Without Sir Clive Sinclair, the ZX Spectrum computer would have never existed, which could have significantly altered the industry’s history.

The Guardian reported about Sir Clive Sinclair’s death after a long illness. He invented the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1982, and it was one of the most economical ways of getting into computing in the 80s. It became a platform for many developers with original games and ports alike, and the hardware got numerous clones (bootlegs).

The ZX Spectrum was on the market for a decade, and it got over two thousand games in that period. The computer pulled in more than five million sales. It became a unique platform even to this day (which led to him being knighted in 1983). In 2017, Philip and Andrew Oliver, the co-founders of Blitz Games, wrote about how much of an importance and impact the platform had for themselves and the gaming industry.

“So what was it about the Spectrum that made it such a success, and makes it still so fondly remembered by so many gamers 35 years later? We think it’s because it was a toy, simple to use, unintimidating, and at a price that most middle-class families could afford. It was a simple entry-level computer that turned out to be great for games.

For most of a generation, this was their first experience of computer games. The variety of games was huge, and after this, computers weren’t just for geeks; they became a mainstream home entertainment platform. The ZX Spectrum will always hold a special place in our hearts and the hearts of many gamers and developers of our generation,” the Oliver duo wrote.

However, Sir Clive Sinclair created other products in the past, too. In 1972, he made the Sinclair Executive pocket calculator, then the Sinclair TV80 in 1983 (a pocket television) and the Sinclair C5 in 1985 (a tricycle-like electric vehicle). He is survived by daughter Belinda, sons Crispin and Bartholomew, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Such as the fact that he told BBC in an interview in 2013 how he did not use computers at the time: “I don’t like distraction. If I had a computer, I’d start thinking I could change this and that, and I don’t want to. My wife very kindly looks after that for me,” he said.

Sir Clive Sinclair lived for 81 years. May he rest in peace.

Source: Gamesindustry, BBC