Description

The ZX81 was one of the first widly available computers in the UK, it succeeded the ZX80 which while affordable was only available as a devoloper kit. The ZX81 achived affodordability by having no sound and being in black and white despite coming out long after colour TV became the norm, had a membrane keyboard and had a cheaper kit version similar to the ZX80. The console only came with one KB of ram but could be expanded to 16KB Unlike other computers of its time the ZX81 could be bought on the high street which made it not only affordable but accessable and introduced many people across Europe to computing such as the Oliver Twins who hold the Guiness World Record for the most prolific 8-bit game developers. Many clones of it were made and sold in countries outside of Europe. The company’s CEO Sir Clive Sinclair wanted the ZX81 to be used in schools for the BBC’s Computer Literacy Project and while it was the cheapest goverenment approved system but 85% percent of schools adopted the BBC Mirco. Just a year later the ZX81 was succeded by the ZX Spectrum which was the highest selling computer in Britain in the 1980s.