ZX Spectrum advert (1982)

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black-and-white of its predecessor, the Sinclair ZX81.

The Spectrum was among the first mainstream audience home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA; the C64 was the main rival to the Spectrum in the UK market during the early 1980s. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom of companies producing software and hardware for it. The effects of this are still seen.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• zx
• spectrum
• sinclaire
• advert
• 1980s
• 80s
• 1982

[Twirlyhead]

@rob16248 - probably - if the BBC Radiophonic workshop had anything to do with it - they used anything and everything for sound effects - the famous Tardis noise was scraping piano strings.

[rob16248]

Weren't these used for Dr Who special effects during the early 80's?

[bogercs]

Turn on your ZX spertrum detector.

[CapeDeepShark]

Oh goodness this beast brings back memories - I positively lusted after the +, and was deeply enamored of +2 and especially the +3, which arrived in South Africa in 1988...but it was not be, with the growing ascendancy of the 386, and later 486 DX-2 66....but I still retain a soft spot in my heart for the +, and have often wondered what a QL is like....

[Twirlyhead]

"New style professional keyboard" - NO chance - better than the original, yes - but good enough ? not even close. Sinclair never understood the need for a proper keyboard - it took Amstrad to do that when they took them over.

[jren57]

The Spectrum+ came out in 1984, I remember my mate got one just after it came out, but they weren't very well made because when he turned it upside down all the keys on the new style keyboard fell out and he had to take it back to the shop!

At the time I had a C=64 and would never stoop so low :)

[jjovereats]

Imac1970, did your 81 run out of memory a lot?

[lmac1970]

Loved this ad at the time, especially as I was stuck with a 16k ZX81 and could only dream of owning one of those beauties ... Sigh ...

[UncleFeedle]

I'm pretty sure this ad is from 1984. The Spectrum + was released that year. Also, the background music is a good example of FM synthesis, probably a Yamaha DX-7, released in 1983. This was considered hot, cutting-edge stuff at the time, ideal for the purposes of this ad.

[NotATube]

The original speccy came out in 1982, but this is probably a couple of years later when the Spectrum+ came out.