In this video I tell the story behind 5 unreleased computers that were designed by legendary British technology company Sinclair Research.
Video Links:
Sam Coupe Review & Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7-VB2QM7c
The Story of the Sinclair LC3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sfj9gmLyS0
The Story of the Last Sinclair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_n5uo6f8yc
Story of 5 Failed 8-bit Computer Upgrades: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pttxiiaRz1o
Commodore Prototypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5xWKbJd3A
Atari 8-bit Prototypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsdmlQhNHp8
Support my creative work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lairdslair
#sinclair #zxspectrum #amstrad
18 Comments
Many computer companies in the 80s had more ambition than time or money.
Finally! I'm first.
Great, while I have your attention, can anyone tell me what the opening tune is from and what the words are?
Ta.!
It always seemed to me that Sinclair’s R&D department was too unfocused with too much going on at the one time rather than concentrating on a project that actually had a realistic chance of coming to the market.
The way history worked out, with the BBC winning the schools contract, and the Speccy being the bedroom gamer/coder personal computer of choice and a dearth of titles worked out really well!
The zx 64 was the best
something resembling the LC3 was later released in USSR under the name "Alf"/"Elf"
I guess, an improved Spectrum shouldn't have been so hard to develop. The 128k was already a good step. A faster Z80 CPU with optional double clock speed (Turbo Button) would have been the Turbo Spectrum. And a new ULA and Rom could have eliminated Colour Clash and enabled more Colours on Screen. I guess, there was too much focus on the next revolution instead of cheap, manageable evolutionary steps. I would have liked to see a Spectrum Micro Drive Laptop, even with a monochrome LCD.
Thanks for another awesome video❤. The mighty Speccy was so iconic and despite having modest sound and color specs compared to other 8 bit machines of the time, some of the best game versions were released. I still remember Elite, Chase HQ, Cobra, and Barbarian among so many others.❤
Is the footage while youre talking about the QL of QL games? I thought it was exactly the same as the Spectrum graphics wise. Wow.
I love that 'Which Micro?' is running a story about how to change software to run on your micro. I'd love to read that. As one of absolutely everyone who knew nothing about computers, id pick up the magazine and a tonne of c64 games to 'make run on my Spectrum' with the help of the article 😎
The QL+ looks fantastic. A piece of art. Stunning. ❤
I really want some keychains of them for my keys and collectables shelves ❤
"Low Cost Colour Computer(Console)"
These Spectrum game consoles being something that Sinclair was actually going to release going on to be something popular and widely available with several different versions in Russia is really interesting.
Sinclair releasing a console so early that was cross compatible would have been a really interesting alternative history.
To paraphrase a favorite saying of his, no man's reach ever exceeded his grasp more than Sir Clive's. The world needs more like him.
At least you showed the omni as close as you can get to the Loki 🙂 And probably beyond Sinclair back in the day as colour lcds were not around yet 🙂
It's both amusing and confusing to read the popular computer mags of the time. What was reported as being in development at such-and-such a company often bore little resemblance to anything that was actually released.
14:18 – "Approaching Enemy Base" at the top of the photo of Sinclair and Sugar is pretty apt.
If the Konix had come to the market at the right price and working as advertised, it would have cleaned up the market overnight and no doubt would have spawned variations to cater for more markets. The Murray Walker impression wasn't too bad either.
Is it me or does the Loki sound rather like a later generation MSX? I wonder if it was actually supposed to be based on that chipset. Imagine if Amstrad had actually kept hold of just that one, and developed it instead of the gx4000. Surely even they couldn't have messed up making an MSX clone, but if they made it cheaply and got it on the UK market history may have been a lot different.