But he would also become synonymous with one of his less successful inventions – the Sinclair C5 – which would cost him financially. Sinclair became a household name as his products flew off the shelves and was awarded a knighthood in 1983.
Much-loved games – now in colour – that inspired a generation included Jet Set Willy, Horace Goes Skiing, Chuckie Egg, Saboteur, Knight Lore and Lords of Midnight. Its rubber keys, strange clashing visuals and tinny sound did not prevent it being pivotal in the development of the British games industry. In 1982, he released the ZX Spectrum 48K.
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The business mogul Lord Sugar paid tribute to his “good friend and competitor” on Twitter, writing: “What a guy he kickstarted consumer electronics in the UK with his amplifier kits then calculators, watches mini TV and of course the Sinclair ZX.
The ZX80 and ZX81 made him very rich: in 2010 Sinclair told the Guardian: “Within two or three years, we made £14m profit in a year.” Many games industry veterans got their start typing programs into its touch-based keyboard and became hooked on games such as as 3D Monster Maze and Mazogs. It sold 50,000, units while its successor, the ZX81, which replaced it, cost £69.95 and sold 250,000. At £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 assembled, it was about one-fifth of the price of other home computers at the time. His first home computer, the ZX80, named after the year it appeared, revolutionised the market, although it was a far cry from today’s models. “He wanted to make things small and cheap so people could access them,” his daughter said.
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In the early 1970s he designed a series of calculators designed to be small and light enough to fit in the pocket at a time when most existing models were the size of an old-fashioned shop till. He left school at 17 and worked for four years as a technical journalist to raise funds to found Sinclair Radionics.Ī Sinclair ZX Spectrum. My daughter and her husband are engineers so he’d be chatting engineering with them.” Of course, he was so clever and he was always interested in everything. I loved that computer.”īelinda Sinclair, 57, told the Guardian: “He was a rather amazing person. For a certain generation of gamer, the computer of choice was either the ZX Spectrum 48K or its rival, the Commodore 64.Įlon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, commented on Twitter on an article calling Sir Clive the father of the ZX Spectrum: “RIP, Sir Sinclair.
Many modern-day titans of the games industry got their start on one of his ZX models. Sinclair invented the pocket calculator but was best known for popularising the home computer, bringing it to British high-street stores at relatively affordable prices. His daughter, Belinda, said he died at home in London on Thursday morning after a long illness. Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor and entrepreneur who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the masses, has died at the age of 81.
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