
Sinclair Spectrum Designer Rick Dickinson Has Died - mjul
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43907248
======
chx
My programming carrier started at the tender age of ten when my parents
smuggled a ZX Spectrum in 1985... good old days behind the Iron Curtain. As
weird as the eighties were in Hungary, some of it were beneficial to me: in
1987, I attended a Z80 assembly course in one of the community centers every
Sunday. From the second weekend on, it became a one on one education because
all the other kids fled. But, because of how those years went, they didn't
cancel. I wonder to this day whether he would have done the course to the
empty room if I hadn't been there. Wouldn't have surprised me!

~~~
gerdesj
I would love to hear that story - smuggling a ZX Speccy to Hungary.

In 1985 I was a British army brat with my parents stationed in West Germany.
Just like you, I was surrounded by quite a lot of (big) hardware and yet life
had to go on. My school probably had a few more bomb scares than yours thanks
to the Provisional IRA but you probably had a few snags about what the Western
powers were going to do to you.

The Cold War was not nice for you or me or anyone else.

I'd really love to hear about how a shitty piece of plastic with a rainbow on
the corner with a Z80 inside and squishy keys got to Hungary.

~~~
chx
I am afraid it's nothing too exciting, my parents went on an tour, bought one
in Munich (by then it was in the bargain bins) and hid it in the tour bus.
Practically everyone was smuggling something and by then they weren't that
keen on stopping it. The eighties were weird, contradiction (and corruption)
was the name of game.

------
ZenoArrow
My first computer was a ZX Spectrum my uncle passed on to myself and my
brother in the late 80s. The games took a ton of time to load from cassette,
but some of them were great fun. My fondest memory is playing Silkworm in co-
op with my brother. I always thought the Sinclair machines looked cool too,
they had a certain mystique I can't put my finger on.

Personal anecdote aside, it's safe to say that without the work of Rick
Dickinson and his colleagues at Sinclair Research the UK computing industry
would have been much slower to take off. The ZX Spectrum in particular was
hugely popular in the UK (alongside its main rival the C64), and did more to
push forward the UK computing industry than any other computer I can think of
(and I say that as an Amiga fan). Even with the passing of Mr Dickinson his
legacy lives on.

~~~
haglin
I didn't understand how pop and push worked.

I thought each register, i.e. BC or DE, had its own stack. I couldn't
understand why some programs crashed. Very frustrating when you had to reload
everything from tape again, and again, and again...

------
lovelearning
My 34-year old ZX Spectrum still looks and runs like new!

Only after reading this news did I remember how much its external design and
looks excited me and helped develop a deep interest in computers at a young
age. I remember how its compact black form factor and silent keys made me want
to switch it on three or four times every day and just type something or play
something. Back then, to my young mind, it wasn't a mere tool to do something;
it was much more - it was itself a source of satisfaction.

Although we had more powerful, more functional Apple IIcs and IBM PCs, their
beige bulky looks never really had the same effect on me.

I had never heard of Rick Dickinson before but thank you very much for the
beautiful ZX Spectrum.

~~~
bartread
I'm not being funny but exactly what kind of deal did you cut with the devil
in order to keep a Spectrum running reliably for 34 years?

Mine used to go wrong about every two months on average, and then would
disappear for the next 6 weeks being repaired. Granted it was pretty heavily
used, but still. I loved the machine but it's the most unreliable computer
I've ever owned. Although, thinking about it, the +2A it was eventually
replaced with was no better. My Commodore 64 and Amiga never gave me a hint of
trouble and in fact, 29 years later, the only other computer I've had fail on
me was an ageing and much abused 13-inch Macbook Pro (hard disk controller
died; disk itself was fine).

Still, as you say, a beautiful machine.

~~~
vidarh
Did you by any chance keep it stored near the TV?

It was not that rare for insufficient shielding to cause machines to start
misbehaving from static electricity from the TV. Which would tend to cause
lengthy repair shop stays as they didn't find anything wrong, eventually put
it aside, tried it again later and found the problem had vanished.

I had that happen with a C64. The C64 was reasonably well shielded, but that
one was stored right underneath a 26" TV and it wasn't shielded well enough
for _that_ , and after a while it started having weird lockups, and now and
again it'd start "typing" on its own. Took us several annoying repairs before
we realized what the problem was.

~~~
bartread
Yes, underneath the large-ish TV in the lounge, and then latterly next to a
small 12 inch black and white TV in my room. The +2A lived on my desk in my
room next to the new 14inch colour TV bought specially for it. The same TV was
used for my C64 and, after than, Amiga. If they were better shielded, and sat
next to a smaller TV, that might explain why they suffered no ill-effects.

Man, if that's the reason... I feel irritated with myself even now. Thanks for
possibly solving the mystery.

~~~
vidarh
The fun thing is that especially for the early C64's the reason they were
better shielded was that Commodore had problems meeting emissions standards
for them, and so if you open them up, you'll find RF shields like this [1]
(from [2]).

Some earlier models had a foil-covered cardboard wrapping it instead.

I think later models reduced the shield to cover just a small set of
components instead.

So they survived better because Commodore failed to figure out how to make
them _produce_ less interference.

[1]
[https://images.pcworld.com/images/article/2012/07/c64_shield...](https://images.pcworld.com/images/article/2012/07/c64_shield_large-11391857.jpg)
[2]
[https://www.pcworld.com/article/260232/tweet_from_a_commodor...](https://www.pcworld.com/article/260232/tweet_from_a_commodore_64_we_do_that_and_more_to_celebrate_the_beloved_pcs_30th_birthday.html)

------
dvtv75
This makes me rather sad, even though this is the first time I've heard of the
guy.

My first computer was a ZX Spectrum, bought by my father shortly after he was
permitted access to us again.

You see, my parents divorced a couple of years before the ZX81 was released,
and my brother and I were constantly used as pawns by our (emotionally and
physically abusive) mother against our father. She eventually relented and
allowed him access, and so the ZX Spectrum he bought shortly after we moved
back into his life became a symbol of the serious improvement in our lives.

I will always be grateful for those times.

------
ClassyJacket
"He was responsible for the boxy look of the ZX80 and ZX81 and the Bauhaus-
inspired appearance of the Spectrum."

I'm a bit too young and outside the UK to have had any personal experience
with the Sinclair Spectrum computers, but I do love watching YouTube videos
about old PCs and technology - Ashens, Techmoan, and LGR are my favourites.
And I've always that specifically the design of the ZX Spectrum was great.

I'm an instant photography fan thinking of getting a digital one to complement
my traditional instant camera, and I really wish the Polaroid Z2300 (which I
briefly owned) had better functionality as I love the design - the black one
almost looks like a a ZX Spectrum in camera form. The Snap Touch, which I
intend to buy, is close, but more rounded. I'm not sure whether there was any
design influence or if the timeline on that would even make sense, but the
point is that some elements of that design can even look good today -
specifically I notice the angled corners and high-contract rainbow on black
colouring:

Polaroid: [https://i.imgur.com/qwrjL7V.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/qwrjL7V.jpg)

Sinclair: [https://i.imgur.com/hKVtpBu.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hKVtpBu.jpg)

------
PeterStuer
The ZX Spectrum 48k was the first computer that was 'mine'. We had a 'family'
TI 99/4A before, and my brother had a C64, but the old Speccy was my favorite.
I loved the 'sanity' of the Z80 instruction set way more than the 6502. I
wasn't too keen on the rubber keyboard though, but still, good times were had.

Notible software: I had a copy of 'Hisoft Pascal'[1] for programming, and my
favorite game (of all time?) was Manic Miner [2] and the only hardware
extention I had was a 'SpecDrum' [3] for music.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiSoft_Systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiSoft_Systems)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner)

[3]
[http://www.crashonline.org.uk/27/specdrum.htm](http://www.crashonline.org.uk/27/specdrum.htm)

------
bartread
Gosh - I was just reading about Rick the other day. He's interviewed in
Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium, which I recently bought. The
industrial design of the Spectrum was very interesting and, honestly, it's not
an unattractive looking device. Sad to hear this news.

I never owned the original Bauhaus-ish rubber key version, although it was the
first computer I played anything on (Jetpac, Manic Miner, Jumping Jack)
because my cousin had one. Instead, a couple of years later my mum bought me
my first computer: the plastic-keyed Spectrum 48K+.

Again, quite a nice looking device. I nearly picked up one, along with a box
of tapes big enough that I'd have struggled to carry it, at the same retro
event where I bought the above book. The only reason I didn't is that because
although I loved my Spectrum it did break down _all the time_ and I didn't
particularly want to relive that part of the experience.

------
Angostura
For those of you how would like to indulge in a little nostalgia at this sad
time:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28)

------
rbanffy
He was also behind the design of the QL. It's one of the most elegant
computers of all time. I'll eventually get keycaps like those...

~~~
leoc
The keycaps were apparently an off-the-peg design, from a Scandinavian firm
iirc. Dickinson did use them nicely, in the QL, the Spectrum+ and Spectrum 128
and also in unused designs like the wafer-scale-integration-based QL
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/830029700/in/album...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/830029700/in/album-72157600854938578/)
and the Pandora laptop
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/829341753/in/album...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/829341753/in/album-72157600856913881/)
. (Those two appeared in _Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware_
[https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/delete-9780857853479/](https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/delete-9780857853479/)
)

------
billforsternz
Early in my career I was basically a Z80 assembly specialist and I think
owning a Spectrum and buying a book that was an annotated disassembly helped
pique my interest. I distinctly remember being very clueless when I first got
the book - I was confused at the very first line of code - it was XOR A and I
didn't immediately understand this trick to clear the accumulator in one byte
not the two that MOV A,0 needed.

------
Tycho
As I a small kid, I remember my grandmother gave me her ZX Spectrum, and my
father helped set it up with a tape recorder so we I could make copies of
games, and one of his friends gave me a book of programs you could write, and
my neighbour's teenage son introduced me to some of the 'good' games (I was
too young to be a discerning gamer), and other kids my age would come round to
play it. That's a lot of inter-generational fun from this little computer.
Sometimes also we just used it as a prop in make-believe adventures.

------
walkingolof
One of his last jobs was the Spectrum Next, the Spectrum for our time.
[https://www.specnext.com](https://www.specnext.com)

~~~
FractalLP
They are perpetually sold out it seems.

~~~
walkingolof
They are just trying to ship the initial batch, their case factory pulled out
last minute, there will be more when thats resolved.

~~~
FractalLP
Thanks for the update. I know that this probably isn't the right place, but
I'll go ahead and ask since you seem to be in the know. What languages are
implemented for this spectrum? I know Assembly and Basic, but is there a C
compiler? I think I saw Forth. I know the chip is really simple, so Assembly
is probably 50x easier than x86, but I'd still like to use something higher
level that isn't BASIC. I think Forth would work, but someone would have to
really explain how it works from the ground up in a tutorial or blog post for
me to use it. I think a compiler course would be really neat on the spectrum.

~~~
walkingolof
Here is a good introduction to programming on the next, what you have to chose
from (rationally) is Z80 Assembler and Basic, the basic is called NextBasic
and is an extended version based on the one found in the orginal, hope this
helps !

[https://www.specnext.com/category/resources/resources_coding...](https://www.specnext.com/category/resources/resources_coding/)

~~~
FractalLP
Any reason y basic is the only high level pl? Tradition and compatibility with
old software? Thanks btw!

------
JoeDaDude
In the US, the Sinclair computers were marketed under the Timex Sinclair name
[1]. One of these, a TS2068 color model, became my first computer on which I
used a Basic compiler to program Conway's Game of Life at unprecedented (for
me) speeds.

I just sold my TS on eBay for just under the price I bought it for in 1983.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair)

~~~
pjmlp
Not only in US.

Portugal had one of the Timex factories producing those computers, so we had
quite a few of them across the country.

My first owned computer was also a TS 2068, bought alonside the ZX Spectrum
emulation cartridge.

The extended BASIC was much better, and the three channels sound chip was
quite nice, sadly most of the time the emulation stayed inserted, because
there was hardly any 2068 specific hardware around.

The SAM Coupé years later was also a very nice machine, but in the end the
Spectrum variants ruled our 8 bit market.

------
Jun8
I have very fond memories of fiddling with the Z80 and the Spectrum, when I
was 12-13. I remember typing in code from a book called “What you can do with
1k of memory” that’s how much you had with the Z80. Sinclair keys were prone
to popping outandcould be used as erasers! The good times! RIP.

------
peteri
Very sad news, one of the companies I worked at (with a few ex-Sinclair folks)
used Rick for our case designs in the early 90s.

Always seemed like a nice guy to me and I still remember the very nice BMW
(early M6 IIRC) he was driving at the time.

------
leoc
He happened to go to the same design school that Jonathan Ive later attended.

------
zubairq
Such a sad day, and a truly iconic machine to me personally! Seeing a ZX81
advert was what made me want a computer in the first place!

------
mtarnovan
My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum clone called HC-85 (presumably an
acronym for Home Computer). These were very popular in Romania in during the
last years of the Communist regime.

I remember seeing a Sinclair Spectrum and thinking how much more elegant it
looked (the HC-85 was bulky and rather ugly).

------
gerdesj
Nine hours ago a post was made on HN about a bloke who designed a computer
with a Z80 processor, a rubbish rubbery keyboard and came in 16Kb or 48Kb of
RAM variants.

That post was about his passing.

Maybe people will notice later.

------
FractalLP
Wasn't he allowing some remakes?

~~~
jecel
He actually helped with the remakes, like
[https://www.specnext.com/about/](https://www.specnext.com/about/) and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Vega%2B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Vega%2B)

------
anjc
RIP

------
cptskippy
The title of this article is odd. It's almost as if it implies the US was
somehow responsible for his death.

He was traveling to the US for cancer treatments and suddenly died between
treatments while in the US. There's no indication as to what killed him, you
would presume the cancer but the title of the article would imply it was by
virtue of the fact that he was on US soil.

Did I miss something?

~~~
dang
Probably an artifact of the article being in British media. We've sanded it
out to avoid further snags.

~~~
salad77
Looks like "The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by
a common language" applies.

Origin unclear but according to
[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/English_language](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/English_language)
attributed to George Bernard Shaw.

I read the original and did not pick up the nuance until it was pointed out;
then the alternative reading was also entirely reasonable even if it was not
my first understanding. The cultural ambiguity of English at it's best.

