A Sinclair ZX-81

The current configuration on my Sinclair ZX-81 is:


This was my first computer. It cost $150 new when I got it in early 1981 (before the Timex Sinclair 1000 came into existance). It was on this machine that I became good at BASIC programming, and learned my first assembly language. This machine has two features that I have always found interesting: the property of having each BASIC keyword bound to a single key combination (this helped make up for the extremely poor keyboard), and the integration of all CPU support (other than memory itself) through a single very simple support chip (video was controlled almost directly through the CPU hence the SLOW and FAST modes).


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