Rick Dickinson, ZX Spectrum designer, RIP

[Geoff Oltmans]

> On Apr 26, 2018, at 7:47 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> I know this is a rather USA-centric list, so probably most of you started
> off with things like the Apple II, the first sub-$1000 home computer. But
> in Britain and Europe back then, we were a lot poorer, and $1000 was an
> impossibly large amount of money -- many months of pay in a good job.
> 

I think you'd find a few people this side of the pond whose first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 (our equivalent of the ZX81). I know that was true in our household... My dad purchased one brand-new at Albertson's (a supermarket chain in the southeast US) for $100. We were enamored with it instantly despite its obvious drawbacks and that eventually led to the purchase of a more capable machine, the TI 99/4a. Unfortunately much to my dads chagrin that happening just a few months before its drastic price cut and eventual discontinuation. 

RIP. Definitely a very influential machine worldwide and an effort worth feeling proud of.