I was 14 years old back then and was learning electronics in evening school. One day our teacher invited us home to see and try this new computer he had bought - the ZX80.

Today I am 62 and I still work in IT. Thank you Mr. Sinclair.

Although I was on the USA side of the pond in 1979 the Sinclair ZX-80 was my first computer, and although it was about as minimal as a home computer can get it was a good platform to play with BASIC and flirt with Z80 assembly language. Sir Clive set me on a path to the incredible tech success I enjoy today!

10 PRINT "THIS TAKES ME BACK"
20 GOTO 10

"ZX80 - X for the special ingredient"
yeah, its called avoiding trademark infringement, lol
great video!

I started out with the ZX80 then ZX81, Spectrum the Atari and it paved my way to a 40 year career in IT and made me very rich in the process. While my friends were messing with comics I was coding, I have never been a gamer, always fascinated by coding. It proved to be the right choice.

Around 1986, a former high school classmate was able to simulate the functionality of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k's ULA using components available in East Germany. I got all the components I needed, and when he sent me the two PCBs for a complete ZX Spectrum clone, I spent the whole afternoon and half the night soldering, putting each circuit into operation one by one. Finally, I plugged the eight very expensive 64k x 1-bit DRAMs into the sockets. It was one of the most unforgettable moments of my electronics hobbyist days when, at around 4 a.m., I saw the message “(C) 1983 Sinclair Research Ltd.” appear on the TV screen!

There were several ZX Spectrum clones in East Germany. Later, I soldered together another single-board version. Those were exciting times. Thank you, Mr. Sinclair!

I'm of the age to remember the ZX80, ZX81, The Spectrum, but I look back and think how far forward we have come in 40 odd years, I now have a PC that has a 16 core processor, a 16Gb GPU, 128Gb of RAM, a 4Tb NVMe drive, that boots up in under 3 seconds! All for under £1200! How quickly thinks have moved along (and at a VERY FAST rate) in just the last 10 years! I used have 'dial up 256k over copper cable' now I have 1Gb full fibre (in a village of 200 people!) We tend to forget the real leaps and bounds our lives progress due to people like Clive Sinclair!

The ZXSpectrum was my first computer. Worked as a programmer for 27 years.

My first computer was the ZX81 in 82, then in 84 we got a Speccy. I still write programs on them.

At school, our computer class all contributed and we bought one to build in our class. Happy times.

I bought a ZX Spectrum in high school when I was on a student exchange in Germany. Brought it and a Grundig TV back with me to Canada. Had 16kb and I had to get an inverter to get it to work but still fond memories of my Sinclair.

My maths teacher once let me take the school ZX80 home for the summer break.  My friend and I were already hogging the school Commodore 4032 PET, so the idea of having an actual computer in my home was mind blowing.  Wonderful times.

I am one of those 11-year-olds who got a secondhand ZX81 by convincing his parents to cash in my Post Office savings. I am still one of those tech exporters who built a career from coding out of the excellent user guide, and I knew all the key combinations for the '81 and the love of my tech life - the mighty ZX Spectrum.  This is a wonderful potted history of a very magical time, taking me back to showing my grandparents what a computer could do using the only TV in the house. We weren't a rich family, and Sir Clive is a very special person in my life. His products showed me a future. Thank you, Clive, from the bottom of my heart.

A wonderful computer, I spent thousands hours programing on this machine (well, the ZX-81).
Sir Clive Sinclair was a great scientist.

I started coding with the ZX81, built a custom keyboard, learned assembly to get faster programs, and hard-wired the wobbly RAM pack to the computer with a ribbon cable. Lots of fun that led to a degree and a career in IT. That PC literally changed my life.

My first computer, way out in Bangladesh. Taught myself programming at 10. Now I own a software company. Thanks Mr. Sinclair.

My math teacher brought a ZX80 into our school and this started my computer career. He started the computer club. I wish I could tell him how he influenced my life. Like others this led to a ZX Spectrum

The Sinclair ZX81 was the first computer I ever used.  I still remember how sensitive the memory pack was and how hot it got. If you just touched it, crash!  And, I can almost smell the thermal printer to this day.

Never knew the '80 had a RAM pack - you learn something new every day. I saved up to buy a MK14 kit, bought it and then Dad brought home a TI-59 which I fell in love with: a couple of years later I used it to prototype an algorithm for my B.Sc. project that was later re-written in FORTRAN. The MK14 was never built, and has disappeared, never to be seen again and probably still in it's box somewhere. However, about a year ago I bought the bits for a repro kit and built it in a great burst of enthusiasm - finally, after 50 years, I'm back to where I started 🤓👍

An interesting nugget that I don't think I've ever seen repeated online.

When I was a child in the late 70s into 1980, a friend of my father worked for Sinclair in quality control.  His remit was simply to test random units to identify where problems were occurring.  This didn't work as well as it should as Sinclair found Mr QC rejecting a far higher number of ZX80 computers (as he had MK14 machines the year before) than Clive Sinclair was happy with and more than he found were being returned as a percentage of production.  Sinclair's solution?  Put the QC into the design stage and don't bother checking devices off the production line - the reject percentage from the general public was far lower than the QC department, most likely because when faced with a computer that didn't work quite right most buyers would just assume it was something they'd done wrong!  A great cost cutting principle that many firms use today - let the buyer be the tester.