Home computing icon Clive Sinclair, the man behind the ZX Spectrum, has died
The colorful entrepreneur helped introduce a generation to home computers.
Clive Sinclair, founder and chairman of Sinclair Research, at the launch of the Sinclair 2-inch pocket television.
Clive Sinclair, a home computing luminary who pioneered the pocket calculator and created the iconic ZX Spectrum computer, has died at the age of 81.
Sinclair passed away Thursday at home in London. Despite his having cancer for more than a decade, he was still tinkering with inventions until the end, his daughter Belinda Sinclair told the BBC.
Born in 1940 to a family of shipbuilders, Sinclair was an entrepreneur and colorful figure well-known for hits like the ZX Spectrum, and the occasional flawed but fascinating flop, like the overly delicate Black Watch wristwatch and the infamous Sinclair C5 battery-powered electric trike.
In the early 1970s he developed the affordable Sinclair Cambridge pocket calculator, a portable electronic device that could be bought as a kit or fully assembled. Beginning with the ZX80 in 1980, he released a series of home computers that were substantially more affordable than rivals, helping bring computers into homes. In the age of Amstrad and the Commodore 64, Spectrum sold hundreds of thousands of devices. The color model ZX Spectrum 48K inspired a generation to lay the foundations of the British gaming industry with titles like Jet Set Willy, Horace Goes Skiing, Chuckie Egg and Saboteur.
Technology luminaries and computing fans including Elon Musk, Brian Cox and Edgar Wright have paid tribute to this influential and much-loved figure.
In mourning for Sir Clive Sinclair. The ZX Spectrum was the best computer ever made. I still have mine, bought by my parents for Christmas 1982. pic.twitter.com/7SPttCtzGx
— Guy Walters (@guywalters) September 16, 2021
For someone whose first glimpses of a brave new world were the terrifying graphics of 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81, I'd like to salute tech pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair. He made 21st Century dreams feel possible. Will bash away on the rubber keys of a Spectrum in your honour. RIP. pic.twitter.com/UGHs0djeMV
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) September 16, 2021
Sad to hear that Clive Sinclair has died. The ZX81 was my introduction to computing and I loved it! Started out with a 1k version and eventually saved up for a 16k ram pack - thank you Clive !
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) September 16, 2021
RIP, Sir Sinclair. I loved that computer.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2021
RIP Sir Clive Sinclair - creator of the strange, marvelous, flawed Sinclair Research, home of wild dreams and mad decisions.
— Rupert Goodwins (@rupertg) September 16, 2021
Hard to over-emphasise how famous Clive was in the 70s and 80s, if you weren't there. He was portrayed as the eccentric genius businessman who single-handedly beat the Japanese and the Americans at their own game. Thatcher gave the Japanese PM a Spectrum. https://t.co/MOsVtPulFa
— Rupert Goodwins (@rupertg) September 16, 2021
All your UK videogame companies today were built on the shoulders of giants who made games for the ZX Spectrum. You cannot exaggerate Sir Clive Sinclair’s influence on the world. And if we’d all stopped laughing long enough to buy a C5 he’d probably have saved the environment.
— Dominik Diamond (@DominikDiamond) September 16, 2021
Very sad to hear that Clive Sinclair has died. This man changed the course of my life. And arguably, the digital age for us in the UK started with the Sinclair ZX80, when thousands of kids learnt to code using 1k of RAM. For us, the Spectrum was like a Rolls Royce with 48k. pic.twitter.com/Nf050wftsk
— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) September 16, 2021
At least Clive Sinclair lived long enough to see that he was right about many things.
— James May (@MrJamesMay) September 16, 2021
