Inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, who popularised the home computer and invented the pocket calculator, has died at his London home aged 81.

His daughter Belinda Sinclair said he passed away on Thursday morning after having cancer for more than a decade.

 

Sir Clive's products included the ZX series of computers and his ill-fated C5 electric vehicle.

He was still working on his inventions last week "because that was what he loved doing", said Ms Sinclair.

"He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion," she added.

 

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RIP, respect.

Bought my Fist computer, a ZX spectrum 48K from Woolworths for 130 GBP with the rubber keyboard, kempston programable joystick and an Opus 3.5" Disk drive. It took 5 seconds to load a game Vs tape loading which we all knew you could make a cup a tea and drink it before the game was loaded if it loaded at all.  We used to buy crash magazine and check out the poke and peek pages for gaming cheats and level helpers.  This was the start of the home gaming revolution after the nintendo game boy and other such hand held cartridge gaming which was a total contrast against the Atari. Then the commodore 64 arrived. Suddenly it was spectrum vs commodore 64. Which one did you choose?

 

Commodore 64 vs ZX Spectrum - The Great British Computer War

I learnt the basics of programming on the Sinclair ZX81. Plugged it in to an old TV. When the computer use to overheat I put in the fridge for a short while to cool down!

 

I too learnt the basics of computing on the Sinclair ZX81. Plugged it in to an old TV - Black & White.