This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Sinclair  ZX 80 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

David W. from Ithaca - best to keep your mouth shut and let others believe you are an idiot, than open it and confirm their assumptions. Sir Clive was a visionary, way ahead of his time and only stymied by the technology and attitudes available in the early eighties.

I bought a new ZX81 in 1983 and it started my interest in computing. Sir Sinclair was the man who gave a lot of people the possiblilty of using and learning a computer.
I still own the ZX81, the ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL and they are still in working condition !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$EmwW_6kUdHw

please post this link to youtube
hope yu can find your way to the real great sam sites on the net

I bought the ZX-80 from an advertisement in Popular Science. It was great for writing/testing BASIC programs. You could then hear the processor chunk through the code by the loud interference that came through the TV speaker!

I completely fail to understand the adoration of Sinclair. I read a detailed history of his business, and even though it was actively skewed in his favor I can't see him as anything other than a low-rent shyster.

The ZX80 is a good example - the adverts claim that it's the "most powerful personal computer ever produced". This is, of course, utter and complete bollocks. Even assuming it had a Z80a in it as claimed (which I don't believe it really did), at the time it was released it was up against the 68000 and the 8086. And it was, if I recall correctly from my ZX81, abysmally slow even by Z80 standard - almost remarkably so. This, though, is not surprising from a man who sold things he knew were broken, usually had a 30% failure rate, specified things so tightly that his audio equipment usually had a lifetime of 8 to 12 hours, and even dug up rejected ICs from TI's driveway and used them in his products! To describe him as anything other than a criminal is charitable. That he was knighted based on success in selling equipment that doesn't work based on lies is truly amazing - and it would be nice if sites like this didn't gloss over the truth behind a con-man.

Actually, it was possible to get a ZX80 to run in "slow" mode if you installed your own interrupt handler. Z80 machine code for that was widely published.

I originally bought a ZX-80 in bare component form. It took around 3 hours to put together - soldering in the components and sockets, plugging in the IC chips.

It worked first time.

I later upgraded it with the ZX-81 ROM, there was also a new keyboard overlay provided.

To my knowledge it is still operational, as it is in storage.

I remember one sunday spending about 6 hours writing code on my trusty ZX80 only to experience a power-cut before I had saved anything. (onto magnetic tape I might add!) That was a valuable lesson which stands me in good stead to this very day! BACKUP YOUR VALUABLE FILES!

I was sure that the ZX80 I had when I was younger used the language FORTH and not BASIC! Perhaps I am confusing it with the Jupiter Ace which I also had. I never really used them though so cant be sure. I bought both computers around 1984-85 with the intention of collecting old computers. I think I paid a couple of pounds for each. Unfortunately I allowed my mother to throw them out a few years later with all the other junk from the attic! If only I still had them. *sigh*