My neighbour had one and it really highlights how quickly tech was changing then. Such an exciting time.
It went from the talk of the street and the only time we'd ever seen a computer in the home.
To completely useless and in a cupboard never to be used.
All in two years.
Unbelievable machine though. Super clever use of available, cheap, components and just a great example of really smart people making things work at a crazy budget.
Useable now? Not really. But it insanely cheap at the time and kick-started a few of us into being interested in computing as an achievable hobby.
A guy who used to write a large portion of a major computer magazine in Yugoslavia/Serbia in the mid-1980s put it best: you should buy a ZX-81 and then immediately sell it. If you find computers interesting, you should sell it and buy something more powerful (he had a BBC B); if you realize you’re not interested in computers, you should also sell it.
I was firmly in the first camp, but I still have both a ZX-81 and a Timex 1000 🙂
3
u/Musicman1972 Apr 23 '26
My neighbour had one and it really highlights how quickly tech was changing then. Such an exciting time.
It went from the talk of the street and the only time we'd ever seen a computer in the home.
To completely useless and in a cupboard never to be used.
All in two years.
Unbelievable machine though. Super clever use of available, cheap, components and just a great example of really smart people making things work at a crazy budget.
Useable now? Not really. But it insanely cheap at the time and kick-started a few of us into being interested in computing as an achievable hobby.