn't what he'd had in mind when he developed the 2098 01:37:21,805 --> 01:37:23,725 product and it wasn't what he wanted 2099 01:37:23,745 --> 01:37:26,725 to spend his time on when he had bigger 2100 01:37:26,785 --> 01:37:30,245 and better hardware development projects to do. 2101 01:37:33,445 --> 01:37:35,445 I didn't get an induction. I ended up next 2102 01:37:35,465 --> 01:37:38,365 to Jane Boothroyd, who was then UK sales 2103 01:37:38,385 --> 01:37:39,565 and marketing manager. 2104 01:37:39,825 --> 01:37:42,725 And she was responsible for selling the hardware. 2105 01:37:43,065 --> 01:37:44,285 And there was a pile 2106 01:37:44,285 --> 01:37:46,725 of cassettes on the desk, piles on the floor. 2107 01:37:47,145 --> 01:37:48,605 And there was no way of knowing 2108 01:37:49,265 --> 01:37:50,485 if there were any good or not. 2109 01:37:50,945 --> 01:37:52,885 So I thought, how do I make a start on this? 2110 01:37:53,645 --> 01:37:55,685 I had no budget, no money to spend. 2111 01:37:55,705 --> 01:37:58,525 It wasn't going to cost anything. There was just me. 2112 01:37:59,385 --> 01:38:03,245 And then I thought, I better get some of the users 2113 01:38:03,705 --> 01:38:05,645 to start testing this stuff. 2114 01:38:05,875 --> 01:38:08,885 Then I set off to the local sixth form colleges 2115 01:38:09,225 --> 01:38:10,405 to find my testers. 2116 01:38:10,945 --> 01:38:14,405 And they each did about 15 cassettes a week. 2117 01:38:14,985 --> 01:38:17,205 And each week they were allowed 2118 01:38:17,205 --> 01:38:18,405 to keep two or three of them. 2119 01:38:18,745 --> 01:38:21,525 The rejects not the real ones, you know, the rejects 2120 01:38:22,105 --> 01:38:23,245 and that's how I paid them. 2121 01:38:23,945 --> 01:38:28,565 But there was this thing about the spectrum was far more 2122 01:38:28,565 --> 01:38:30,125 than just a games machine. 2123 01:38:30,425 --> 01:38:34,525 And it was important for the marketing strategies such 2124 01:38:34,545 --> 01:38:37,925 as there was that we sold it as a workhorse 2125 01:38:37,925 --> 01:38:40,125 that could do useful things in the home 2126 01:38:40,475 --> 01:38:43,405 because that would then support parental 2127 01:38:43,765 --> 01:38:45,005 decisions to buy it. 2128 01:38:45,425 --> 01:38:48,045 And that's what led to my idea 2129 01:38:48,905 --> 01:38:53,605 of developing educational software alongside a respectable 2130 01:38:53,975 --> 01:38:55,085 publishing company. 2131 01:38:55,695 --> 01:38:59,445 There was a wonderful man called Tony Feldman at McMillan 2132 01:38:59,675 --> 01:39:02,405 Education and he'd just been made director 2133 01:39:02,405 --> 01:39:03,805 of their digital division. 2134 01:39:04,385 --> 01:39:06,085 And we developed the range 2135 01:39:06,545 --> 01:39:08,045 and it was all right, 2136 01:39:08,375 --> 01:39:11,205 maybe being respectable made it not very exciting, 2137 01:39:12,025 --> 01:39:13,645 but, um, it was all a bit worthy. 2138 01:39:14,065 --> 01:39:15,485 But that was the whole point of it. 2139 01:39:19,745 --> 01:39:22,045 We then had this amazing launch. 2140 01:39:22,925 --> 01:39:24,805 I couldn't believe we'd swung it. 2141 01:39:25,385 --> 01:39:30,285 Harold McMillan, former Prime Minister was then about 93 2142 01:39:30,745 --> 01:39:33,085 to my astonishment, he agreed to come 2143 01:39:33,105 --> 01:39:34,925 to this pesky software launch. 2144 01:39:35,265 --> 01:39:36,285 He agreed to come. 2145 01:39:36,785 --> 01:39:38,485 And as soon as Clive heard 2146 01:39:38,875 --> 01:39:42,005 that Harold McMillan was coming, he said he'd come. 2147 01:39:42,465 --> 01:39:44,965 And so we had this swanky hotel 2148 01:39:45,385 --> 01:39:48,845 and instead of Computer Weekly and Sinclair user 2149 01:39:49,025 --> 01:39:52,125 and a few sort of trade press people, 2150 01:39:52,625 --> 01:39:54,685 we had the world's press. 2151 01:39:55,025 --> 01:39:57,005 The room was absolutely packed 2152 01:39:57,385 --> 01:40:00,165 and I had no idea what Clive was going to say, 2153 01:40:00,165 --> 01:40:01,445 which applied him with a script, 2154 01:40:01,825 --> 01:40:05,245 but he never used to say the script ever, ever. 2155 01:40:05,785 --> 01:40:09,845 And he got up and said something and then he came to the end 2156 01:40:10,065 --> 01:40:12,245 and he said, well, I'm very honored 2157 01:40:12,385 --> 01:40:14,245 to have Harold McMillan here, 2158 01:40:14,665 --> 01:40:17,445 and I'm sure he would like to say a few words now. 2159 01:40:17,745 --> 01:40:19,605 And he sort of started to sit down 2160 01:40:20,345 --> 01:40:23,645 and there was absolutely no movement from McMillan. 2161 01:40:24,105 --> 01:40:28,005 He sat there and Clive, who I'd never seemed 2162 01:40:28,845 --> 01:40:32,325 disconcerted like that, he sort of said sir 2163 01:40:32,625 --> 01:40:33,845 and tapped him on the shoulder. 2164 01:40:36,105 --> 01:40:37,245 He kind of woke up 2165 01:40:37,585 --> 01:40:41,685 and then very, very slowly stood up, 2166 01:40:41,975 --> 01:40:43,525 great deal of theatrics. 2167 01:40:43,715 --> 01:40:47,725 Then he looked right at everybody and he then made a speech. 2168 01:40:48,585 --> 01:40:50,565 He made a speech about the software, 2169 01:40:51,145 --> 01:40:52,925 he made a speech about the spectrum. 2170 01:40:53,785 --> 01:40:55,205 He spoke without notes. 2171 01:40:56,065 --> 01:40:58,285 It was just fantastic, extraordinary. 2172 01:40:58,475 --> 01:41:00,205 Everybody was mesmerized. 2173 01:41:00,985 --> 01:41:02,205 And he finally said, 2174 01:41:02,205 --> 01:41:04,485 and the thing that pleases me most 2175 01:41:04,705 --> 01:41:09,045 of all is all this has come from where so much 2176 01:41:09,275 --> 01:41:11,605 that is great in the world comes 2177 01:41:12,195 --> 01:41:15,125 including this young man on my right. 2178 01:41:15,225 --> 01:41:19,005 And he tapped, virtually tapped Clive on his bald 2179 01:41:19,035 --> 01:41:21,085 head and everybody went. 2180 01:41:23,185 --> 01:41:26,405 He said, Scotland 'cause of course says Scottish. 2181 01:41:26,745 --> 01:41:27,885 And then he sat down 2182 01:41:28,545 --> 01:41:31,405 and the entire room stood up and applauded him. 2183 01:41:31,715 --> 01:41:32,715 Extraordinary. 2184 01:41:40,865 --> 01:41:42,885 The name Spectrum became used 2185 01:41:42,945 --> 01:41:47,405 for much more than just this rubber key 48 K. 2186 01:41:47,405 --> 01:41:50,325 Most of the times computer spectrum is a name given 2187 01:41:50,425 --> 01:41:54,805 to the plus the 128 K, the plus two, the plus two A 2188 01:41:54,805 --> 01:41:57,405 or plus two B, the plus three and many, many others. 2189 01:41:57,995 --> 01:42:00,765 Another very relevant development 2190 01:42:00,765 --> 01:42:05,685 that five Sinclair did was in 1984, the synco ql 2191 01:42:08,265 --> 01:42:09,965 You are about to witness Sir Clive 2192 01:42:10,015 --> 01:42:11,445 Sinclair's Quantum Leap. 2193 01:42:15,715 --> 01:42:16,925 He's come up with a computer 2194 01:42:17,225 --> 01:42:20,125 to rival these machines at a fraction of their cost. 2195 01:42:20,385 --> 01:42:24,845 The QL was a sad story because it was developed 2196 01:42:24,985 --> 01:42:26,245 and launched too quickly. 2197 01:42:26,965 --> 01:42:29,725 I mean, I literally saw it as a block 2198 01:42:29,725 --> 01:42:32,285 of wood on the boardroom table in November. 2199 01:42:32,665 --> 01:42:34,525 And when I asked when it was going to be launched, 2200 01:42:34,725 --> 01:42:35,805 I was told February. 2201 01:42:36,105 --> 01:42:38,485 And I said, but this is just a block of wood. 2202 01:42:39,105 --> 01:42:42,845 You know, it's a, it was just a visual, just a visual. 2203 01:42:43,265 --> 01:42:46,045 You never had any idea was to how much of it was real, 2204 01:42:46,145 --> 01:42:48,165 how much was really going on. You know, 2205 01:42:48,305 --> 01:42:50,725 The QL was conceived as a business machine, 2206 01:42:50,745 --> 01:42:52,165 so it was a complete break 2207 01:42:52,665 --> 01:42:56,165 and the QL absorbed an enormous amount 2208 01:42:56,165 --> 01:42:57,845 of product development effort. 2209 01:42:58,205 --> 01:43:00,965 I just don't think there was enough time 2210 01:43:01,825 --> 01:43:04,205 to think about the future of the spectrum. 2211 01:43:04,345 --> 01:43:07,805 And if anyone has said the Spectrum could have a very long 2212 01:43:07,915 --> 01:43:11,885 life with upgrades, new versions be backward, compatible, 2213 01:43:12,105 --> 01:43:14,045 run all the old software, et cetera, 2214 01:43:14,105 --> 01:43:15,205 it could have a long life. 2215 01:43:15,665 --> 01:43:18,765 The media objection would've been, well, yeah, 2216 01:43:18,765 --> 01:43:20,045 but who's gonna do that work? 2217 01:43:20,135 --> 01:43:24,845 Who's going to maintain the product with upgrades 2218 01:43:24,905 --> 01:43:28,125 and so on because everyone's so busy with everything else. 2219 01:43:28,625 --> 01:43:32,365 My feeling about the QL was that Clive really wanted 2220 01:43:32,425 --> 01:43:34,685 to come up with a serious business computer 2221 01:43:34,865 --> 01:43:36,005 and he felt the combination 2222 01:43:36,005 --> 01:43:39,085 of a more powerful microprocessor addressing more memory 2223 01:43:39,305 --> 01:43:41,525 and the micro drives made it a business platform. 2224 01:43:41,585 --> 01:43:44,245 You know, if I took away anything from that, I did sense 2225 01:43:44,315 --> 01:43:46,885 that Clive kind of lost interest in the spectrum. 2226 01:43:47,095 --> 01:43:49,045 There was a strong feeling of wanting 2227 01:43:49,065 --> 01:43:50,965 to concentrate on the new stuff. 2228 01:43:51,225 --> 01:43:54,245 We had the qr, but we also had a laptop. 2229 01:43:54,385 --> 01:43:56,325 We had Pandora various sort 2230 01:43:56,325 --> 01:43:58,205 of under wrap pieces of hardware. 2231 01:43:58,625 --> 01:44:02,285 We don't wanna waste time among the, the spectrum is boring, 2232 01:44:02,395 --> 01:44:03,845 it's so last year, you know, 2233 01:44:04,065 --> 01:44:06,605 and of course the fact that we had an installed base 2234 01:44:07,025 --> 01:44:10,645 of millions people to sell add-on products 2235 01:44:10,705 --> 01:44:13,525 to basic portfolio analysis says 2236 01:44:13,525 --> 01:44:17,045 that Stretch was our cash cow that was bringing in the cash 2237 01:44:17,465 --> 01:44:19,565 to fund all these blooming developments. 2238 01:44:19,935 --> 01:44:22,045 There was so much competition 2239 01:44:22,385 --> 01:44:24,565 for the engineering resources as well. 2240 01:44:25,045 --> 01:44:28,965 I was hiring people to work on current projects 2241 01:44:29,065 --> 01:44:33,205 and projects for next year's computers like the ql. 2242 01:44:33,505 --> 01:44:37,005 And the next minute I find out Clive had had a few beers 2243 01:44:37,005 --> 01:44:40,205 within a pub and offered them a job working on some 2244 01:44:41,005 --> 01:44:42,165 artificial intelligence project. 2245 01:44:42,715 --> 01:44:46,005 He'd hired all these engineers, innovators 2246 01:44:46,225 --> 01:44:49,325 to work at the meta lab, million pounds a year. 2247 01:44:49,325 --> 01:44:51,765 It was gonna cost us and fundamentally everything, 2248 01:44:51,785 --> 01:44:53,245 all the attention had been going into 2249 01:44:53,245 --> 01:44:54,405 new, new, new, new, new. 2250 01:44:54,705 --> 01:44:57,765 The main thrust of Meta Lab is now, um, 2251 01:44:57,985 --> 01:44:59,645 as you would would expect to the, 2252 01:44:59,745 --> 01:45:01,045 the the future of computing. 2253 01:45:01,225 --> 01:45:02,965 We have a, a massive program there 2254 01:45:02,965 --> 01:45:05,165 of very advanced computer development works, 2255 01:45:05,265 --> 01:45:06,405 all the things that go with it. 2256 01:45:06,665 --> 01:45:09,085 Um, semiconductor technology, um, 2257 01:45:09,825 --> 01:45:12,005 all the peripherals printers, displays, 2258 01:45:12,005 --> 01:45:13,445 very advanced display technology. 2259 01:45:13,615 --> 01:45:14,885 Every, everything in that field. 2260 01:45:15,225 --> 01:45:16,685 The other areas that were working in there, 2261 01:45:16,685 --> 01:45:19,485 of course are known to principles or television and, and, 2262 01:45:19,485 --> 01:45:20,605 and possibly some vehicle work. 2263 01:45:21,105 --> 01:45:22,405 It really was chaos 2264 01:45:22,705 --> 01:45:25,565 and it was driven by Clive's desire to move on 2265 01:45:25,565 --> 01:45:26,725 to the next big thing. 2266 01:45:27,025 --> 01:45:31,205 And the resources you could have commanded to maintain 2267 01:45:31,395 --> 01:45:33,325 what you'd got, they just weren't there. 2268 01:45:33,705 --> 01:45:36,965 They'd been earmarked for more exciting things 2269 01:45:37,665 --> 01:45:40,205 And meanwhile, if you listened, 2270 01:45:40,945 --> 01:45:42,925 people told you what was needed. 2271 01:45:43,235 --> 01:45:47,205 They needed a spectrum with more memory they needed, oh, 2272 01:45:47,225 --> 01:45:50,085 and with a different graphics and a better keyboard 2273 01:45:50,265 --> 01:45:51,565 and this and that and the other. 2274 01:45:52,065 --> 01:45:54,685 And so we did start rather belatedly 2275 01:45:55,105 --> 01:45:57,565 to produce the products the customers were asking for. 2276 01:45:58,585 --> 01:46:00,725 We should have been doing it the previous year. 2277 01:46:00,995 --> 01:46:04,125 Yeah, we should have, it's a matter 2278 01:46:04,145 --> 01:46:05,925 of regret that we weren't, 2279 01:46:11,395 --> 01:46:13,405 This is the ZX spectrum plus, 2280 01:46:13,895 --> 01:46:15,845 which was CL Sinclair's C quarter 2281 01:46:16,105 --> 01:46:17,325 ZX spectrum with the rubber keyboard. 2282 01:46:17,505 --> 01:46:21,005 The spectrum 48 K plus was an attempt by Sinclair 2283 01:46:21,005 --> 01:46:22,725 to address two of the main criticisms 2284 01:46:22,725 --> 01:46:23,725 of the original spectrum. 2285 01:46:24,225 --> 01:46:27,165 The first one was that there was no power button. 2286 01:46:27,505 --> 01:46:29,925 So every time you wanted to play a new game, 2287 01:46:29,985 --> 01:46:32,045 you literally had to unplug it. 2288 01:46:32,145 --> 01:46:33,765 And the second thing was the keyboard, which 2289 01:46:34,125 --> 01:46:36,805 although we revere it to a certain extent today 2290 01:46:37,105 --> 01:46:40,565 and admire it for its eccentricity back in the day, 2291 01:46:40,705 --> 01:46:42,005 did get quite a lot of criticism. 2292 01:46:42,585 --> 01:46:45,605 So as a result, Sinclair wanted to design a new keyboard, 2293 01:46:45,615 --> 01:46:47,445 which actually came from the ql. 2294 01:46:47,625 --> 01:46:49,525 So they got this keyboard and they put 2295 01:46:49,525 --> 01:46:52,285 that into a new spectrum along with a reset button. 2296 01:46:52,905 --> 01:46:56,725 So the 48 k plus came out in 1984 2297 01:46:57,185 --> 01:47:00,605 and Sinclair, if they weren't working on the 1 2 8 K at 2298 01:47:00,605 --> 01:47:02,965 that point, they must have certainly been thinking about it. 2299 01:47:03,065 --> 01:47:05,165 But by the time 1985 rolled in, 2300 01:47:05,605 --> 01:47:08,725 Sinclair itself was having financial difficulty. The 2301 01:47:08,945 --> 01:47:11,885 QL sales were not as good as they should have been. 2302 01:47:11,945 --> 01:47:15,045 And that frankly was the basis upon which 2303 01:47:15,565 --> 01:47:17,925 Sinclair run into financial difficulties. 2304 01:47:18,025 --> 01:47:19,845 And Robert Maxwell went in 2305 01:47:19,865 --> 01:47:22,685 and all he wanted to do was have the names associated 2306 01:47:22,685 --> 01:47:24,085 with his newspaper. We 2307 01:47:24,085 --> 01:47:27,005 Jolly well heard that Maxwell was interested in buying us 2308 01:47:27,185 --> 01:47:29,285 and everybody ruled their eyes at 2309 01:47:29,285 --> 01:47:30,885 what it would be like to work for him. 2310 01:47:31,665 --> 01:47:35,605 And what caused Clive to break off negotiations 2311 01:47:35,635 --> 01:47:38,565 with Maxwell was that Clive got some sort of deal 2312 01:47:38,565 --> 01:47:42,245 with Dixons, the retail chain, who he had a rather long 2313 01:47:42,385 --> 01:47:44,685 and up and down relationship with. 2314 01:47:45,185 --> 01:47:46,885 But at any rate, Dixon's came in 2315 01:47:46,885 --> 01:47:49,205 and said they would buy large quantities 2316 01:47:49,205 --> 01:47:51,445 of computers from Sinclair 2317 01:47:51,785 --> 01:47:55,525 and they promised a big enough order that it enabled Clive 2318 01:47:55,585 --> 01:47:57,765 to change his mind about Maxwell. 2319 01:47:58,225 --> 01:48:01,805 So they were planning to bring forward the 1 2 8 K. 2320 01:48:02,105 --> 01:48:05,565 And when Dixon's heard that a superior model was coming out 2321 01:48:05,585 --> 01:48:08,325 to the 48 k plus, which they had huge stocks of, 2322 01:48:08,795 --> 01:48:10,325 they understandably weren't that happy. 2323 01:48:10,805 --> 01:48:12,605 I don't remember the exact, uh, sequence 2324 01:48:12,605 --> 01:48:13,965 of events about the 1, 2 8, 2325 01:48:13,985 --> 01:48:17,485 but there was a recognition that, um, the spectrum was, 2326 01:48:17,585 --> 01:48:20,125 was still a success, but it needed more memory. 2327 01:48:20,645 --> 01:48:23,165 Products were competing on the specification 2328 01:48:23,305 --> 01:48:26,005 and that's a good way to, to bring it up to date was to, 2329 01:48:26,105 --> 01:48:28,245 to advertise a spectrum 1, 2, 8. 2330 01:48:28,425 --> 01:48:31,445 So I probably said, look, I can do that. That's no trouble. 2331 01:48:31,585 --> 01:48:33,605 We extended the basic in quite a few ways. 2332 01:48:33,865 --> 01:48:36,525 One of the weaknesses of the spectrum was it didn't have a 2333 01:48:36,535 --> 01:48:38,285 sound chip, it just had a single speaker 2334 01:48:38,315 --> 01:48:39,685 with a single buyer going to it 2335 01:48:39,685 --> 01:48:41,245 and it could make very crude tones 2336 01:48:41,305 --> 01:48:43,125 and it would tie up the microprocessor. So 2337 01:48:43,125 --> 01:48:46,925 This is a ZX spectrum, 128 K effectionately known 2338 01:48:46,925 --> 01:48:48,845 as a toast rack because you've got this kind of 2339 01:48:49,615 --> 01:48:51,485 toast rack style thing on the site. 2340 01:48:52,025 --> 01:48:55,245 Now the benefit of the 1 2 8 k is you got the advanced 2341 01:48:55,245 --> 01:48:56,965 sound chip, the A wire chip. What 2342 01:48:56,965 --> 01:48:59,285 We did was we threw another GI sound chip 2343 01:48:59,395 --> 01:49:02,005 that would generate polyphonic music without the 2344 01:49:02,005 --> 01:49:03,085 processor being involved. 2345 01:49:03,185 --> 01:49:05,805 So you could do more activity in the background. 2346 01:49:05,905 --> 01:49:09,005 And we wanted to tie that chip in with the basics so 2347 01:49:09,005 --> 01:49:10,685 that people could type in commands 2348 01:49:10,685 --> 01:49:11,805 that would control that chip. 2349 01:49:11,905 --> 01:49:13,725 And I wanted them to compose music on it. 2350 01:49:13,965 --> 01:49:15,565 I was kind of interested in the audio again. 2351 01:49:15,565 --> 01:49:19,165 And so synthesizing music was a great appeal to me. 2352 01:49:22,385 --> 01:49:24,365 So the music was infinitely better 2353 01:49:24,365 --> 01:49:25,605 than the original beeper. 2354 01:49:25,835 --> 01:49:28,685 This was great. It kind of competed with the Commodore 64. 2355 01:49:29,145 --> 01:49:31,045 Of course you got an extra 80 k of memory, 2356 01:49:31,225 --> 01:49:32,245 so you could have bigger games, 2357 01:49:32,625 --> 01:49:34,285 you could have music in the games, 2358 01:49:34,465 --> 01:49:35,525 you could have more colors. 2359 01:49:36,185 --> 01:49:39,205 It was just a nice step up before the 16 bit days. 2360 01:49:39,545 --> 01:49:43,525 Having an expansion from the 48 K to the 1 28 K spectrum 2361 01:49:43,875 --> 01:49:45,765 with its greater software capabilities 2362 01:49:45,825 --> 01:49:48,005 and so on was a fairly natural thing to do. 2363 01:49:48,225 --> 01:49:50,285 And it just so happened that along the way 2364 01:49:50,515 --> 01:49:52,725 that we were negotiating with Invest 2365 01:49:53,345 --> 01:49:55,325 to have a Spanish version of it as well, 2366 01:49:55,465 --> 01:49:59,245 The result was that the 1 2 8 K ended up being released in 2367 01:49:59,495 --> 01:50:01,245 Spain Christmas of 1985. 2368 01:50:01,505 --> 01:50:06,365 So the Spanish speaking world got the 1 2 8 K, whereas 2369 01:50:07,165 --> 01:50:09,045 everyone else, certainly in England, 2370 01:50:09,045 --> 01:50:11,125 which was Sinclair's main market, had to wait 2371 01:50:11,125 --> 01:50:12,125 until the following year. 2372 01:50:12,545 --> 01:50:14,605 The fallout from this was, which you could kind 2373 01:50:14,605 --> 01:50:18,245 of see coming, everybody got a 48 k plus of Christmas 2374 01:50:18,245 --> 01:50:21,685 of 1985 when the 1 2 8 K was released in the UK 2375 01:50:21,945 --> 01:50:23,725 in February of 1986. 2376 01:50:24,105 --> 01:50:25,885 All of a sudden we are like, oh mum, 2377 01:50:26,025 --> 01:50:27,245 dad, I'd like this one now. 2378 01:50:27,245 --> 01:50:28,965 And they're like, you've just been given this one, 2379 01:50:28,985 --> 01:50:30,605 you're not getting another one, forget it. 2380 01:50:30,785 --> 01:50:32,045 So as a result, sales 2381 01:50:32,145 --> 01:50:35,805 of the 1 2 8 K spectrum were incredibly poor. 2382 01:50:35,805 --> 01:50:38,485 When the UK in particular, which was a bit of a shame, I 2383 01:50:38,805 --> 01:50:41,605 Realized that things were really over as soon 2384 01:50:41,605 --> 01:50:44,845 as Christmas in 1984 was over 2385 01:50:45,665 --> 01:50:47,645 and the retailers canceled their orders 2386 01:50:47,785 --> 01:50:49,525 and suddenly we were going from selling 2387 01:50:50,145 --> 01:50:54,245 at a very high level, a hundred million a year type turnover 2388 01:50:54,705 --> 01:50:58,085 to suddenly virtually nothing bang like that. 2389 01:50:58,465 --> 01:51:00,885 We had a massive job, we had 18 million 2390 01:51:01,745 --> 01:51:04,885 and the creditors who included Barclays, our bankers 2391 01:51:05,425 --> 01:51:07,165 and our distributors 2392 01:51:07,265 --> 01:51:11,605 and so on, gave us a year to find a, 2393 01:51:11,725 --> 01:51:13,045 a solution for the company 2394 01:51:13,465 --> 01:51:16,085 and to achieve a, a reduction of the debt. 2395 01:51:16,305 --> 01:51:19,245 So Spectrum 1 2 8 was part of that recovery program. 2396 01:51:19,945 --> 01:51:22,165 My job was really focused on Timex. 2397 01:51:22,415 --> 01:51:25,325 Timex had always been our distributor in America. 2398 01:51:25,545 --> 01:51:28,605 And one of the cleverer things we'd done is we hadn't tried 2399 01:51:28,605 --> 01:51:30,845 to sell in America like Acorn did. 2400 01:51:30,945 --> 01:51:33,405 Uh, people tended to lose their shirts setting up 2401 01:51:33,405 --> 01:51:34,845 subsidiaries in America. 2402 01:51:35,225 --> 01:51:39,525 So instead we licensed the spectrum to Timex Corporation. 2403 01:51:41,345 --> 01:51:43,845 If you've been dreaming of a home computer this year, 2404 01:51:44,295 --> 01:51:46,165 Timex has exactly what you need. 2405 01:51:46,525 --> 01:51:49,645 A state-of-the-art 48 k color home computer at a 2406 01:51:49,645 --> 01:51:50,685 very affordable price. 2407 01:51:50,865 --> 01:51:54,165 The thinking was that Timex had their products in 2408 01:51:55,045 --> 01:51:58,445 thousands and thousands of retail outlets, 2409 01:51:58,865 --> 01:52:01,525 not just large chains of stores, 2410 01:52:01,625 --> 01:52:05,285 but they had a relationship with almost everyone 2411 01:52:05,585 --> 01:52:07,685 who retailed anything in the states. 2412 01:52:08,025 --> 01:52:10,405 And when the time came, they wanted to buy us, 2413 01:52:10,755 --> 01:52:13,525 they agreed a deal and Bill, Jeffrey 2414 01:52:13,745 --> 01:52:16,565 and Clive were going to fly over and sign the contract. 2415 01:52:16,945 --> 01:52:20,525 But on the airplane going over there, 2416 01:52:21,375 --> 01:52:22,565 Clive changed his mind 2417 01:52:22,985 --> 01:52:26,165 and apparently what he said to a spitting with rage, 2418 01:52:26,235 --> 01:52:29,525 bill Jeffrey, I'd rather own the whole of a small company 2419 01:52:29,625 --> 01:52:32,845 and start again than known 20% of a large company. 2420 01:52:33,345 --> 01:52:35,765 And they got to Boston and they flew straight back. 2421 01:52:36,155 --> 01:52:38,165 That was on the Thursday, 2422 01:52:38,825 --> 01:52:41,645 we heard about it Thursday evening, senior management team. 2423 01:52:42,385 --> 01:52:43,565 And on Friday, 2424 01:52:44,195 --> 01:52:46,005 because the deal had fallen through, 2425 01:52:46,505 --> 01:52:48,965 the creditors were going to meet round the table 2426 01:52:49,665 --> 01:52:52,285 and we'd probably beginning to put into receivership. 2427 01:52:52,705 --> 01:52:56,405 And then on Monday the staff came to work as usual, 2428 01:52:56,755 --> 01:52:58,085 they were called to the atrium 2429 01:52:58,585 --> 01:53:03,085 and Bill Jeffrey gave us the news and Clive didn't even come 2430 01:53:03,385 --> 01:53:07,245 and tell us himself, which I thought was a poor show. 2431 01:53:07,665 --> 01:53:12,365 And so they told us, I'm afraid this is the end of the line. 2432 01:53:13,265 --> 01:53:14,365 You've all lost your jobs. 2433 01:53:14,985 --> 01:53:17,285 And then did the deal with Amstrad, there 2434 01:53:17,285 --> 01:53:18,685 Are people employed at URA Surge 2435 01:53:18,985 --> 01:53:21,325 who have been involved on the, on the distribution marketing 2436 01:53:21,915 --> 01:53:23,965 side of the company who will no longer be needed. 2437 01:53:24,945 --> 01:53:26,965 Do you feel in any way that you are letting them down? 2438 01:53:27,625 --> 01:53:29,845 Uh, well I always feel sad in this, this situation, 2439 01:53:29,865 --> 01:53:30,925 but change occurs. 2440 01:53:31,455 --> 01:53:34,965 Clive and Alan Sugar could not have been more different, 2441 01:53:35,385 --> 01:53:38,805 and yet Clive seemed to have respect for sugar. 2442 01:53:39,035 --> 01:53:43,725 Whereas although Sugar wasn't technically in Clive's League, 2443 01:53:44,345 --> 01:53:46,965 he did know the electronics business 2444 01:53:47,025 --> 01:53:48,645 and electronic retailing. 2445 01:53:49,065 --> 01:53:51,205 And I think Clive had respect for him. 2446 01:53:51,345 --> 01:53:54,885 It gives us a, uh, a new brand name, uh, 2447 01:53:55,065 --> 01:53:57,925 and a new market, um, for what we class 2448 01:53:57,945 --> 01:54:01,285 as the entertainments of the, uh, home computer business. 2449 01:54:01,985 --> 01:54:04,525 Uh, Sinclair, uh, has always been recognized, 2450 01:54:04,525 --> 01:54:07,685 certainly in my mind as the, uh, European, uh, 2451 01:54:08,185 --> 01:54:09,205 uh, market leader. 2452 01:54:12,385 --> 01:54:14,035 This here is the ZX spectrum plus two, 2453 01:54:14,065 --> 01:54:16,475 this is the first computer added sugar release 2454 01:54:16,605 --> 01:54:17,915 after he bought out Sinclair. 2455 01:54:17,915 --> 01:54:20,435 It's got a proper keyboard, got a builtin tape deck, 2456 01:54:20,655 --> 01:54:23,355 and now you've actually got joystick pulse in the side. 2457 01:54:23,975 --> 01:54:26,195 So it really is a kind of an Allin one kit. 2458 01:54:26,635 --> 01:54:28,075 I mean, when Amstrad got 'em, 2459 01:54:28,075 --> 01:54:31,035 basically any pretense at all that still existed 2460 01:54:31,135 --> 01:54:35,035 of it being an something you could do word documents on 2461 01:54:35,035 --> 01:54:36,155 or anything outside 2462 01:54:36,155 --> 01:54:38,355 of games went completely out of the window. 2463 01:54:38,425 --> 01:54:41,075 It's like games, games, games, that's it. 2464 01:54:41,615 --> 01:54:44,835 So with that, the spectrum ended up having a life 2465 01:54:44,965 --> 01:54:48,515 after 1985, another six, seven years. 2466 01:55:02,315 --> 01:55:04,615 And obviously growing up in the uk you're only aware 2467 01:55:04,615 --> 01:55:05,935 of the computers you have around. 2468 01:55:06,035 --> 01:55:08,895 So we had all obviously officials, Sinclairs, et cetera. 2469 01:55:09,115 --> 01:55:11,335 And it wasn't until years later when I started sort 2470 01:55:11,335 --> 01:55:13,375 of looking into things you discover, oh, 2471 01:55:13,375 --> 01:55:15,255 these Timex machines in America. 2472 01:55:15,355 --> 01:55:16,655 Oh, it turns out there are spectrums. 2473 01:55:16,765 --> 01:55:19,095 Then you hear of the Scorpion, which is, uh, 2474 01:55:19,175 --> 01:55:20,975 I believe Russian machine, 2475 01:55:20,975 --> 01:55:23,135 which is basically a hardware clone of the spectrum. 2476 01:55:23,795 --> 01:55:25,615 And then this other clones 2477 01:55:25,615 --> 01:55:27,575 and I, the more you look into it, 2478 01:55:27,575 --> 01:55:28,895 you could go down this rabbit hole 2479 01:55:28,915 --> 01:55:32,255 of obviously Sinclair had made such a sort 2480 01:55:32,255 --> 01:55:33,895 of tightly put together machine 2481 01:55:33,965 --> 01:55:36,295 that it could be relatively easily cloned 2482 01:55:36,295 --> 01:55:38,415 and suddenly everywhere in the world seemed 2483 01:55:38,415 --> 01:55:40,015 to have its own version of the spectrum. 2484 01:55:40,435 --> 01:55:42,695 And many of them, uh, to put it politely, 2485 01:55:42,875 --> 01:55:45,005 not passing any money back to Sinclair. 2486 01:55:45,245 --> 01:55:47,685 I, I think is the, uh, most careful I can put that 2487 01:55:53,695 --> 01:55:56,205 Everything we have here are computers 2488 01:55:56,205 --> 01:55:57,605 that look like normal spectrums, 2489 01:55:57,605 --> 01:55:59,485 but none of them is a normal spectrum. 2490 01:55:59,585 --> 01:56:01,565 We have the famous clone made 2491 01:56:01,565 --> 01:56:05,405 by invest the Invest Spectrum Plus, which is a clone 2492 01:56:05,405 --> 01:56:09,885 that was inspired on the board from the 128 K spectrum. 2493 01:56:10,345 --> 01:56:13,285 We have Arab spectrums, they were made in Egypt. 2494 01:56:13,345 --> 01:56:16,805 The distributor would install a certain switch to be able 2495 01:56:16,805 --> 01:56:19,165 to switch between English or Arab. 2496 01:56:19,425 --> 01:56:20,805 We have French spectrums, 2497 01:56:20,825 --> 01:56:25,485 we have all the Brazilian clones from Mical, 2498 01:56:25,875 --> 01:56:28,685 from uh, CPC, uh, even the Ring, 2499 01:56:28,735 --> 01:56:31,285 which is a very uncommon ZX 81 clone. 2500 01:56:31,625 --> 01:56:34,525 We have, uh, machines from Italy, the Anglo Tutor, 2501 01:56:34,535 --> 01:56:37,685 which is a system to learn English 2502 01:56:38,155 --> 01:56:40,925 that is based on the ZX spectrum, the famous 2503 01:56:41,785 --> 01:56:43,445 ZX spectrum, NTSC. 2504 01:56:43,505 --> 01:56:45,245 So used in the states. 2505 01:56:45,665 --> 01:56:48,245 We also have something that is very, very uncommon. 2506 01:56:48,425 --> 01:56:51,165 The Indian spectrum, the DBE Spectrum Plus. 2507 01:56:51,625 --> 01:56:53,445 And so this is just an idea. 2508 01:56:59,465 --> 01:57:02,205 So this is a ZX spectrum clone called the Aerobic. 2509 01:57:02,435 --> 01:57:04,245 It's interesting that a lot 2510 01:57:04,245 --> 01:57:06,165 of the Russian machines particularly were sort 2511 01:57:06,165 --> 01:57:08,205 of very basic clones of the hardware. 2512 01:57:08,205 --> 01:57:10,765 But as time went on and people got uh, sort 2513 01:57:10,765 --> 01:57:13,165 of more into using it, you ended up with these 2514 01:57:13,235 --> 01:57:17,045 what are effectively expanded machines, um, with, I mean, 2515 01:57:17,045 --> 01:57:18,685 appalling artwork on the front with 2516 01:57:18,955 --> 01:57:21,005 what I think is possibly the worst mascot 2517 01:57:21,005 --> 01:57:22,125 that has ever been created. 2518 01:57:22,285 --> 01:57:25,085 A sort of crushed purple owl, fantastic. 2519 01:57:25,945 --> 01:57:28,485 But inside the actual machine itself, 2520 01:57:28,875 --> 01:57:30,165 genuinely quite impressive. 2521 01:57:31,185 --> 01:57:33,565 The Keyboard is pretty good. 2522 01:57:33,865 --> 01:57:37,445 So this actually has 64 K of Ram, which obviously wasn't, 2523 01:57:37,545 --> 01:57:39,685 uh, set up for this an actual spectrum. 2524 01:57:40,065 --> 01:57:41,845 Uh, you've got the built-in joystick port. 2525 01:57:41,845 --> 01:57:45,165 You've even got a built-in, uh, monitor output for RGB, 2526 01:57:45,165 --> 01:57:47,325 which again is something the spectrum itself, 2527 01:57:47,545 --> 01:57:48,925 the original ones didn't have at the time. 2528 01:57:52,345 --> 01:57:56,445 So this is the Dak Tick m it's a Russian clone, 2529 01:57:56,535 --> 01:57:59,365 which is quite a similar size to the spectrum, 2530 01:57:59,705 --> 01:58:02,325 but it hasn't got the standard ULA, 2531 01:58:02,355 --> 01:58:06,485 it's got a Russian made ULA and it's also got 64 K of Ram, 2532 01:58:06,685 --> 01:58:08,725 although only 48 K are used. 2533 01:58:09,265 --> 01:58:10,885 But it's a cologne. 2534 01:58:10,885 --> 01:58:14,765 Other than that is a Russian spectrum in any ever sense. 2535 01:58:16,445 --> 01:58:17,445 I quite like it. 2536 01:58:22,275 --> 01:58:24,205 It's interesting how far these 2537 01:58:24,205 --> 01:58:25,285 different progressions made. 2538 01:58:25,425 --> 01:58:26,605 And I mean back at home 2539 01:58:26,735 --> 01:58:29,565 after a certain amount of time we'd moved on to sort 2540 01:58:29,565 --> 01:58:31,365 of a more high specs computers. 2541 01:58:31,745 --> 01:58:33,005 But in places like Russia 2542 01:58:33,015 --> 01:58:35,165 where perhaps they didn't have the disposable income 2543 01:58:35,185 --> 01:58:37,245 to keep buying these new posh things, 2544 01:58:37,245 --> 01:58:38,845 which weren't even released over there. 2545 01:58:38,845 --> 01:58:41,910 Anyway, these end up with a much, much longer lifespan, 2546 01:58:41,910 --> 01:58:43,925 which is why you end up with these clones 2547 01:58:43,925 --> 01:58:45,525 with all the extra internals. 2548 01:58:45,875 --> 01:58:48,485 Many of these clones were developed mid nineties. 2549 01:58:48,715 --> 01:58:49,845 Some of them were before, 2550 01:58:49,905 --> 01:58:52,965 but some were also during the mid nineties, which means 2551 01:58:53,195 --> 01:58:55,445 that the spectrum was alive for many, 2552 01:58:55,475 --> 01:58:57,685 many more years than it was year. 2553 01:59:04,905 --> 01:59:06,845 Brazil is an amazing story. 2554 01:59:06,875 --> 01:59:07,925 What they did first 2555 01:59:07,925 --> 01:59:11,685 because of one thing in 1981 in March 2556 01:59:12,355 --> 01:59:14,205 Cove Syno launched ZX 81 2557 01:59:14,825 --> 01:59:17,925 in October, 1981 in Brazil, 2558 01:59:17,975 --> 01:59:22,485 there were already unofficial clones of ZX 81 being sold. 2559 01:59:22,925 --> 01:59:25,805 I have no concept that those computers are actually copied 2560 01:59:26,425 --> 01:59:29,845 or clones from Harvard that existed elsewhere. 2561 01:59:30,205 --> 01:59:33,085 I saw a computer with a brand on it, TK 85, a micro digital. 2562 01:59:33,285 --> 01:59:35,285 I think that, oh, someone came up with this mic. 2563 01:59:35,285 --> 01:59:37,445 Digital was the biggest producer of, 2564 01:59:37,445 --> 01:59:38,925 of this kind of computers in Brazil. 2565 01:59:39,065 --> 01:59:42,325 In Brazil, there was a law called Reserve of Federal, 2566 01:59:42,455 --> 01:59:45,125 which was a kind of a protection mechanism, 2567 01:59:46,105 --> 01:59:49,525 not allowing people to import computers to Brazil. 2568 01:59:49,785 --> 01:59:51,965 Why? They wanted to incentivize the national 2569 01:59:52,685 --> 01:59:53,805 industry to create them. 2570 01:59:54,225 --> 01:59:57,325 So they use their creativity in the best possible way 2571 01:59:57,345 --> 01:59:59,405 to come up with computers locally made. 2572 01:59:59,665 --> 02:00:02,525 And then the spectrum was launched in Brazil 2573 02:00:02,665 --> 02:00:04,205 as the TK 90 X. 2574 02:00:06,385 --> 02:00:10,485 So the concept that this was copied from another company 2575 02:00:10,515 --> 02:00:12,085 with no royalties being paid 2576 02:00:12,265 --> 02:00:16,605 and no authorization to do so, was nonexistent at all. 2577 02:00:16,925 --> 02:00:18,965 I only started to learn about the other 2578 02:00:19,205 --> 02:00:20,765 computers probably a year into it. 2579 02:00:20,895 --> 02:00:25,445 There were 40 million clones developed in South America, 2580 02:00:25,825 --> 02:00:28,765 in Africa, in Eastern Europe, and so on. But 2581 02:00:29,065 --> 02:00:30,885 Trying to set up, uh, 2582 02:00:31,225 --> 02:00:34,765 own wholly owned subsidiaries in France, Italy, Germany, 2583 02:00:35,055 --> 02:00:39,645 Spain, and set up exclusive distributors in dozens 2584 02:00:39,645 --> 02:00:42,845 of other countries, and do it quickly, as quickly 2585 02:00:42,945 --> 02:00:44,445 as we needed it to be done. 2586 02:00:44,905 --> 02:00:48,485 But obviously, most of our sales were still in Britain, 2587 02:00:49,465 --> 02:00:53,125 and we didn't saturate any of those markets 2588 02:00:54,105 --> 02:00:57,285 enough to discourage other people from 2589 02:00:57,285 --> 02:00:58,445 coming in with clones. 2590 02:00:58,825 --> 02:01:03,445 We sold 5 million spectrums worldwide, uh, unbelievable, 2591 02:01:03,625 --> 02:01:04,845 uh, sales volume. 2592 02:01:05,065 --> 02:01:09,005 It, and we had 70% of the UK market, um, 2593 02:01:09,065 --> 02:01:10,125 for quite a long time. 2594 02:01:10,665 --> 02:01:12,965 And we had a turnover of a hundred million 2595 02:01:12,965 --> 02:01:14,485 with only a hundred employees. 2596 02:01:14,785 --> 02:01:17,245 The release of the spectrum was huge, is one 2597 02:01:17,245 --> 02:01:19,565 of the cornerstones of the UK computer industry. 2598 02:01:19,675 --> 02:01:22,405 Without doubt, it made a real difference to people. 2599 02:01:22,835 --> 02:01:26,965 It's lovely that a 40 year old computer still has a legacy. 2600 02:01:27,235 --> 02:01:29,365 There's not many early computers 2601 02:01:29,365 --> 02:01:30,725 that can say the same thing. 2602 02:01:30,755 --> 02:01:32,565 Yeah, so it's, it's a nice thing. 2603 02:01:33,105 --> 02:01:36,205 And the spectrum has developed over the years as well. 2604 02:01:36,205 --> 02:01:37,925 We've obviously had the 1 2 8 K models 2605 02:01:38,025 --> 02:01:39,485 and now we've got the spectrum next. 2606 02:01:46,345 --> 02:01:48,525 So this teenager friend of mine, Victor, 2607 02:01:49,025 --> 02:01:51,045 is into hardware ever since we were kids. 2608 02:01:51,385 --> 02:01:55,125 And his passion is about keeping old hardware alive. 2609 02:01:55,585 --> 02:01:58,445 And, uh, his latest creation was this board 2610 02:01:58,445 --> 02:01:59,565 called it the TB blue. 2611 02:01:59,865 --> 02:02:03,005 So you could just buy this board inserted 2612 02:02:03,005 --> 02:02:06,205 inside your old spectrum, and you have everything there. 2613 02:02:06,505 --> 02:02:09,085 So Victor reached out to me then said, Hey, 2614 02:02:09,235 --> 02:02:10,765 this thing's super popular in Brazil. 2615 02:02:10,765 --> 02:02:13,525 Everybody buys it. Do you know someone in the UK 2616 02:02:13,625 --> 02:02:14,805 who could help me out 2617 02:02:14,985 --> 02:02:17,165 and maybe I can sell in the UK as well? 2618 02:02:17,745 --> 02:02:19,685 And I thought of it during the call with Victor 2619 02:02:19,785 --> 02:02:21,765 and I said, you know, Victor, that this won't work 2620 02:02:21,765 --> 02:02:26,605 because the Zac spectrum is this piece of design, this 2621 02:02:27,215 --> 02:02:29,105 full rounded machine, this one thing 2622 02:02:29,105 --> 02:02:30,545 that you get under your Christmas tree 2623 02:02:30,545 --> 02:02:32,905 and you open, you plug it in and it works. 2624 02:02:32,925 --> 02:02:36,105 And that's the memory that everybody has of it. 2625 02:02:36,805 --> 02:02:39,145 The memories of trying to keep this expansion working 2626 02:02:39,245 --> 02:02:40,585 and putting Blue Tech here 2627 02:02:40,585 --> 02:02:42,865 and there, it said, that's not what people want, right? 2628 02:02:42,935 --> 02:02:45,705 They want that thing that you open and the smell 2629 02:02:45,765 --> 02:02:47,145 and the materials and everything. 2630 02:02:47,245 --> 02:02:49,745 So why don't we actually make a computer out of it? 2631 02:02:49,745 --> 02:02:52,705 And while we added it, why don't we make the computer 2632 02:02:52,735 --> 02:02:54,065 that Sinclair never made? 2633 02:02:54,115 --> 02:02:56,345 Maybe we can get the original team to work with us. 2634 02:02:56,355 --> 02:02:58,225 Maybe we can bring in Rick Dickinson. 2635 02:02:58,245 --> 02:03:00,545 And that's how the ZX spectrum next was born, because 2636 02:03:00,545 --> 02:03:04,065 It was designed by the late Rick Dickinson and Phil, and, 2637 02:03:04,285 --> 02:03:06,385 and it just looks amazing. 2638 02:03:06,605 --> 02:03:08,905 We worked on it together, mainly driven by Rick, 2639 02:03:08,985 --> 02:03:11,665 conceptually, because it's his legacy really. 2640 02:03:12,135 --> 02:03:16,145 Rick was asked to redesign it using new technology, 2641 02:03:16,305 --> 02:03:18,545 a new keyboard, how would it look now? 2642 02:03:18,805 --> 02:03:19,865 And this is the result. 2643 02:03:19,965 --> 02:03:21,905 And the keys are the, the main feature. 2644 02:03:22,015 --> 02:03:23,505 They're extraordinary. I love them. 2645 02:03:23,945 --> 02:03:25,265 I really do like those keys. 2646 02:03:25,885 --> 02:03:27,865 The colored plugs on the side are a nod 2647 02:03:27,865 --> 02:03:28,985 to the original rainbow. 2648 02:03:29,405 --> 02:03:31,585 We could not do that. Could we? Really? It 2649 02:03:31,585 --> 02:03:34,785 Looks as you would expect it to have progressed. 2650 02:03:34,885 --> 02:03:38,665 It. It's got the fail of the Sinclair, the brand itself. 2651 02:03:42,885 --> 02:03:46,465 So the ethos behind the ZX spectrum next was that ability 2652 02:03:46,465 --> 02:03:48,265 to take it off the box and use it. 2653 02:03:48,405 --> 02:03:51,105 So we kept everything from the original spectrum 2654 02:03:51,885 --> 02:03:54,625 inside the spectrum next, even the ability to load from tape 2655 02:03:55,045 --> 02:03:57,145 or use it just the way you use it back then. 2656 02:03:57,645 --> 02:03:59,185 And then started to add the layers 2657 02:03:59,285 --> 02:04:02,345 of extra functionalities on top without interfering 2658 02:04:02,345 --> 02:04:03,865 with the backward compatibility 2659 02:04:04,125 --> 02:04:05,125 On the next. You can do 2660 02:04:05,125 --> 02:04:07,625 everything that you could do on 2661 02:04:07,625 --> 02:04:08,705 the original spectrums. 2662 02:04:09,125 --> 02:04:11,145 You can still have your attribute clash if you want it 2663 02:04:11,145 --> 02:04:13,865 as a specky, but it's making it for the next generation 2664 02:04:13,865 --> 02:04:17,185 of kids can pick up and start programming 2665 02:04:17,285 --> 02:04:18,785 and not be stuck by, oh, 2666 02:04:18,785 --> 02:04:20,465 I can't get something moving around on the screen. 2667 02:04:20,485 --> 02:04:21,505 Oh, I'll put that away. 2668 02:04:21,605 --> 02:04:24,385 And I brought the next, it brought back memories 2669 02:04:24,485 --> 02:04:25,585 of my spectrum. 2670 02:04:25,855 --> 02:04:29,225 Days, many hours, many late nights coding, 2671 02:04:29,845 --> 02:04:32,625 but I think the next is in its own league. 2672 02:04:33,295 --> 02:04:34,505 It's really hard to explain. 2673 02:04:34,695 --> 02:04:37,525 It's, it's like going back in time, that magic 2674 02:04:37,595 --> 02:04:39,285 that you had when you were younger, 2675 02:04:39,285 --> 02:04:41,325 when you were first experiment with assembly, 2676 02:04:41,465 --> 02:04:42,925 and it, it's back again. 2677 02:04:43,025 --> 02:04:46,005 You've, you've got a machine, you can start again doing 2678 02:04:46,005 --> 02:04:48,245 that on and, and get that same buzz. 2679 02:04:48,745 --> 02:04:51,085 Oh my God. The difference in quality 2680 02:04:51,505 --> 02:04:52,845 of the Specker games on the next. 2681 02:04:53,035 --> 02:04:55,165 It's something that we all didn't expect, 2682 02:04:55,825 --> 02:04:57,325 and I know we know it's capable, 2683 02:04:57,985 --> 02:05:00,245 but we didn't expect the quality of the games 2684 02:05:00,315 --> 02:05:02,445 that people have been making, even from basic. 2685 02:05:02,665 --> 02:05:05,405 And it, it's, it's been been brilliant. 2686 02:05:05,475 --> 02:05:07,365 It's the whole story of the next. 2687 02:05:07,515 --> 02:05:09,205 It's, it's like I've loved 2688 02:05:09,205 --> 02:05:10,845 every minute of doing the project. A 2689 02:05:10,845 --> 02:05:13,725 Lot of game designers are trying to replicate 2690 02:05:13,755 --> 02:05:15,525 what they did on their 48 k, 2691 02:05:15,985 --> 02:05:18,165 but the next really is bigger than that. 2692 02:05:18,625 --> 02:05:20,405 You can do a lot more on the next, 2693 02:05:20,705 --> 02:05:23,445 and you've got all this extra memory to use. 2694 02:05:23,755 --> 02:05:26,725 Plus you've got the beauty of built-in wifi. 2695 02:05:27,225 --> 02:05:29,245 The eight bit machine isn't dead. 2696 02:05:29,275 --> 02:05:32,085 It's it, it's living on, but this 2697 02:05:32,085 --> 02:05:35,445 Is truly the Specky community, the regional people, 2698 02:05:36,395 --> 02:05:40,765 players, the creators, the fans who come together 2699 02:05:41,145 --> 02:05:42,845 to add small pieces to this project 2700 02:05:42,905 --> 02:05:45,245 and make it all together in a sense. 2701 02:05:45,925 --> 02:05:49,925 I cannot imagine a more original way 2702 02:05:49,985 --> 02:05:52,365 or a more valid way 2703 02:05:52,785 --> 02:05:56,525 of keeping the spectrum alive than the people who enjoy it, 2704 02:05:56,875 --> 02:05:58,005 keeping it that way. 2705 02:06:05,045 --> 02:06:07,645 I think the spectrums remain so popular today 2706 02:06:08,315 --> 02:06:10,645 because it had a certain innocence. 2707 02:06:11,145 --> 02:06:13,805 And obviously we have a nostalgia for anything 2708 02:06:13,805 --> 02:06:15,285 that we played with as kids. 2709 02:06:15,705 --> 02:06:18,165 And like a lot of people, I spent a lot 2710 02:06:18,165 --> 02:06:19,245 of time playing on the spectrum, 2711 02:06:19,805 --> 02:06:21,125 enjoying the games, hours and hours. 2712 02:06:22,145 --> 02:06:23,965 And I think when you look back at those times, 2713 02:06:24,475 --> 02:06:27,565 they're the times that you, you are very nostalgic about 2714 02:06:28,275 --> 02:06:30,405 because they've got a lot of good memories for you. 2715 02:06:30,825 --> 02:06:34,005 And I think particularly these days, we all need a bit 2716 02:06:34,005 --> 02:06:35,605 of those warm, fuzzy memories sometimes. 2717 02:06:36,485 --> 02:06:38,685 I think part of the success of the spectrum was due 2718 02:06:38,685 --> 02:06:39,805 to the, the price, 2719 02:06:39,825 --> 02:06:40,925 but also the wow factor 2720 02:06:40,945 --> 02:06:43,485 of the unboxing really is just like a unique unboxing. 2721 02:06:43,545 --> 02:06:45,245 It was also such a neat little package 2722 02:06:45,505 --> 02:06:47,325 and people fell in love with its personality 2723 02:06:47,345 --> 02:06:50,165 and its rubber keys, but also that it drove creativity. 2724 02:06:50,345 --> 02:06:52,765 And if you spoke this language, which I never did, 2725 02:06:52,985 --> 02:06:54,805 it must have been so liberating. 2726 02:06:54,865 --> 02:06:58,165 It must have felt like the thrill I got from playing a game 2727 02:06:58,395 --> 02:07:00,405 with, which had a sense of adventure and discovery. 2728 02:07:00,405 --> 02:07:02,805 Imagine if you discovered a whole new language 2729 02:07:02,805 --> 02:07:05,765 that allowed you to control events 2730 02:07:05,945 --> 02:07:07,205 on a screen in front of you. 2731 02:07:07,605 --> 02:07:09,125 I think there's so much love for the spectrum today 2732 02:07:09,125 --> 02:07:12,925 because it's a quintessentially British thing. 2733 02:07:13,405 --> 02:07:15,285 I mean that rainbow stripe on the bottom right, might 2734 02:07:15,285 --> 02:07:16,445 as well be a union jack, right? 2735 02:07:17,395 --> 02:07:21,885 It's so British and so uniquely us. 2736 02:07:22,585 --> 02:07:24,925 And it was made by a bloke from Cambridge 2737 02:07:25,065 --> 02:07:27,045 who was a bit posh, and he was ginger 2738 02:07:27,385 --> 02:07:30,485 and he was knighted by a queen, a knighthood. 2739 02:07:30,945 --> 02:07:32,525 That's the spectrum experience. 2740 02:07:33,875 --> 02:07:36,765 Show me an experience like that from another country. Well, 2741 02:07:36,765 --> 02:07:38,045 There's something very British about it. 2742 02:07:38,045 --> 02:07:41,325 The fact that it was assembled in Dundee, like, 2743 02:07:41,325 --> 02:07:42,525 we like to do things differently. 2744 02:07:42,755 --> 02:07:44,485 This is an entirely different machine. 2745 02:07:44,945 --> 02:07:46,245 The way it looked, the way it 2746 02:07:46,245 --> 02:07:47,485 worked, you know, it was different. 2747 02:07:47,865 --> 02:07:50,645 And I don't think there was so much fanfare about him being 2748 02:07:50,715 --> 02:07:52,485 British as opposed to 2749 02:07:52,485 --> 02:07:54,885 what was happening in North America when it came 2750 02:07:54,885 --> 02:07:57,245 to technology, because lots of people, uh, like to claim 2751 02:07:57,245 --> 02:07:58,965 that the games industry started in America. 2752 02:07:59,185 --> 02:08:00,405 But, uh, we know better. 2753 02:08:02,005 --> 02:08:06,085 I think of him as a boffin who understood 2754 02:08:06,315 --> 02:08:07,725 what was important to people 2755 02:08:08,225 --> 02:08:10,685 and how he could bring the future 2756 02:08:11,555 --> 02:08:13,965 into their lives at a decent price. 2757 02:08:14,465 --> 02:08:18,805 So although he was pilloried a lot for his eccentricity, 2758 02:08:19,105 --> 02:08:21,605 it was exactly that which allowed him 2759 02:08:21,605 --> 02:08:23,485 to have such crazy ambition 2760 02:08:23,485 --> 02:08:27,165 and crazy thoughts that resulted in people like me 2761 02:08:27,185 --> 02:08:29,165 and hundreds of thousands of others 2762 02:08:29,735 --> 02:08:32,245 benefiting from his genius of 2763 02:08:33,085 --> 02:08:34,965 democratizing this amazing technology. 2764 02:08:35,435 --> 02:08:39,525 Rick was very generous with praise where it was warranted, 2765 02:08:39,825 --> 02:08:43,125 and he had nothing but praise for Clive Sinclair. 2766 02:08:43,275 --> 02:08:46,325 From his perspective, he owed his first step up a ladder 2767 02:08:46,545 --> 02:08:48,805 for his career to Clive Sinclair. 2768 02:08:48,945 --> 02:08:51,085 He was very protective of Clive 2769 02:08:51,385 --> 02:08:54,005 and really didn't like the negative press 2770 02:08:54,065 --> 02:08:55,245 he got the mocking. 2771 02:08:55,535 --> 02:08:58,885 Clive was an innovator. You need these people. 2772 02:08:58,885 --> 02:09:02,005 They're the engines of industry people that are prepared 2773 02:09:02,005 --> 02:09:03,445 to take a risk, stick their neck out. 2774 02:09:03,445 --> 02:09:05,445 You don't get new products without risk takers. 2775 02:09:06,065 --> 02:09:09,645 And Clive Sinclair, from Rick's perspective, 2776 02:09:10,425 --> 02:09:12,845 was a risk taker in the best way. 2777 02:09:55,525 --> 02:10:00,375 It's the middle of the sun is shining 2778 02:10:00,655 --> 02:10:02,775 brightly my eye. 2779 02:10:33,395 --> 02:10:34,965 Another Wednesday, 2780 02:10:36,635 --> 02:10:40,765 Just Another Wednesday, just another 2781 02:10:41,275 --> 02:10:42,275 Wednesday. 2782 02:10:43,515 --> 02:10:46,685 Five minutes later I sound 2783 02:10:51,895 --> 02:10:52,565 helicopter. 2784 02:11:10,875 --> 02:11:12,725 Just another Wednesday. 2785 02:11:14,275 --> 02:11:16,085 Just another Wednesday. 2786 02:11:17,715 --> 02:11:19,565 Just another Wednesday. 2787 02:11:22,315 --> 02:11:22,925 Wednesday 2788 02:11:31,585 --> 02:11:32,845 As we take on. 2789 02:11:33,545 --> 02:11:36,485 See my manion from the sky. 2790 02:11:38,425 --> 02:11:39,085 10 minutes. 2791 02:11:52,305 --> 02:11:52,525 I'm 2792 02:12:08,655 --> 02:12:09,265 Wednesday. 2793 02:12:13,775 --> 02:12:17,825 Wednesday, Wednesday 2794 02:17:52,625 --> 02:17:52,915 only. 2795 02:17:54,395 --> 02:17:54,515 I.