Iconic

April this year marked the 30th birthday of the Sinclair Spectrum. The rubbery 'dead flesh' keyboard offering from (Sir) Clive Sinclair was originally launched in two versions - 16k and 48k. Even with the limited amount of memory, it still took a good 5 minutes to load/save programs to/from tape. If there was a power cut, or a little 'power blip', then that was it, start from the beginning! We don't know how lucky we are with these huge Terra-byte hard-drives nowadays!
The Spectrum was the 3rd generation - the previous being the ZX80, and the ZX81. The Spectrum went through a few changes in it lifetime, before it's final demise.
One of the most memorable games that people will remember was 'Manic Miner' written by the legendary Matthew Smith back in 1982. Still addictive today, as it was back then. In those days, these kids were like superstars, rather than just employed to do a job as they are nowadays.
Its sometimes hard to believe that people are still writing software for the Spectrum, and there is a demand - these machines are collectable, and there was so much software produced, that its not hard to pick some up.
The model above is my 128K +2A version, manufactured by Amstrad, who bought Sinclair around 1986/87.